Hi everyone, need some assistance on the proper way to accomplish this migration. I've been browsing the threads and I think i have a general idea on how to do this, but my situation is slightly different then what I have read.
Here is what I have:
We have 2 2008 R2 servers at the same site, server1 and server 2.
Server 1 has a single raid 1 for the OS and the DATA. (Main file server DC) DRIVE C, DRIVE D (shares are all on drive D)
Server 2 has 2 Raid 1 setups for OS and Data. (DRIVE C, OS, DRIVE D contains the replicated folders.
I have setup a single replication group with about 10 shared folders to replicate from server1,server2 (server 1 was source)
EX: Server 1, D:\Engineering - Server 2 d:\Engineering
Server 1, D:\Accounting - Server 2 d:\Accounting
Replication to server 2 has been working great, I only did this just to have a backup on the second DC with all of the Data synchronized from server1.
NOTE: I do not have any namespace servers or configuration setup as of yet, that is my goal in the end.
What I need to do now is upgrade the drives in server1 for several reasons, Space and to move the data drives to a separate raid 1 and get it off the same drive(s) as the OS.
This is what I have done so far and want to accomplish.
I have added a second Raid 1 array on 2 new disks on server 1, the drive letter is E:
I am using vice versa software with VSS to copy all data from Drive D: to the new Raid 1 on Drive E: using options to copy NTFS permissions etc to drive E: (runs every night)
No copy errors and all data on drive E looks intact in same fashion as drive D.
Now my goal here is to get the data that is on drive E back to drive letter D so that all shares work and some software that relies on the drive letter to function.
1 . On a weekend I would run another backup/sync to from drive D to drive E using vice versa to have an exact data copy of drive D, stop DFS replication service on both servers.
2 .Rename Drive D to Drive Z or another letter not in use.
3 .Rename Drive E back to drive D (all shares should still work and NTFS permissions etc are preserved from the vice versa copy)
4. Test to make sure all shares are working from clients.
5. Enable DFS services back on both servers.
6. Wait and test for replication issues.
Am i on the right track here? Since the data on server 2 is exactly the same when i take server 1 offline should there be any problems with replication? Since i am not using A namespace and Server 2 does not have any shares no data is going to be changed.
Is there a better method? Should i just remove the replication group from server1-server2 and add it back after the drive change is done? I just dont want to have to resync all data again as there is about 400gigs or so spread across those 10 shared folders. I am also not sure exactly what the dfsrprivate folders store and don't want to mess up the replication. I am assuming those folders are needed when the drives are upgraded and all of that data will/is copied during the vice versa copy.
Once i get all this working again on new disks I will then setup my namespace, and create my folders in the namespace and have the links point to their perspective folders on server1,server2
Thank you for your input.
Mike