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  • 1.  Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:09 PM

    Hello. I have an issue with exchange server vmdk's. I want to clone exchange virtual machine to another blade. My question is can it lead to data loss or corruption of existing exchange server? even if i will shut down the server, can it crash? please share your practice.

    Regards



  • 2.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:22 PM

    Cloning an Exchange server isn't going to work out for you, especially if you already have VMDK corruption. Your best bet is going to be to restore the EDB files into a new Exchange from backup.



  • 3.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:33 PM

    This is not a corruption as you think. Because of backup software it divided the main vmdk into multiple sesparse vmdk files. i have read somewhere that cloning consolidates vmdk files. if you will suggest to consolidate from the vCenter it does not work. when it comes to 99% it fails. actually now exchange works but sometimes mail traffic stops because of this situation. I really afraid of data loss or server crash after cloning



  • 4.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:38 PM

    No backup software that I've ever heard of actually divides an otherwise monolithic VMDK into seSparse extents. Are you talking about snapshots, maybe? Best thing is for you to dump out a directory listing from this VM's home directory and attach it here. Use ls -lahF and show the output.



  • 5.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:50 PM

    -rw-------    1 root     root        8.9M Aug  4  2018 vmx-zdump.000

    -rw-------    1 root     root       28.9M Aug  4  2018 vmmcores-1.gz

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          53 Oct 17  2018 EXCH-P01-56a77a9c.hlog

    -rw-------    1 root     root        2.9K May 11 19:06 EXCH-P01-1.png

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      369.0K May 14 16:03 vmware-25.log

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      344.7K May 14 16:57 vmware-26.log

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      464.6K May 14 18:15 vmware-27.log

    -rw-------    1 root     root         426 May 14 19:58 EXCH-P01-000001.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root         433 May 14 21:06 EXCH-P01-000002.vmdk

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      891.3K May 14 21:22 vmware-28.log

    -rw-------    1 root     root         610 May 14 21:34 EXCH-P01.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root         433 May 15 05:15 EXCH-P01-000003.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root         586 May 15 12:50 EXCH-P01_1.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root         587 May 15 17:04 EXCH-P01_2.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        1.9T May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01_2-flat.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        7.6M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01_2-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root      500.0G May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01_1-flat.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        7.8M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01_1-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root          79 May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01.vmsd

    -rw-------    1 root     root         433 May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01-000004.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01-000004-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01-000003-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01-000002-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 15 19:06 EXCH-P01-000001-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 15 19:07 EXCH-P01-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        2.5T May 16 05:27 EXCH-P01-flat.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root       39.9G May 16 05:27 EXCH-P01-000004-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root       20.1G May 16 05:27 EXCH-P01-000003-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root       10.1G May 16 05:27 EXCH-P01-000002-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root       45.2G May 16 05:27 EXCH-P01-000001-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root        1.4M May 17 09:58 vmware-29.log

    -rw-------    1 root     root         340 May 18 22:41 EXCH-P01_2-000001.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root      255.3G May 18 22:41 EXCH-P01_2-000001-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      545.1K May 18 22:45 vmware-30.log

    -rw-------    1 root     root      110.0M May 20 04:23 vmx-EXCH-P01-1226472958-1.vswp

    -rw-------    1 root     root           0 May 20 04:23 EXCH-P01.vmx.lck

    -rw-------    1 root     root       32.0G May 20 04:23 EXCH-P01-491a7dfe.vswp

    -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        3.2K May 20 04:23 EXCH-P01.vmx~

    -rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        3.2K May 20 04:23 EXCH-P01.vmx

    -rw-------    1 root     root         410 May 20 04:23 EXCH-P01-000005.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        7.8M May 20 04:24 EXCH-P01_1-000001-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        5.0M May 20 04:24 EXCH-P01-000005-ctk.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root         409 May 20 04:26 EXCH-P01_1-000001.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root        8.5K May 20 05:15 EXCH-P01.nvram

    -rw-r--r--    1 root     root      482.6K May 20 12:31 vmware.log

    -rw-------    1 root     root        4.5G May 20 12:39 EXCH-P01_1-000001-sesparse.vmdk

    -rw-------    1 root     root       99.8G May 20 12:39 EXCH-P01-000005-sesparse.vmdkmy

    these are my exchange files. i just tried to copy flat vmdks which are 2.5 tb and 500 gb

    (1.9 tb is just backup storage which is empty) and register it with new virtual machines. the actual size of real volumes are the same as i wrote above. other 99 gb 32 gb 255 gb and etc are not part of volumes. but when i started new exchange virtual machine it could not mount datastore. i think i had to copy these separse vmdks also but i dont have enough space for it. so i tough i can clone the virtual machine and it will just collect all divided vmdks in one. What do you think?



  • 6.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 12:52 PM

    Ok, those are snapshots. So you need to actually commit all those snapshots which will free up space on your datastore and reduce the performance impact upon Exchange. Your backup application is not cleaning up after itself properly.



  • 7.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 01:05 PM

    so what is your suggestion? what i need to do? cloning is not the right choice? do these snapshot files affects the main vmdk? because i copied main vmdk to new datastore but exchange could not mount the datastore. and actually size of main exchanges volume was 1.5 gb used from the 2.5 tb but copied volume showed 1 tb used from 2.5 tb. maybe part of data divided into these vmdks which you called snapshots?



  • 8.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 01:31 PM

    You need to get rid of the snapshots. Go the the Exchange server VM and choose "Delete All Snapshots".



  • 9.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 01:37 PM

    no snapshots here



  • 10.  RE: Clone Exchange server in vCenter

    Posted May 20, 2019 10:45 PM

    Hi arazvalizada​,

    The VM requires consolidation so check this link for how to identify and action: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2003638

    I’d normally say ensure you have a good and tested backup before doing this but as your backup system has got you in this state that might not be possible. Maybe consider taking a Windows Server Backup copy if you have time and space?

    Kind regards.