Migrate data to new SAN storage

[Steve]

Hello all,

We are needing to move some data from one lun to another lun on our SAN.
Let's say the source is drive U: and the target is drive X:

After we copy the data to fron U: to X: we need to change the drive letter
on X back to U:. This sounds simple but I would think drive signatures would
prevent this? Or is just as simple as copy data to X: change the drive U: to
a different drive letter then change X: to U:?

[David Shen [MSFT]]

According to the description, the issue seems to be related to changing
drive letter of the LUNs. If I have any misunderstanding, please feel free
to let me know.

Yes. It is simple as you can copy data to X: drive, and then change the
driver U: to a different drive letter and then change drive letter X: to U:
The drive signatures wouldn't prevent this operation. The only thing we
need to notice is that we cannot assign the drive letter which is already
occupied by other driver.

[Steve]

One more question. What is the best method to do the file copy? Drag and drop
or should I use xcopy from the command prompt? Or are there other better
methods? I need to keep the perssions for the files and directories.

[David Shen [MSFT]]

Thanks for the reply. According to the description, my understanding of the
further question is that: you want to know what is the best method to
perform file copy the files and folders from drive U: to drive X: while
keeping all the permissions.

Based on the research, "Drag and Drog" cannot preserve the permission
settings. I would like to suggest that you use the "robocopy" utility to
copy files and folders from drive U: to drive X: and it can preserve the
NTFS permission.

Here is an example just for your reference.

Example:
=============

Ex. "robocopy U: X: /e /sec"

/e: Copies subdirectories. Note that this option includes empty directories.

/sec: Copies files with security

Please ensure the local credential that you logon has the permission to
read source directory and the create files on the target.

For more reference, please refer to:

Robocopy
http://technet2.microsoft.com/window...6e8e9-fcb3-4a4
a-9d04-2d8c367b63541033.mspx?mfr=true

Source of Robocopy:
=====================

1. For Windows Server 2003 operation system, we need to install the Windows
Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools, which includes the robocopy utility.

You may download the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools from the link
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...a69-57ff-4ae7-
96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en

2. For Windows Server 2008 operation system, the robocopy utility is
already built in the system, we may run it in the command prompt directly.

[Jorge de Almeida Pinto [MVP - DS]]

if doing a copy, with ROBOCOPY it does not copy over what already has been
copied in a previous run (assuming the correct switches here). Sometimes you
need to do multiple runs because the file copy stops, or the source is
updated, etc

[David Shen [MSFT]]

Thanks for the knowledge sharing.

I am glad that information is helpful for you. If you have any other
question, please welcome to our newsgroup again.

[Steve]

Actually I do have another question. I have been looking at RoboCopy. Seems
like a very good utility. I have a question about the syntax. You gave me an
example of

robocopy U: X: /e /sec

I was wondering if I could accomplish the same with :

robocopy U: X: /copyall

or does this not acheive the copying all files and directories with all
security and attributes?

I was actually playing with :

robocopy U: X: /e /v/ /s /copyall /R:10 /W:30

But I think that may be overkill. Can you advise?

[David Shen [MSFT]]

Yes. You may accomplish the task with the command. And it will copy all
files and directories with all security and attributes

"robocopy U: X: /copyall"

The above command is equivalent to "robocopy U: X: /copy:DATSOU"

For your reference, I have list the syntax of /copy:DATSOU as followed.

D: Data
A: Attributes
T: Time stamps
S: NTFS access control list (ACL)
O: Owner information
U: Auditing information

Based on the research, it is recommended that you not run the following
command with the syntax /e /s concurrently.

robocopy U: X: /e /v/ /s /copyall /R:10 /W:30

/s :excludes empty directories

/e: includes empty directories

You may run the command separately according to the actual system
environment.

Hope it helps.

[Steve]

Are there any special considerations needed for copying SQL files? Or does
Robocopy treat SQL files as any other file type?

For the files about the SQL server, you can treat them as any other file
type with robocopy.

I'm wondering if the suggestion has helped or if you have any further
questions. Please feel free to respond to the newsgroups if I can assist
further.

[David Shen [MSFT]]

How's everything going?

I'm wondering if the suggestion has helped or if you have any further
questions. Please feel free to respond to the newsgroups if I can assist
further.

[rd.deepak]

This is really good information . Can you give this info .
Could we copy the data using the below method well in advance & then sync the data before the cut over ? .