IT geek question

cheers thanks for that - new storage will be thin provisioned

essentially they have run out of space in current datastore for their solidworks CAD server which keeps falling over

so plan is this essentially:

1. Install Hp JBod and fill with disks and configure Hp P2000 to accept new dual I/O 12 bay Jabod
   
2. Patch storage controllers then expand by 24tb/configure new raid set
   
3. Configure storage hosts reconfigure iscsi network physical and virtual
   
4. Configure Vcentre to accept new storage and map new data stores to Esx hosts
   
5. Backup sql databases from Solidworks2/vcentre to new storage
   
6. Tidy and clean data on all virtual servers ready for V2V/migration
   
7. V2V Solidworks thin provision Vm Storage
   
8. Run a full veeam backup
   
9. V2v File sever and thin provision storage.
   
10. V2v Dc’s exchange and all other virtual servers to free off over provisioned space on the san
    
11. Transfer new backups from san to slower iscsi storage and reconfigure Veaam targets
    
12. Shut down all production servers and move to new storage while we rebuild the original p200 san
    
13. Build new raid set on P2000 once completed move sms dependant on performance requirements to their desired locations.
    
14. reconfigure Veam build new backup jobs and test.
    
15. Test solid works and erp10 and confirm backups are sound
    
16. Create new storage policies to avoid this in the future
    
17. Test storage fail over including both iscsi controllers and recovery from network attached storage.
    
    
    

method using cp-r etc - is this similar to doing File -> Export -> Export OVF template and then choose thick or thin and 'copied it'? as mentioned here - http://serverfault.com/questions/372526/move-vmware-esxi-vm-to-new-datastore-preserve-thin-provisioning

Assuming this also copies the VHD or VMFS (VHD is Hyper-V maybe, can't remember) this could also work, as we'll be backing up server VM's first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Yz3V__D6o