Hi everyone, I have a small query that I've spent some time on here looking for some advice but no joy as yet so I thought I'd ask directly.
I'll try and provide as much info on my setup before I ask my small query.
I have an SBS2011 setup with Exchange 2010. It's a VM inside an ESXi5 host. The server is a reasonable spec, a Dell T610, quad core with 12GB allocated. Datastore for this server is on local SAS 15k Rpm disks. I also have a 2nd datastore running 1TB SATA 7200rpm disks. I also have a SAN storage device running with Openfiler. this has 2 lots of NFS datastores. My environment is approx' 30 users, medium usage.
All of my datastores make up the drive structure for my server. I also have a local tape drive in pass through for backup.
I created a snapshot last year and like an idiot I forgot about it. I was rudely reminded when the server unexpectedly shutdown showing an issue of low disk space. I fixed this issue by adding some more space but upon checking the snapshot files I have approx' 200GB snapshot on ds1. approx' 100GB on ds2, appro'x 650GB on NFS1 and approx' 100GB on NFS2.
I know that in order to consolidate/merge these snapshots I have to either
A.. Run this when the server guest is shutdown because the pass through device is stopping me form accessing the snapshots in the snapshot manager. or.
B.. Shutdown the server guest, remove the pass through device and restart the server so that my users can carry on..
B is the ideal scenario.. but..
My query..
I've been told either options will take a very long time.. days perhaps.. days are not what I have for a guest server to be offline... So B would be my better choice, however, would my merge be affected at all because the pass through device is no longer there and if the server guest was running during this operation, how would this affect my users general everyday access to exchange and files, printers etc..
Any help would be greatly appreciated..
Many thanks
Paul.