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I need to copy 650GB-isg from one VM to another both server instances are on a VMware ESX cluster and both run Windows server 2003 x86 (on the same LAN). One server is our file server and the other is where the data will be copied (daily) then dumped to an LTO3 tape or two.

Any ideas? I found some hints searching the site but nothing too close to what we are attempting to do.

TIA, -c

Clinton Riggs
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There's no internal ESX feature that'll help you with this, so you should treat the work as you would 2 physical servers (copy over the network with an appropriate tool).

If the VMs are running on the same host, you may be able to create a dedicated vSwitch, purely for internal traffic, and achieve a quicker copy.

One other approach which may be sustainable is to create a dedicated LUN for this data, and attach it directly into the VM to copy your data in.

Chris Thorpe
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Is this 650GB of new data every day? Or does most of it stay the same?

Sounds like something DFS-R could easily take care of (FRS in 2003 R1). A single gigabit link could copy that in 2 hours (if your disk array can sustain that).

Chris S
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  • The OP says 650GB not 650MB (as 650MB would be trivial). – jftuga Aug 16 '10 at 03:07
  • @jftuga, if it takes your disks 2 hours to copy 650MB you've got something seriously wrong with your server(s). Excuse the typo. – Chris S Aug 16 '10 at 03:26
  • yes, there would be new and/or changed data every day. I don't know that DFS-R would allow us to copy files back to the source if a user needed it. So fastcopy, richcopy, robocopy, terracopy, or handybackup? with these I can run a copy then have backup exec dump the folder to tape. hmm... – Clinton Riggs Aug 16 '10 at 06:52
  • @Clinton, Why wouldn't you be able to copy a file?? What do you think any of those other copy programs do that DFS-R doesn't? I suspect you're like most companies, ~1% of your data changes each day, and the tools you already have are more than adequate. – Chris S Aug 16 '10 at 12:30
  • Not sure really, does DFSR use a special copy/restpre format? or does it just copy the filesand folders in a specified directory. – Clinton Riggs Aug 16 '10 at 18:54
  • @Clinton, it depends on how you configure it. Coupled with VSS it can keep previous copies of files, but mainly it just takes a directory on Server A and replicates it to Server B. What are your exact requirements? Your question simply states you want to copy data daily, nothing more. – Chris S Aug 17 '10 at 00:14
  • well, getting specific would permission/ACL renention and the ability to pull individual files out incase someone needs a restore. – Clinton Riggs Aug 17 '10 at 15:38
  • @Clinton, Permissions/ACLs/ACEs are all retained. If you wanted to restore a file from the previous syncronization, it'd be as easy as navigating the replica directory tree and pulling the file/folder. If you wanted to retain older copies you'd have to enable VSS Snapshots on and set them to a similar schedule as the DFS-R replication; pulling a file/folder from the VSS snapshot simply requires pulling up the properties of the root folder, selecting the VSS copy (by date) in Previous Versions, and navigating it's directory tree. This requires more disk space of course than just a replica. – Chris S Aug 17 '10 at 17:48
  • Yep, that sounds about right.. once we upgrade the servers that is what we will end up doing. thank you for the info it is most helpful. – Clinton Riggs Aug 18 '10 at 21:22