Hyper-V problem - low disk space and a pending merge....help!

Hi,

W2K8 Core as a host for several W2K8 and W2K3 guests. One of the W2K8 guests
is my Exchange 2007 server that is a bit low on disk space. At some point in
the past, I did a snapshot but had deleted it since it took up too much drive
space.

Fast forward to tonight when I'm doing Core server updates and decided to
down the guests before I rebooted the host boxes (BL460c blades and a
MSA2012i SAN that houses all of the disks). When I rebooted one of the boxes
(not Exchange, thank God), a merge started on one of the guest W2K8 systems
that I had also done a snapshot on in the past. Unfortunately, that one was
also low on disk space and the merge just kept restarting and restarting.

After trying to move the snapshots around in vain, I was able to logon to
the SAN and expand the LUN that stores the "C:" drive of that vm. Once I did
an "extend volume" in disk management, the merge completed and the server
booted. It's working but there are some problems when accessing the GUI;
things don't work, the box blue-screened once, etc so I'm leaving it alone
and hoping that it will remain stable until weekend when I can rebuild it (or
find a easier solution first).

Back to my question - my Exchange vm has the same problem with disk space
and I definately don't want it acting stupid. I've got drive space left on
the SAN so I could expand the volume but I am looking for advice as to
whether or not this is a good idea or if it will cause problems. I have to do
something fairly soon as the core box needs its updates and will require a
reboot.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Thanks...

 

Your questions would probably be better answered in more appropriate places
(those specialized in Hyper-V and Exchange). Anyway, here's my opinion.

Exchange generally uses a lot of space on database logs. Regular full backup
of Exchange database discards unneeded logs. For this to work, you need
Exchange aware backup solution, like Microsoft DPM. Windows backup in
Windows 2008 is not suitable.

If you run into storage problems with Exchange, the best solution is 'divide
and conquer' ie, create other storage groups and mail stores on different
storage places. Distribute your user base to these stores.

"ewallig" <ewallig@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:66EF05EE-5191-4CC0-BE5D-1AEF7BE999C3@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> W2K8 Core as a host for several W2K8 and W2K3 guests. One of the W2K8
> guests
> is my Exchange 2007 server that is a bit low on disk space. At some point
> in
> the past, I did a snapshot but had deleted it since it took up too much
> drive
> space.
>
> Fast forward to tonight when I'm doing Core server updates and decided to
> down the guests before I rebooted the host boxes (BL460c blades and a
> MSA2012i SAN that houses all of the disks). When I rebooted one of the
> boxes
> (not Exchange, thank God), a merge started on one of the guest W2K8
> systems
> that I had also done a snapshot on in the past. Unfortunately, that one
> was
> also low on disk space and the merge just kept restarting and restarting.
>
> After trying to move the snapshots around in vain, I was able to logon to
> the SAN and expand the LUN that stores the "C:" drive of that vm. Once I
> did
> an "extend volume" in disk management, the merge completed and the server
> booted. It's working but there are some problems when accessing the GUI;
> things don't work, the box blue-screened once, etc so I'm leaving it alone
> and hoping that it will remain stable until weekend when I can rebuild it
> (or
> find a easier solution first).
>
> Back to my question - my Exchange vm has the same problem with disk space
> and I definately don't want it acting stupid. I've got drive space left on
> the SAN so I could expand the volume but I am looking for advice as to
> whether or not this is a good idea or if it will cause problems. I have to
> do
> something fairly soon as the core box needs its updates and will require a
> reboot.
>
> Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Thanks...

 

Hello ewallig,

For Hyper-V use better this one:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/threads/

For Exchange use after installation always the Best practise analyzer to
get options for the server.

Also have a look here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996891.aspx



Best regards

Meinolf Weber
Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers
no rights.
** Please do NOT email, only reply to Newsgroups
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> Hi,
>
> W2K8 Core as a host for several W2K8 and W2K3 guests. One of the W2K8
> guests is my Exchange 2007 server that is a bit low on disk space. At
> some point in the past, I did a snapshot but had deleted it since it
> took up too much drive space.
>
> Fast forward to tonight when I'm doing Core server updates and decided
> to down the guests before I rebooted the host boxes (BL460c blades and
> a MSA2012i SAN that houses all of the disks). When I rebooted one of
> the boxes (not Exchange, thank God), a merge started on one of the
> guest W2K8 systems that I had also done a snapshot on in the past.
> Unfortunately, that one was also low on disk space and the merge just
> kept restarting and restarting.
>
> After trying to move the snapshots around in vain, I was able to logon
> to the SAN and expand the LUN that stores the "C:" drive of that vm.
> Once I did an "extend volume" in disk management, the merge completed
> and the server booted. It's working but there are some problems when
> accessing the GUI; things don't work, the box blue-screened once, etc
> so I'm leaving it alone and hoping that it will remain stable until
> weekend when I can rebuild it (or find a easier solution first).
>
> Back to my question - my Exchange vm has the same problem with disk
> space and I definately don't want it acting stupid. I've got drive
> space left on the SAN so I could expand the volume but I am looking
> for advice as to whether or not this is a good idea or if it will
> cause problems. I have to do something fairly soon as the core box
> needs its updates and will require a reboot.
>
> Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Thanks...
>