CVAD Migrate a PVS vDisk to a new PVS server

 I was recently tasked with moving some PVS target/vDisk to a new PVS environment. There are many ways to achieve this. However, this is how I migrate devices from one PVS Farm to another. I am sure there are better ways to automate this as my blog is just a simple way to get it done. Migrating PVS targets to a new PVS Server. Another way I have done it in the past was add new PVS servers into an existing Farm, then go through the actions to make them the main servers, and of course decom the old ones. This is a very simple task, and most people know this. But if not, they will help.

Open your PVS Console, and select the PVS vDisk, then click export.

Select the lowest version to grab the vDisk Chain

You will see a Filename.xml get created. This is a manifest file that will instruct the new destination PVS server to inject the version in.

For me, I like to create Stores for all my different vDisk.

Give it a name

Check all the PVS Server that will contain the vDisk

Create the folder in the given location that you are storing the vDisk and Validate the paths.

I leave the default write cache location in the area it selects, as we do use the old legacy ways of the write cache to the server.

Now I just copy the Connects from the original Server to the destination

At this point, I open the PVS console and go to the vDisk pool

Right-click and Import

Select the store you create earlier, and Select a PVS server that you copied it to, and click search

Or you can import it from the Store, so you don’t have to select anything and take the chance of getting something wrong.

Click Add and close

Click ok, after vDisk was added

Now you can see the Vdisk

For me, I use a dedicated VMware device for updating my master images and such. I am going to move the VMware device over to the new PVS server and update the subnet and MAC as well to reflect a new subnet we just added.

Example

Change the Port group and note the MAC

Now at this point I manually create the Device in the new PVS Server.

Add the new MAC, Update the vDIsks area to the vDisk you imported in.

Change the Type to Maintenance

Now because I use the ISO BDM method, I need to update it to the new BDM to the new PVS Boot path.

If you have more than one new PVS server, make sure you copy the vDisk files to the second server as well, or when it boots up based on the default load balancing, it will hit the second server and tell you no vDisk found.

Check and make sure the replication status is green on both servers

On the device, you will need to reset the Machine account from PVS, to recreate the Domain trust password

Now, boot the Maintenance Machine up and it should stream to the new location. Found the vDISK

Typically for moving all the targets, I would do something like this, then I would edit the MAC addresses so they would align with the new subnet that I change from. 

How to Migrate PVS Target Devices | | Apps, Desktops, and Virtualization (kylewise.net)

For this situation, I can now create all new devices that will have the same vDisk. I will create a new Machine Catalog/Deliver Group. You can also use the same one if needed. I use FSlogix, so the profile data will be intact for the user, the user will not even notice anything has changed as far as the device’s name or it’s moved to a different PVS server.