Hyper-V Pass-through Disks may be the key for better performance; however, they come with their own disadvantages and limitations, too. First of all the speed gain of using Hyper-V pass-through disks is probably overrated when compared to a fixed-sized VHDX.
Hyper-V is no longer the newcomer in the virtualization space. After springing forth from its Virtual Server parent, it’s now had over half a decade to mature into the reliable, enterprise-grade hypervisor that it is today.
In this article Applies To: Windows Server 2012 R2. Hyper-V provides a simple way to migrate pass-through disks to a flexible .vhd or .vhdx file format on virtual machines.
A pass-through disk is the term used to identify a physical disk that is not a member of a pool, but is used as a storage source in a virtual disk. Pass-through disks are previously used physical disks with an existing file system and disk format (such as Windows, UNIX, AIX, Linux, Solaris, HP).software can migrate these disks into ...
To ensure that a pass-through disk is not overwritten by the mirroring process, the pass-through disk must be the first storage source selected when the virtual disk is created. Another way to easily ensure that data is not overwritten is to create a single virtual disk using the pass-through disk, then add a mirror later.
A mirrored virtual disk can be created using the pass-through disk from one server and adding a mirror from the pool of another server. The virtual disk created from the pass-through disk can be served to hosts and accessed while the existing data is being mirrored. When the mirror has been synchronized and the mirror recovery is complete, the pass-through disk is no longer needed. Although it is not required to do so, the pass-through disk can be removed from the virtual disk and replaced by a storage source from another pool.
When a virtual disk created from a pass-through disk is deleted, this operation does not delete the data on the pass-through disk. In a mirrored virtual disk, data on the preferred side is mirrored to the alternate side. To ensure that a pass-through disk is not overwritten by the mirroring process, the pass-through disk must be ...
Data migration occurs with minimal disruption to current operations. Hosts can maintain access to current disk contents while the existing data is transferred to mirrored virtual disks.
Features such as caching, replication over IP, mirroring, and snapshot operations can be performed on existing data during the migration process.
When the mirror has been synchronized and the mirror recovery is complete, the pass-through disk is no longer needed. Although it is not required to do so, the pass-through disk can be removed from the virtual disk and replaced by a storage source from another pool. SANsymphony software can be used as a vehicle to migrate data from one physical ...
A pass-through disk is the term used to identify a physical disk that is not a member of a pool, but is used as a storage source in a virtual disk. Pass-through disks are previously used physical disks with an existing file system and disk format (such as Windows, UNIX, AIX, Linux, Solaris, HP).software can migrate these disks into ...
To ensure that a pass-through disk is not overwritten by the mirroring process, the pass-through disk must be the first storage source selected when the virtual disk is created. Another way to easily ensure that data is not overwritten is to create a single virtual disk using the pass-through disk, then add a mirror later.
A mirrored virtual disk can be created using the pass-through disk from one server and adding a mirror from the pool of another server. The virtual disk created from the pass-through disk can be served to hosts and accessed while the existing data is being mirrored. When the mirror has been synchronized and the mirror recovery is complete, the pass-through disk is no longer needed. Although it is not required to do so, the pass-through disk can be removed from the virtual disk and replaced by a storage source from another pool.
When a virtual disk created from a pass-through disk is deleted, this operation does not delete the data on the pass-through disk. In a mirrored virtual disk, data on the preferred side is mirrored to the alternate side. To ensure that a pass-through disk is not overwritten by the mirroring process, the pass-through disk must be ...
Data migration occurs with minimal disruption to current operations. Hosts can maintain access to current disk contents while the existing data is transferred to mirrored virtual disks.
Features such as caching, replication over IP, mirroring, and snapshot operations can be performed on existing data during the migration process.
When the mirror has been synchronized and the mirror recovery is complete, the pass-through disk is no longer needed. Although it is not required to do so, the pass-through disk can be removed from the virtual disk and replaced by a storage source from another pool. SANsymphony software can be used as a vehicle to migrate data from one physical ...