By Gina Daly, Technical Writer for Technical Marketing, End-User Computing, VMware, and Dean Flaming, Sr. Technical Marketing Manager | Lighthouse and End-User-Computing Enablement, VMware
Perhaps you have migrated or installed a new App Volumes Manager server, and want to know how you can import or share AppStacks. There are two scenarios to consider.
Scenario 1: The new management server can access the same storage as the old management server. In this case, you can import the App Volumes AppStacks directly, using the App Volumes Manager console and use the AppStacks in your new environment.
Scenario 2: The new management server cannot access the storage where the AppStacks are located, and therefore the AppStacks cannot be imported through the management console. Do not panic! You can move these AppStacks manually—read on to find out how.
Detailed step-by-step instructions are described in the Knowledge Base article Manually copying an AppStack to a new or migrated App Volumes Manager server.
Brief Overview of Manual Procedure to Copy AppStacks
The first steps are to check you have correct access to complete the tasks.
- Ensure you have administrator access to the App Volumes Manager console(s). This allows you to determine the correct file name of the AppStacks you want to copy. Admin access is also needed to complete other tasks in the App Volumes Manager console, which we will discuss later.
- Ensure you have SSH access to the vSphere hosts that have access to the source and destination storage for the AppStacks.
Now for the technical details:
- Log in to the App Volumes Manager console and click the Volumes tab. Click the AppStacks tab and select the AppStack you want to copy, to determine the correct VMDK name. For example, in the following screenshot, the VMDK name is 5!20!Misc!20!Apps.vmdk.
Figure 1: Checking VMDK Name in App Volumes Manager Console
- If the source and destination storage are visible from same vSphere host:
a. You can manually copy the VMDK files directly from source to destination.
Example:
cp <storage source path>/cloudvolumes/apps/5!20!Misc!20!Apps*.* <storage destination path>/cloudvolumes/apps/
Note: If you are running App Volumes 2.6 or later, you can more easily do this through the App Volumes Manager console by creating a storage group containing both your source and destination datastores. Ensure auto-replication is selected, and any AppStacks contained in the source datastore will be automatically replicated to the destination datastore. For details, see Create Storage Groups in the VMware App Volumes User Guide.
If the source and destination storage are not visible from the same vSphere host, there is an extra step:
b. You need to copy the VMDK files from the source storage location and then transfer these files to the destination storage location (for example, compress, download to USB, physically transfer to USB, and upload from USB).
- If you have moved your AppStacks to new storage, you need to update the storage configuration data.
Note: If an existing App Volumes Manager server remains in use and is pointed to the original source datastore, ensure the new App Volumes Manager server is configured to use the newly replicated AppStacks in the destination datastore.
Note: If you happened to use the storage group replication previously mentioned in step 4a, it is recommended to disable or remove the storage group linking the two datastores because it is assumed the new datastore containing the replicated AppStacks will be managed by a new App Volumes Manager.
Figure 2: Rescanning AppStack data in App Volumes Manager Console
- Finally, a rescan is needed to refresh the data displayed in the App Volumes Manager console. This can be accomplished on the original App Volumes Manager if the datastore containing the AppStacks is being moved or on a new App Volumes Manager instance if the datastore containing the AppStacks was replicated for bringing up a new instance.
We should not neglect to mention the most important step of all: testing! Make sure everything is working and functioning is as it should be. Test your AppStacks by assigning them to a virtual machine where an App Volumes agent is installed and pointing to the correct App Volumes Manager.
And there you have it—no need to worry after you do a server migration, wondering how to import those AppStacks!
Further details are in the Knowledge Base article Manually copying an AppStack to a new or migrated App Volumes Manager server.
