Move files to new server, preserving shadow copies

vsswindows-server-2008

I'm moving all my files from a physical Windows 2008 server to a virtual one, and was wondering if there is any way to retain my existing "previous versions" shadow copy data.

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so, p2v is a block level copy - all of this data will come across - it has for me every time.. the only real gotchas that you might face will be that the hypervisor will see a new mac address and consider this to be a new nic. back up your nic config and reapply with the nic set to 'do not connect at startup' to avoid any potential dns issues. Once the the nic config is reapplied - dont forget to change the setting back :) your backout plan is to simply restart the physical server with the vm powered off

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Shadow Copies for Shared Folders performance

I've got a similar situation (more data less uses - around 60) and the benefits of having shadow copies available to undo mistakes is invaluable. That being said your question was about performance.

Microsoft doesn't say much about it because it's quite subjective. With mostly reads you probably wont notice anything. NTFS uses copy on write to achieve snapshots. (akin to zfs if you've heard their marketing) Which means for each write to an existing file it has to write a new block and make a note about the old block being old. I've got most of my servers on a raid 5 or 6 setup so I don't notice the extra writes. On a single spindle you might.

I also use the snapshots for backup purposes, I don't need to worry about open files etc. A lot of different backup utilities (ghost, true image, and possibly Microsoft backup) leverage this.

There are so many other variables to network share performance (network, cpu, application) snapshots weren't noticed by any of our staff. Until they did did something stupid with a file that is.

It is possible to turn snapshotting on and then turn it off again later if there's a problem. So it's worth a try.

Unable to restore from Shadow Copy due to long filename

I had the exact same problem in Server 2008 R2 and this is how I solved it:

Right click on the folder you're trying to restore from shadow copy and chose Previous Versions. Chose a date and click on Open.
Right click on any file or folder within the previous folder and chose Properties. On the General tab copy what's shown in 'location', e.g.: \\localhost\D$\@GMT-2011.09.20-06.00.04\_Data

Open cmd.exe and type in:

 subst X: \\localhost\D$\@GMT-2011.09.20-06.00.04\_Data

Open PowerShell and use robocopy to copy content of X: e.g.:
```
 robocopy X: D:\Folder\ /E /COPYALL
```
Check that all files have been copied.
When finished type subst X: /D in the cmd (Command Prompt) window

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Shadow Copies for Shared Folders performance

Unable to restore from Shadow Copy due to long filename

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