Data Storage (on a virtual platform)

If you run the device as a virtual appliance in a virtual environment, you can migrate the traditional Flowmon database storage to a different disk. It could be a new empty disk or a shared disk array used by other applications. You can select the desired disk from the drop-down menu (you can update the list of available disks by clicking Rescan). Confirm the selection by clicking Save. The system checks the selected disk and verifies the partition table and filesystem (only EXT3, EXT4, and XFS filesystems are supported). If there are any files or directories present on the new disk, the system compares their names to those present on the old disk. The files and directories with the same colliding names will be replaced! The migration operation is finished by rebooting the device. The reboot can take (much) more time than usual because all the data is being copied and checked.

If the new disk has no partition table (for example new data storage created in a virtual environment), the system alerts this and asks to create a new partition table by clicking Create partition. This destroys all data on this disk!

When this operation is confirmed, the new partition table is created and the system is configured to perform the data migration. Until the device is restarted, this action can be canceled any time by choosing the original storage in the selection. If it is not canceled, then during the reboot the disk is formatted to the XFS filesystem, and the data is copied from the original storage. If everything is done correctly, then the system will boot with the new storage. If any error occurs, the system boots with the original storage.

During the disk check, the following scenarios may occur:

• The new disk has no partition table (described above) - you will be asked whether to create a new partition table. If so, the system will be configured to perform new disk formatting to XFS and data migration.

• The new disk has a valid partition table and is not formatted - during the device reboot the disk is formatted to the XFS filesystem and data is copied.

• The new disk is formatted to a filesystem different from EXT3/4 or XFS - migration will not be performed and an error is alerted.

• The new disk is formatted to the EXT3/4 filesystem - during the device reboot the disk is formatted to the XFS filesystem and data is copied.

• The new disk is formatted to the XFS filesystem and contains files or directories with the same names as on the old disk (that is, their names collide) - you are warned that some files or directories on the new disk will be overwritten.

• The new disk is formatted to the XFS filesystem and does not contain any files or directories with colliding names - during the device reboot, the data is copied from the original disk to the new one.