How to migrate volumes between 2 groups of equalogic

Hello, 

 Are you already using the new group?  A thought would be to tear down the 2nd group, add them to the PSM4110.  Then you could remove the PSM4110s from the group leaving just the PS6210s.  I'm assuming there's an external switch connecting the 6210's?   The benefit is you won't ever have downtime and no need to change discovery address. 

 Otherwise another option is replication.  You can create a partnership between the two groups,  Then promote the replicas on the new group.   Then you'll need to set the access and connect to that 2nd group. 

Regards, 

Don 

Hello Lanto,

 You are very welcome. 

 Don 

Thank for your response

Yes the  new group is already used for  some VM.

2 * PS6210 =======2*S4048========2* PCM8024-K in chassis M1000e====PSM4110

Thanks

Sincerely

lanto

Hi DevMgr, 

 He mentioned that in the OP, however, he has some physical servers mounting volumes that need to be moved.

 Regards,

Don 

As you mentioned you have some VMs on the new group, have you considered moving the VMs from one storage location to another? For VMware it would be called 'storage vMotion', or for Hyper-V it would be called 'Live (storage) Migration'. It may require a certain minimum license tier to be able to do this (mainly; for VMware vSphere you need a minimum of the Standard license tier to move the VMs while they are running, but when shut down you can move any VM (from Virtual Center). The only troublesome VM would be the Virtual Center VM itself.

Hello, 

 Is there a reason you don't want to replicate the physical server volumes?   Since it's local it won't take long to do.  Then shutdown the servers.  Replicate one last time, promote on 6210 group and then point physical servers to new group, done. 

Before deleting members I would make sure they are at the current EQL FW revision.  Will be easier to do now when the arrays are empty and won't impact production. 

 If you want to bring the 6210's into the PSM4110 group, then you will first have to empty the 6210 group of all volumes.  Select one member and use the "delete member" option in the GUI to remove that 6210 from the group.  That member will be reset and can be added to the PSM4110M group. Assuming the firmware levels are compatible. 

Once that is done, connect to the remaining member CLI, and enter "reset" at the Group CLI. 

GrpName>reset 

 You will have to type "DeleteAllMyDataNow" to confirm it.   Then that member will be reset back to factory defaults and can be added to the PSM4110.  

 My suggestion is add in ONE 6210 to the PSM4110 group in it's own pool.  Configure the 6210, and let the RAIDset build complete and enable the 2nd 10GbE interface.  Then you can merge the pools.  When the completes, you can delete one of the PSM4110 members.  When that's done, do the remaining PSM4110 member.  Now you can add in the other 6210 to the group in its own pool and build the RAIDset and again merge pools and you are done. 

 Regards, 

Don 

Helo ,

For VM migration( vmotion)  , I have the ncessary licence .I have already began migration for some VM but I I have stopped because I must find solution  how to migrate volume for the 2 physical servers.

I'm not yet sure but I think that I'll break the new group of 2 PS6210X  and I'll put them in the first group which contains the old PSM41110;

In this case , how to  break the new group after removing the VM to the first group  , then how to retire properly the 2  PSM41110 in this group. I have yet 5 months of warranty for the 2 PSM41110?

Sincerely

Lanto

PS

I have 1 M620 , 1M630 , 2FC630 in FX2 Chassis  for Esxi vmware

and 2 * M620 with RH6  for the physical server

Hello ,

There is no reason that don't want to replicate the physical server volumes.

I just want to have the solution which is easy ,fast and sure.

In your idea and with  your experience , which is the best solution ?:

1- keep the new group and replicate the physical  server volumes:

Do you have DELL documentation of replication best practice ?

2- Break the new group and join the tPS6210 to the first group(thanks for your previous explication) For the moment ; I have only 5 virtual machines migrated in the new group .

Thanks

Sincerely

Lanto

Hello, 

 Now that you've moved some VMs to the new group, time wise it will likely work out that replication will be quicker.  Since you have move VMs back, tear down, re-create, wait for build to finish, etc... 

 Replication is covered in the Admin guide or you can call support and they will help you set it up. It only takes a couple of minute to set up the replication partnership between the groups, then configure replication on each volume.  No need to setup schedules, just to "replicate now" menu option.  That will copy the data in the background.  Do "Replicate now" again once the servers are down to get the last changes. 

 Joerg, one thing I strongly suggest when removing members from a pool, is move it to a temp pool first vs. just deleting it from the pool.  If something happens it's easy to cancel the move and put the data back.  Once it's moved to the new pool, delete it there.  I would definitely make it your SOP going forward. 

The benefit I see from the option of merging in the 6210s is no downtime.  It won't be any faster, but it will have fewer steps.  If I were doing it I would do it that way.  

BTW, you can add in both 6210s to the group, config them and move just the one into PSM4110 pool while the other 62010 RAIDset builds.   Then move the PS4110Ms out to a temp pool one at a time. 

Re: Merge pools.  When you select a pool, there's a merge pool menu option.  They you can select the pool to merge too. 

 Regards,

Don