Migrating from old SAN to new SAN

Hello, 

 There's no formal procedure whitepaper as this leverages basic features of the PS Series array.  The ability to add/remove members to a group live. 

 The 6500 will need to be updated to at least 7.1.x firmware before attempting to add in the 6210.  The 6210 is likely at 8.x firmware.  If so you'll need to upgrade the 6500 to 8.1.14.  

 You'll want to create a temporary pool for the 6210.  I.e. "maint".   when you add in the 6210 it will be in the default pool.  Before setting the RAID policy,  move the 6210 into the "maint" pool.  When you select the member, it will prompt you to configure the RAID, select no.  The menu in the middle of the screen will have "Move Member".   Select that, then you'll see the "maint" pool you created.  Select that.  Now the 6210 is assigned to that pool.   Configure the other network interface, then select the RAID policy you want for that member.  Let the RAID finish building.   If you haven't already upgraded the 6210 to at least 8.1.14 now would be a great time to do so.  Alternatively the most current firmware is 9.0. 

 So at this point you have two choices.  You can create volumes on the 6210 member, format them with VMFS and use storage vMotion to migrate the VMs.   Alternatively you can merge the two pools together.  In the GUI under "Storage Pools" there's an option "Merge Pools".   Select the "maint" pool and when you select merge pools, it will show the available pools to move it to.    The move will appear near instant.  However, in the background, space is being balanced over to the 6210.  Depending on how much in-use space there is to move it might take awhile.  

 So if you took the first choice, once you have all the data moved over, you can delete that member.  Select the 6500, right mouse and select "Delete member" '   That array will be reset back to factory defaults and removed from the group. 

 If you merged the pools, once the space is balanced, you'll create a  new pool.  "temp" for example.  The select the 6500, right mouse "Move Member", and select the "temp" pool.   This will push the remaining data on 6500 to the 6210.   Once the move completes, use the "delete member" option to remove it. 

 Question:  The 6210 is 10GbE capable, are you going to be running it at 10GbE? 

  Regards,  

 Don