This post is more than 5 years old
49 Posts
0
6811
RE and RA ports
Can anyone advise if the only difference between an RA and an RE port, is the SFP that is installed? I need to migrate data from a DMX3 to a VMAX, and was hoping to do so with SRDF. I have 2 free RE ports on my DMX and 2 free RF ports on my VMAX, I already run async srdf between two sites, so the only piece missing is the port connectity. Since I can't convert an FA to RF without a bin change in a DMX, I was hoping maybe I would be able to simply swap the SFP on the RE end and it would automatically change to an RF port instead. Does anyone know if this is possible? If not, does anyone have any other suggestions that I may not have thought about? They arrays would be connected via brocade switches, I was told a direct connect method would not be possible.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Shawn
RobertDudley
448 Posts
0
October 30th, 2012 06:00
You cannot simply swap out the SFP and have the port type change. An RF is a fiber director converted to be an RDF port, it uses the fiber protocol. An RE is GigE so it uses TCIP and has an IP address assigned to it. If you want to convert them you will need hardware and EMC to do it.
Amita_Wasson
10 Posts
0
October 30th, 2012 08:00
You would need a bin change for RE>RF conversion as well.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
November 4th, 2012 06:00
i thought it was not longer the case in 76, customer can change RE to RF themselves ?
MelbSteve
38 Posts
1
November 4th, 2012 13:00
Hi Dynamox,
5876 code allows you to convert a FA processor to a RF processor. The RE port mentioned is an Ethernet port and as you would know uses a different port IO module. So this would be a bin file change to convert to a FA/RF port.
For the IO module layout please check the product guide.
Steve
RobertDudley
448 Posts
1
November 5th, 2012 12:00
you can convert an FA to an RF (fiber to fiber RDF) not Fiber to GigE (RF to RE) as MelbSteve said above.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
November 5th, 2012 19:00
ahh..an ethernet port, Thanks
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
you mentioned that you already have SRDF/A ..so that's just the license ?
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
Vmax only
desimus
49 Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
I have SRDF replication between my DMX3 and a seperate VMAX in another state. I was looking to setup new replication between my DMX3 and our new VMAX locally. Then once the migration is complete, I will be moving the remote SRDF/A to the new VMAX as well, but that would be early next year.
RobertDudley
448 Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
VMAX only.
desimus
49 Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
Thank you all for the input, I figured it wouldn't be as simple as swapping out an SFP, that would be too easy. I was aware of the FA <-> RF conversion in 5876, I guess my thought was that an SFP swap would be easier and quicker if possible. Might be a stupid question, but is 5876 supported on DMX3, or is that a VMAX microcode only?
desimus
49 Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 12:00
Okay, I was afraid of that but figured it as well. So, long story short, there is no way that I can replicate between these arrays without paying EMC for a BIN change, is that correct? If I am to do so without paying, I would need to have some other tool to do the job, such as veritas volume manager (assuming i have the required licenses already) and copy at the OS/volume level?.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 13:00
are you sure you have to pay for a Bin, when you buy a new box you get "so many" free bin changes. Is the new VMAX local to DMX3 ?
desimus
49 Posts
0
November 8th, 2012 13:00
The new VMAX is local to the DMX3. I was not aware of any free bin changes, we haven't had any at all, I will see if I can get any information on that. Thank you.
dynamox
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
20.4K Posts
1
November 8th, 2012 13:00
if it's local then you have many options, array based using Open Replicator ( i believe hot pull license is free), host based options in PowerPath Migraiton Enabler, LVM mirroring ..etc