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rhiaanon48

14 Posts

15878

March 10th, 2015 21:00

How do you migrate non EMC arrays to VNX with VPLEX?

Hello, we are looking to migrate IBM XIV and DS6000's to VNX with VPLEX metro with. Also, we have Recoverpoint. Please point me to any documentation that is needed for non EMC arrays. Thank you!

echolaughmk

522 Posts

March 11th, 2015 03:00

Hi,

Given the arrays you mentioned above, the XIV is on the support matrix to be put behind the VPLEX for encapsulation, but the DS6000 isn't. With that being said you have 2 migration options available if you goal is to migrate to the VNX and remove the XIV/DS arrays completely from your infrastructure:

1. Encapsulation of existing volumes being used today on the XIV.

     - This will require a brief outage to the host so that the native volumes being utilized today can be taken away from the host, presented and claimed by the VPLEX, and then provisioned out through the VPLEX in a storage view.

     - This is a brief outage because it is essentially a zoning and masking change to point the host from the XIV to the newly encapsulated LUNs on the VPLEX.

     - The encapsulation/claiming of the volumes do not alter data and all data stays perfectly in-tact.

     - Some of these steps can be pre-staged or scripted to make the outage even quicker

     - Once the volumes are encapsulated and re-presented to the host for data validation and to get the application up, the migration part of this will essentially require you to perform a VPLEX Data Mobility job to the brand new VNX LUNs behind the VPLEX and that migration (maintaining a 1:1 encapsulation of devices throughout) will be transparent to the user and result in the virtual volume initially encapsulated on the XIV to now be sitting on a VNX volume under the covers

     - Migration is complete

2. Host-base Mirroring/Migration to new VNX target LUN that has already been claimed by the VPLEX and presented to the host as a VPLEX volume.

     - With this strategy you simply present the VNX LUN to the VPLEX, claim it, and present it to the host as a new LUN. In this example the host would see the DS6000 LUN natively and now a new VPLEX LUN.

     - From here you simply ensure the LUN is discovered and operating properly on the OS and perform whatever flavor of host-based/LVM migration there is to hopefully have it be an online migration:

  1. VMware Servers – Utilize Storage VMotion where applicable for online migration to VPLEX volumes.
  2. UNIX servers – Utilize native LVM mirroring where applicable for online migration to VPLEX volumes.
  3. Window Servers – Utilize host-based utilities or EMC utilities to migrate data into VPLEX volumes.
  4. Alternative Methods – There are a variety of migration methods available depending upon the environment so alternative methods may apply.

     - Perform the cutover as needed and validate the data/application running on the new VPLEX LUN

     - Migration complete

This is a high-level process to answer the question. Let me know if you have any more questions and Solve can also be used for some of the official encapsulation procedures if going that route and that will provide you with the documentation for encapsulation at the host-level as well as how to claim third-party arrays.

HTH

-Keith

rhiaanon48

14 Posts

March 11th, 2015 07:00

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the info! Where do I get the official  XIV encapsulation procedures/steps from? The XIV is the main array being focused on.

echolaughmk

522 Posts

March 11th, 2015 17:00

Hello,

Sorry for the delay. The official procedures for encapsulating the back-end arrays can be found in the Solve procedure generator. Also, the required firmware versions and array models that are supported behind the VPLEX can be found in the VPLEX SSM on support.emc.com through the Elab-Navigator link. The XIV array has to be at 10.2.2 firmware or later.  It's not easy to attach items to these replies otherwise I would attach it.

HTH,

-Keith

rhiaanon48

14 Posts

March 12th, 2015 07:00

Thank you very much!!!!

Anonymous

5 Practitioner

 • 

274.2K Posts

March 23rd, 2015 22:00

Hello, may i know how is the mapping file for xiv is created to be used in vplex? appreciate anyones assistance on this one

echolaughmk

522 Posts

March 24th, 2015 05:00

Hello,

The best place for this info is in the Solve Desktop Generator located here: https://support.emc.com/search/?text=solve%20tool%20

Here is the output from the generator (always check the generator as things might change from release to release). Also, with 5.4.1 of GeoSynchrony code, XtremIO arrays no longer require this mapping-file creation and can be imported much easier with the auto-naming technique as stated in the release notes: How to create a LUN mapping file from XtremIO to import into VPLEX?

Creating a name mapping (or hints) file for VPLEX for third-party arrays

To create a mapping file for the VPLEX Claiming Wizard:

    • Log in to the VPlexcli on the VPLEX management server.
    • Type the following commands to change to the storage-volumes context:

cd /clusters/cluster-ID/storage-elements/storage-volumes/

  • From the storage-volumes context, type the ll command to list all storage volumes.
  1. [   ] Cut and paste the output on the screen and save it to a file (for example, file1) in the /tmp directory on the VPLEX management server or any directory outside the management server on a different system.
  2. Note:  The array_name in the next step cannot begin with a numeric and it can only begin with a letter or underscore (_) and the remaining characters can be a letter, number, hyphen (-). or underscore (_). Also the length of the array_name cannot exceed 58 characters (5 characters are reserved for numbering including an underscore character). Here the array_name is used as the name of the hint file as well as the partial name for all the storage volumes that are claimed using the
    hint file.
  • From the management server or any UNIX system, type the following command to filter out all information except the VPD IDs. The following command example is on the management server with a full path to file1. If file1 is on a different system outside the management server, use Cygwin on  Windows or UNIX systems to execute following awk command.

cat /tmp/file1 |awk '{print $2,  "array_name_"NR" "}' > /var/log/
VPlex/cli/array_name.txt

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000006 ARRAY_NAME_1

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000007 ARRAY_NAME_2

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000008 ARRAY_NAME_3

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000009 ARRAY_NAME_4

  1. [   ] Type the heading Generic storage-volumes at the beginning of the file as shown in the following example:

Generic storage-volumes

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000006 ARRAY_NAME_1

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000007 ARRAY_NAME_2

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000008 ARRAY_NAME_3

VPD83T3:60060e801004f2b0052fabdb00000009 ARRAY_NAME_4

Use this file as a name mapping file for the VPLEX Claiming Wizard by using either the VPlexcli or the GUI. If using VPlexcli, the name mapping file should reside on the SMS. If using the VPLEX GUI, the name mapping file should be on the same system as the GUI.

  • If using VPlexcli to import the mapping file, type the following commands to cd to the storage-volumes directory and then use the name mapping file to claim storage:

cd /clusters/cluster-ID/storage-elements/storage-volumes

claimingwizard –f /tmp/array_name.txt -c cluster-ID

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