Mounting a filesystem on different datamover

Hi Bonnu -

Keeping the same CIFS share names is simple - keeping the same CIFS server names is not.  Let's assume you have CIFS server "SERVER_A" on server_2 and CIFS server "SERVER_B" on server_4.  The CIFS server names must be unique - it's the same reason you can't join two workstations or two servers in AD with the name name.

You might be able to do some like name the servers similarly. Say, create "SERVER_A-new" on server_4 - is that an option for your customers?

I think you are confusing what is possible

A CIFS server name has to be unique – just like an IP address – so it can only be assigned to one data mover

What you could try is to use widelinks or DFS redirection to redirect some shares to a different CIFS server on the other DM

Or change the clients that they use more than one CIFS server

Or better – have them point to a DFS root – this way you can move shares from one DIFS server to another without the client path changing

Unfortunately we need to create same name. We have a filesystem called cifs1 on server_2 we need to unmount that and mount as same cifs1 on server_4 keeping same cifs server name and shares ..

Sounds like you'll have to fix this externally.  You can join the CIFS servers to a DFS root in AD.  That would let you combine different shares from different CIFS server into a single tree.  Take a look at the document "Managing a Multiprotocol Environment on VNX", specifically the section Configure and administer DFS support. This is something that's easy to test on the Celerra or VNX simulators.

can't you just use loopback replication and migrate it to another datamover that way ?

The file system isn’t the issue – he can unmount it on one DM and mount it on the other – no need to replicate

What he wants is to have some shares of a CIFS server served by server_2 and some other shares of that SAME CIFS server served by server_3

You cannot configure the same CIFS server name on two data movers

Like half of a CIFS server on one DM and half on another

It just doesn’t work that way

Nothing to do with VNX – won’t work with Windows or Samba either

I believe cifs_server has an undocumented move option...  Check out emc170111 when the support site is up...

An entire CIFS server is different

You cannot move a CIFS server directly from one data mover to another

The easiest solutions is to have the CIFS server and its file system(s) in a VDM

Then you can just move that VDM from one data mover to another

The steps for that all documented in detail in the VDM manual

You just need to look into its table of contents for the sections “Move a VDM …..”

Rainer, thanks for the answer. Currently i have vdm1 on Server_2 and i have 30 CIFS servers on VDM1 residing on server_2. I just wanted to move only one CIFS server from vdm1 to new server_4 vdm 2. Is that possible ?

Do you have the „Configuring Virtual Data Movers on VNX/Celerra“ manual ?

You can only move a complete VDM

You could move one CIFS server and its file system to a new VDM and then move that new VDM to another DM

I don't have that VNX/Celerra manual. Can you please send me a link to that.

Just go to support.emc.com – its is available for download there

Along with other relevant manuals like the CIFS manual

Trying to work without the manuals doesn’t make much sense – the manuals not only explain the steps do something but also have concepts sections that explain how a functionality works