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42 Posts
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Expected XtremIO Expansion Time
We are planning to expand our XtremIO from two to four x-bricks. A purchase and services quote includes a line item for a block of 40 hours of professional services for "Engineering for XIO brick expansion".
As the original install was less than a day, and EMC boasted about ease of expandability, I question this 40 hours needed to install two additional x-bricks. Can someone verify or correct my thinking on this please?
Also, am I correct in thinking this is not a customer installable unit?
Thank you,
Bryan
scotthoward
64 Posts
2
December 8th, 2016 18:00
XtremIO Online Cluster Expansion would normally be done under a specific Professional Services line item for that specific service (normally PS-BAS-XTUPXB, but it will depend on the exact situations), not a block of hours.
It is possible that the entry you're referring to includes some other services that they have simply grouped into a single entry, but I would suggest going back to your sales team and confirming exactly what they have included.
As far as how long it will take, it depends on the exact situations, but generally it's a matter of a few hours. The process is basically racking the new bricks, connecting them to the existing IB switch, and then running a few commands on the XMS - from there the process is basically auto-pilot as it looks after upgrading the new bricks to the correct firmware, bringing them online, and then migrating half of the data to the new bricks so that everything is perfectly balanced. The data migration itself might take a few hours itself (depending on how full the array is, and how busy it is at the time), but there's no noticeable impact during that period (after all, you've got twice as many storage controllers now!!)
bryan_washburn
42 Posts
0
December 17th, 2016 18:00
Scott,
Taking this back to the vendor, we were able to get this changed to a pay-per-hour option. And as you figured, they said install should take about four hours.
Thank you very much for your reply. It saved us from wasting a bit of money.
Bryan
Anonymous
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274.2K Posts
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May 2nd, 2017 08:00
Scott,
I have heard that during the OCE process, snapshots and new LUN creation activities are suspended. During the rebalancing phase, those activities can be resumed. Is this correct? I cannot find documentation describing this restriction.
Sb
Kumar_A
727 Posts
0
May 2nd, 2017 14:00
During a very brief period, object manipulation operations on the XMS (LUN creation, etc.) will enter into a maintenance mode for ~ 4 minutes.
During this time new objects cannot be created / modified on the XMS. Once this ~4 minute period elapses, new objects can be created / existing objects modified on the XMS.
During the rebalancing phase, new objects can be created / existing objects modified on the XMS without issue.
Are you asking this out of curiosity, or is this duration of 4 minutes a concern for you?
Anonymous
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274.2K Posts
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May 3rd, 2017 07:00
Avi, my customer is asking for a detailed overview of the process for their upcoming OCE. I have not found a customer friendly-document that describes the entire process and what the customer can expect.
Thank you,