Dell PowerStore Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide

Configure an agentless import

Prerequisites

NOTE:The information that is presented here is applicable to importing external storage to PowerStore from the following remote system types:

Dell Peer Storage (PS) Series
Dell Storage Center (SC) Series
Dell Unity Series
Dell VNX2 Series
Dell XtremIO X1 or Dell XtremIO X2
Dell PowerMax and VMAX3
NetApp AFF A-Series

For information about importing external storage to PowerStore from a Universal type of remote system, see Configure an agentless import for a Universal type remote system.

Ensure that the following conditions exist on the PowerStore cluster before running import:

The global storage IP address for the PowerStore cluster is configured.
The PowerStore cluster and its nodes are in a healthy state.

Ensure that the following connections exist:

For either a Dell SC Series, Dell Unity Series, Dell VNX2 Series, Dell XtremIO X1 or XtremIO X2, or a NetApp AFF A-Series source system, a Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI connection between the source system and each associated host system, and a matching FC or iSCSI connection between each associated host system and the PowerStore cluster.
NOTE:These connections to each host system should be of the same type, either all FC or all iSCSI.
For a Dell PS Series source system, an iSCSI connection between the source system and each associated host system, and a matching iSCSI connection between each associated host system and the PowerStore cluster.
For a Dell PowerMax or VMAX3 source system, an FC connection between the source system and each associated host system, and a matching FC connection between each associated host system and the PowerStore cluster.
Only an iSCSI connection is supported between Dell PS Series source systems and the PowerStore cluster.
NOTE:For an iSCSI connection, the purpose of the storage network that will be used for import must be set for both Storage (iSCSI) and Replication. You can set the purpose on the Network Details step of the Create Storage Network wizard (Settings > Network IPs > Storage > Create ). To view the mapped storage networks of a port and their purposes, select Hardware > Appliances > [appliance] > Ports. See the PowerStore Manager online help and the PowerStore Protecting Your Data Guide for more information about creating a storage network and setting the purpose of a remote system.
Only an FC connection is supported between a Dell PowerMax or VMAX3 source system and the PowerStore cluster.
Either an iSCSI connection or an FC connection is supported between a Dell SC Series, Dell Unity Series, Dell VNX2 Series, Dell XtremIO X1 or XtremIO X2 source system, or a NetApp AFF A-Series source system and the PowerStore cluster.
NOTE:For an iSCSI connection, the purpose of the storage network that will be used for import must be set for both Storage (iSCSI) and Replication. You can set the purpose on the Network Details step of the Create Storage Network wizard (Settings > Network IPs > Storage > Create ). To view the mapped storage networks of a port and their purposes, select Hardware > Appliances > [appliance] > Ports. See the PowerStore Manager online help and the PowerStore Protecting Your Data Guide for more information about creating a storage network and setting the purpose of a remote system.

NOTE: When the connections between the source system and the PowerStore cluster are all over iSCSI, the connections between the hosts and a source system and between the hosts and the PowerStore cluster can be either all over iSCSI or all over FC. However, when the connections between the source system and the PowerStore cluster are all over FC, the connections between the hosts and a source system and between the hosts and the PowerStore cluster must also be all over FC.
Importing data from an external source system into PowerStore with FC connectivity requires that ports 0 and 1 of PowerStore I/O Module0 are enabled as Dual (as both initiator and target).
NOTE:To view the list of FC import capable ports on a PowerStore appliance in PowerStore Manager, select the appliance under Hardware, and then select Fibre Channel on the Ports card.
For FC connections, it is recommended to configure FC zoning in such a way that PowerStore can connect to at least two distinct targets on each remote system controller from a PowerStore node.

It is recommended that the same NTP server is used on the source system, which hosts the source storage resource, and the destination PowerStore cluster. This configuration should provide the proper time synchronization between the source system and the destination PowerStore cluster.

Determine the following for the source system:

NOTE:Ensure that the health of the remote system is OK before adding it. If the health of that source system is not OK, the operation to add any of the following remote systems may fail:

Dell Peer Storage (PS) Series
Dell Storage Center (SC) Series
Dell Unity Series
Dell VNX2 Series
Dell XtremIO X1 or Dell XtremIO X2
NetApp AFF A-Series

The type of source system for the import
The name of the source system (applicable only to Dell XtremIO X1 or XtremIO X2, PowerMax, VMAX3 systems, and NetApp AFF A-Series systems)
NOTE:For Dell PowerMax and VMAX3 systems, the name is the Symmetrix ID. For NetApp AFF A-Series systems, the name is the Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) name.
The management cluster IP address or FQDN. The IP address is one of the following:
- For the Dell PS Series, the group management IP address, if the management network is configured. Otherwise, it is the group IP address.
- For the Dell SC Series and Dell Unity Series systems, the management IP address of the system.
- For Dell VNX2 Series, the IP address of either SPA or SPB; however, the IP address of SPA is recommended.
- For Dell XtremIO X1 and XtremIO X2 systems, the IP address of the XMS.
- For Dell PowerMax and VMAX3, the Unisphere IP address and associated port number.
The iSCSI IP address of the source system, which is one of the following:
- For Dell PS Series, the group IP address.
- For Dell SC Series, the IP address of the fault domain.
- For Dell Unity Series, Dell VNX2, Dell XtremIO X1 and XtremIO X2 source systems, one of the IP addresses of the iSCSI front-end ports. For NetApp AFF A-Series systems, the iSCSI IP address (Logical Interface (LIF)) of the SVM.
The administrative username and password credentials to access the source system.
The session CHAP mode.
The names of the volumes or consistency groups, or both, or LUNs, or storage group.
NOTE:A volume group is automatically created for each consistency group or storage group that is selected for import. They cannot be combined with any other volumes or volume group, or storage group.
Which protection policy to use for the volume or volume group, or both, or LUN, or storage group.

NOTE:PowerStore automatically creates the host and its initiator records on the remote system as part of the import operation. However, PowerStore cannot differentiate whether the user or the import operation creates the initiator records on a Dell Unity Series system. If the PowerStore initiators exist in the Unity system, the addition of a Dell Unity Series system always fails. For example, during the delete operation of a Unity remote system, the connections from PowerStore to Unity are logged out and an attempt is made to remove the host/initiator that was automatically created. Since Unity is dual mode, the connection from PowerStore to Unity is logged out, but the connection from Unity to PowerStore is not logged out. Unity does not log out the connection to PowerStore. Only those initiators that are used for import must be manually removed from the FC zone by doing the following:

Temporarily remove the PowerStore appliance from the FC zone.
Remove the initiator on the Unity side.
Add PowerStore back into the FC zone.
Add the Unity remote system to PowerStore.

Determine which hosts should be mapped to the PowerStore volumes.

Determine the schedule of the import:

Immediately or set a time and date.
NOTE: When you configure an import and select a date and time for the import session to begin, do not schedule the import to begin within 15 minutes of the current time.
Whether to automatically cut over to the destination after import.

Determine which protection policy to assign to the import volume.

About this task

To configure an import, do the following:

Steps

Log in to PowerStore Manager.
If the intended hosts that are associated with the import do not appear under Compute > Host Information > Hosts & Host Groups, select Add Host as needed and specify the relevant information for the hosts. Otherwise, go to the next step.
Under Migration, select Import External Storage.
The Import External Storage page appears.
If the intended source system does not appear in the list of Remote Systems, select Add Remote System and specify the relevant information for the remote system. Otherwise, go to the next step.

NOTE:When an invalid, unreachable, or down group management IP address is added to a PowerStore cluster for any Dell PS Series remote system, the following error notification appears: Addition of PS remote system failed due to error in connecting PS Group as Unknown error 0 returned by the server.

Verify that the IP address is correct and reachable.

NOTE:Also, after you attempt to add a Dell PS Series remote system to the PowerStore cluster, the initial data connection state will appear as No Targets Discovered. However, you can create the import session and the state will be updated to OK after the import session moves to the In Progress state. This behavior is only specific to a Dell PS Series remote system, and it is expected.

NOTE:While adding a remote system to PowerStore, you must provide the iSCSI IP address of the remote system along with other details. As part of the operation, PowerStore discovers the iSCSI portal of the remote system and tries to log in to all the targets listed in that portal. If anyone of those targets is unreachable, the associated Data Connection status appears as Partial Data Connections Loss in PowerStore Manager.
To configure an import session, select a source system from the list of remote systems on your network that you have previously entered manually in to PowerStore Manager.
Select Import Volume.
The Import Volumes from Source Array wizard appears.
Step through the wizard and specify the relevant information.

NOTE:Only source volumes and consistency groups that have a status of Ready for Agentless Import can be imported. Ready for Agentless Import is applicable only when the version of the source system is earlier than the version that is supported for non-disruptive import. However, if the version of the source system supports non-disruptive import and the host plugin is not installed, volumes or consistency group member volumes have the status The host or host(s) have not been added.. In such cases, you can choose to do non-disruptive or agentless import. Depending on the type of import you choose, you must either install the host plugin or select the PowerStore host, respectively.

NOTE:An XtremIO source volume is assigned a World Wide Name (WWN) when it is mapped to a host. PowerStore discovers only such volumes with a WWN for import.

NOTE:Consistency Group is not supported in the Dell PS Series systems. Consistency group import from these systems is not possible.

Once you have specified the necessary information, the system generates a summary of the import session information.
Verify that the import session information in the summary is accurate and complete.
Click Begin Import to create and start the import session.
The Import External Storage page appears and shows the Block Imports information once the operation is started.
After the destination volume reaches the Ready To Enable Destination Volume state, shut down the host application accessing the source volume.
NOTE:When importing VMware datastores, do the following from vCenter to unmount the datastore before proceeding to enable the destination:
1. Power off the Virtual Machines (VMs).
2. Unregister the VMs by right clicking and selecting Remove from inventory on each VM in the datastore.
3. Right-click the datastore and select Unmount datastore.
When the volume in the import session is in the Ready To Enable Destination Volume state, select the volume and then select Import Actions > Enable Destination Volume.
The Enable Destination Volume dialog box appears.
Select the checkbox to confirm that you have shut down or taken offline the host application that is using the source volume.
Select whether to have the orchestrator automatically remove the host mappings during the enable destination volume process.

NOTE:It is recommended to remove the host mapping of the source volume during the enable destination volume process to prevent the host from accidentally accessing the source volume. If the orchestrator does not select the host mappings to be removed from the source volume in the source system, remove them manually. If the host mappings of the source volume are not removed either by the orchestrator or manually, those mappings remain even after cutover of the import session. Also, if import fails or is cancelled, these host mappings must be restored to the source volume manually. They are not restored automatically.

NOTE:(For a PowerMax to PowerStore import only) If multiple LUNs exist in the storage group being imported, all the LUNs in the storage group are unmapped immediately when you select Enable Destination Volume and select the option to unmap the volumes from the host for import. The source volumes are not visible to the host, and the host cannot access the source volumes. However, this action does not affect the relationship between the source volumes and their existing snapshots and clones.

NOTE:For a VMAX3 import, the recommended unmap volumes option deletes the LUN masking views of a volume, which is defined at the storage group level, so hosts cannot access data in the volume through the VMAX3 system. VMAX3 systems provide LUN masking views at the storage group level since the storage group is a container for all volumes that are used by a single application. When the recommended unmap volumes option is selected, the LUN masking view of the storage group is deleted. As all volumes from a single storage group are imported together and the application using these volumes is stopped until all the volumes are reconfigured, deleting the LUN masking view should not affect the migration process. However, if the import is cancelled and the storage group is rediscovered for a retry of the import, the storage group must be remapped to the hosts.

NOTE:For Dell PS Series systems, if the source volume is setup using access control lists (ACLs) that are based on Basic Access Point or Access Policy Group, the automated removal of host to source volume mapping does not work. You must manually remove the host mapping and log out. Also, when the Dell PS Series source volume is setup using ACLs based on Access Policy, the automated removal of host to source volume mapping removes the host mapping from the source volume. However, the iSCSI connections between the host and the source volume must be manually disconnected by logging out.
Select Enable Destination Volume.
The volume should progress to the Ready to start copy state.
When the import session changes to the Ready to start copy state, rescan the volumes at the host.

NOTE:The rescan at the host may take up to approximately 3 minutes to complete depending on the size of the volumes.

The destination volumes should be visible to the host after the rescan and those volumes can be mounted immediately.
Ensure that the host application has been reconfigured to access the applicable destination PowerStore volumes, then bring up the host application.
NOTE:When importing VMware datastores, do the following from vCenter:
1. Rescan the ESX storage adapter on which LUNs are visible.
2. Add the datastore back and select the Keep existing Signature for VMFS option.
3. Register the VMs by right-clicking the datastore and selecting Register VM…. Do this operation for each VM that is in the datastore.
4. Power on the VMs.
When the volume in the import session is in the Ready to start copy state, select the volume and then select Import Actions > Start Copy.
The volume should progress to the Copy in progress state.
To view the progress of ongoing import sessions, under Migration, select Import External Storage > Block Imports.
To view the progress details of a specific ongoing import session, click the state of that import session.
The Import Session Progress Details slide out for that import session appears.
Do one of the following to continue to manage the agentless import session:
- Select an import session and under Import Actions, click Cutover to commit the import session.
  NOTE:You can cut over an import session that is in the Ready For Cutover state.
- Cancel the import operation.
NOTE:See Manage agentless import sessions for more information.

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Dell PowerStore Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide

Configure an agentless import

Prerequisites

About this task

Steps

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