Dell PowerStore Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide

Non-disruptive import workflow

As part of the import process, the source volume or consistency group is pre-validated whether it is ready to be imported. An import session is not allowed when either a non-disruptive upgrade or a network reconfiguration is in progress.

The following steps show the manual import workflow in PowerStore Manager:

1. If the source system does not appear in PowerStore Manager, add the information needed to discover and access the source system.
   NOTE:(For importing storage from a Dell EqualLogic PS series system only) After you attempt to add a PS series system to PowerStore, the initial data connection state will appear as No Targets Discovered. However, you can proceed to 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 PS series system and it is expected.
   NOTE:If PowerStore discovery of PowerMax as a remote system fails with an internal error (0xE030100B000C), see the Knowledge Base Article 000200002, PowerStore: Discovery of PowerMax as a remote system fails with an Internal Error (0xE030100B000C).
2. Select the volumes or consistency groups, or both to import.
3. (Optional) Assign selected volumes to a PowerStore Volume Group.
4. Select Add hosts (Host Plugin) for non-disruptive import and add the information needed to discover and access the host systems.
5. Set the schedule for the import.
6. (Optional) Assign a protection policy for the import sessions.
7. Review the summary of the import configuration information for accuracy and completeness.
8. Begin the import.
   NOTE:The active I/O path between the host and the source system becomes passive and the passive I/O path between the host and the PowerStore cluster becomes active. Also, the background copy of the selected source volumes to the associated PowerStore volumes begins as well as the forwarding of host I/O from the PowerStore cluster to the source system.

You can cutover an import after the background copy operation is complete. After cutover, the source volume is no longer accessible to the associated hosts and the PowerStore cluster.

The states of a single volume import and the manual operations that are allowed for those states are as follows:

• Queued state – Cancel operation
• Scheduled state – Cancel operation
• Copy-In-Progress state – Cancel and Pause operations
• Paused state – Cancel and Resume operations
• Ready-For-Cutover state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Cleanup-Required state – Cleanup operation
• Import-Completed state – No manual operations available

The states of a consistency group import and the manual operations that are allowed for those states are as follows:

• Queued state – Cancel operation
• Scheduled state – Cancel operation
• In-Progress state – Cancel operation
  NOTE:Once the first volume of a CG is picked up for import, the CG state changes to In-Progress. The CG remains in that state until it reaches Ready-For-Cutover.
• Ready-For-Cutover state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Cleanup-Required state – Cleanup operation
• Cleanup-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Cancel-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Cancel-failed – Cancel operation
• Cutover-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Import-Cutover-Incomplete state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Import-Completed-With-Errors – No manual operations available
• Import-Completed – No manual operations available
• Failed – Cancel operation

When an import session is paused, only the background copy is stopped. The forwarding of host I/O to the source system continues to be active on the PowerStore cluster.

When a paused import session is resumed, the following occurs:

• For volumes, the import session state changes to Copy-In-Progress. For consistency groups, the state changes to In-Progress.
• The background copy restarts from the last copied range.
• The forwarding of host I/O to the source system continues to be active on the PowerStore cluster.

If an import session fails, the Orchestrator tries to automatically cancel the import operation to restore host I/O back to the source. If a cancel operation fails, the orchestrator will attempt to continue host I/O to the PowerStore cluster. If a catastrophic failure should occur and host I/O cannot continue, the import session state changes to Cleanup-Required. In this state you can run the Cleanup operation, which is specific to the source system. This action sets the source storage resource to Normal and deletes the associated destination storage resource.