Heino> We have to migrate our existing AFF8080 which has NFSv3, ISCSI Heino> and CIFS data on it to a new location.
How many nodes in your cluster?
A two node AFF8080HA and a two node A300 so four nodes. So we will migrate from the AFF8080 to the A300 (which has enough storage attached to cover the AFF8080)
Heino> The plan is to add a temp A300 in the new location, and add it Heino> to the AFF8080’s cluster with two cluster switches (they are Heino> sub 200M apart)
That should work, then you just failover LIFs and vol move volumes.
Yes the indications I have gotten here is that I should not be so afraid about running some data via the inter cluster link... __ And come to think of it, the issues I had in the past may have been with FAS32XX nodes and spinning disks... which may explain quite a bit __ But I will try to move the larger NFS volumes in one go, I think I can have up to 7 or 8 volume moves pending cut-over at a time... so I think this will be that way...
Heino> ISCSI and CIFS should be fairly simple to migrate, but NFSv3 is Heino> IP-centric, so as we start the migration volume by volume, the Heino> data path for some of our vmware host will be extended Heino> somewhat…
CIFS would be the problem child, since moving it from one node to another is a client outage. NFSv3 shouldn't really care.
Yeah, CIFS is a pain, but again we can do cut-overs in a service window, so should not be an issue here.
Heino> It will go via the AFF8080’s configured IP address over the Heino> cluster network to the A300 controller that holds the volume, Heino> and back again.
Until you move the LIF over to the A300...
Heino> Has anyone tried this with success?
Heino> Of cause another way would be to migrate the VMs from the Heino> VMWare side, which I would like to avoid if possible, but I am Heino> a bit worried about the added latency over the cluster network…
I assume your real goal is to move a two node cluster without any downtime, right? If so, adding in the A300 (with enough storage!) to your cluster should do the trick.
We have the storage required on the A300 __
Then it will jsut take time to vol move the data from one system to another, and then once the physical move is complete, you move it back again.
I'd probably remove the AFF8080 pair from the cluster before you shut them down and move them. Then you just power them up, re-add to the cluster, and vol move back.
Tedious, but very doable.
Yes it's Tedious, but I think it's faster than storage vmotion... also if you have ever tried to do vmotion on larger setups, you will quickly find out just how stupid it is... just a CD mounted or whatever can stop the process... __ Also as we have existing snapmirror relations I would prefer volume move to keep the relations intact.
/Heino