|
Direct Import from Clariion to Compellent |
|
Thursday, 12 June 2008 |
 Compellent storage arrays have the ability to make some basic utilization of external disk, that is, disk that comes from other storage arrays. It can load a volume onto or from these external devices, as well as replicate them. During a recent migration we discovered that the Compellent Storage Center can indeed recognize disk from an EMC Clariion array. Through this facility it becomes possible to migrate directly from a Clariion to a Compellent array without using any host side tools, in a fashion similar to EMC SanCopy - though much more primitive. The best part is that after this migration, your data will be thin provisioned and you can take advantage of all the other Storage Center features. Read on below for details on how this works.
This brief guide assumes you have basic administration skills on both the Clariion and Storage Center. The configuration required to get this to work is a bit of a hack, but it isn't that difficult and works great. I believe you need a replication license on the Compellent to do it, though I haven't tried it on an array that wasn't licensed for replication. There doesn't appear to be any special licenses for the migration itself, like there is for SANCopy - so this is like a free migration tool! Here is a rough outline of the steps so you can try this out for yourself. - The connection needs to go directly from one port on the Compellent array to one front end port on one of the Clariion storage processors. The port you use on the Compellent side needs to be configured as a "Back End" port. Because of this, the connection between the two arrays can't go through a switch. I am guessing this is because the back end ports on the Compellent array don't login to the fabric.
- Since you have a connection to only one Clariion storage processor, you need to make sure that all the LUNs you want to migrate from the Clariion to the Compellent array are owned by that storage processor you are connected to. So, find whichever LUNs are owned by the other array and trespass them over.
- I would register the Compellent ports on the Clariion, so you don't need to remember the WWN.
- Create a new storage group on the Clariion, and put the Compellent host record into it.
- This is not an online migration. That is, the host needs to be offline. Once that is done, remove the LUNs to be migrated from their respective storage groups and put them into the group you made with the Compellent array in it.
- At this point, the Compellent array should be able to see your Clariion LUNs. When this happens, a red folder will show up under "Disks" that says"Unassigned". If it doesn't, you can right click on the folder and select "Scan for Disks".
- Now you can right click on each LUN and select "Classify as external disk". It will ask you for a name for the disk. If you don't give it a name, they will all show up with the same name, so you migth want to give it something, even if it is just "A", "B", "C", etc.
- Once you do this, a black folder will appear that has all the foreign disks in it.
- You can now right click on each foreign disk, and select "Load from foreign disk".
- It will start a wizard. The first thing you'll want to do is create a new destination volume. It needs to be the same size as the source volume. You can always grow it later.
- Click through the wizard and the import process will begin. Once complete, you are all done!
- Now you can unzone the Clariion from the host, zone it to the Clariion, uninstall powerpath, install Compellent MPIO, return connections to normal, etc.
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 June 2008 )
|
When you sign up as a premium subscriber, you get more than access to a host of fantastic features. You become a member of a flourishing community that continuously improves the very projects that run your website. Why not sign up today?