Nimble Performance Policies

[CorbettEnders]

I am using RMC Peer Copy to move data from a 3PAR 7200c to a Nimble HF20 (software version 6.0.0.500-1005932-opt).  Doing so creates the volume automatically on the Nimble using the performance policy "Default".  It seems that when editing the volume after, trying to change the performance policy, I'm only able to pick "Other workloads". All other choices are greyed out.

How can I solve this problem? I can't seem to create the volume ahead of time and target it in Peer Copy.  

Can I clone the volume after and choose the performance policy then? If so, I don't know how to do this.

[sbhat09]

Hello @CorbettEnders,

What is the purpose of this operation? Do you want to store the backup of that volume in Nimble HF20? or want to migrate the volume from 3PAR 7200c to Nimble HF20?

Regards,
Srinivas Bhat

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Note: All of my comments are my own and are not any official representation of HPE.

[CorbettEnders · Accepted solution]

I am migrating off the 3PAR permanently as it is end-of-support. I have now disabled the default setting of deduplication on new volume creation (web GUI--> Administration --> Space --> uncheck the box for "default" under Deduplication Default: this will force newly created volumes' dedupe to disabled by default.)

Now when I edit a new volume created by RMC, I can change the performance policy to any other policy that matches the 4k block size.  But I am unable to choose other policies. 

Nimble tech support has advised that my only option is to manually copy the data to a new 8k volume through a host.

[Sheldon Smith]

Cloning on Nimble leverages the snapshot mechanism. Any snapshot and clone are tied back to the parent volume and its performance policy.

Performance Policies are associated with Application Categories.
Application Categories are dedupe domains.
Volumes in the same Application Category dedupe against each other.

I don't work with RMC Peer Copy; someone else might know if there is a way to specify a performance policy.

After a volume is created, its block size cannot be changed. The "default" block size is 4096.
Once deduplication is enabled on a volume, its application category cannot be changed. The "default" application category is "Other".
And the only other performance policy with app category "Other" is "Other Workloads".

So yeah, what Nimble Support said. Can you take the volume down for any length of time so it's not changing?
Create a volume with the same virtual size and the desired performance policy. Present to host and have host copy from migrated volume to new volume. Use a block-based copy, not a file-based copy.

[CorbettEnders]

>>Create a volume with the same virtual size and the desired performance policy. Present to host and have host copy from migrated volume to new volume. Use a block-based copy, not a file-based copy.

This is what I will do... except I'm not sure how to perform a block-based copy in Windows Server 2016?

[Sheldon Smith]

It really depends on what is using the disk you Peer Copied from the 3PAR. You can try a file-based copy and then check your application. Some have no problem with volumes where the files were copied. Otherwise check here

https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+block+copy+utility