Migrating EVA 3k & 4K to 6K

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Hi,

I got two EVA with different configuration in different sites and both will be put in together for Disaster recovery solution.
Site one:
1. Currently we got EVA3K with 2C4D and 29 (146GB)disk plugged in with 1 DG. 27 (146GB) new disk waiting to be plugged in to EVA3K and increase more space.
2. A new EVA6k with 4 new enclosures having 56 number of 300Gb disk making the overall config as 2C8D
3. So the final config will be 2C8D with 4 enclosures having 56x146gb disk and 4 enclosure with 56x300gb disk.

Site two:

1. Currently this EVA4k is configured with 2C2D with 28x300gb disk.
2. Getting upgraded to EVA6k with addition of 6 enclosure and 14x300Gb disk
3. So the final config will be similar to the primary site EVA6K 2C8D but with 2+6 new enclosure

I would like to know the best way to bring in all disks together and do data migration. Create 2 DG out of which one DG is used for storing local data and second DG will be used for the remote site

I would like to know how do I migrate all my current data from EVA 3k to 6K. Is there any possible way to move my current Vdisk to the new one or how do I actually move my data.

Thanks a lot in advance for your time and effort.

[Uwe Zessin]

1.3: "4 enclosures having 56x146gb disk and 4 enclosure with 56x300gb disk"

I would not do that - I would follow the 'best practices' and distribute both disk drive types over all 8 disk drive enclosures.

Be careful if you intend to re-use components from the EVA-3000. The EVA 4000/6000/8000 need M5314A disk drive enclosures!

--

On a training I've attended a few weeks ago, I was told that no in-place upgrade (swap controllers, migrate VCS to XCS) is available. I am sure you can get a loaner CA license from HP which allows the migration of data from the EVA-3000 to EVA-6000.

[Steven Clementi]

I agree and would go with best practice on the Site 1 EVA6k. Split the disks so that 28 146's are i the bottom 4 enclosures and the other 28 are in the top 4. Same with the 300's.

You can easily get a CA Eval license good for 30 or maybe even 60 days to migrate the data. If you need to know who to ask, I can supply info, just want to make sure it is publicly available first which if you bought an EVA, then you probably have it already ;o) (the contact info that is)

So site 2 would have 28 146GB disks and 14 300GB disks? Since the numbers are so close, might it be better to go with 32 and 16?


Steven

[Balakrishna Kotian]

This is not in place upgrade. We will get a new EVA6k with 4 enclosure and 56x300gb disk. Both the EVA 3k & 6K will be running simultaneously connected to a common switch.
So you suggest me to have 4 enclosure from bottom of EVA6k should be with 300gb disk. Create 2 new DG and then use CA and move all my data from EVA3k to 6k. Once the data is migrated and tested with the new EVA6k, uninitilize the EVA3k and move the 4 enclosure from EVA3k with 146gb disk to the EVA6k and place it on top of current 4 enclosure and do the cabling. Finally extend my both DG to 4 new enclosures.
Or suggest me what is the best way to do this as I will need 2 DG one with current data and another new only for my replicated data.

Second site is fully with 300gb disk but currently with 2 enclosure fully occupied with disk. Here another 6 more enclosure going to come and 14x300gb new disk. So I want total 42 disk should be spread across all 8 enclosure.

[Uwe Zessin]

You EVA-3000 most likely has M5314 disk drive enclosures, which are not supported on the 4000/6000/8000. It is possible to upgrade, but it is necessary to replace the EMU and the Fibre Channel I/O modules - please keep this in mind and plan accordingly.

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Uwe, youâ re suggesting me to replace both I/O modules and EMU which will make it M5314A equivalent. Are the blowers and backplane remains the same.

[Steven Clementi]

I would suggest that, if you can... borrow 4 shelves from site 2 temporarily to addd to the EVA6k in site 1 so that your RSS sets can be built across all 8 shelves rather than 4 shelves and have to futz with it later on to try and balance it better. Once the 3k is done and gone, take the 5314's, upgrade them with EMU and fibre module and replace the borrowed shelves from site 2.


Is site 2 up and running already? If so, addind in only 2 shelves vs. 6 will not make much difference at this point since you will still need to distribute the disks better.


This would be an ideal situation if it can be done since you would be able to spread all your initial 300GB disks acroos all 8 shelves, not having to worry about the RSS. Then add the 146's after the fact and still not have to worry about RSS.


Steven

[Uwe Zessin]

Yes, absolutely.

Please understand that you are working on a rather complex upgrade, even if it does sound easy what you have written so far. I would see if your supplier can offer you some 'special deal', e.g. equip the EVA-6000 with 8x M5314A enclosures and let you return the old EVA-3000, except for the disk drives.

That will make the whole migration less complicated and error-prone.

[Balakrishna Kotian]

How about doing this way for site one
1. In my new eva6k, fill in 146gb hdd in 2 enclosure and 300gb in other 2 enclosure. This will give me approximate space up to 12gb.
2. Place different sizes alternatively eg. Enclosure1 (146gb) | Enclosure2 (300gb) | Enlcosure3 (146gb) | Enclosure4 (300gb)
3. Create 2 DG and transfer data from old EVA3k to new EVA6k
4. Un-initialize EVA3k, replace I/O and EMU from the enclosure
5. Move upgrade enclosures from EVA3k with combination of 146gb and 300gb disk and position in 6,7,8 and 9
6. Add new disks to both available DG

Getting additional enclosure from the other site will not be possible but will try all the possible options. At the end of whole exercise we will need two DG of 8 and 16tb. Will this solution be feasible

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Sorry, Thers is a correction it should be 12 TB.

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Hi,

Another doubt I need to clear like if I create one DG1 out of one set of disk (300gb) on my new EVA6k which got 4 enclosure. Move data from old EVA and then move the upgraded enclosure in to new EVA6k and create another DG2 on top 4 enclosures. Now my question here is will DG1 get spread across all the 8 enclosure or it will remain in the bottom 4 enclosures.

TNX

[Steven Clementi]

Bala:

DG1 will never spread to the top unless you add disks to DG1 from the top, or manually try to move some of them.

Is this new DG with the 300GB disks going to be your primary data storage? What will the 146GB disks do? Backup? Snap? Clone? BC? Replication?

If so, I would only include only enough disks to hold the data so that later on, you can add those extras to the top 4 shelves. This way your DG's would be spread over all shelves, but you will still have to pay some attention to your RSS state.


Steven

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Steven,

I feel we should use the solution explained above in 6 steps. With this I will have 2 DGâ s spread across 4 enclosures, out of which 2 enclosure of 146gb and 2 enclosure of 300gb. This will give me 2 DGâ s of 4TB and 8.4TB. After the data migration I will move in upgraded enclosure and add 4TB of disk to the DG1 and add the remaining to the DG2. Here I will have both DG spread across all the 8 enclosure.
My worry is initially with 4 enclosures my RSS state will be set to mirror and I will be having mixture of VRAID. But later when I add the other 4 enclosure will my RSS state change to parity or still remain in mirror. I remember Uwe was telling if itâ s in mirror state then there should only be VRAID1. Or will I get choice to change the RSS state which I donâ t think what you guys think.

TNX

[Steven Clementi]

Your disk groups are still not spread across 8 shelves, only 4 (2 top and 2 bottom per DG) The goal should be to have DG1 AND DG2 spread across ALL 8 shelves to provide the proper RSS state for Vraid5.

Since you have a mix of drives to use in the 6k (that I did not realize because, even though i read your post, I did not let it absorb into the thinking process properly).

I would probably fill the left side of 4 shelves with 300GB disks and the right side with 146's. Then when you add the 4 other shelves, add in the rest of the disks, splitting them similarly so that you have both 300 and 146 disks on ALL 8 shelves. Then... and only then... should you have the right redundancy since each 8 disk RSS should reside 1 disk per shelf. When you add in the top half disks, the controllers "should" reconfigure the RSS groups and redistribute the sets so that the each has 1 disk on each shelf.


Steven

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Steven,

I got it! As per best practice we should not add different disk in one DG. Do you have any doubt that EVA will not reconfigure the RSS groups and redistribution will not happen per enclosure.

Bala

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

I do not know. I would love to test it out, but don;t have enough free disks to do so at the moment, nor the 4 extra shelves.

I am sure one of the other fine knowledgeable folks here will be able to give you a more difinitive answer.



Steven

[Uwe Zessin]

I, too, cannot understand why you insist on ordering the disks per pair of enclosures.


Start with 4 enclosures, fill with 30x 146GB disks from the left side walking inwards using all 4 enclosures (E1 + E2: 8 disks, E3 + E4: 7 disks) and create DG1. This will allow you to take up the entire capacity from the EVA3000.

Migrate the data from EVA3000 to EVA6000.

Move 4 enclosures from EVA3000, convert to M5314A if necessary and mount into EVA6000. Fill them with 26x 146GB disks from the left side walking inwards. Add those disks to DG1 - the leveling will redistribute the data, but not necessarily the RSSs!.

Send me the SSSU output from those commands I told you in another thread and I will see if I can make a suggestion which disks to move, else move the rightmost pair of disks from enclosures:1+1 to fill the topmost pair. Verify your DG's RSS state.

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If you don't like these complicated task, can't you temporarily replicate the data to the second EVA-6000, dismantle the EVA-3000 and properly set up the first EVA-6000, finally replicate the data to the first EVA-6000 ??

[Balakrishna Kotian]

Hi,

I got two assumptions here:
1. I get EVA6k fully populated with (56x146gb & 56x300gb disk). Create DG and migrate data from the EVA3k
2. If we get EVA6k with 4 enclosure then fill in 7x300gb disk on all 4 enclosure from 8-14 slots. Create one DG and migrate the data. Upgrade the EVA3k enclosure and move in to EVA6k. Stuff 7x146gb disk into all the 8 enclosures from slot 1-7. Create a new DG which will have proper RSS state across and again migrate data from DG2 to DG1. Finally remove the DG2 and recreate a fresh DG with all the 56x300gb disk. Hoping we get a proper RSS set in both DG by end of this exercise.

Once again thank you for your time & effort. If you find some changes needs to be done do let me know.

Bala