Migrate VM between old and new simpliVity Cluster.

[J-Philippe]

Hi to the community,
despite the fact that a simplivity host cannot share its datastore with other simplivity except those within the cluster, is it possible to "share" a datastore to another esxi simplviy host like it is possible to do it for a "legacy" esxi without Omnistack card ?

"When you create a datastore in a cluster, your access to the datastore is limited to the HPE OmniStack hosts in
that cluster. For example, an HPE OmniStack host can use an HPE SimpliVity datastore within the same cluster.
But, it cannot use an HPE SimpliVity datastore from a different cluster. However, a standard host (host without
HPE OmniStack software) can use an HPE SimpliVity datastore in a cluster outside the one it resides in."

Why I would like to migrate VM from an old SVT cluster 3.7.2 to a new 4.0.1 and both cannot be in the same federation due to the interop matrix regarding vcenter for instance.

For sure I can migrate VM with some other product but I'm curious to know if it can be done that way.

Thanks in advance,
Jean-Philippe.

[JohnHHaines · Accepted solution]

Absolutely ! Just pretend the old cluster is a regualr VMware server, and connect to the SVT datastore on the new cluster.

However, you can't do this from the GUI (because they are not in the same cluster) - you need to use the command line.

Set up the host(s) in old cluster just as you would a Compute Node (add the OVC ip address to the HOSTS file).

On the new cluster, log in to OVC you want to share from

At the command prompt:

1. sudo su

2. source /var/tmp/build/bin/appsetup

3. dsv-nfsd-connection-show (to check active sharings)

4. df -h (to list and identify our 'DataStore')

5. dsv-nfsd-export-add --path /mnt/svtfs/0/c320df3f-bd41-48c2-8d63-17ea4e3b0a85 --client 10.4.0.196

where:

--path /mnt/....... is Datastore path to be shared

--client aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP address of the ESXi host which will be connecting

6. dsv-nfsd-connection-show (to check new shared datastore)

On the ESXi host, add a new NFS Datastore.. where the NFS server is the OVC IP and the path is same than specified on the dsv command, above.

[ICPMuenchen]

Have you considered a cross vCenter Migration? This is possible since vCenter 6.0. You Just need an Enterprise Plus License. You can get a trial key for testing

[J-Philippe]

Thanks John, I will try that way.

Best regards,

Jean-Philippe

[J-Philippe]

Nope but the idea is not bad, my purpose was to focus on the NFS share from SimpliVity.

Anyway thank you for your suggestion.

Best Regards,

Jean-Philippe

[J-Philippe]

Hi John, comming back on that topic, I've just tried and it work well. thank you.

Your process differs from the official guide "HPE_a00097045en_us_HPE OmniStack 4.0.1 for vSphere Administration Guide" but for my case it is perfect because sources and destination hosts have nothing in common.

By the way the cmd to remove the export is :

dsv-nfsd-export-remove --path /mnt/svtfs/0/c320df3f-bd41-48c2-8d63-17ea4e3b0a85 --client 10.4.0.196

where:

--path /mnt/....... is Datastore path to be shared

--client aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd is the IP address of the ESXi host which will be removed

Sound right for you ?

Regards,

Jean-Philippe

[JohnHHaines]

Glad it worked out for you, and thanks, I will add that to my set of instructions.

[vicvic35]

If you "Set up the host(s) in old cluster just as you would a Compute Node (add the OVC ip address to the HOSTS file)", wouldnt this cause a conflic seeing as each host already has omni.cube.io defined in its hosts file as the storage IP of it's own OVC?

[kylerj]

Yes, duplicating resolution IPs could causes issues with IP failovers with the addition of a second omni.cube.io. You should be able to just mount the storage or management network of the OVC seperately without adding anything within the host file itself using the "esxcli storage nfs add" command.