Move D3940 to another management ring

[George_Shashin]

I have LE with 2 Frames with several Synergy 480 Gen10 servers in an existing management ring. Each server is connected to a Synergy D3940 Storage Module.
I need to remove this Frames from the current management ring and move it to another site.
I need to preserve the data on the D3940 raids.

The current server profiles will be deleted, and new server profiles will be created at the new site.
How can I ensure that the RAID arrays on the D3940 are not deleted and function correctly with the new profiles in the new ring?

[George_Shashin]

Am I right in this action plan?

1. Make sure the current external logical drives have the "Permanent" checkbox checked.
2. Delete the current profile. Move the servers and storage modules to new site.
3. Create a new server profile.
When creating it, check the "Import existing configuration" box.
Also, using the "Add logical JBOD" button, add the required logical drives to the list.
4. After applying the profile and enabling it, the server will see my RAIDs.

[DanCernese]

This assumes they were already not profile-specific volumes, but much more importantly:  you can't just move a frame somewhere.  The composers manage that frame and all the storage.  What is your composer plan?  You can't split or shrink a logical enclosure, you have to recreate them from scratch.  There is no straight-forward answer here.

[support_s]

System recommended content:

1. HPE Synergy Configuration and Compatibility Guide | Management architecture

2. HPE Synergy Glossary | Glossary

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[George_Shashin]

Everything is fine, we are moving the entire LE - 2 frames. Before moving, the LE will be removed and reassembled at the new site in the new management ring.
The composers will remain at the old site.
The new site already has a ring with own composers.

Could you please explain - what "profile-specific volumes" are?

[DanCernese]

EVerything is unfortunately not so fine.  You cannot import anything from the D3940 into a new set of composers.

D3940-based volumes are either created entirely within the profile and die within the profile.  Or you create a "Logical JBOD" in the composer independent of the profile and then subsequently attach that logical jbod to the profile in the local storage section as an "External Logical JBOD".  Alternatively, during the profile creation of the Logical JBOD, there is a checkbox (as someone mentioned earlier) that says "Permanant".  That must have been checked.  If neither of those things were done, the storage is wiped when the profile is deleted.

[DanCernese]

I need to qualify my response.  I have heard stories of people who have reconstructed existing RAID storage on a D3940 using the ability that was added to select specific drives.  Apparantly, they took note of all their Logical JBOD (again, those listed in the Logical JBOD section of the Composer, created as permanent or outside the profile), and then recreated those same Logical JBOD in the new composer using the same specific drives--but I really don't know how to validate that the data was preserved, or perhaps the profile setting for re-initialize had to remain unchecked also.

[George_Shashin]

I ran the test on one test frame in our lab. Unfortunately, I don't have two test frames to test moving the D3940 from one ring to another.
The current D3940 has two HDDs.

I took a server profile. New external storage. Add logical drive.
With the permanent option.
Created RAID 0 from one HDD.
Deleted the profile.
Moved the server and D3940 to other slots in the enclosure.
The D3940 showed that it had a JBOD with my name. It didn't see the RAID type, only the name and which drive it was on.
I created a new server profile.
In it, I selected "Add logical JBOD" and added my JBOD.
I checked the "Import existing configuration" box.
After powering on, the server saw my data and that the HDD was RAID 0.

>>> I have heard stories of people who have reconstructed existing RAID storage on a D3940 using the ability that was added to select specific drives. Apparantly, they took note of all their Logical JBOD (again, those listed in the Logical JBOD section of the Composer, created as permanent or outside the profile), and then recreated those same Logical JBOD in the new composer using the same specific drives.

So, when I move the D3940 to another ring, it will forget which HDDs its JBODs were on?
And before moving the D3940, I need to record which RAIDs are currently on which HDDs?

[George_Shashin]

I forgot important information about my problem. D3940 aren't moving to a new location on their own. They're all moving with their current servers (and their current raid controllers, respectively).

[Arnout_Verbeken]

Late to the party, but is this still ongoing?

You can easily do what you want by unselecting the "manage controller" in the profiles upfront.  This will convert all Logical Drives to Logical JBODs.
JBODS are what they are: a bunch of disks presented to your server.  It's up to you to manually configure them.  But they are already configured in the SmartArray Controller, so you are good to go.

Take note of the location of every disks in every profile.

Move stuff to new site.  Create profiles with Logical JBODS for the exact same disks.  Make sure you don't select "manage controller".
The disks will be presented to your server and no config will be done on the SmartArray Controller.  Since you will reuse server+disks, the SmartArray Controller already has the config of the Array/LD and will just see the correct disks again.

It's clear that you should test this, take a full backup upfront and that the above comes without any warranty of success.