topic Re: Move a vFiler in ONTAP Discussions

Move a vFiler

TOBIAS1979 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:08:42 GMT

Hello

I want to move a vfiler from one aggregat to another, without any
”trouble” for the cifs users. It´s in the same filer but on diffrent aggregates!

Is this possible without any trouble for the users. For example we have

folder redirect(offline files) on the users at these volumes!

I have following two aggregate aggr1- SAS and aggr2 - SATA.

//T

Re: Move a vFiler

ogra — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:42:30 GMT

Yes that's possible.

To client it will be transparent. Though you need to be aware of few things. Like -> when you change the volume name it also changes that in the share path.

You objective is to swap 2 variables ( Volumes in this case) residing in different Aggregates. When you migrated the data ( say using SnapMirror) upon final cutover you need users to access data via the new volume. ( Without any change at their end). So while you are changing the volumes names ( actually swapping them) keep in mind that it also changes the backend CIFS share path. [ In fact it happens online, that's why we support online volume renaming even though there are shares from it].

Hence, you should disable CIFS and then do the change in name. That way you avoid the change in CIFS Share path and users after change point to new location.

Cheers.

Re: Move a vFiler

scottgelb — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:23:55 GMT

While it is brute force, many have migrated the entire vFiler to another controller, then back again using Data Motion for vFilers (guaranteed 120 second failover or it fails back if it can't) or vFiler Migrate (if a cluster partner since data motion isn't supported within a cluster pair). Then you can move off then back to the aggregates you want with minimal impact. Intrafiler migration has some more steps but if all iSCSI you can use "vol move" if 8.0 or higher which is really nice...but doesn't work for NAS volumes in 7-mode. There is also a legacy "snapmirror migrate" command that will move volume fsids and file handles but you still need to update the shares like Bakshana discussed. Whether you use data motion/migrate or a quick intrafiler cutover of the volume, the cifs users will have a short impact since in the first case the network ports move (cifs isn't persistent yet but coming soon) and in the second case cifs would stop and start for a quick disruption.

Re: Move a vFiler

TOBIAS1979 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:44:36 GMT

If I do like this, will it work?

First shut down the CIFS service.

Then run vol move.

Once the move is made, is it ok to start the CIFS service again?

I really do not want to change the share name or the rights to folders\files, it will cause problems for users using MS offline files.

/T.

Re: Move a vFiler

scottgelb — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 17:22:06 GMT

That should work with no shares active. Vol move in 7mode is meant for San volumes but will move any volume without active shares or exports. Since you have an outage it should work. Worth creating a test vFiler to try it out to prove he process.

Sent from my iPhone 5

Re: Move a vFiler

TOBIAS1979 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:30:10 GMT

Where is the information stored regarding the rights\permission to the share, is it in the vFiler?

/T.

Re: Move a vFiler

scottgelb — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:31:42 GMT

The cifs share permission is in the vfiler. Vfiler run vfilername cifs shares.

Re: Move a vFiler

TOBIAS1979 — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:46:28 GMT

Thanks for thequick response where can I mark the answers as correct\helpfull.

I do not see it?

/T.

Re: Move a vFiler

scottgelb — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:48:30 GMT

Under each question you can mark as answered or helpful. But only if you are the original poster.

Sent from my iPhone 5

Re: Move a vFiler

TOBIAS1979 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 06:42:09 GMT

Hi
This is a brief summary of how we made the move. This did not affect users.

First document the vfiler¨settings and the shares on it.

Vfiler status -a
Vfiler status -r

Aftter that copy the /etc/ from the vfiler to a workstation.

Vfiler stop
Destroy vfiler
vol move start vfiler_root
vol move start vfiler_cifs01 aggr1
vol move start vfiler_NFS aggr1
vfiler create –r /vol/vfiler_root
vfiler run vf1 setup (just press enter on every question

/T.

Re: Move a vFiler

scottgelb — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:08:26 GMT

Cool... the create -r will keep existing /etc/ data but still good to backup... you can also run "config dump -f -v filename" to get all nas data and other config info...config dump does miss useradmin groups on restore for users and also doesn't re-create igroups or mappings to luns for iscsi in a vfiler...but still useful to save the vFiler config to recreate most settings.