topic Re: E-series controller swap in EF & E-Series, SANtricity, and Related Plug-ins

E-series controller swap

bDOT — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:16:19 GMT

Hello all,

We have an E5512 controller that has gone end of support and we have an E2812 to replace it. We also have a DE6600 that was under the E5512 with a self contained DDP pool. Is it possible to swing that shelf over to the E2812 (using the appropriate miniSAS HD to miniSAS cables) and import that pool, keeping all data intact? I'm finding documentation on how to do this by converting the E5512 controller to a shelf and then adding both under a new SAS-3 controller, but that is not what we want to do. We simply want to move the DE6600 shelf and keep the data on that shelf (and pool) intact under the E2812. I have validated that the DE6600 shelf and drives are supported under an E2812 controller.

Re: E-series controller swap

eseries_trailblazer — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 20:45:48 GMT

I think this is what you need. Please see page 28.

-Mitch

Re: E-series controller swap

bDOT — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 21:14:57 GMT

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for your response. I'm not seeing anything attached but I assume you're referring to the "Upgrading E-series Controllers" guide. That guide describes a process a bit different than what we're looking to do. We do not wish to convert the E5512 to a shelf. It is end of support and the disks and data are of no value to us.

What we would like to do is bring the DE6600 shelf over to a new E2812 controller, and import the disks and pool while preserving all data, similar to an OnTAP foreign aggregate import. I can't seem to find documentation that supports this procedure, and it leads me to believe that some critical metadata might be preserved under the controller. I'm hoping someone can confirm or deny whether that is the case.

Re: E-series controller swap

ahmadm — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 12:58:04 GMT

Hi All,

Unfortunately, we do not support importing a DDP from one storage array to another. The DE6600 can be used as an expansion shelf underneath the E2812 shelf, but we do not have the ability to export/import a DDP from one array to another.

The export/import feature is only available for traditional volume groups.

Here is a page I would like to reference for adding DE6600 shelf under an E2812 setup: https://docs.netapp.com/ess-11/topic/com.netapp.doc.e-cntr-ugr-guide/GUID-0EFB6556-87CD-4AAF-9D84-0CF5DFA78233.html

Re: E-series controller swap

bDOT — Sat, 21 Aug 2021 00:28:08 GMT

Thank you for the confirmation. Can you confirm whether the E5512 can be converted into a shelf to allow for preservation of the data?

Re: E-series controller swap

ahmadm — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 17:08:29 GMT

Hi,

For Dynamic Disk Pools (DDP), none of the E-Series platforms are capable of exporting the DDP so it can be moved to another E-Series array while preserving data.

For traditional volume groups, you can export it from an old array and move it (import) to a new array.

If you are looking to migrate data from old to new E-Series, you can look at potentially using the new Remote Storage Volume feature.

This feature was introduced in SANtricity OS 11.70, and it gives you the ability to connect a new E-Series system to either an old E-Series or other storage device in order to migrate data from old storage to new E-Series. This would work for Dyanmic Disk Pool, but it is a volume level migration. For more details, please check out below documentation page and technical report:

Main Documentation Page: https://docs.netapp.com/ess-11/topic/com.netapp.doc.ssm-sys-remote/home.html

Technical Report: https://www.netapp.com/pdf.html?item=/media/28697-tr-4893-deploy.pdf