topic Need to copy NetApp iSCSI volume onto Openfiler iSCSI volume in Network and Storage Protocols

Need to copy NetApp iSCSI volume onto Openfiler iSCSI volume

BeeKay — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:22:13 GMT

NetApp FAS 2554, sharing out iSCSI volume.

iSCSI LUN exported to AIX Power8 host running VIOS (IBM's Hypervisor.)

I need to ship these VMs (LPARs in IBM speak) across country by Friday.

NetApp is staying, alternate storage is to be used for the move.

VIOS has zero intelligence about moving virtual disks onto a different "storage pool."

(VMware would simply let you do a "Storage Only Migration" - point, click, done. Does not exist in VIOS.)

I built another iSCSI based storage pool (datastore) in the hopes of copying the images, but again, no tools to do the job.

1) Need to know how to tell if NetApp volume is FILEIO or BLOCKIO.

2) Need to know how to clone this NetApp iSCSI volume onto an Openfiler volume (also iSCSI, and already mounted on the Power8 host.)

3) Need to be able to reattach the copy and recover the LPARs once they arrive and when the device IPs change.

So, any IBM'ers with mksysb experience want to walk me through how to backup and restore, because that's my last option....

Many thanks!

Re: Need to copy NetApp iSCSI volume onto Openfiler iSCSI volume

AlexDawson — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 04:05:40 GMT

Hi there!

This probably verges more into general system administration for AIX than many of us are typically familiar with. The forums on https://unix.com/aix might be more help.

From some brief reading, there seems to be a "backupios" command and a "viosbr" command set that look to be useful here. If I found myself in your position, I would try creating a new VIOS, then perform the tasks needed with that (maybe sending via internet rather than courier) and verifying the process with a non-production system first.

Good luck!

Re: Need to copy NetApp iSCSI volume onto Openfiler iSCSI volume

BeeKay — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 23:01:50 GMT

I am talking about moving VMs around, not the hypervisor in this case.

I found out another way, which is to mount the new iSCSI volume as part of the pool, then "mirror" the instances, and lastly, break the mirror. Only one mirror is allowed, and only one image is allowed to be active.

FYI - no such thing as a snapshot in VIO Server, unless you mksysb and then recover it - aka regular backups.

I was simply hoping for a way to mirror iSCSI volumes directly, to avoid the very slow progression of mksysb and the alternatives. DNE.