SnapCenter migration - does deleting the host delete the Exchange plug-in?

[Steve_Benge]

Hi,

We are migrating from one SnapCenter installation to a new one and have Exchange backups which have been recreated on the new environment and have been running successfully.

The question I have is that if we remove the Storage Systems from the old SnapCenter installation, will this automatically remove the Exchange plug-in and therby stop the recreated jobs from running on the new installation?

Thanks, Steven

[Ontapforrum]

Hi,

I see a bit of confusion in your query, do you mind clearing it.

In the subject - You have asked, Does deleting a host deletes the plug-in ? According to the Snapcenter doc, yes it does. It removes backups/clonses/jobs/rg/plug-in.

In the SnapCenter 4.1 Documentations, it states the following:

"When the SnapCenter Server removes a host, it first removes the backup, clones, clones jobs, resource groups, and resources listed for that host in the SnapCenter Resources page, and then it uninstalls the plug-in packages on the host."
http://docs.netapp.com/ocsc-41/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.ocsc-ag%2FGUID-FC066A55-8186-4AC4-BBAB-D76A91937D06.html

In the body you have asked - if we remove the Storage Systems from the old SnapCenter installation, will this automatically remove the Exchange plug-in and therby stop the recreated jobs from running on the new installation?
Plug-in is associated with the Host, therefore removing a host will remove the plug-in. You mentioned, you have a new Snapcenter installation so that means -New Installation has a new relation to the Host and the plug-ins ? which you have mentioned is running successfully. I don't see why this new setup will stop working.

I am sure in the new installation you have setup storage systems connections with new Snapcenter installation, which basically allows SC access to ONTAP storage, and without that the jobs will not run ? Ins't it. Hence, removing the storage system from the old setup should have no bearing on the new installation setup and the jobs.

I think the confusion here is between the word 'host' & 'storage system'. If it's a storage system, then you should be able to remove it from the old SC setup (New setup already has the storage configured), this shouldn't affect the jobs running from new SC server. Regarding the 'host', this is confusing, do you have hosts configured at the same time on both old & new SC server ?

Thanks!

[Steve_Benge]

Hi,

Sorry for the confusion.

It is the host that we are looking at removing. It is an Exchange DAG and when it was created the plug-ins were installed on all the included node servers.

Yes we do have the same host configured on both Snapcenter installations but the old one is not scheduled to run - The overall status on the old installation shows as "Plug-in incompatible".

If it is of any help:

Old Snapcenter Server is version 4.1.1

New SnapCenter Server is version 4.3

Plug-in version is 4.3

So will removing the host from the old SnapCenter automatically remove the plug-in on the DAG node server even though it is being used by the new host on the new SnapCenter installation?

Hope this clears things up a bit.

Thanks again, Steven

[Ontapforrum]

HI,

Thanks for clearing the confusion. Yes, it's clear now.

Every host has a unique ID in the SnapCenter DB, so removing the Host should not cause any disruptions to Jobs for the new host on the New SC server, but that's only logically thinking.

My only concern is, "Does each host has a unique association with the plug-ins that are installed" ? The reason I am concerend is - If yes, then it will go ahead an check for plug-ins, if no compatible found it should just clean up the host from the old snapcenter server.  I am not 100% sure here.

I think you just wait for someone from Snapcenter team to give you definite yes or no.

Simulatniously, I suggest raise a ticktet with NetApp with the specific query, you should get some answer either ways.

Thanks!

[Steve_Benge]

Thanks for the info

[mrahul · Accepted solution]

One should not register the same host to two SnapCenter instances. Ideally, you should have first unregistered the DAG from your old SnapCenter server which would have deleted all backups and uninstalled plugins and then register the same host to the new SnapCenter server.

You cannot have a higher plugin version with a lower version of the SnapCenter server. This is unsupported.

You can have plugins up to two versions lower than the SnapCenter version. Anything lesser than that, it would show up as "Plug-in incompatible"