Move SnapMirror Volumes to Different Aggregate

[sanman2304]

Let me know if there is an easy way to move SnapMirror volumes to a different aggregate.

Here's the situation, we have multiple sites SnapMirroring to our SAS aggregate. We recently purchased SATA storage on a new aggregate (same controller) that I would like to move the volumes to. Is this something that would need a snapmirror initialization to the new aggregate or can I just break the SnapMirrors, move the volumes, and resync the mirrors?

Thanks!

[scottgelb]

You have to mirror to the new aggregate... from either the existing mirror with a cascade or from the source.  If you cascade you can remove the middle man mirror and resync to the new sata target.

[sanman2304]

Thanks Scott, I executed this process and successfully moved the volumes to the new aggregate.

[arunchak]

HI Sanman,

  If you are using DFM, then there is a much simpler way to move secondary volumes across aggrs.. its called the "Secondary Space management Wizard".

[sanman2304]

Hello arunchak,

Yes we're using DFM 4.1, Operations Manager, Provisioning, and Protection Manager with all the snapmirror jobs in datasets. Can you elaborate some more or point me in the direction of documentation explaining the use of the wizard? Thanks.

[arunchak]

HI,

  oh DFM 4.1 ...

  Can you navigate to Hosts -> Aggregates in NMC ... on the top left do you see a button "Manage space" ?

[arunchak]

HI,

I am not sure whether it existed since DFM 4.1 but you can check in NMC.

Actually this wizard is for managing the space in aggr, but as you wanted to move a secondary volume to different aggr, this is one of the feature in this wizard. Check this out:

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/DFM_win/rel40/html/software/workflow/GUID-0684660E-1981-4D00-99FA-6F6BCEC535EF.html

One of the point is:

- Enables you to plan and implement migration of volumes on secondary storage.

I guess this is what you are intending to do. Eventhough space management is not your concern,  you want to move the secondary volume to a different aggr. Correct me if I did understand your problem wrong.

-Arun

[sanman2304]

Hey arunchak, I found the option you mentioned in the NMC but it is greyed out.  It is called "Migrate - Move volume to another aggregate."  I am guessing this is an added license feature that we do not have, I believe it is called DataMotion.  Thanks for the info.

[stephenyursik]

I don't think you need Data Motion in order to do this.  I am trying to run through the same process and couldn't figure out why the Migrate option was grayed out for me.  Turns out that despite my thinking that the source volume (i.e. original SnapMirror destination) met the volume migration requirements, it actually did not.  The volume migration requirements are as follows: 

To enable volume migration as a task in a space management plan for an aggregate, the Secondary Space Management wizard must discover potential destination aggregates that meet the volume migration requirements.

• Source volume requirements   Migration source volumes must meet all of the following criteria: 
  • No export protocols are used; for example, no NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel protocol.
  • The volume has no clone volumes.
  • All protection relationships on the volume are managed by Protection Manager.
• Destination aggregate requirements   Migration destination aggregates must meet all of the following criteria: 
  • Reside on a storage system that meets the necessary license requirements to support the protection policy.
  • Reside on a storage system that meets the secondary or tertiary storage provisioning policy requirements.
  • Reside on the same storage system as the source volume if the source volume is attached to a vFiler unit.

• Have enough space to accommodate the migrated volume.            

In my case, after pulling out some hair (which is already in low supply), I realized that my source volume had an NFS export, thus was not migration capable.  As soon as I removed that NFS export on that original Snapmirror destination, I was able to proceed and I have now just used the secondary space management to migrate that volume to another aggregate on the same controller.  Hope this helps.

[arunchak]

HI stephenyursik,

The "secondary space management wizard" is purposefully implemented to manage space on secondary storage as the name suggests.

We do not recommend to use it for primary storage as it cannot be non disruptive operation because there should be no exports in case of NFS or CIFS and no mappings incase of SAN. (and hence disruptive operation). Eventhough the wizard allows you to migrate if the requirements are met.

whereas the same operation can be performed on a snapmirror volume (i.e secondary volume) without any disruption.

As this post talks about moving snap mirror volume (secondary) space management wizard would make sense...

Thanks,

  Arun

[sanman2304]

Hello stephenyursik, I will take a look at this in greater detail. Most of our NetApp is NFS so there very well can be NFS exports on the SnapMirror volumes being that these volumes are for our DR customers and are ready for VMware host connection. Reading through everything it does seem this option should be available and is different than Data Motion. I will keep you updated. Thanks.

[vreddypalli]

HI,

You can also use the command line to migrate secondary volumes which are managed by protection manager.  We have done it for snapvault relations and it should work even for snapmirror relations.

Dry run without actually executing the command

dfpm migrate volume -D -d "Destinationfiler:destination-aggregate" -c cleanup_after_migration "sourcefiler:/volume-name"

Actual command

dfpm migrate volume -d "Destinationfiler:destination-aggregate" -c cleanup_after_migration "sourcefiler:/volume-name"

Hope this helps.

-Vijay

[arunchak]

Right, we do have cli for most of the operations so that scripters can leverage the advantage.

-Arun