Still no way to convert 32bits aggregats to 64 bits (in place) ?

[florent_gilain]

Hello all,

Is it true that if you want to migrate to actual DOT 8.x and convert your existing 32 bits aggregats to 64 bits, you need to have available aggregats/shelfs because conversion is not possible on place ? do you think it's flexible for customers ?

thanks a lot

FG.

[ekashpureff]

You create new 64 bit aggregates from available spare disk drives, then create new volumes and copy the data over.

It seems to be an easy enopugh process for customers I've been working with, who are glad to have the increased cpacity.

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene Kashpureff

NetAppU Instructor and Independent Consultant

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[sshapiro]

Rest assured, the ability to grow and convert 32-bit aggregates into 64-bit aggregates is on the roadmap. That's all I can share, as It's not appropriate to talk more expansively about futures in the communities.

[florent_gilain]

Hummm...here, we don't have enough spare disks to migrate our existing aggregats...so we'll wait next need to add more shelfs to migrate to 64bits at that moment...or will wait for next release that will allow on place migration ;-))

thanks

FG.

[dejanliuit]

It's the single reason why we don't upgrade our system from 7.3.3. If we have to upgrade another time to get (minimal impact) upgrade path, then we can wait for the feature instead of doing upgrades twice.

As an IBM customer I have to wait for the official code anyway, so our upgrade plans right now is next summer when we have a "natural" date for system maintenance.

Hopefully by then IBM has also release an Ontap with the feature or we might be in for waiting until next Xmas/New years holiday to do the next system maintenance.

[ekashpureff]

Florent -

Your very welcome !

At your service,

Eugene Kashpureff

NetAppU Instructor and Independent Consultant
(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[chriskranz]

I'm a little confused by that comment, if you have no spare disks, how are you going to benefit from 64bit aggregates? Even if you could do an inplace upgrade to 64bit aggregates, you're still going to struggle with spare capacity, same as you do with 32bit aggregates.

[ccolht]

Do we need more spare disks for 64 bit aggregates than 32 bit? I think the point is if you don't have enough 'unused' capacity to duplicate your data, you can't upgrade the aggregates.

[sshapiro]

Chuck,,

If a 32-bit aggregate is full or nearly full, and there is a need for more volumes or space in existing volumes, data will have to be migrated to another aggregate - either a second 32-bit aggregate or the new aggregate can be 64-bit.

Data migration from a 32-bit to 64-bit aggregate does entail some challenges, in particular if all the snapshots need to be preserved.  Volume SnapMirror and volcopy between different aggregate address types is not supported with Data ONTAP 8.0.x.

[rkaramchedu1]

I'd be curious to get the procedure (high level is fine) for 32-bit to 64-bit migration while retaining all snapshots.

[syncsortbex]

I have the same issue, ndmpcopy doesn't copy the snapshots. Doesn't that imply that its not possible to convert an OSSV from 32bit aggregate to 64bit?

[scottgelb]

It would be tedious, but you could ndmpcopy each snapshot separately... starting with the oldest first... or you could QSM each snapshot individually.  Then before the next update, take a snapshot of the same name, then ndmpcopy -f the next snapshot... rinse, lather, repeat until you get to the active file system... this wouldn't be fun but is workable... and you could dedup between copies too... often (the same as when we migrated from traditional to flexible volumes) we just left the old volume around until the snapshots expired and the new retention was on the new volume.

[rkaramchedu1]

*bump*

[mrcenterprises]

So are people migrating from 32bit aggregates to 64bit aggregates?

How are they migrating?

Also any ideas about how the conversion will be performed? Might it be an inline tool with a new release of DOT? or a seperate tool?

[ekashpureff]

Yes, I've come across folks migrating. They ndmpcopy the volumes to a new 64 bit aggr.

I haven't come up with a good procedure for migrating with snapshots...yet.

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)

[rkaramchedu1]

what is funny is a lot of peeps at NetApp are asking questions on how people are using 64bit aggrs but are not willing to or do not have answers to the questions that are asked of them..May be no one wants to come out and say "Oh we didn't think of that..". Yes we all have our own individual methods - most of them depend on the specific environment - but it appears that some of these questions have some, quite honestly, stumped. (/me shakes head/)