snapmirror 32bit volume to 64bit volume....

[oweinmann]

Hi,

we recently purchased a new fas2040c. The netapp technician told the there are two known problems with dataontap 8:

ipv6 --> not a problem for us

snaplock --> we don't use so what...

So I said ok fine let's go for ontap8. We were also provided with a snapmirror trial so we can mirror across our volumes from the old to the new filers.

Now comes the problem with ontap 8:

snapmirror: A 32-bit volume cannot be mirrored to a 64-bit volume

What now?

1. Can I create the dest volumes as 32Bit? I mean 16TB is still sufficient for us, if the maximum size of a volume is the only benefit we get from 64bit.

2. If I create 32bit volumes can I convert them to 64bit on the fly? I read that I have to copy them using volcopy or ndmpcopy.

Regards,

[radek_kubka]

Hi,

snapmirror: A 32-bit volume cannot be mirrored to a 64-bit volume

That's true for VSM. If QSM is any good for you, then it will work though.

1. Can I create the dest volumes as 32Bit? I mean 16TB is still sufficient for us, if the maximum size of a volume is the only benefit we get from 64bit.

Pretty much yes and yes. In fact a 64-bit aggregate may be slower than a 32-bit one on smaller systems (more metadata needs to be loaded into memory).

2. If I create 32bit volumes can I convert them to 64bit on the fly?

Not now. The word on the street though is that ONTAP 8.1 *may* bring online migration capability.

Regards,
Radek

[oweinmann]

Hi Radek,

thanks for pointing this out. I have now started to recreate the filers with 32bit aggregates and copy the root volume with ndmpcopy. Time consuming but that is ok. The filer is not used yet.

Regards,

Oliver