Active IQ Unified Manager Discussions

Ability to create a volume or other entity based on the configuration of an existing volume or other entity?

mshearer
3,649 Views

This was brought up to me and I am not sure if WFA could handle something like this, here are the two use cases given, which are basically the same:

1. A customer has an existing array with volumes on it and purchases a new array for snapmirror protection and needs to create all the mirror destinations on the new array

2. A customer has an array to be replaced and brings in a new array and needs to create all the mirror destinations on the new array

Is it possible to use an existing volume in the environment or possibly some other entity like an igroup, to be used as a template for the creation of an new volume?  So basically I would want to make sure the size, vol options, snap reserve, snap sched, dedupe sched, and stuff like that match the source volume on the second array?

I am hoping this is something simple that I am totally not thinking of...

Thoughts?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

hland
3,649 Views

Yes, this is possible. While you can't use an existing volume as a WFA template, you can use a finder to find the existing volume object. Assuming you named the found volume object volFound, you can get the size from volFound.size_mb, the name from volFound.name, snapshot settings from volFound.snap_sched_options,  etc.

If you'd like to do this for all volume on an array, use a loop in WFA that iterates through all volumes.

Regards

Hendrik

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5 REPLIES 5

hland
3,650 Views

Yes, this is possible. While you can't use an existing volume as a WFA template, you can use a finder to find the existing volume object. Assuming you named the found volume object volFound, you can get the size from volFound.size_mb, the name from volFound.name, snapshot settings from volFound.snap_sched_options,  etc.

If you'd like to do this for all volume on an array, use a loop in WFA that iterates through all volumes.

Regards

Hendrik

skellner
3,649 Views

Hi Hendrik,

how can I use such a loop in wfa for all volumes in an array? I would like to use this to check if a snapmirror relationship exists for all volumes on an array. I didn't find it in the docs.

Regards

Stefan

hill
3,649 Views

Hi Stefan,

We're working on putting getting more documentation / training information available, but in the meantime, here is what I would recommend:

  • to add looping to a workflow row: edit your workflow and right-click on the row where you want looping
  • click on 'Repeat Row'
  • When the pop-up windows appears, click on 'Member in Group'

              

  • Then select a Finder Type, Finder, and applicable variables.  These variables are what you would use in your Find Charts for your commands.

              

              

If you would like to see this in a workflow, I recently posted a c-mode workflow that will remove a vServer and all it's volumes.  While not your use case, it should still prove to be a good example for how to identify all the volumes on a controller and perform various actions.  You can find that workflow example HERE.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

skellner
3,649 Views

Hi Kevin,

thank you very much. That helped.

Best regards

Stefan

SUDHEER_H21
3,649 Views

Well, I din't get my hands on WFA yet. So I might not be able to answer your question exactly. But a small thought. In general, the new volumes what you create inherit many their settings from the root volume settings like the guarantee, nosnap etc. So, plan accordingly by setting the options on the root volume most likely to be used on the system.

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