Using EMC VPlex Batch Migration

Nov 9, 2020 Posted by newlife007 on Nov 9, 2020 in EMC, Storage | 0 comments

Introduction

In a recent project I was tasked to bring a new EMC PowerMAX 2000 system and migrate from an EMC VMAX3 400K storage array. This was a new thing for me since my experience with VPlex was limited to only adding and create vvols (Virtual Volumes) from different arrays and presenting to the target hosts being either Windows, AIX, Linux (RHEL) and ESXi. The task at hand is to migrate the terabytes of data non-disruptively. Thanks fully using batch-migrate commands this is possible but not without a lot of preparation and back end work. If you have visited my site you know I post on alot of different topics but my day job is a Storage Engineer and 20+ plus years as a Server administrator for Windows and Linux systems. Figured it was time to start writing about some of the stuff I do day to day and not the fun stuff for a change.

The Process

So let’s get to the main steps we need. First step is to zone the the new array to the Vplex, you need to have a minimum of 8 ports zoned. This should be four ports per SAN switch assuming you have a left and right side for you SAN switch environment.

Zone minimum 8 paths to array to Vplex or 4 paths per side.

Create LUNs for VPlex migration

symaccess -sid XXXX create -name &lt;SG&gt; -type storage -devs

1	symaccess -sid XXXX create -name <SG> -type storage -devs

Add as child SG to Vplex SG

symsg -sid XXXX -sg &lt;parent SG&gt; add sg &lt;Child SG&gt;

1	symsg -sid XXXX -sg <parent SG> add sg <Child SG>

Vplex Migration plan

Create batch plan

cd /clusters/cluster-1/devices<br clear="none" />batch-migrate create-plan hqttc046_migrate.txt --sources device_Symm0776_0B05-hqttc046_1 --targets device_Symm1084_0411-hqttc046_1

1	cd /clusters/cluster-1/devices<br clear="none" />batch-migrate create-plan hqttc046_migrate.txt --sources device_Symm0776_0B05-hqttc046_1 --targets device_Symm1084_0411-hqttc046_1

Edit file in /var/log/VPlex/cli make sure they match. Use logging in putty for the connection to be able to edit the file.

Verify the plan is good and no errors.

batch-migrate check-plan hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	batch-migrate check-plan hqttc046_migrate.txt

Start migration

batch-migrate start hqttc046_migrate.txt -s 2M --paused --force

1	batch-migrate start hqttc046_migrate.txt -s 2M --paused --force

Check progress

batch-migrate summary hqttc046_migrate.txt --verbose

1	batch-migrate summary hqttc046_migrate.txt --verbose

Once the migration is 100% you will need to commit the changes

<br clear="none" />batch-migrate commit hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	<br clear="none" />batch-migrate commit hqttc046_migrate.txt

Next step is to cleanup the migration. This step will perform a teardown of the migrated devices and remove them from the Storage View.

<br clear="none" />batch-migrate clean hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	<br clear="none" />batch-migrate clean hqttc046_migrate.txt

Now we can remove the Migration job.

batch-migrate remove hqttc046_migrate.txt<br clear="none" /><br clear="none" />

1	batch-migrate remove hqttc046_migrate.txt<br clear="none" /><br clear="none" />

Delete the batch-migrate file.

rm /var/log/VPlex/cli/hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	rm /var/log/VPlex/cli/hqttc046_migrate.txt

Additional Migration Commands

Pause Job if needed

batch-migrate pause --file hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	batch-migrate pause --file hqttc046_migrate.txt

Resume Job

batch-migrate resume --file hqttc046_migrate.txt

1	batch-migrate resume --file hqttc046_migrate.txt

Change Transfer speed, best performance at 2M

rebuild set-transfer-size --devices /clusters/cluster-1/devices/MIGRATE_BR0_2   --limit 1M

1	rebuild set-transfer-size --devices /clusters/cluster-1/devices/MIGRATE_BR0_2 --limit 1M

Some handy additional cleanup commands

dm migration cancel -f -m BRX_*<br clear="none" />dm migration remove -f -m BRX_*

1	dm migration cancel -f -m BRX_<br clear="none" />dm migration remove -f -m BRX_

Cleanup

At this point you are ready to remove the migrated devices and reclaim the storage. Here area a few commands for the VMAX array to accomplish this task.

Remove from Storage group

symaccess -sid XXXX remove -name &lt;SG&gt;-type storage -devs

1	symaccess -sid XXXX remove -name <SG>-type storage -devs

Remove empty SG from parent

symsg -sid XXXX -sg &lt;parent SG&gt; &lt;SG&gt;

1	symsg -sid XXXX -sg <parent SG> <SG>

Reclaim devices

Make sure to login to the Vplex and run a rediscover array to remove the migrated storage.