Data migration from Gen1 IBM XIV to IBM Flash 900

using SAN Volume Controller DH8 with

Compression.
23/02/YYYY

Sabarish Rengaraju
IBM Storage data migration
sabarish.rengaraju@tcs.com
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 Table of Content

1. Objective ................................................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Data migration approach .......................................................................................................................................... 5
3. Image mode volumes and data migration ............................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Migrating data to an image mode virtual disk using the CLI. ................................................................................. 6
4. SVC level volume copy migration to Flash storage ...................................................................................................... 6

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1. Objective

The objective of this migration project is to migrate the data from IBM XIV storage Device to IBM Flash 900 and
SAN Volume Controller.
As part of this migration project, we have upgraded their Storage infrastructure from IBM XIV to IBM Flash Storage
900 using the SVC nodes model DH8.
Data migration is the movement of data that is currently in use by an application to a new set of storage devices,
often on a different storage array. Data migrations occur most often when an organization buys new storage. They
also occur to provide more capacity or performance for an application to meet the needs of new applications or to
move information assets between tiers of storage with different performance and cost attributes according to the
needs of the business.
Traditional data migration methods are complicated and disruptive. Applications must typically be shut down for
the duration of the migration. Data is moved from one system to another using backup tapes or software, which
moves the data over a LAN. Regardless of how the data is moved, traditional data migrations cause extensive
downtime, consume significant resources and are prone to error.
The SVC platform performs data migrations without causing application downtime. Migrations can be performed
within and between disk arrays from multiple vendors. Instead of consuming server, backup, or LAN resources to
move the data, SVC appliances are used as the engine which drives data migrations over a high speed SAN. SVC
migrations can be started and monitored from the SVC console or scripted using the SVC CLI. To minimize any
potential performance impact on running applications, the priority/speed of SVC data migrations is user
selectable.

Below are the involved devices which has been migrated as follows

Storage Old Hardware infrastructure Upgraded Hardware infrastructure

IBM SAN Volume controller DH8 4
Frond end Storage Appliance Not Applicable nodes
Backend Storage IBM XIV Gen1 IBM Flash 900

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2. Data migration approach
Achieving the migration with minimal downtime was the primary objective to complete the migration. Performing
the Image mode migration which is a feature of IBM SVC as we had data on XIV which can be virtually mapped to
hosts via SVC as Image mode volumes. This way of migration minimizes the downtime as the hosts can be brought
online post mapping the XIV LUNs from SVC. The actual data migration happens in the back ground without
impacting the hosts.
Following is the high level execution plan
S.No XIV to SVC(Flash) data migration using IBM SVC Image mode migration
1 Configure Storage Appliance SAN Volume Controller model DH8 which has Real time Compression
2 Configure Flash Storage 900
3 Perform inter-cluster zoning for SVC on SAN switches
4 Perform SVC to Storage zoning on SAN switches
5 Configure Raid on and map the LUNs to SVC
6 Create a Flash Storage pool on SVC (From the LUNs mapped from flash to SVC)
7 Perform zoning of SVC with existing storage XIV
8 Configure SVC as a host on XIV
9 Perform zoning of Servers with SVC on SAN switches
10 Create hosts on SVC
11 Map all the existing LUNs servers to host SVC
12 Detect the LUNs from (LUNs which were mapped to on XIV)
As per the best practice rename the newly added disks with the same name as it appear in XIV for all the
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hosts
ALL MANAGED DISKS HAVE TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH A MANAGED DISK GROUP so we CREATE AN MDG
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WITHOUT ANY DISKS AND NAME IT Image_mode_migration
15 Create Image mode vdisks for all the LUN ((LUNs which were mapped to on XIV)
16 Map the respective LUNs to servers to host SVC
Start migration using SVC Volume mirror copy and migrate all the LUNs from migration pool
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Image_mode_migration to Flash Storage pool "Flash_pool"
18 Delete the secondary copy of LUNs post a wait period of 1 week
19 Unmap the LUNs mapped to SVC from servers on XIV
20 Delete the LUNs mapped to servers on XIV after a wait period of 2 business days.

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3. Image mode volumes and data migration

Image mode volumes enable you to import and then migrate existing data that is managed by an external storage
system into the SAN Volume Controller. You can either use command-line interface (CLI) to migrate data from
external storage systems or use the Storage Migration wizard in the management GUI. The Storage Migration
wizard simplifies the process by creating the image mode volume of the migrated data, host objects, host
mappings, and moving that volume to a storage pool to be managed by the system.

3.1 Migrating data to an image mode virtual disk using the CLI.

You can use the command-line interface (CLI) to migrate data to an image mode virtual disk (VDisk).
Create an empty Mdisk group with the extent size of 1024 MB
Svctask mkmdiskgrp name MigratrionPool_1024 ext 1024
Create an image moge vdisk with data
Svctask mkvdisk name <VdiskName> -ioqgrp io_grp1 mdiskgrp MigratioPool_1024 vtype image -mdisk
<mdisk detected as data disk> -syncrate 80
Map the vdisk to a host
Svctask mkvdiskhostmap host Snotra <Lun name>.

4. SVC level volume copy migration to Flash storage

Login to SVC
Take list of volumes mapped to host which has to be migrated to the flash pool.
Run the below command from cli to check the vdisk copy sync progress
Lsvdisksyncprogress
At any point in time there should only be 2 vdisk copy running.
Once the current vdisks copy progress completes, proceed with the next lun from the above table.
Navigate to left highlighted panel Host and click on volumes by host

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 Select a volume for which a copy has to be created in the flash pool

- Right click the selected volume

- Select volume copy actions
- Then select add mirror copy, refer below screen-shot

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- Select the option compressed from the next available window as shown below and
then select FlashPool and click on Add copy

- The vdiskcopy mirror will start in the back ground and you will be able to see two
copies of LUNs as Copy 0 and Copy 1 under the LUN u just initiated volume copy
- The Primary LUN will be marked with an asterisk * in the migrationpool_1024

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 Right click the volume you just initiated volume copy and select properties

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- Click on edit and modify sync rate to 100 and save as shown below.

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 Run to command from cli to check the vdisk copy sync progress Lsvdisksyncprogress
Once the copy completes, Change the flash copy LUN as Primary as shown below
in to SVC

- Right click flash copy LUN and select make primary

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Thank You

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