Move all devices to new VSAN

[atthomasnjm]

I inherited a SAN environment where both fabric A and B are using VSAN 1 for everything, and this may cause an issue with our path to merging the fabrics into a new FCoE environment. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in moving everything over to a new VSAN, I was thinking of doing the follwoing on each fabric individually:

• Create new VSAN
  
• Import zone information from VSAN 1 and enable it under the new VSAN
  
• Move all port interfaces into the new VSAN in one swoop
  

The hosts can take a path outage, as they are running failover software, but I'm thinking the outage may be brief, if any at all, as all the hosts may have to re-login to the storage once moved.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Vu Phan]

That's a good plan.  It should work

[atthomasnjm]

So I guess my last question is, I see in DCNM there is an option to copy the current zone to another VSAN.  Will doing this copy the zone and then set any fcaliases to the new VSAN?  We do plan on moving away from fcalias, but for now to keep things simple, keep them for now.

[Ricardo Septien]

Hello

your VSAN migration plan sounds good but just check the Domain-ID values

some servers like HP-UX create the  device-link path /dev/xxx/x.x.x.x based on the domain-id

If you have Solaris, windows, vmware etc... you are set if you have any HPUX or AIX iinvolved you need to keep in mind the Domain ID value as the same from the original VSAN.

Also remember to set the domain-ID static

I hope this helps.

[Steven.langdale_2]

Hello

The FCID's WILL change.  Different VSAN = different domain ID (unless you want to start changing them around too*), and the domain ID is part of the FCID.

Most hosts should be fine with that, the only 2 I know of that may not be are HP-UX (as Ricardo has mentioned), and AIX where dynamic tracking is not enabled.  Either way, both are easy fixes, delete and re-add disks then re-add to whatever multipathing SW you are using.

As I'm sure you know, the GOLDEN rule with any SAN migration (which this is), is to check EVERY host half way through to be sure it's paths are back before you do the 2nd half.

Good luck!

Thanks, Steven

* Which will also cause disruption

[atthomasnjm]

We are an all Windows shop, so at least that worry is not there.  I'm wondering what is the best way to bring in the zones from the current VSAN, should I export it, edit the file so the fcaliases match the new VSAN, or will a copy to the new VSAN change everything over automatically.