Cisco UCS migration from DAS to Brocade

[joeharb]

We are going to migrate from a direct attached storage to connecting to our Brocade Fabric switches.  I understand that this is disruptive and both Fabrics will go down at the same time when switched to End-Host Mode.

This was discussed in the following post:  

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12302691/nondisruptive-change-fc-switching-mode-fc-end-host-mode

I have found very little information on the actual process/best practices of the migration..I did find the following but this was from what I can tell only conceptual, not sure if the steps listed were actually followed/correct.

http://realworlducs.com/cisco-ucs-direct-attached-storage-migration-to-san-fabric-attached/

I would expect that others have completed this migration and would like to know more about the steps that were performed.  

Thanks,

Joe

[Walter Dey]

Hi Joe

I have done this several times for a large installation !

We did a proof of concept with a lab environment, with a detailed step by step scenario / script.

Depending of the size of the configuration, your maintenance window might be at least one day !

Your statement is correct, regarding FC switch mode to FC EHM !

On the other hand, you have to change / setup zoning completely new ! it moves from Fabric Interconnect to Brocade.

If you boot from SAN, boot policy has to be changed as well !

Good luck

Walter.

PS. I have a detailed document (in German) which details everything !

Here a summary:

Downloading DAS Zonig configuration from each FI (Fabric A and B)

a. Connect nx-os
b. Sho running configuration

Change FC switch mode to FC EHM

Create 2 new VSAN’s on UCS FI’s for connecting Brocade; eg. VSAN 10 for FI-A, and 20 for FI-B; SAN Cloud; no Zoning selected

UCS FC Ports connecting Brocade put in proper VSAN (10 resp. 20). Check flogi on Brocade

Each vhba of all Service Profiles resp. Templates modified to new VSAN's (10 resp. 20)

Check FC Connectivity: flogi from UCS vhba’s Service Profiles on Brocade

Delete Storage Connection Policies (only used for Storage Direct Connect)

Create zoning on Brocade

Change boot policy (boot from SAN)

Check, check, check ..............................................................

[joeharb]

Thanks so much for the information...I really wish I knew how to read German :).  We do boot from SAN so I expected that would need to change.  I am not a Storage experts, another group within our company maintains that aspect.  Per our conversations, I will change my boot policy to point to the vplex WWWN and they will map the "backside" of the vplex to the existing WWWN's of the CX4 for access to the current storage.  After we are up and running they will move the storage off the existing SAN to the new SAN and I assume change the mapping once the migration is completed.  From your points it seems to be fairly straight forward, main thing is to make sure Zoning is disabled on the Fabrics and verify that the brocade see's the flogi's, then change the boot policy to reflect the new target.

Does that seem correct?

Thanks again for the information, I am actually surprised there is as little information on this migration available.

Joe

[Walter Dey]

Hi Joe !

Yes you need to change the boot policy !

And of course the whole zoning on Brocade has to be done from scratch (this was done automatically with UCSC and DAS); therefore extract the zoning from DAS configuration; your vbha Initiator pwwn, and target pwwn stay the same.