Migration from VMAX 40k to PMAX 8000 and 8500

Just completed the storage migration from VMAX to PMAX 8000 and 8500 before Christmas.  NDM is not an option because NDM no longer supports Solaris.  Besides, there are a number of busy databases running in both test and production.  Before cutover to PMAX occurs, the SRDF directors between VMAX and PMAX will be the bottleneck.  Also, we do not have any extra director left to config for SRDF traffic.  

Our plan is to use Storage vMotion for all VMDK.  The RDMs are for SQL DB running in ESX.  For the RDM, we use SRDF/S to start replication to PMAX in the background.  Because there is no SRDF supported from VMAX to PMAX 8500, all luns migration using SRDF will be replicated to PMAX 8000.  Then, app owner will pick a downtime to shutdown the app and the servers.  We will stop the sync after confirming no outstanding tracks.  Remove the VMAX luns from the initiator group then add the PMAX luns.    

For Solaris, if it is Oracle DB, same size or larger luns will be added to Oracle.  Then DBA will complete the balancing and drop the old VMAX luns.  For the boot luns and luns from other app, some of our Unix admin will use SRDF/S to migrate them to PMAX 8000.  Some decide to do host base migration.  For host base migration, we just provide a lun of same size or larger to the Unix admin from PMAX 8500.  

Below summarizes the general steps for the storage migration from VMAX to PMAX 8000 using SRDF/S.  Pls check your environment and test to see if additional steps are required.  If Volume Manager is used, migration should be complete with Volume Manager rather than SRDF.  

1) Change the source luns attribute in VMAX to dyn_rdf.  
2) setup SRDF/S pair from VMAX to PowerMax 8000 (put the target lun in temp target_SG)
3) during downtime, shutdown the apps and servers  
4) Confirm no outstanding tracks.  
5)     Perform SRDF split.  
6) Remove source lun from VMAX storage group   
7) Add the target luns to SG in PowerMax and remove from temp target_SG.
8) Host team completes lun mapping 
9) Delete SRDF pair with force option 
10)  Unset GCM bit if required  (symdev -sid xxx -devs xxx unset -gcm)
11)  Host team can perform rescan if setp 10 is required.  (They should see about 1MB more space for luns in step 10)  

12)  Power up the servers to validate

That way, they can always go back to the VMAX luns if backout is required.  

Note: in the past, if the source / target luns are not mapped to FE ports, sometimes will see some strange results on some of the SRDF operation.  So, I create a temp target_SG with no HBA in the IG for the target_SG's masking view.  

How long to quick format a lun in Windows

 I always get that question for the SQL or file cluster RDM disks.  Windows admin and DBA thought the format hung but it indeed took long time to quick format a lun.  Last week, Windows admin complaint it took approx an hour to quick format a 7TB lun in EMC PMAX for a Windows 2016 / 2019 VM.  

I just completed a test this morning.  For a physical Windows 2016 server, it took about 10-15 min approx to quick format a Windows 1 TB lun in PMAX.  Do some research in the internet.  The result provided by partitionwizard.com suggests it indeed takes long time to format a big lun (see below also).  

• How Long Does It Take to Format a 1TB Hard Drive: Performing a Quick Format on a 1TB hard drive takes about 20 minutes. If you select the Full Format, it could take you up to 1 hour.
• How Long Does It Take to Format a 2TB Hard Drive: Again, we perform a Quick Format on a 2TB hard drive, it can be done in about 30 minutes. However, a Full Format can take up to 3 hours. If this hard drive stores a chunk of data, it could take you a half day.
• How Long Does It Take to Format a 4TB Hard Drive: To a certain degree, 4TB is a large hard disk that will take quite a long time to format. So, you’d better select a Quick Format if you want to save time. This is because fully formatting a 4TB hard drive can take you a whole day and even more

This give you an idea even quick format in Windows will still take some time.  

Our Wintel team will test the format time following EMC article 000062689 on the PMAX.

The cause is "trim and unmap" feature is on.  So, just temp turn it off before formatting new lun and enable it back once done.  

On the windows host, disable the SCSI TRIM and Unmap feature for the duration of the format. Use fsutil command from the command line

1) To verify the current setting, using a Windows CMD window on the Host, run:   

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

DisableDeleteNotify=0 -indicates the 'Trim and Unmap' feature is on (enabled)

DisableDeleteNotify=1 -indicates the 'Trim and Unmap' feature is off (disabled)

2) To disable, issue the command:   

fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 1

3) Once formatting is complete, re-enable the feature using command:   

fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0

It may impact Linux as well.  See thread mkfs is extremely slow. 

To run mkfs without trim, use the -K option on XFS and -E nodiscard on ext4

XFS

mkfs.xfs -K /dev/sdx 

EXT4

mkfs.ext4 -E nodiscard 

Warning: Only use -K or -E on new volumes with no existing data.

Using the -K or -E options on drives with existing data, will cause the space to be wasted until the data is overwritten.

  

PowerMax: embedded Unisphere with Solution Enabler

Just finish setup of PowerMax and decide to use the embedded Unisphere instead of installing one.  Besides, you can use it as SE server too.  You will need to complete the steps below.  Same info can be found in "Dell EMC PowerMax and VMAX All Flash: Embedded Management"  or 

1) Add the Solution Enabler client IP and user to the Nethost settings (don't remove the default ones)

2) Have support to check the certificate matching the FQDN of the management port if there is issue

3) Make sure SYMAPI server daemon is running.  If it is not running, engage support to start the daemon.  Unfortunately, there are restriction on what you can do on the embedded Unisphere.  

4) Make sure Solutions Enabler Base Configuration > Use Access ID, set this value to ANY.  Again, you need support to dial in to make the change.

5) Edit netcfg in SYMAPI directory in the SE Client.  Add the entry of both management IP and primary IP first.  In the case below, if you manage two PowerMax, you can add the 2nd site to netcfg file.  

SITEAEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.1.1.2 2707 SECURE

SITEAEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.1.1.3 2707 SECURE

SITEBEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.2.1.2 2707 SECURE

SITEBEMGMT Ordered TCPIP FQDN 10.2.1.3 2707 SECURE

If you need to manage only one PowerMax, you can setup the env var.  If you need to manage multiple PowerMax, create a batch file for site A and another one for site B.

set SYMCLI_CONNECT=SITEAEMGMT

set SYMCLI_CONNECT_TYPE=REMOTE

symcli -def

symcfg list