Seeking for procedures to replace both SAN switches

Hi emcmagic

You need the below information:

-  What multi-path software (like PowerPath..), version.  This is the key for path management to affect interruption.

-  MDS 9xxx model, NX-OS version

-  Need licenses for all active ports

Then you can ask local service team to create replacement procedure document with:

I generated a document based on assumed MDS 9148, 5.01a.

Please feel free to contact us for any further question!

Simon

Hello Simon,

Would you please attach your document? It seems neglected.

We are using pwoerpath.

It is in primary investigating process, we are not so clear on what model of switches we are going to upgrade to. So, procedures for any model or version will help me out. I have issues to execute that software.

Looking forward your doc or messages further.

Thanks a lot

Hi, as the document is EMC confidential, so please tell me your EMC email address if you are EMC employee, or you can contact one of EMC pre-sales engineer, then I can send the document by email.

Thanks  & best regards!

Simon Zhao

Solutions Marketing & Enablement for Oracle

EMC² | Global Solutions Marketing

Mobile: (86) 137-6168-2306

Office: (86 21) 6094-6763

Email: simon.zhao@emc.com

Web: Everything Oracle @ EMC

Or cold somebody please send me a shares public procedure?

I see, could you then send me some non-confidential document on this question?

Dynamox, I agree with you. ISL the switches together or export/import the active zoneset to the new switch.  I wonder if they have a principle/subordinate setup and the MDS' would be the primary switches.  I've done this several times with Cisco and Brocade but sounds like you've got a handle on it.

One thing they really need to make sure is that they have dual paths the whole way.  I'd perform a SAN health check before anything else.

Once you have answered dynamox's question, I also have some procedures that I can provide at a high level, but they are per OS, MPIO software, etc so those types of details are required prior to being able to come up with a procedure since it will affect what has to be done on the OS or multipathing software during each path outage (assuming you are migrating SAN ports one at a time after you ISL your new Cisco's to the fabric). The other alternative is to create a parallel set of new fabrics with the new switches if you are unable to ISL for any reason (code, limitations, etc) - but that would require you having to group hosts and storage ports together and that is much more complex as dynamox mentions above.

i dont' have any procedures written down but i can answer your questions and give you general guidelines. So you are replacing old MDS switches with new MDS switches ? If yes, are you going to ISL them together to make the transition easier or this will be a cold cut-over ? What kind of operating systems/applications ?

Hey, Simon. It’s me, Jeff. This is my personal email. I switched to this when I left EMC in March.

echolaughmk,

If you could please send me the one you have that would be very helpful, since I can figure out information from it to apply into our case here.

Honestly, I am not sure of what is the model of the old switch is, we are in the primary checking stage. The new model would be MDS 9500, with current version of OS.

ISL together sounds nice, but we may be not able to, since I am worried that the old one may not be working with the new one. So, we might have to use cold cut-over. We have VMware and MS exchange applications.

Thanks!

it's important that you gather those details because that might dictate how you proceed with your migration. One extreme is a complete outage, another is an online migration by taking advantage of host multipathing (as guys alluded to above).  Let's wait for you to finish doing your homework

Hi, the below procedures are for your reference only

Cisco Switch Replacement Procedure

1: Preparation and data collection on original switch

switch# copy running-config startup-config

switch# copy startup-config tftp://server-IP-address/config-filename & show tech-support detail

switch# show flogi database

2: Obtain license information

switch# show license host-id

switch# show license

3: Move components from old switch to new switch

4: Configure new switch

1. [   ]    Attach power cable connections and turn power.
2. [   ]    Log on to the new switch using the console connection and clear the switch configuration by using the write erase command. Do not run the setup script if prompted.
3. [   ]    Reload the switch using the reload command.
4. [   ]    The switch will come up in factory default mode and prompt for basic system configuration. Cancel the script with CTRL-Z, as all the configuration options are contained in the old switch’s startup configuration. Manually configure the IP address.

Example:

switch2# config terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

switch2(config)# int mgmt 0

switch2(config-if)# ip address ipadress subnet

switch2(config-if)# no shut

1. [   ]    Ensure that the new switch is running the same firmware version as the old switch.  If not, upgrade or downgrade to match. 
2. [   ]    Manually create each VSAN using the data collected from step 6. [   ], and assign domain ID(s) using the data from step 7. [   ].

1. Manually configure VSAN.

Example:

switch2#configure terminal

switch2(config)#vsan database

switch2 (config-vsan-db)# vsan

switch2 (config-vsan-db)#exit

At this time the VSAN will be created with a random domain-id.

1. Manually assign each domain ID

Example:

switch2#configure terminal

switch2(config)# fcdomain domain static vsan

switch2 (config-vsan-db)#exit

1. Restart fcdomain with the fcdomain restart command.
2. [   ]    Copy the configuration backup file that you saved in step 3. [   ].
3. [   ]    Edit the copy to remove SNMP specific user account, because the encrypted passwords are tied to the old switch.  They are grouped together and begin with snmp-server user.

Example:

snmp-server user admin network-admin auth md5 0x46694cac2585d39d3bc00c8a4c7d48a6 localizedkey

snmp-server user guestadmin network-admin auth md5 0xcae40d254218747bc57ee1df348 26b51 localizedkey

1. [   ]    If interface (fcX/Y) based zoning was done, edit the configuration copy to replace the old switch wwn in the zone members with the new switch wwn.

Example:

zone name Z_1 vsan 9

member interface fc1/9 swwn 20:00:00:0d:ec:02:1d:40

1. [   ]    If IVR was configured, edit the configuration copy to replace the old switch wwn with the new switch wwn.
2. If the IVR topology is configured for auto and is distributed via CFS, then this step does not need to be done.

Example:

ivr vsan-topology database

autonomous-fabric-id 1 switch-wwn 20:00:00:0d:ec:02:1d:40 vsan-ranges 500,3002

autonomous-fabric-id 1 switch-wwn 20:00:00:0c:85:e9:d2:c0 vsan-ranges 500,3000

1. If there are multiple IVR enabled switches in the fabric, the old switch wwn should be removed from all of the IVR topologies in the fabric and replaced with the new wwn. This step should be done prior to bringing the new switch online. These modifications can be done on the other switches using either the CLI or Fabric Manager.
2. [   ]    Some other editing may need to be performed on the configuration copy based on the previous switch configuration:

1. Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP) switch to switch authentication. FC-SP uses DHCHAP authentication protocol that support MD5 (default) or SHA-1 hash algorithm, and requires a shared secret password generated using the switch WNN.

Example:

switch(config)# fcsp dhchap devicename password 7 asdflkjh

1. Port-security or FICON binding where switch wwn based definitions are used.

Example:

switch(config-port-security)# swwn 20:01:33:11:00:2a:4a:66 interface port-channel 5

switch(config-fabric-binding)# swwn 21:00:05:30:23:11:11:11 domain 102

1. Fabric World Wide Name (fWWN) will change and may impact fWWN zoning.

Example:

switch(config-fcalias)# member fwwn 10:01:10:01:10:ab:cd:ef

1. Port security where fWWN based definitions are used. For the following example, the specified port WWN is configured to only log in through the specified fWWN.

Example:

switch(config-port-security)# pwwn 20:11:00:33:11:00:2a:4a fwwn 20:81:00:44:22:00:4a:9e

1. [   ]    Save the configuration file and exit your editor.
2. [   ]    Copy the modified configuration file to the new switch’s running configuration. As the file is copied, it is executed and the configuration is applied. The commands being applied are displayed in single quotes. Any errors resulting from the commands are displayed immediately after the command that caused it. When finished, the prompt changes to reflect the new switch name.

Example

switch2# copy tftp://server IP address/config_file_name  running-config

1. [   ]    Copy the new running configuration to the startup configuration using the copy run start command.
2. [   ]    Connect the management Ethernet cable to the management port and verify connectivity with Telnet or SSH.
3. [   ]    Log into Device Manager or Fabric Manager to test SNMP user access. If you cannot login, recreate SNMP user accounts.
4. [   ]    If the switch is accessed with SSH, remove the MDS switch entry from any host’s known_hosts file because the switch public key has changed.
5. [   ]    Install any required license keys that would have been re-homed in step 10. [   ].
6. [   ]    Move the fibre cables to the new switch using the flogi database data that you collected in step 5. [   ], and the cable order and locations from step 11. [   ].
7. [   ]    Verify that all devices have logged in and all features are running is as they are supposed to be and save the running configuration to the startup configuration with the copy run start command.
8. [   ]    Reload the switch with the reload command to verify that it boots correctly with the configuration.

Hi Jeff, great to see you here again!

step 8, why would you reboot the switch that you just moved your production devices to. Should it be done before you move systems to it ?