Dell PowerStore Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide

Agentless import workflow

As part of the import process, the source volume or LUN, or consistency group or storage group is pre-validated whether it is ready to be imported. An import session is not allowed when either a non-disruptive upgrade or a network reconfiguration is in progress.

The following steps show the manual import workflow in PowerStore Manager:

1. If the host or hosts do not appear in PowerStore Manager, add the necessary information to discover and access the hosts.
2. If the remote (source) system does not appear in PowerStore Manager, add the necessary information to discover and access the source system.
   NOTE: Be aware of the following information related to the specific type of source system:

   • For Dell EqualLogic PS series system – After you attempt to add a PS series system to PowerStore, the initial data connection state will appear as No Targets Discovered. However, you can create the import session and the state will be updated to OK after the import session moves to the In Progress state. This behavior is only specific to a PS series system, and it is expected.
   • For NetApp AFF A-Series system – A data SVM can be added as a remote system in PowerStore. Also, multiple data SVMs from the same NetApp cluster can be added to PowerStore for import.
   • For Dell PowerMax or VMAX3 system – Symmetrix is the legacy name of the Dell VMAX family and the Symmetrix ID is the unique identifier of the PowerMax or VMAX system. Multiple PowerMax or VMAX3 systems that the same Unisphere manages can be added to PowerStore for import.
     NOTE:If PowerStore discovery of PowerMax as a remote system fails with an internal error (0xE030100B000C), see the Knowledge Base Article 000200002, PowerStore: Discovery of PowerMax as a remote system fails with an Internal Error (0xE030100B000C).
   • For Universal (either a legacy Dell EMC or third-party) storage system – To add the remote system as a Universal type with FC connections, select two FC targets (WWPNs) of the source system. It is advisable to select WWPNs from different nodes of the source system.
3. Select the volumes, or consistency groups, or both, or LUN, or storage group to import.
   NOTE:An XtremIO source volume is assigned a World Wide Name (WWN) when it is mapped to a host. PowerStore discovers only such volumes with a WWN for import. For Universal source systems, you must also name the source volumes that are selected for import.
4. (Optional) Assign selected volumes to a PowerStore Volume Group.
5. Select Map to hosts on PowerStore for agentless import and map the applicable PowerStore Manager host or hosts to the source volumes or LUNs.
   NOTE:(Optional) Volumes within a consistency group can be mapped individually to different hosts.
6. Set the schedule for the import.
7. (Optional) Assign a protection policy for the import sessions.
8. Review the summary of the import configuration information for accuracy and completeness.
9. Submit the import job.
   NOTE:Volumes are created on PowerStore Manager. Access functions are set up for the source system so that data can be copied from the source volume or LUN to the destination volume.
10. After the destination volumes reach the Ready To Enable Destination Volume state, shut down the host application accessing the associated source volume, LUN, consistency group, or storage group.
11. Select and enable each destination volume that is in the Ready To Enable Destination Volume state. The destination volumes have to be enabled individually for each member volume of a volume group import session.
    NOTE:(For a PowerMax to PowerStore import only) If multiple LUNs exist in the storage group being imported, all the LUNs in the storage group are unmapped immediately when you select Enable Destination Volume and select the option to unmap the volumes from the host for import. The source volumes are not visible to the host, and the host cannot access the source volumes. However, this action does not affect the relationship between the source volumes and their existing snapshots and clones.
    NOTE:It is recommended to remove the host mapping of the source volume during the enable destination volume process. If the host mappings from the source volume in the source system are not selected to be removed by the orchestrator, remove them manually. If the host mappings of the source volume are not removed either by the orchestrator or manually, those mappings remain even after cutover of the import session. Also, if import fails or is cancelled, these host mappings must be restored to the source volume or volumes manually. They are not restored automatically.
    NOTE:For a VMAX3 import, the recommended unmap volumes option deletes the LUN masking views of a volume, which is defined at the storage group level, so hosts cannot access data in the volume through the VMAX3 system. VMAX3 systems provide LUN masking views at the storage group level since the storage group is a container for all volumes that are used by a single application. When the recommended unmap volumes option is selected, the LUN masking view of the storage group is deleted. As all volumes from a single storage group are imported together and the application using these volumes is stopped until all the volumes are reconfigured, deleting the LUN masking view should not affect the migration process. However, if the import is cancelled and the storage group is rediscovered for a retry of the import, the storage group must be remapped to the hosts.
    The import session changes to the Ready to start copy state when the enable destination volume action completes.
12. When the import session changes to the Ready to start copy state, rescan the volumes at the host. The destination volumes should be visible to the host after the rescan and destination volumes can be mounted immediately.
13. Ensure that the host application has been reconfigured to access the applicable destination (PowerStore) volumes, then bring up the host application.
14. Select Start Copy to start copying the source volume data to the destination volume. Start copy must be selected individually for each member volume of a volume group in an import session.

You can cut over an import after the copy operation is complete.

The states of a single volume import and the manual operations that are allowed for those states are as follows:

• Queued state – Cancel operation
• Scheduled state – Cancel operation
• Ready To Enable Destination Volume – Enable destination volume and Cancel operations
• Ready-to-Start-Copy – Start copy and Cancel operations
• Copy-In-Progress state – Cancel and Pause operations
• Paused state – Cancel and Resume operations
• Ready-For-Cutover state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Cancel-Required – Cancel operation (the agentless import has failed during the copy operation)
• Cleanup-Required state – Clean up operation
• Import-Completed state – No manual operations available

The states of a consistency group import and the manual operations that are allowed for those states are as follows:

• Queued state – Cancel operation
• Scheduled state – Cancel operation
• In-Progress state – Cancel operation
  NOTE:Once the first volume of a CG is picked up for import, the CG state changes to In-Progress. The CG remains in that state until it reaches Ready-For-Cutover.
• Ready-For-Cutover state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Cleanup-Required state – Cleanup operation
• Cleanup-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Cancel-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Cancel-failed – Cancel operation
• Cancel-Required – Cancel operation (the agentless import has failed during the copy operation)
• Cutover-In-Progress state – No manual operations available
• Import-Cutover-Incomplete state – Cancel and Cutover operations
• Import-Completed-With-Errors – No manual operations available
• Import-Completed – No manual operations available
• Failed – Cancel operation

When a paused import session is resumed, the following occurs:

• For volumes, the import session state changes to Copy-In-Progress. For consistency groups, the state changes to In-Progress.
• The copy restarts from the last copied range.