Prerequisites
Ensure the following conditions exist on the
PowerStore cluster before running import:
- The global storage IP address for the
PowerStore cluster is configured.
- The
PowerStore cluster and its nodes are in a healthy state.
Ensure that the following connections exist:
- For a
Dell Peer Storage (PS) Series or
Dell Storage Center (SC) Series source system, an iSCSI connection between the source system and each associated host system, and a matching iSCSI connection between each associated host system and the
PowerStore cluster.
- For a
Dell PS Series or
Dell SC Series source system, only an iSCSI connection is supported between the source system and the
PowerStore cluster.
- For a
Dell Unity Series or
Dell VNX2 Series source system, a Fibre Channel (FC) or iSCSI connection between the source system and each associated host system, and a matching FC or iSCSI connection between each associated host system and the
PowerStore cluster. Also, all host initiators that are connected to the source system should also be connected to the
PowerStore cluster.
NOTE:These connections to each host system should be of the same type, either all FC or all iSCSI.
- For a
Dell Unity Series or
Dell VNX2 Series source system, a FC or iSCSI connection between the source system and the
PowerStore cluster.
NOTE:Either an iSCSI connections or a FC connection is supported between a
Dell Unity Series or
Dell VNX2 Series source system and the
PowerStore cluster. However, the connection between the
Dell Unity Series or
Dell VNX2 Series source system and the
PowerStore cluster, and the connections between the hosts and the
Dell Unity Series or
Dell VNX2 Series source system and between the hosts and the
PowerStore cluster must be either all over iSCSI or all over FC.
- Importing data from an external source system into
PowerStore with FC connectivity requires that ports 0 and 1 of
PowerStore I/O Module0 are enabled as Dual (as both initiator and target).
NOTE:To view the list of FC import capable ports on a
PowerStore appliance in
PowerStore Manager, select the appliance under
Hardware, and then select
Fibre Channel on the
Ports card.
- For FC connections, it is recommended to configure FC zoning in such a way that
PowerStore can connect to at least to 2 distinct targets on each remote system controller from a
PowerStore node.
.
Ensure the following conditions exist on the hosts before running import:
- The applicable host multipath input/output (MPIO) software and host plugin are installed on each host that accesses the storage to be imported. See
Non-disruptive import of external storage to PowerStore overview.
- For RHEL version 8.x, the current Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) status for enforcing is set to disabled. To determine the SELinux status, do the following on the host:
- Run
getenforce.
NOTE: If it is set to permissive or enforced, disable it in
/etc/selinux/config. Change
SELINUX=enforcing to
SELINUX=disabled.
- Reboot the host. SELinux will be disable persistently.
NOTE: If you do not want to reboot the host, the configuration will clear after reboot
setenforce 0.
It is recommended that the same NTP server is used on the source system, which hosts the source storage resource, and the destination
PowerStore cluster. This configuration should provide the proper time synchronization between the source system and the destination
PowerStore cluster.
Determine the following for the source system:
NOTE:The operation to add either a
Dell Unity Series or a
Dell VNX2 Series remote system may fail if the health of that source system is not OK. Ensure that the health of the remote system is OK before adding it.
NOTE:PowerStore automatically creates the host and its initiator records on the remote system as part of the import operation. However,
PowerStore cannot differentiate whether the initiator records created on a Unity system are created by the user or the import operation. Addition of a Unity system always fails if the
PowerStore initiators already exist in the Unity system. For example, during the delete operation of a Unity remote system, the connections from
PowerStore to Unity are logged out and an attempt is made to remove the host/initiator that was automatically created. Since Unity is dual mode, the connection from
PowerStore to Unity is logged out, but the connection from Unity to
PowerStore is not logged out. Unity does not log out the connection to
PowerStore. Only those
PowerStore initiators used for import must be manually removed from the FC zone by doing the following:
- Temporarily remove the
PowerStore appliance from the FC zone.
- Remove the initiator on the Unity side.
- Add
PowerStore back into the FC zone.
- Add the Unity remote system to
PowerStore.
Determine the following for the hosts connected to the
PowerStore cluster:
Determine the schedule of the import:
- Immediately or set a time and date
- Whether to automatically cutover to the destination after import
Determine which protection policy to assign to the import session.