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Upgrade Dell PowerFlex to v3.6.x

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Manual migration of an RDM-based PowerFlex system to DirectPath-based

On PowerEdge servers, use this procedure to manually migrate a PowerFlex system from RDM-based device management to DirectPath-based (passthrough) device management. IO is not interrupted when following the instructions provided.

Prerequisites

  • The current PowerFlex system must be v2.6.x or later with RDM-based device management. If you are migrating systems that are earlier than v2.0.1.4, you must install the RAID controller tools before adding devices, as described in "Install RAID controller tools."
  • You need to be able to access the vCenter.
  • You need to be able to access the PowerFlex management clients.
  • It is recommended to schedule this procedure during a maintenance window.

About this task

This manual procedure must be performed on every SDS node in the system. First, you enable the passthrough mode on the ESX node, then add PCI devices to the Storage VM (SVM) on that server. Then, repeat this procedure for the next SDS node.

Steps

  1. Detach RDM devices from the SVM:
    1. Use the PowerFlex GUI or CLI to select any SDS in the system.
    2. Enter the SDS into maintenance mode.
    3. From the vCenter, power-off the SVM.
    4. From the vCenter, edit the SVM and remove all the attached RDM disk devices.
      Use the remove - not the remove and delete - option.
  2. Enable passthrough on the ESX node:
    1. From the vCenter Configuration > Advanced settings view, select Enable passthrough.
    2. Select the controller (RAID, SAS, or HBA) that is managing the disks used by PowerFlex.
  3. Configure the BIOS of the ESX node for passthrough mode:
    1. In the vCenter Host view, enter the node into maintenance mode.
    2. Once maintenance mode has started, reboot the node.
    The selected ESX node is configured for DirectPath/passthrough mode.
  4. Add PCI devices to the SVM:
    1. After the ESX node reboot completes, remove the node from maintenance mode.
    2. Edit the SVM, and add PCI devices.
    3. Power on the SVM.
      Added PCI devices are now displayed in the SVM.
    4. From PowerFlex, remove the SDS from maintenance mode.
    5. Wait for rebuild and rebalance activities to complete.
  5. After all rebuild and rebalance activities are finished on one SDS, repeat this entire procedure on every SDS, one-at-a-time.

Next steps

If you are migrating systems that are earlier than v2.0.1.4, you must install the RAID controller tools before adding devices, as described in "Install RAID controller tools."

You can now use the PowerFlex management clients to add more devices to your SDSs.

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