Dell EMC PowerStore Importing External Storage to PowerStore Guide Version 1.x December 2020 Rev.
Notes, cautions, and warnings NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product. CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem. WARNING: A WARNING indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. © 2020 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Contents Additional Resources.....................................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: Introduction................................................................................................................. 7 Importing external storage to PowerStore overview..................................................................................................7 Non-disruptive import of external storage to PowerStore overview............
Agentless import workflow............................................................................................................................................. 30 Cutover workflow for agentless import....................................................................................................................... 32 Cancel workflow for agentless import.........................................................................................................................
Log information.................................................................................................................................................................. 61 Microhttpd status.............................................................................................................................................................. 61 Restart the Web server .................................................................................................................................
Preface As part of an improvement effort, revisions of the software and hardware are periodically released. Some functions that are described in this document are not supported by all versions of the software or hardware currently in use. The product release notes provide the most up-to-date information about product features. Contact your technical support professional if a product does not function properly or does not function as described in this document.
1 Introduction This document describes how to import data from external storage to PowerStore. Only SAN/block imports are included. NAS/ file imports are not included. This chapter contains the following information: Topics: • • Importing external storage to PowerStore overview Import security Importing external storage to PowerStore overview PowerStore provides the abilities of a traditional storage appliance and onboard compute to run embedded workloads.
NOTE: If you are currently using native MPIO and do not have the EQL HIT Kit installed on the hosts, an install of the PowerStore ImportKIT is required on the hosts to support import to PowerStore. If EQL HIT Kit is already installed on the hosts, ensure that the EQL HIT Kit version that is listed in the following table for the given host type is installed.
Table 1. Supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, host protocol, and source system (continued) Host OS Host multipath software ● Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 and or ● SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 3 Linux ● Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Host protocol Source system ● Linux DellEMCPowerStore-ImportPlugin-for-Linux kit (version 1.0) Linux EqualLogic MPIO iSCSI provided through EQL HIT Kit, version 1.7 Dell EqualLogic PS (10.0.
● Pause import – Pause can be performed when the import processing state is Copy-In-Progress. When an import session is paused, only the background copy is stopped. The forwarding of host I/O to the source system continues to be active. ● Resume import – Resume can be performed when the import processing state is Paused.
from the PowerStore cluster. When the import reaches the Ready-For-Cutover state, you can initiate the cutover. The I/O forwarding from the PowerStore cluster to the source system ends when cutover is initiated. Review the following processes to gain an understanding of the import procedure: NOTE: You can also refer to the Importing External Storage to PowerStore video located on www.dell.com/ powerstoredocs. 1. Preconfigure – Set up the network connectivity.
When the source storage volumes are configured with CHAP, data transfer is secured with CHAP support, Discovery CHAP and Authentication CHAP. The PowerStore cluster supports both single as well as mutual CHAP. For more information about CHAP support, refer to CHAP restrictions on page 16.
2 Import requirements and restrictions This chapter contains the following information: Topics: • • • • • • • General requirements for importing data Dell EqualLogic PS Series specific requirements Dell Compellent SC Series specific requirements Dell EMC Unity specific requirements Dell EMC VNX2 Series specific requirements Dell EMC XtremIO XI and X2 specific requirements General import restrictions General requirements for importing data The following requirements apply to PowerStore before running impo
○ ○ ○ ○ 8443 (default) 50443 55443 60443 The predefined host port for VMware is 5989. Dell EqualLogic PS Series specific requirements (For non-disruptive import) See Supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, host protocol, and source system on page 8 for the supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, and host protocol that apply to Dell EqualLogic Peer Storage (PS) Series systems.
Dell EMC XtremIO XI and X2 specific requirements (For agentless import) See Supported source systems and operating environment required for agentless import on page 10 for the supported types of source systems and the version of operating environment required for the agentless import. General import restrictions The following restrictions apply to importing external storage to PowerStore: ● At any given time a maximum of 6 source systems is supported.
○ ○ ○ ○ Snapshot Consistency group migration Creating replication Refreshing volume Such operations should be done before starting import. ● Snapshot restore on a volume under import is not supported. ● Only 512b-sector sized devices are supported from the following systems, 4k-sector devices are not supported from these systems: ○ Dell EqualLogic PS ○ Dell Compellent SC ○ Dell EMC Unity ○ Dell EMC VNX2 ● Both 512b-sector and 4k-sector resources are supported from XtremIO systems.
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ (For non-disruptive import) Change of MPIO policy during import. Changes to the paths (enable or disable) which can impact the import operation. Host cluster configuration changes. Operating system (OS) upgrades. (For agentless import) Only standalone hosts in PowerStore can be selected during the setup of import to map to the destination volume. Host groups are not supported.
● After host reboot, during import of the volume, the mount point in /etc/fstab points to the source device mapper. However, output of the mount or df -h command displays the destination device mapper name. VMware ESXi-based hosts The following restrictions apply during a non-disruptive import involving VMware ESXi-based hosts: ● Import is supported only for those datastores that have a 1:1 mapping with a back-end volume. ● Linux Raw Device Mapping (RDM) configurations are not supported.
3 Host plugin installation (non-disruptive import only) This chapter contains the following information: Topics: • • • • Installing the host plugin for import on a Windows-based host Installing the host plugin for import on a Linux-based host Installing the Dell EqualLogic MEM kit on an ESXi-based host Uninstalling the host plugin for import Installing the host plugin for import on a Windowsbased host See Supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, host protocol, and source system on page
NOTE: It is recommended to use the .EXE version of the installer. To support administrative installations, the .MSI version of the installer is provided. To use the .MSI file, see Pre-requisites for an install using the .MSI file on page 21. Install the host plugin for import on a Windows-based host Prerequisites Verify the following: ● A supported operating system is running on the host. See Supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, host protocol, and source system on page 8.
Upgrade the host plugin for import on a Windows-based host Prerequisites Verify the host is running an applicable version of the Windows operating system. See Supported combinations of host OS, host multipath software, host protocol, and source system on page 8. Also, ensure you know the management IP address and associated port number to use for import. This network configuration information needs to be provided so that the host is added to the PowerStore cluster for import.
NOTE: Installing the DellEMC-PowerStore-Import-Plugin-for-Linux kit does not require a host reboot and it does not impact ongoing I/O operations. Install the host plugin for import on a Linux-based host Prerequisites Verify the following on the host: ● Open-iscsi (iscsid) is installed and running. NOTE: This is optional in a fibre channel environment. ● sg_utils package is installed. ● For DellEMC-PowerStore-Import-Plugin-for-Linux kit, multipathd is running.
For example, #./minstall NOTE: By default, the installation runs interactively. To run the installation in the background instead, accept all defaults, and accept the Dell EULA, then enter the following command after downloading the host plugin package to the host and installing the certificate key: # ./mnt/minstall --noninteractive --accepted-EULA --fcprotocol (or -iscsiprotocol) --adapter= where ip_address = subnet IP address for MPIO.
5. Install the host plugin. #./install NOTE: By default, the installation runs interactively. To run the installation in the background instead, refer to the latest version of the Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tools for Linux Installation and User's Guide.
For example, #esxcli software vib install -–depot /var/tmp/dell-eql-mem-esx6-.zip The following message appears: Operation finished successfully. Reboot Required: true VIBs Installed: DellEMC_bootbank_dellemc-import-hostagent-provider_1.0-14112019.110359, DellEMC_bootbank_dellemc-import-satp_1.0-14112019.110359 VIBs Removed: VIBs Skipped: 3. Stop hostd. For example, #/etc/init.d/hostd stop Terminating watchdog process with PID 67143 hostd stopped. 4. Start hostd. For example, #/etc/init.
Steps 1. Download the latest version of the Dell EqualLogic MEM kit and associated installation guide from the Dell EqualLogic support site https://eqlsupport.dell.com. After login, the kit and its associated installation guide can be found under downloads for VMware Integration. 2. Run the setup.pl script command on VMA. The script prompts to install the bundle, then it prompts to enable import. The command uses the following format: ./setup.
For example: #/etc/init.d/hostd stop Terminating watchdog process with PID 67143 hostd stopped. b. Start hostd. For example: #/etc/init.d/hostd start hostd started. c. Add import command rules. For example: #esxcli import equalRule add 3. Reboot the system. NOTE: The system must be rebooted before the Dell EqualLogic Multipathing Extension Module with import becomes active.
4 Import workflows This chapter contains the following information: Topics: • • • • • • Non-disruptive import workflow Cutover workflow for non-disruptive import Cancel workflow for non-disruptive import Agentless import workflow Cutover workflow for agentless import Cancel workflow for agentless import Non-disruptive import workflow As part of the import process, the source volume or consistency group is pre-validated whether it is ready to be imported.
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.
Cancel workflow for non-disruptive import You can cancel an import session that is in any one of the following states: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Queued Scheduled For volume, Copy-in-Progress or, for CG, In-Progress Paused Ready-for-Cutover For CG, Import-Cutover-Incomplete For CG, Cancel-Required For CG, Cancel-Failed For CG, Failed The cancel operation sets the state of the import session to CANCELLED and disables access to the destination volume or volume group.
○ For an agentless import, under Compute > Host & Host Groups, select Add Host as needed and specify the relevant information for the hosts. 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 information needed to discover and access the hosts. 2. If the remote (source) system does not appear in PowerStore Manager, add the information needed to discover and access the source system.
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.
Cancel workflow for agentless import For volume, Cancel can be performed only when the import processing state is Queued, Scheduled, Ready To Enable Destination Volume, Ready to Start Copy, Copy-In-Progress, Paused, Ready for Cutover, or Cancel Required. For volume group, Cancel can be performed only when the import processing state is Queued, Scheduled, In-Progress, Paused, Ready for Cutover, ImportCutover-Incomplete, Cancel Required, Cancel-Failed, or Failed.
5 Configuring and managing import This chapter contains the following information: Topics: • • • • • Configure a non-disruptive import Refresh hosts and volumes in a non-disruptive import Manage non-disruptive import sessions Configure an agentless import Manage agentless import sessions Configure a non-disruptive import Prerequisites Ensure the following conditions exist on the PowerStore cluster before running import: ● The global storage IP address for the PowerStore cluster is configured.
NOTE: A volume group is automatically created for each consistency group that is selected for import. They cannot be combined with any other volumes or volume group. ● Which protection policy to use for the volume or volume group, or both.
The Import Session Progress Details slide out for that import session appears. Refresh hosts and volumes in a non-disruptive import About this task When any configuration changes, such as moving a volume between hosts or re-sizing the source system volume capacity, are made to the source or a host system after they have been added to PowerStore, all the affected or involved systems must be manually refreshed using PowerStore Manager. Otherwise, when you run import on that volume, the import will fail.
Action Description NOTE: When all the volumes in a volume group are cancelled successfully, the state of the import session is set to CANCELLED. However, since the status of the volume group is dependent on the final status of the member volumes, if one or more of the member volumes are in a state other than CANCELLED, the status of the volume group is set to Cancel_Failed. You must repeat the cancel operation again until it succeeds and the status for the volume group becomes CANCELLED.
● For either a Dell Compellent Storage Center (SC), Dell EMC VNX2 or Dell EMC Unity Series, or a Dell EMC XtremIO X1 or Dell EMC XtremIO X2 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. NOTE: These connections to each host system should be of the same type, either all FC or all iSCSI.
NOTE: Also, after you attempt to add a Dell EqualLogic PS Series remote system to the PowerStore cluster, the initial data connection state will appear as No Targets Discovered. However, you can proceed to 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 Dell EqualLogic PS Series remote system and it is expected. 5.
17. To view the progress of ongoing import sessions, under Migration, select Imports. 18. To view the progress details of a specific ongoing import session, click the state of that import session. The Import Session Progress Details slide out for that import session appears. Manage agentless import sessions About this task An import session runs as a background job and establishes an end-to-end path for an import operation between a source and destination.
Action Description Pause Select an import session and under Import Actions, click Pause. Use Pause to pause an import session that is in the Copy-In-Progress state. Resume Select an import session and under Import Actions, click Resume. Use Resume to start an import session that is in the Paused state. Cleanup Select an import session and under Import Actions, click Cleanup. Use Cleanup to cleanup an import session that is in the Cleanup-Required state.
A Import-CLI (Linux) IMPORT-CLI is a utility provided for the Linux host administrator to check import specific details such as volumes information, logging information, the installed version of host plugin, systems supported in the current host plugin version, and such.
Status Dumps the current multipathing status. If selected --importable, information for only importable volumes appears. Format importcli status Options Option Description -v|--verbose Show extra information. --importable Display Show information only for importable volumes. Example # importcli status Generating diagnostic data, please wait...
List supported arrays Shows a list of supported arrays in the current host plugin version. Format importcli list_supported_arrays Example # importcli list_supported_arrays Generating diagnostic data, please wait... ============== =========== Array Name VID ============== =========== EQL EQLOGIC Compellent COMPELNT VNX2 DGC UNITY DGC PowerStore DellEMC Server port Shows the server port that is used for communication and provides the option to change it to a different port.
Examples # importcli server_port Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Server port : 8443 # importcli server_port change 55443 Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Changing Server port to : 55443 Log information Shows log level and location for logs. Format importcli log_show Example # importcli log_show Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Log Level: 2 Log Location: /var/log/import Microhttpd status Shows microhttpd status.
Format importcli restart_webServer Example # importcli restart_webServer Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Server port : 8443 Recover device Recovers the specified device which is stuck in a bad state due to an internal error during the import process. NOTE: Contact your service provider before using this CLI command. Format importcli recover_device Example # importcli recover_device 6006016011404000a331505c1bd8223b Generating diagnostic data, please wait...
B Additional tasks related to import for Linuxbased hosts This appendix contains the following information: Topics: • • Regenerate the host HTTPS certificate Setting the Oracle ASM logical block size Regenerate the host HTTPS certificate About this task During installation, the host plug-in generates a self-signed HTTPS certificate and uses it for secure communication. In the following instances this certificate must be regenerated: ● Host IP address has been changed.
About this task Import to PowerStore from a Linux host running Oracle on a Compellent SC appliance is allowed only when the Oracle configuration, ASM or AFD, uses the logical sector size for ASM disk groups. Import of external storage to PowerStore does not support 4096 bytes sector size devices. It supports only 512 bytes sector size devices.
C ImportKit-CLI (Windows) The ImportKit-CLI is a utility provided for the Windows host administrator. The ImportKit-CLI commands list information about devices under import or devices ready for import. The commands also provide the following functionality: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Get list of supported arrays. Get list of volumes / single volume. Get the version of different components. Enable logging level (No Log - 0, Error - 1, Informational - 2, Verbose - 3). Change port or IP address.
List supported arrays Shows all the arrays supported for import. Format Get-ImportKit-ImDsmSupportedArrays Example > Get-ImportKit-ImDsmSupportedArrays VendorID -------EQLOGIC DellEMC DGC DGC ProductID --------100E-00 PowerStore VRAID RAID 5 ProductName ----------EqualLogic PowerStore VNX2 VNX2 Host plugin log information Shows the location and log-level of the host plugin log.
Example > Get-ImportKit-Version HostAgentService HostAgentLibrary HostAgentCLI DSM_MPIODriver ---------------- ---------------- ------------ -------------1.0 1.0 1.0 4.5.0.9859 Restart import kit host plugin service Restarts the Windows host plugin service. NOTE: Do not run this command when an import session is in progress. Format Restart-ImportKit-HAService Example > Restart-ImportKit-HAService ResultingString --------------ImportKITHAService restarted successfully.
VolumeName Size SourceArray ImportStatus : : : : ps-volumes-20 1085276160 Bytes PS NOT IN IMPORT VolumeID VolumeName Size SourceArray ImportStatus : : : : : 64ed2a75a96a0d016bc3f52d3ee8491a ps-volumes-21 1085276160 Bytes PS NOT IN IMPORT > Get-ImportKit-Volumes -VolumeName ps-volumes-21 VolumeID VolumeName Size SourceArray ImportStatus : : : : : 64ed2a75990a1d1738cd35b3ff04f07b ps-volumes-21 1085276160 Bytes PS NOT IN IMPORT Get-ImportKit-Volumes | Format-Table VolumeID -------64ed2a75990a0d1738cd1
Install import kit certificate Installs certificate in the host. Certificate installation in the host is required for the import kit CLI to run. Format Install-ImportKit-Certificate Example > Install-ImportKit-Certificate ResultString -----------Certificate installation was done successfully. Re-generate the import kit certificate During installation, the host plugin generates a self-signed HTTPS certificate and uses it for secure communication.
Options Option Description -IP The specified IP address must be from the list of available adapters. -Port The specified port can be any permissible numeric number (0 - 65536). Examples > Set-ImportKit-WebServerPort -IP 10.0.0.1 Resultstring -----------IP is changed successfully. > Set-ImportKit-WebServerPort -Port 8443 Resultstring -----------Port is changed successfully. > Set-ImportKit-WebServerPort -IP 10.0.0.
Registry Key is updated successfully to value = 1 ImportKit-CLI (Windows) 55
D Import-CLI (VMware) The Import-CLI is a set of commands available to list information about devices being imported. It enables Info-level logging to host plugin and Storage Array Type Plugin (SATP) components. This appendix contains the following information: Topics: • • • • List log levels List volumes Revert SATP, VAAI, and PSP to default settings equalRule options List log levels Import-CLI command for EQL HIT Kit package. Shows the log level that is set for host plugin and SATP components.
Example # esxcli import volume list The following information appears for each volume in the list: ● SourceVolumeNAAID – Unique identifier for the source volume considered for import. For example, naa.68fc61066c31fd6e37c28532f36f1de8 ● SourceVendor – Vendor identification (VID) of the source array. For example, EQLOGIC ● Size – Appears in GB. For example, ● 11.
● List SATP rules. ● Remove SATP rules from the host.
E CLI for EQL MPIO EHCMCLI is an existing utility that is provided for the host administrator to check EQL MPIO specific details. These CLI commands show import specific details such as volume information, logging information, the installed version of the EQL MPIO, and such.
Volume Size: 0.40 GB Import Status: READY FOR IMPORT Session: 44 /dev/sdr 10.11.179.40 Session: 45 /dev/sds 10.11.179.39 -> -> 10.11.181.7 10.11.181.7 04:17:04 04:17:03 Host plugin version Shows the current version of the host plugin that is installed. Format ehcmcli version Example ehcmcli version Version 1.7.0 Build 469794 Server port information Shows the server port that is used for communication and provides the option to change it to a different port.
Log information Shows the location and log-level of the host plugin log. Format ehcmcli log_show Example ehcmcli log_show Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Log Level: 2 Log Location: /var/log/equallogic Microhttpd status Shows microhttpd status. Format ehcmcli mhd_status Example ehcmcli mhd_status Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Microhttpd Status: ACTIVE Restart the Web server Restarts the Web server in case of microhttpd failure.
Example ehcmcli restart_webServer Generating diagnostic data, please wait... Server port : 8443 Recover device Recovers the specified device which remains in a bad state due to an internal error during the import process. NOTE: Contact Dell support before using this CLI command. Format ehcmcli recover_device Example ehcmcli recover_device 6006016011404000a331505c1bd8223b Generating diagnostic data, please wait...
F Fault handling by PowerStore import This appendix contains the following information: Topics: • • • • • • • • Import processing and fault handling overview Import network overview Import alerts and error codes Failures during non-disruptive import Failures during agentless import Consistency group handling Configuration changes during import Application integration software Import processing and fault handling overview Import copies the source volume content to PowerStore volumes in the back end while
Import network overview Import from source volume to PowerStore depends on several components. One of the most important components is network connections. These connections are: 1. SAN path1: The front-end from the host to the PowerStore cluster. The PowerStore cluster is the destination and good and steady network connectivity from the host to the destination is mandatory. Both Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI are options for this segment and must be the same as what the host has towards the source system. 2.
● If one of the source SPs reboots but the surviving SP can service the source volume, both import and I/Os continue without any impact. Depending on the nature of the fault, the import orchestrator handles them so that there is minimum impact on the host I/Os. In all these cases, error messages, or alerts, or both describe the issue to the user.
Exception case In cases of a single failure, such as a PowerStore node failure during import with host I/O, both import and I/Os are not impacted. The other node takes over. If Import is not able to continue, automatic cancel occurs and I/Os are redirected back to the source volume. Sometimes, the node recovery time might be long and host I/Os might experience latency issues. In worst cases, the I/O timeout expires, leading to temporary data unavailability.
recovers fully. Once the PowerStore node has recovered and PowerStore is healthy, try importing again. If the issue persists, contact your service provider. Consistency group handling PowerStore import supports import of Consistency Groups (CGs) from the source systems. At a CG level, either the import succeeds for all the volumes in the CG or, if any volume fails, the import fails for all of them. However, in rare situations, it is possible that the rollback fails for one of the volumes.
