Methodologies for Data Migration to Dell Fluid Data Architecture

Executive summaryThe dictionary entry for “challenging” could very well describe enterprise storage migrations. Complex and often problematic, data migrations challenge even the most seasoned IT administrators with narrow downtime windows, risk of data loss, business-critical application availability, 24/7 user access requirements, and other factors. IT departments may not have the needed skill set or may not want to spend valuable resources migrating data. In addition, data centers may support multiple operating systems like Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX® and Linux® technology, while the storage ecosystem may also include hardware from more than one vendor. Inflexibility of traditional storage infrastructures can complicate matters even further.

The impact of explosive data growth is felt at every level of the enterprise. Typically, data migrations and storage provisioning are manual processes that consume IT resources while disrupting users and applications. Backups take increasing amounts of time to complete, and they are more costly to maintain. Utilization rates vary dramatically, as some storage arrays or file servers run out of capacity while unused capacity languishes on others. Users and applications are statically mapped to physical devices, creating configuration challenges whenever changes occur in the environment. And many traditional storage infrastructures (from mergers and acquisitions) have evolved haphazardly without a solid strategy for consolidating.

A Dell Technical White Paper

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Table of Contents

Dell data migration best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 

Storage portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Key migration factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Data migration methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Business impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Data collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Data Migration Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 

Block level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

FC array-based migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Host-based migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

LVM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Symantec volume manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Solaris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

AIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

HP-UX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Appliance-based migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Backup and recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

File level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

NAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CIFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

rsync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

About the Authors

Noman Chaudhry, Global Practice Lead

Noman Chaudhry is the Global

Practice Lead for Data Migration

& Protection Practice at Dell

Services and has over fifteen

years of experience designing,

implementing and supporting

data migration & disaster

recovery solutions . Noman

joined Dell Inc . in 2005, has a

B .S in Electrical & Electronics

Engineering from California State

University, Sacramento and lives

in San Jose, CA with his family .

Seth Paskin, Product Manager

In his 12 years in the IT industry,

Seth Paskin has seen all aspects

of consumer and enterprise

services from support and delivery

to quality and development . He

believes that value is created by

people communicating effectively

about needs and how to solve

them . Seth is the Product Manager

for Enterprise Deployment in the

Services & Solutions Group .

Chuck Bridges, Services Product Consultant

In over 30 years of IT marketing

experience, Chuck Bridges

has written about everything

from the desktop to the data

center . He is currently a Product

Consultant on the Global

Services Messaging team .

Audience:This paper is intended for Dell customers, partners and employees who want to learn about the migration tools and methodologies available to migrate over to Dell storage from competitive and legacy technologies .

3

It wasn’t just about data growth; customers need to know how they could respond to growth and constant change. They wanted to shift their focus from keeping the lights on to future strategy — from operation to innovation. With this in mind, Dell services put together a comprehensive data migration strategy to help customers migrate from their legacy storage to the Dell Fluid Data™ architecture.

Dell Services has a stable, proven process for performing data migrations backed by a wide range of capabilities and technologies. This means we can adapt to any customer environment while maintaining the integrity of best-practice implementation. Whether you’re moving accessible data off-hours, business-critical data during a tight maintenance window, or need minimal disruption for a mission-critical environment, Dell Services has the right solution for the right value. Backed by the experience of thousands of global customer engagements, Dell Services for planning, migrating and validating data migrations can help you simplify your move to the storage platform that’s right for your business.

This whitepaper describes Dell’s expertise in data migration across a range of technologies and use cases.

Storage portfolioEnterprise data volumes continue to grow exponentially while IT budgets continue to shrink. Dell helps customers tackle these challenges by standardizing IT infrastructures, simplifying operations and automating processes. Efficiencies gained through virtualization, automation and consolidation will help your business prepare for future growth while saving time and resources.

Dell can help you:• Optimize the computer, processor,

networking and storage resources already in your IT infrastructure

• Increase overall utilization by eliminating isolated or stranded resources

• Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) through standard-based solutions, simplified operations, virtualized storage and seamless scalability

• Improve IT performance

Dell’s Fluid Data™ architecture, comprised of Dell™ Compellent™, Dell EqualLogic™ and Dell PowerVault™ storage solutions — as well as other Dell storage tools and utilities — can help organizations of any size realize the full value of their IT investments. It can also protect vital enterprise data, ensuring high business continuity while maintaining flexibility and scalability.

Dell data migration best practices: Dell has evolved from a storage

reseller to a storage innovator. We did it by starting fresh, building

the right storage architecture without the burden of legacy

intellectual property (IP), and designing solutions based on what

customers truly wanted.

4

Dell Compellent Dell Compellent Storage Center delivers an all-in-one storage solution that always puts data in the right place at the right time for the right cost — and dynamically adapts to meet changing business needs.

Dell Compellent storage controllers are also designed to deliver high availability. Redundant and hot-swappable power supplies and cooling fans help ensure nonstop operation when problems arise. These controllers also offer the flexibility to meet changing enterprise requirements. Customers can select either one or two controllers per SAN, and then use Fibre Channel, FCoE and/or iSCSI connections to servers, including the latest iSCSI and FCoE interconnects. The controllers connect to any open-system servers without the need for dedicated agents.

EqualLogic Dell EqualLogic™ arrays are virtualized iSCSI SANs that combine intelligence and automation with fault tolerance to provide simplified administration, rapid deployment, enterprise performance, reliability and scalability. EqualLogic is an excellent choice for performance and capacity-intensive applications. The virtualized, modular EqualLogic architecture allows IT managers to purchase only the storage they need, when they need it.

PowerVault SANs Dell PowerVault iSCSI and Fibre Channel arrays are the ideal SAN solution for entry-level storage consolidation requiring high availability, high performance and business continuity without sacrificing ease of use and reliability. Designed for flexibility, the newest PowerVault SANs support a range of drive types, enclosures and RAID levels — all within a single array. With high-speed iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces, PowerVault arrays provide multigenerational/multiprotocol single management interface and support.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) Grow block and file capacity non-disruptively with the EqualLogic™ FS7500, the only scale-out unified storage architecture optimized for midsize and smaller deployments. The Dell EqualLogic FS7500 adds network-attached storage (NAS) capability to the EqualLogic product line to provide a high performance, scalable and unified storage solution. The FS7500 is powered by the Dell Fluid File System (Dell Fluid FS), Dell’s high-performance, clustered, and network-accessible file system. Dual active-active controllers, redundant power supplies and fans, and battery-backed cache make the FS7500 an ideal solution for NAS deployments requiring high availability and reliability.

PowerVault™ NX3500

Utilizes Dell™ Fluid File System and the PowerVault SAN back end for Internet SCSI (iSCSI), CIFS and NFS access to block and file data — enabling a single file share to scale up to the capacity of the SAN array deployment. With PowerVault™ NX3500, you can help prevent the data silos and server sprawl caused by an increasing amount of data (email, video, MP3 user home directories). Start small and still enjoy the value of high performance, unified storage. And as your storage needs grow, you can dynamically add or modify block and file capacity without disrupting existing applications and storage systems.

5

If you’re thinking about new storage solutions and complexities around data migration, consider the following key factors and how Dell Data Migration consultants can help:

Key migration factors Data migration methodologyA successful data migration process can be used for a one-time migration, or as a standard procedure for future migrations employing a consistent, reliable and repeatable methodology incorporating planning, tool implementation and validation. The chart below shows a typical data migration workflow that can be used as a reference.

Key factors Description Dell capabilities

Performance Balances network bandwidth and system overhead with migration performance metrics

A diverse toolset where migration can be throttled accordingly to strike a balance of migration speed and application/network performance

Heterogeneous hardware and OS

Deploys the right migration tools that minimize multi-vendor restrictions in complex environments

A holistic vendor-agnostic migration solution that spans multiple OS and supports numerous storage platforms

Application downtime

Identifies and manages varying degrees of application criticality and acceptable levels of downtime

A choice of offline or online migration depending on the customer requirements

Scalability Factors local and global data growth into terabyte and petabyte migrations

Appliance- or software-based solutions that can be used for routine migrations in the data center

PlanningPre-production

TestingMigration Validation Cutover

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application to

the target

storage

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based on

cutover plan

Create final

report

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during the

defined time

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Retire the

previous

environment

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migration

statistics

Verify the

completion of

the migration

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application

functionality

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report

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migration

environment

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software

Perform

migration based

on plan

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migration

environment

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and migration

tools

Perform

migration testing

based on plan

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validate data

Update final

migration plan

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��

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Define migration

goal

Define migration

requirement

Understand

business impact

Data Collection

Define HW/SW

and tools

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plan

Dell data migration game plan

6

PlanningPlanning is critical for a successful data migration. Dell Migration Services considers the following factors when evaluating a data migration project:

Business impactThe impact should be clearly explained to stakeholders so they have the appropriate expectations. Below are some factors to be considered in this process:• Online or offline methodology• Applications impacted• Workload distribution between

customer and Dell• Backup of data to be migrated in place• Required staging of storage /

hardware

Data collectionUnderstanding the existing environment is key to successful planning. The following information should be collected:• Server information (OS version,

applications, firmware, drivers, etc.)• Storage environment (topology, data

size, performance, etc.)• Data classification & tiering of apps to

define priority• Existing issues• Users and business segments involved

Migration tools identificationDell Migration Services uses multiple tools during the process. To select the right tools, we consider the following factors:• Performance: This refers to the speed

of the migration — a combination of the tool’s software architecture, migration bandwidth, source/target capabilities, application performance, etc.

• Online or offline: Depending on customer requirements, we choose tools that offer migration while the LUNs are either online or offline

• Roll-back capability: Software that may provide the capability to roll back data in case the migration runs into any issues

• Hardware vs. Software: Some migration tools require plugging the appliance into the environment, while others are based on OS filter drivers. We offer a wide range of choices for migration use cases

• License: Cost of the license to be considered

Migration project planOnce the aforementioned factors are defined and agreed upon, the Dell planning team documents all the discoveries and planning steps in the master migration project plan. This plan evolves as the project progresses.

Proof of concept (POC)POC is a significant first step in the overall execution process as it helps set up the baseline for the migration project. It establishes an initial test plan to validate the co-operative migration plan between the customer and Dell Migration Services. Once the POC is successfully completed, Dell Migration Services and the customer agree on the viability of the validation and the execution of the migration project plan begins.

ValidationOnce data is fully migrated to the target, migration validation takes place. Validation is one of the most important post-migration tasks and includes the following areas:• Data completeness: All data defined

for migration on the source are migrated to the target environment

• Data integrity: The data itself, as well all data attributes, dependencies, security, etc. are successfully migrated

• Data functionality: migrated data is mapped to the right application and functions correctly and as expected

Cutover (Deployment)Typically, legacy environments remain running until extensive validation is performed on the new storage. Once validation is complete, customer is cutover to the new storage.

Note:For a fee, Dell Migration Services also provides consulting services to assess the customer migration environment.

7

We have the experience and proven methodologies to deal with any complexities your particular migration may present.

Dell consultants can help with:

Block level

FC array-based migration Thin Import is a built-in feature of Storage Center on Compellent arrays. Data from external storage arrays, which are typically thick-provisioned, can be migrated to thin-provisioned volumes on the Compellent drive. No additional licenses are required.The Thin Import process works at a block-level, using synchronous replication to import the data. All blocks are read on the source LUN and then written to the destination volume on the Compellent with blocks consisting of all zeroes being omitted. The result is a thin-provisioned volume on the Compellent. Although it can

vary depending on the environment, migration performance is roughly 500GB/hr. Currently, Thin Import only works over fibre channel, which means the source array and destination CML array must have fibre channel FE ports. The current or planned host connectivity method can be different, but the import process can only be performed over fibre channel.

Host-based migrationArray-based migration solutions do not solve all data migration scenarios. In some cases, host-based tools, which are OS specific, are an effective way to migrate data. Dell Migration Services have verified and tested the following tools for multiple OS environments. Each host-based tool has stipulations and limitations around migrating data. Dell Migration consultants will discuss the details of each solution with your team during the planning phase.

Data Migration Expertise: Dell experts have migrated petabytes

of data worldwide ranging from SAN, NAS and file systems

marketed by a variety of vendors. Our Data Migration Services

practice takes the burden of migration responsibilities off your

shoulders and puts it in the capable hands of expert storage

migration consultants.

Note: For security reasons, Thin Import is primarily an offline activity.

Important

1. This is an example only - actual ports on source and destination arrays may vary

2. Do NOT just configure and enable these zones - follow step-by-step instructions or data loss may occur.

Zoning for Thin Import

Fabric A

CLARiiON SPA0, CML Controller 1 Port 1

CLARiiON SPB1, CML Controller 1 Port 1

CLARiiON SPA0, CML Controller 2 Port 1

CLARiiON SPB1, CML Controller 2 Port 1

Fabric B

CLARiiON SPB0, CML Controller 1 Port 2

CLARiiON SPA1, CML Controller 1 Port 2

CLARiiON SPB0, CML Controller 2 Port 2

CLARiiON SPA1, CML Controller 2 Port 2

Fig 1: Sample FC connectivity of Dell CML array with a third-party array

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VMwareMigrating from legacy storage vendors has never been easier for customers running VMware Enterprise and Enterprise Plus editions with the built-in tool called Storage vMotion. Storage vMotion eliminates the need for service disruptions with live, automated migration of virtual machine disk files from legacy storage to a new Dell destination. Non-disruptive migration of virtual machine disk files to different classes of storage enables cost-effective management of virtual machine disks based on usage and priority policies as part of a strategy for tiered storage. WindowsDelivered on the Windows platform, Dell Migration Services uses Double-Take as the solution of choice for a majority of customers.

Double-Take is a comprehensive workload migration solution that allows an entire server, known as a source, to be moved by mirroring an image of that source to the target. The source and target servers can be physical

or virtual. The image of the source contains the server’s system state (the server’s configured operating system and applications) and all of the source server’s data.

The Double-Take ‘Move’ function uses data replication to allow users to continue accessing and changing data during the migration. As changes are made on the source, replication updates the image of the source stored on the target in real time. Double-Take Move does not replicate the entire file, only the file changes. When you’re ready to cutover to the new server/storage, Double-Take Move then applies the source system state and after a reboot, makes the source available on what was the target server hardware.

Migrating data to a new storage array often provides a good opportunity to migrate or upgrade to the latest Dell PowerEdge™ server platforms as well (see Figure 3). Double-Take software includes tools such as Full-Server Failover (FFO) for server migrations that remove Windows hardware driver dependencies, enabling administrators to migrate entire systems — including the system identifier (SID), registry, system files and applications — through a GUI while those systems are still running (see Figure 3). Once the synchronization is complete, you can shift the new server and storage platforms into production.

ESX Server

Virtual Machines

App

OS

App

OS

App

OS

Storage VMotion

Fig. 2: Sample Storage vMotion connectivity of Dell storage array with a third-party array

Dell PowerEdge 2650

with Microsoft Exchange

and Double-Take software

Dell PowerEdge R900

with Microsoft

Exchange and

Double-Take software

Dell EqualLogic

PS Series

iSCSI SAN

TMProduction

Dell/EMC Cx300

Fibre Channel SAN

Server

Migration

Data

Migration

Fig. 3: Sample Double-Take use cases: Server or array migration

9

LVMLVM is disk management functionality built into many UNIX/Linux platforms.Each OS has its own nuance around provisioning disks within LVM but one common denominator among them is that it provides an abstraction level layer between the OS and disks — whether it’s local, on a DAS, or SAN. From a data migration standpoint, a typical LVM process involves setting up a mirror of the data on the legacy storage volumes to the new volumes. The next step is to synchronize the new volumes. Once the sync is complete, the mirror can be broken at cutover. This usually involves detaching the source volumes. Some volume management software includes commands to automate this process. With close to no downtime, mirroring is a great way to migrate data over to Dell storage.

Symantec volume managerOne of the most widely used volume managers in the industry today is VxVM from Symantec, which is part of the Storage Foundation Suite. Symantec Volume Manager (VxVM) is an online storage management tool that provides a logical volume management layer, which overcomes the physical restrictions of hardware disk devices by spanning volumes across multiple spindles. Through the support of RAID redundancy techniques (in data migration’s case RAID 1), VxVM enables migration of volumes across heterogeneous storage arrays.Mirroring can be set up with the aid of the VxVM GUI called VMSA or through command line. Dell Migration Services strongly recommends using command line for mirror-based migration since it offers more control over what is being executed behind the scenes. A known limitation of Symantec Volume Manager is that RAID 5 volumes are inferior candidates for VxVM-based migrations and other tools must be explored to accomplish the task.

SolarisSolaris Volume Manager provides mirror functionality across arrays. To administer Solaris Volume management, use the GUI (called Solaris Management Console) or the command line.

AIXAIX LVM is built into the OS and leveraged for cross-platform storage migrations as long as the source disks are under the control of the LVM.

Veritas Volume Manager

Solaris AIX Linux HP-UX

Source Array:

Dell|EMC

Target Array:

Compellent

Fig. 4: LVM-based array migrations are OS specific

Note: For simplicity and standardization, LUN is considered an array level object, while volume is an LVM term. Multiple LUNs can constitute a volume.

10

HP-UXMirror/UX, a licensed product from HP, provides the functionality to mirror volumes and can be extremely useful for data migrations with a stipulation that the source volumes are not striped within the logical volume. The output below illustrates a scenario that would not allow for LVM-based migration.

hp5:/home/noman# lvdisplay -v /dev/vg5/mirror_1 | more--- Logical volumes ---LV Name /dev/vg5/mirror_1VG Name /dev/vg5LV Permission read/writeLV Status available/syncdMirror copies 0Consistency Recovery MWCSchedule stripedLV Size (Mbytes) 1008Current LE 252Allocated PE 252Stripes 3Stripe Size (Kbytes) 128Bad block onAllocation strictIO Timeout (Seconds) default

Additionally, the source and target disks must be part of the same volume group to proceed with a data migration.

LinuxLinux LVM is built into the OS and leveraged for cross-platform storage migrations as long as the source disks are under the control of the LVM. If LVM is not implemented, Double-Take is another choice for supported file systems.

Appliance-based migrationDell Migration Services has partnered with FalconStor Software where previously mentioned tools and use cases may not fit the customer high performance data migration requirements. Using NSS Gateway Appliance Software, which runs on a two-node Dell R710 cluster server, Dell can migrate any existing third-party SAN storage over to Dell storage with minimal downtime. The HA FalconStor

appliance provides multi-protocol (iSCSI, FC) block level and synchronous mirroring across heterogeneous storage. It also supports a diverse mix of operating systems, which makes migration seamless and pain free for the customers since no downtime is required for the duration of the migration.

There are two downtime windows required, however: one upon insertion of the appliance, and the second upon cutover to the Dell storage. Backup and recoveryOne of the most traditional methods of performing data migration is backing up the data to disk or tape, setting up new storage and restoring to the new storage. This is also the most time consuming way to migrate data because of the downtime required for the duration of the backup, and then another downtime needed for restore. This is usually considered a method of last resort for migrating data.

FalconStar NSS

Target

Array

Source

Array

1. Prepare Zoning for indirect access

2. Move IO path: Downtime (Reboot)

3. Activate Mirror while online

4. Change Mirrorrole while online

5. Remove mirror while online

Activate

Mirror

Original

IO path

Change IO

path to NSS

Fig. 5: A simplified NSS Gateway solution from FalconStor Software would entail this setup

11

File level

NASNAS, or file data migration, involves creating a copy of the data and moving it from one array/file server to another with little disruption to the production environment. The optimal data migration tools for NAS not only migrate the data and the directory structure but also the file attributes and the ACLs over to the target storage. Typical migration use cases around NAS include:• Consolidating multiple Windows

servers onto a common platform to reduce server sprawl

• Consolidating multiple UNIX-based exports (from multiple UNIX hosts) onto a common platform

• Creating a cross-platform file sharing (Windows and UNIX servers) environment that scales beyond the limit of traditional File Shares (Windows) and UNIX-based exports

Dell Migration Services offers tools for CIFS- and NFS-based migrations.

CIFSDell Migration Services has partnered with Quest Software for CIFS/Windows-based data migrations. The Quest Secure Copy technology enables Dell Services to offer fast, proven enterprise-class data migration. This host-based data migration software eases the pain often associated with typical NAS migrations. The first sync between source and target can be online, and the I/O operation can continue to the source array. For a final sync, however, the I/O operation must to be ceased.

NOTE: This final sync can take up to 20% of the first sync time and requires total downtime on the source array shares being migrated. If an array has a NAS appliance attached and additional hosts, those additional hosts do not need to come down to migrate shares on the NAS appliance.

rsyncLong established in the UNIX world, rsync is an open source OS- and storage-agnostic tool that remains a top choice among storage administrators. Dell uses this powerful OS built-in utility for all NFS-based migrations.

NAS: NFS amd CIFS

Windows Systems

Ethernet CIFS NFS

UNIX Systems

Fig. 6: A typical NAS migration involves CIFS & NFS

12

Many of the challenges faced by today’s IT organizations come from the disruption incurred when moving data. Data migration, storage consolidations and technology upgrades take longer and require more IT overhead and expertise. Tiering active and inactive data can mean that storage efficiency features are underused, while backup windows take longer and require more offsite media. Additionally, uneven growth leads to constant storage re-provisioning and capacity balancing — tasks that require operational downtime.

Our Data Migration Services practice enables transparent data migration to Dell storage systems without affecting applications or users. By enabling data movement to take place without disruption, Dell Migration Services help organizations address many of the key issues around extensive and complex migrations and storage provisioning.

Turn to Dell Data Migration Services next time you need to migrate data. Our experienced strategic consultants can help you migrate your data safely and quickly, without interruption to your day-to-day business operations.

The result will be a state-of-the-art, optimized and responsive storage system ready to meet your business objectives

— today and in the future. Regardless of the business model, your commercial success is built around providing service levels that meet and exceed your employee and customer demand. Dell Storage Solutions and Services provide faster time to value and greater return on your infrastructure investments. When it comes to data migration, Dell brings together the deep expertise, proven methodologies and multivendor expertise to optimize your infrastructure

— helping you cut costs, achieve your goals and outpace your competition.

Conclusion: Dell Consultants work closely with industry-

leading partners to help organizations create an agile storage

infrastructure that will improve response to rapid data growth.

Product and service availability varies by country. Specifications are correct at date of publication but are subject to availability or change without notice at any time. Dell and its affiliates cannot be responsible for errors or omissions in typography or photography. Dell’s Terms and Conditions of Sales and Service apply and are available on request. Dell and the Dell logo are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. © 2012 Dell Inc.  All rights reserved.June 2012 | Dell Data Migration - A Technical White Paper.indd | Rev. 1.0

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