HPE Storage Users Group

Hi All,

I'm quite new to 3PAR and we have a 3PAR Storage Serv 7200 with 12 disks, configured with a RAID 1 CPG containing 4 virtual volumes. We want to move move data to RAID 6 and we are not licensed for Dynamic Optimisation.

I did some research but im not 100% sure if this is the right way to do it:
1. Create RAID 6 CPG.
2. Create new virtual volume on 3par on CPG RAID 6 (same size of current VVOLS)
3. Make them visible to machines on hyperV. Export.
4. Migrate data from current virtual volume to the newly created virtual volume.
5. Delete old virtual vols.

Is this a good approach? Furthermore how can I migrate data from current virtual volume to the newly created virtual volume? Is this done from 3PAR or from the VM?

Thanks in advance.

Basically that would be how I'd do it without DO.
We use VMware but I'm hoping HyperV has a similar tool to Storage Vmotion, otherwise it'll be some sort of disk mirroring method. Either way it'll all be done at the server end.
Main thing to watch for is having enough free space on the array to hold both copies, if space is tight then move one volume at a time, delete the old one and compact the old CPG to free up space.

tunesys doesn't require DO since 3.1.1, so you could just change your existing CPG values and run tunesys.

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The views and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my current or previous employers.

Cool, that works for all tunesys modes then? I was aware of it working for adding new disks and rebalancing existing data without DO. We've always had DO and it does get used for moving volumes between CPGs occasionally but I've not had to retune a whole CPG after parameter changing yet (next time we add some disks to our small 8400 boxes I'll probably look at that to get off raid1).

So if add new RAID 6 VVols and run tunesys it gets the job done?

No, you need to change the settings on the current CPG you are using. After that issue tunesys. This will change RAID level on all VVs within that CPG.

When done, you should verify that tunesys didn't skip any blocks. Showld -d shows "SetSz" (Set Size) for each ld. R6 6+2 = Set Size of 8.
LDs are names :
TP (for thin provision) - CPG ID (see showcpg) - SD/SA (for data or admin space) - 0.increment

So tp-0-sd-0.0 would be the first LD containing data for the first (ID 0) CPG.

If some LDs doesn't tune correctly, I believe that tuneld is also available without DO license.

_________________
The views and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my current or previous employers.

Cool Thanks, Is this process risky?

Furthermore we only have 30GB of free space available on RAID1 do you think that this would be an issue?

Not risky, but 30 GB might be a problem. Remeber that during the change, the 3PAR will copy the LD with the new settings prior to deleting the old one. Anything less than 1 TB sounds like a recipe to fail.

_________________
The views and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my current or previous employers.

30GB free space on CPG RAID 1, however we have a total of 2TB free raw space.

From HP documentation, I found that you could Change Virtual Volume RAID Levels and assign then to a new CPG with the RAID type to which you wish to change the volume. Will this have the same final result?

Then you have more 2TB free space and are good to go.

Yes, but with a lot more manual tasks to perform as you have to tune every single volume. You will also end up with a new CPG and it does require the Dynamic Optimization license.

_________________
The views and opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my current or previous employers.