Migration from EMC SAN to HP SAN

[TonyJK]

Hi,

We are going to migrate our existing VMware infrastructure from DELL Servers with EMC SAN (vSphere 6.0) to HP Servers with HP SAN (vSphere 6.5).

Consultant suggests the migration of VMs to make use of VMware Convertor as it costs the least money.

Is there any free tools for migration ?  Besides downtime, is there any other pitfall for using VMware Convertor ?

Thanks

[vijayrana968]

Why not to add new HP Servers as new ESXI hosts in same vCenter and new HP storage as new datastores !

Once you setup that, do first manual vmotion of VMs and the storage vmotion to new datastores, you can do either of them as first step. This won't require any downtime and tool.

[TonyJK]

The consultant says that it is an expensive & inefficient way for migrating VM via vMotion.

I guess it may be due to our existing EMC SAN is running FC and the proposed new HP one is SAS SAN. 

As I have no experience with SAS SAN, may I ask

1) Whether there is SAS Switch (Like FC Switch for Zoning) ?

2) Do we need any additional equipment in our situation ?

3) The consultant has to take extra step to configure so that the current ESXi Hosts can see the new SAN - Is it correct ?

Thanks

[vijayrana968]

What is the model of new HP SAS Array. There would be ISCSI options for that where svomtioning may be slower but all depends how much workload you want to migrate off EMC storage. With smaller workload there's shouldn't be any problem. Please check the model of new HP SAS array. You also need to check the HBA availbility of your ESXI hosts on the basis of HP array accordingly.

[TonyJK]

Consultant recommends using HP MSA 2052 SAS SAN.

Thanks

[ExHoi · Accepted solution]

You don't need to use the converver. Get your vCenter up to 6.5 (either upgrade or migrate to the 6.5 appliance) and throw the new HPE servers into the cluster. The Dell servers would only connect to the FC storage and the new HPE servers would only connect to the new MSA. You can then do a "shared nothing" migration and migrate both the storage and compute resources simultaneously and not need any downtime. The biggest hurdle I've found with this is customers that aren't licensed for storage vMotion. Not sure if I'll get in trouble for suggest this workaround, but you can throw on a trial license on the hosts which will provide the storage vMotion feature. Once the migrations are complete, pull the trial key off and throw your license back on.

See the Migration with vMotion in Environments Without Shared Storage article for more detail and check the Requirements and Limitations for vMotion Without Shared Storage to make sure you meet the requirements.

Some notes about the MSA:

* The MSA2052 w/SAS controllers won't have any options for FC or iSCSI.

* If you stick with the SAS controllers, you can connect up to 4 hosts directly to the controllers and maintain HA (one SAS connection to each controller - 4 SAS ports per controller). If you need more hosts than 4, you can start looking at SAS expanders/switches/etc.. but, if you really need more than 4 hosts on an MSA, I would suggest going with the SAN controllers on the MSA which can do FC or iSCSI.

[TonyJK]

Hi,

May I ask some more questions to see whether my understanding is correct ?

1) What will be the bottle neck for Storage vMotion without shared Storage ?  I guess it will be the vMotion network (i.e. LAN)

2) We are using Enterprise License and I believe it should suffice.

3) For connecting SAS SAN, there is SAS switches / expanders.

4) Do we need to do any zoning for Host HBA connected to HP MSA SAS SAN ?

5) The SAN Controller you mention (i.e. supports FC / iSCSI) is an optional module for HP MSA 2052 OR it is a standalone box ?

Thanks again.

[adgate]

Check the HP MSA SAS SAN specs to design the connection according to you need and running environment. I would look more at iSCSI rather than FC. It has more bandwidth with leads to higher performance. 

[BerndtSchumann]

For one of my projects, I used Starwind v2v converter and that worked for me. And by the way, it was free StarWind V2V Converter - Free Tool from StarWind! 

[vijayrana968]

This is a very good tool actuall, I love it.

[TonyJK]

Hi,

Many thanks for your advice.  I will try that product.  However, whether the consultant uses it is beyond me.

May I ask your opinion on whether you believe that a V2V is a better option in our case than Storage vMotion in our case ?

Thanks

[a_p_]

I did several migrations for customers, and in cases like yours, I'd go with the built in features.

Like mentioned earlier, the Web Client allows for a shared nothing live migration (Host and Storage) with Essentials Plus, or better licensing.

In cases where this isn't possible, I've done direct (cold) migrations using the ovftool (see https://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/06/how-to-copy-vms-directly-between-esxi.html)

André

[golddiggie]

From what I've done with the VMware conversion tool (and some other conversion tools), it will be a longer, slower process than a storage vMotion migration. With the migration, you can execute it on many VMs at the same time. When I ran conversion tools, it was one off tasks, where you had to get into the VM to get things going.

If the consultant is being paid by you guys, then you CAN (and should) tell him how you want things done.

This has the earmarks of one person I met (once) from a VAR that was hard set in his methods. Even though they didn't match our environment (we knew his way was going to completely fail) he still had us go through the futile exercise (and waste several hours in the process) doing it his way. Because that was the way he always did it. WRONG ANSWER!!!

Worst case, have him do a handful of test migrations while you do the same number of svMotion migrations. See which has the least issues, and has better time to complete. I'd wager the built-in migration will be the winner. Never mind the migration task is part of the development of new releases and the conversion tool (AFAIK) hasn't been updated in some time.

[TonyJK]

He says that he will show us to do 1 VM conversion via VMWare Convertor and ask us to do the remaining ones.

Although I disagree with his suggestion, my supervisor buys his idea as he is a consultant !!!

I can run the test Storage vMotion along with his Conversion.

Thanks again

[golddiggie]

Wow...

I'm actually working on a contract right now for a company with the main task to get them from vSphere 5.1 to 6u2 (I'm hoping to get them to either 6.5 or 6.7 by the end of the contract). There's a need to do a migration from one DC to one of the others before work can be done on the environment. I'm not so arrogant as to dictate how they do the migration of those VMs. Mostly because the people here KNOW the environment FAR better than I do (this is week 2). I'm letting them decide how they want the migration to happen.

I would make sure you have your concerns documented around the migration that the consultant is proposing. More of a CYA move than anything. If you sent your concerns via email, you're covered. If you haven't, make sure you have it documented someplace (with date/time stamping) so that if things go sideways you're NOT going to catch the blame.

Curious to know if that consultant is with a larger company, or fully independent. If with a company, out them. :smileylaugh:

[TonyJK]

Can I wirte

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In my opinion, using VMWare Converter to migrate VM from HP SAN to DELL SAN will cause down time for Virtual Machines.  It is better for us to use Storage vMotion to perform the migration of Virtual Machines as there will be no VM down time.

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Is it OK or have other input ?

Thanks