Storage vMotion and ESX Server Reconfiguration

[CDad]

I have a customer who has an ESX 3.5 host connected to storage on dual redundant fabrics, albeit using Brocade default zones.  They wish to migrate storage to an ESXi 4.1 host on different array; this array is on another (dual)  SAN with single initiator zoning.  Merging the two SANs is not an option.  Below is the proposed configuration for migration:

Host1 : ESX 3.5 host; source host; NMP; SAN1

Host2: ESXi 4.1 host (new), target host; PowerPath/VE; SAN2

LUN1: LUN on source array

LUN2: LUN on target array

In order for each host to see all storage for vMotion migration, the following is proposed:

Host1:

HBA1: Remain in Default Zone (LUN1) on SAN1 with NMP

HBA2: Rezone to target storage (LUN2) in single-initiator zone on SAN2 with NMP

Host2:

HBA1: Zone to source storage (LUN1, mapped to a different source array port) in single-initiator zone on SAN2 with PowerPath/VE

HBA2: Zone to target storage (LUN2) in single-initiator zone on SAN2 with PowerPath/VE

That is, HBA1 on Host1 will retain a connection to a switch on SAN1 until the migration completes, in order to incur no downtime.  At no time will both NMP and PowePath/VE both be installed on any host; however LUN1 will be managed by NMP on Host1 and by PowerPath/VE on Host2 for the duration of migration.  My question is, does this scenario pose any potential scanning/configuration issues?

[TheEsp]

Hi CDad

>Merging the two SANs is not an option. 

If the customer has two seperate fabrics then it would be easier to just add the new storage array across these fabrics. Create your zones containing the new array & HBA (that an ESX host has access to) and present your new volumes then start your svmotion process.

Regards

David

[CDad]

David:

Thanks for your reply.  The issue is that the source array is currently in dual fabrics with Default Zoning (All Access) - not a sound practice.  Hence, I am proposing removing one path from the ESX 3.5 host on one of those fabrics and zoning it to the target array on a fabric which will use single-initiator zoning.  So, one path to source storage in Default Zone, and one path to the target array in a zoneset with SI zoning.  The target ESXi 4.1 host would have one path to the source LUN in a SI zoneset, after the appropriate port mapping.

This is a little unorthodox, but I want to avoid using the Default multiple-initiator zones as much as possible. I do not see any immediate issues with this since it is an interim configuration and only one path utilizes a Default Zone for the migration. The source LUN will be  managed by NMP on the ESX 3.5 host and by PowerPath/VE on the ESXi 4.1 host, but I do not think that is an issue since they are different hosts. Are there any potential nuances of Storage vMotion where this will be a factor?