Introduction
IBM Storage FlashSystem just announced a new version of the product, v8.7.3.0, introducing enhanced management of the storage at the workload level with dedicated storage partitions. A storage partition is a set of objects, including volumes, volume groups, hosts and host mappings in the system. A Storage Partition containing a recovery copy of a disaster recovery (DR) replication is called a “Recovery Storage Partition”. The recovery storage partition is in disaster recovery replication with a remote system partition that contains a production copy. In disaster recovery replication, data is replicated from production copy to recovery copy. The application runs over the production copy, and the recovery copy is served as a target for disaster replication. The best part of this is that users can manage storage partitions at a common user interface with a simple one-click operation.
Typically, a Storage Partition is designed in such a way that it can be assigned to specific workloads. This further enables the flexibility of easy Storage Partition Migration to significantly simplify data transfers across different storage controllers, enhancing the prior experience of guided steps. This blog explores how Storage Partition and Migration features enhance the user experience.
Understanding Storage Partition Migration
With the Storage partition migration feature, IBM Storage Virtualize can now help non-disruptive migration of different workloads between systems in a given network. This function allows data mobility at the Storage Partition level and granularity across multiple flash systems without any application downtime. Disaster recovery (DR) replication is temporarily paused during the storage partition migration of the recovery copy partitions.
Recovery Partition Migration
For storage partition migration of production partition copy, DR replication is maintained during the migration process. For recovery partition copy, DR replication needs to be momentarily paused.
When storage partition migration is initiated on recovery partition copy, the user is prompted to pause DR replication. The user needs to set recovery volume groups in partitions to independent volume groups. Users can check the action details at the GUI portal and perform the necessary action to set volume groups to independent. After this action is done, data replication happens from the source system in migration to the target system in migration.
Once data replication is completed, migration is controlled from the target system. At this point, DR replication is paused. So, the user is prompted to resume DR replication. Users need to set independent volume groups (which were recovery volume groups previously) in partition to independent volume groups. Users can check the action details at the GUI portal and perform the necessary action to set these volume groups to recovery.
After setting volume groups to recovery, DR replication is resumed from the production system to the recovery system (which is the target system in migration). The user can now commit or roll back the migration.
Migration Completion
After resuming DR replication at the target system, the user is prompted to commit the migration. The user has the following choices:
- Analyse the application performance and DR replication performance (RPO etc.) from target system. If the user is satisfied with the overall performance, user can commit the migration. It removes partition copy along with all its resources from source system and migration is completed.
- If the user is not satisfied with the overall performance from the target system, the user can roll back the migration to the source system and re-attempt the migration again after performance-specific issues on the target system are fixed.
[The above screenshot is taken from the FlashSystem GUI while starting partition migration, which illustrates the flow for Recovery Partition migration in Disaster Recovery replication.]
Conclusion
The latest enhancements in Storage Partition Migration significantly improve ease of use. These advancements empower users to make informed decisions and ensure a seamless, efficient data mobility experience.
References and Links
- To understand Storage Partition Migration workflow, refer this link: Storage Partition Migration
- More on non-disruptive Storage Partition Migration: IBM Storage FlashSystems v8.7.3.0 Partition Migration