Our Experience

#enaio, #robocopy, #DMS, #Stormax

... many can copy data. But not all can prove that it was actually copied 1:1.

Mission:
Due to space problems, the main share of a document management system (DMS) had to be copied to another volume.

As the data retention period is of up to 30 years, it was important for the customer to be able to prove that

• all files have been copied and
• the content has not been changed during the migration.

Challenge:
We analyzed and checked the Robocopy copying process with our Stormax tool. Stormax scans the metadata of each object and additionally runs an md5 hash of the content in order to compare the data on the source and on the target.

Implementation:
Once the initial and several delta copying runs worked smoothly, the actual offline time could be reduced to less than one hour.

The audit-proof verification of the action was generated on the data snapshots not before after the switch-over so that the customer could continue to work on his systems. The subsequent check showed no problems.

Details: DMS - Optimal Systems Enaio

Volume: Migration of ~4TB - 7 millionen files.

#DELL, #Unity, #ISILON, #Superna Eyeglass, #EM7, #InsightIQ, #ESRS

Mission:

• Solution design and implementation of DELL Unity and DELL Isilon in a transnational network with numerous tenants.
• Failover design for Unity in active/active mode for file sharing and Automated Failover Manager (AFM).
• Fail-safe design for Isilon Cluster with SyncIQ via Superna Eyeglass.
• Setup of monitoring and alerting for the systems.
• Support for data migration with DataDobi.

Challenge:
#1: Implementation of AFM and Superna Eyeglass, when both products still had some issues that needed to be resolved with DELL support.

#2: The customer's strict network separation into multiple tenants, some of which had to be configured on dedicated network ports.

Technical scope:

• NAS transition from NetApp cdot and 7mode to Dell Isilon and Unity
• 4 Unity HA clusters implemented for multiple tenants
• 6 Isilon HA cluster implemented for multiple tenants
• 8 Isilon cluster implemented for backup with VEEAM
• Protocols: NFS & SMB
• Antivirus scanning with ICAP / MacAfee
• Snapshots with scheduler according to data categories
• Replication with SynqIQ
• Cluster failover with Superna Eyeglass
• Monitoring with InsightIQ
• Alerting with EM7

Solution Design:

• Role Based Access RBAC
• Access authorizations for the backup teams (non-standard)
• Implementation of an administrative separation of the operating teams according to specifications
• EMC Secure Connect Gateway

Locations: Germany, other European countries

Project Duration: 22 months

#DellUnity #Isilon #DellMetronodes #ciscomds #supernaeyeglass

Mission:
Deployment of Unity, isilon, Metronodes , cisco SAN switch and Superna Eyeglass. SAN migration from NetApp to unity with the help of Metro nodes.

Challenge:
Live Migrating the data from NetApp to Unity SAN without any disruptions to applications.

Technischer Scope NAS/NAS-Migration:

• Netapp => / Dell Isilon / Dell Unity
• An HA cluster with Unity
• Metrocluster with active/active configuration
• One HA cluster with Isilon
• Superna Eyeglass
• NFS Datastores
• iSCSI and FC runs
• NFS server on Dell Unity
• NFS and SMB Server on Isilon

Technical Scope SAN-Migration:

• SAN fabric implemented with Dell MDS-9132 switches
• FC-Luns of NetApp and Dell-Unity visualized with Metro-Node-Metro
• KIS database migrated from NetApp to Dell Unity with Metro Node Cluster Data Mobility

Administrative Scope: Project management - very busy customer.

Protocols: NFS, CIFS/SMB, iSCSI, FC

Specials:

• Secure Connect Gateway implemented
• FC Lun Visualization for zero downtime

Projekt Duration: Migration - one year

#NetApp #DellEMC #Perl #Go #Bash

Mission:
Migration of tens of Terabytes of NAS data (NFS and SMB) from Dell eNAS to NetApp with subsequent integrity verification of the migrated data using a separate verification tool.

Challenge:
The client wanted to migrate the total of 30+ Terabytes of SMB data during one weekend in a big "all-or-nothing" switchover.

Implementation:
The data to be migrated belonged to two different regional teams, but were located in the same data centers. All migrations therefore had to take into account the different requirements of both teams and be individually coordinated.

Extensive preparations were made for the “all-or-nothing” SMB migration of over 30 terabytes in one weekend. We were able to identify problematic files and directories in advance and reduce the number of errors in the logs by either resolving them or getting them confirmed by the customer. However, the log files of each synchronization delta were so large that we had to develop customized tools for this analysis.

The SMB migration was then successfully completed within the tight timeframe by planning workflows down to the minute, creating detailed logs and closely coordinating each migration step with all parties involved.

The NFS data migrations also went smoothly and without complications. The 20 terabytes could be split into several individual “migrations” to minimize downtime.

Facts:

• Dell eNAS to NetApp
• 20+ Virtual Servers
• 50+ Volumes
• 200+ Trees, most of them NFS but the bigger ones were SMB
• Infrastructure located across 2 Data centers in Germany

Volume: 50+ TB

Project Duration: 1 year

#DELL #VNX #Unity #emcopy #robocopy #epochdate #FLR

Not all NAS systems can count correctly!

Mission:
The data storage of a document management system (DMS) had to be moved from a VNX to a Dell Unity. For data security, the customer used File Level Retention (FLR) on the file system so that data could not be accidentally deleted before a certain point in time.

Challenge:
Initial tests showed that the Unity could not process timestamps > 2038 via CIFS (expiry of the Unix epoch time). dynaMigs.net supported the manufacturer in solving the problem.

For reasons of downward compatibility, the Unity FLR keeps the timestamp translation delivered by the VNX systems. But to our surprise exactly the time range from 2038 to 2084 was translated to the years 1940 - 1986. However, since the server displayed the timestamps correctly, the target system did not accept them. dynaMigs.net developed a method in which several copy runs with robocopy and emcopy ensured that the timestamps written to Unity correctly mapped the desired retention times.

Implementation:
Migration including audit-proof verification of the migration by Stormax.

Technical Scope FLR-Migration:

• Total volume: 5TB
• Shares: 1
• DELL VNX -> DELL Unity

Administrative Scope:

• Test of the migration options
• Migration of files that are expired according to retention
• Extension of the maximum retention to 30 years

Programming Languages:

• bash
• sed
• awk
• perl
• C/C++

Protocol: CIFS

Specials:

• Debugging/troubleshooting on Unity
• Escalation management and communication with DELL support
• Troubleshooting, tool development for situation rescue.

Tools:

• Wireshark, tcpdump
• emcopy
• robocopy
• Stromax

Project Duration: 4 moths

Mission:
The operator of a data center offers fully automatically provisioned NAS storage to his clients. In order to balance the data volumes, he has to perform migrations on a regular basis and optimize or automated them in order to reduce the time required.

Challenge:
The data has to be migrated between different NAS filers from different manufacturers.

Implementation:
dynaMigs has expanded the migration toolbox to include a controller that can carry out fully automated migrations and switchovers. This controller was integrated into the existing toolset of the operations team.

Facts & Figures:

• NAS-Filer: Dell-EMC and Netapp
• Total Volume: 80 Petabyte
• Languages: Perl

Project Duration: 12 months

Mission:
3.5PB with approx. 1 billion files of NAS data had to be migrated in 30 locations around the globe when the managed storage contract was changed from NetApp/TSystems to EMC. This also invovled taking full responsibility for the technical planning of every migration, stearing all activities during the switch-overs and managing the entire change coordination before, during and after all downtimes.

Challenge:
To control all migrations centrally and to save bandwidth, dynaMigs.net developed a tool that we called the Jobpipe. The Jobpipe is a remote control for Linux and Windows that makes it possible for us to start individual copy packages remotely and process them locally and simultaneously in each location.

Implementation:
Since delayed write errors occurred under Windows, dynaMigs.net developed a method to check the migrations using the Stormax Suite. All migrations for this client and any others in the futere can now be checked for correct execution. Since Stormax scans the data with a different algorithm than the copying tool, any errors in emcopy, rsync and even on the filer itself could be identified.

Technical Achievements:

• Solution Design/Solution translation Netapp > VNX
• As the CTA solution with NDMP backup simulation did not meet the requirements demanded, a completely new copying process had to be developed and implemented
• Adaptation of existing toolsets to customer environments
• Multiprotokoll (NFS/CIFS)
• DFS / DDFS / Widelink-Translation
• Multiple Codepages: ISO-8859-15 / UTF8 / Unicode
• Development of an audit-proof migration process

Administrative Achievements:

• Adaptation of the change processes
• Technical implementation of the switchovers
• Support during downtimes (switchover coordination, second- and third-level support for implementation specialists)

Facts & Figures NAS-Migration:

• 200+ Netapp-Frames (7Mode) to Dell VNX 5400/5800
• 1.800+ virtual Servers
• 3.500+ Volumes
• 16.000+ Trees
• 150.000+ NFS-Exports
• 200.000+ CIFS-Shares
• 30+ Standorte worldwide
• Total volume: 3,5+ PB

Programing languages:

• bash
• sed
• awk
• perl
• python
• Visual Basic
• C/C++

Protocols:

• CIFS
• NFS
• CIFS/NFS
• FTP

Nationalities: Teams from Hungary, Romania, India, China, South Africa, Brazil, USA, Egypt

Project Duration: three years