A white paper from Champion Solutions Group

Painless Data Migration

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary

The Data Migration Challenge

Downtime

Invasive Migration Software

Heterogeneous Enterprise Environments

Data Transfer Options

Tape Dump

Host-based Software

Dedicated Migration Appliance

Champion's Data Migration Tool

Champion Data Migration Tool Architecture

Live Data Migration

No Host Footprint

Heterogeneous Migration

Reduced Complexity and Risk

Proactive Monitoring

Step-by-step Simplification of Data Transfers

Conclusion

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Frequently Asked Questions 9

Executive Summary

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The biggest single point of resistance to adopting new technology is the painful process of moving away from an incumbent technology. Whether you want to upgrade, move, consolidate, and/or replace existing storage, the process of migrating data off an old storage array onto a new subsystem is an enormous challenge. Enterprise environments with a heterogeneous mix of application servers, and 24x7 service levels, make scheduling and executing data migration a complex and convoluted task.

The Champion Solutions Group's Data Migration Tool (DMT) and methodology makes dynamic data migration between unlike OEM storage systems a reality. This solution allows complete Block-Level data transfers to occur between multiple heterogeneous OEM storage systems, without host processor intervention (LUN to LUN copy). Simultaneously (DMT) allows Block-Level application updates to occur dynamically between existing host based production applications, their associated legacy storage systems, and the newly introduced target storage system. The complete solution is simple to introduce and remove from the data transmission network regardless of whether the network being used is SCSI or Fiber Channel. Our proven synchronous mirroring capability offers unlimited safe harbor for your data including "Mission Critical" live databases and the power of open system SCSI and Fiber Channel standards allow you unlimited "any to anywhere" data migration capability.

The Data Migration Challenge

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The complex and labor-intensive task of migrating data between storage arrays is a considerable headache for all users of storage equipment. Whether migrating customers off older, legacy devices, consolidating around a new storage architecture, or migrating data to new data centers, the variables involved in transferring data between devices are mind-boggling. Enterprise accounts routinely contain a diverse array of application servers, operating systems (OSs), file systems, volume management methodologies, physical device characteristics, and network transport protocols and topologies. This catalog of variables equates to months of planning and hours, if not days, of manually executed data transfer. DOWNTIMEThe “outage window” has virtually vanished from the vocabulary of enterprise computing operations staff. This period of downtime, traditionally used by administrators to apply maintenance and changes to production servers, has been shrinking as business applications increasingly adopt 24x7 service levels.

Companies who were once able to leverage the existence of scheduled outages to migrate data, when installing and upgrading storage equipment, are now placed in an awkward position. Absent a routine downtime window, a special outage must be planned, solely for the purpose of installing new storage. This can be a bitter pill for Information Technology (IT) management to swallow: taking business applications offline is costly. The unfortunate correlation between new equipment installs and loss of access to revenue generating business applications is something Companies try hard to avoid. INVASIVE MIGRATION SOFTWAREMigration software, often used to avoid the downtime associated with data transfers, presents another set of challenges. IT administrators, responsible for the day-to-day availability and performance of enterprise application servers, are

understandably hesitant when asked to accommodate new software installs on production hosts.

By necessity, migration software runs deep within the operating environment of an application server, requiring careful installation and removal by the professional services team. The intrusive nature of the software, its potential to destabilize an environment, and its demand for resources from application hosts, each offer red flags to IT administrators.

HETEROGENEOUSENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENTSGone are the days when a Companies ITteam could rely on data migration involving one big server and its associated storage. Today’s enterprise computing environments containa complex mix of application servers, OSs,storage devices, and networks.

Successfully migrating to a new storage platform requires Companies IT teams to maintain detailed knowledge of all available enterprise computing configurations, and the interaction among all components. The variety of possible platforms adds tremendous complexity to the data transfer process, increasing the elapse time of a project and introducing greater risk.

Data Transfer Options

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The demand for a safe data transfer mechanism has been around since the first disk drive received an upgrade. And, while choices for Companiesorganizations have expanded, the process is still surprisingly manually intensive and complex.

TAPE DUMPThe traditional path to migration, a tape dump involves manually taking a point-in-time copy of data, and storing it on a staging medium. After installing new storage equipment, the tape data is restored. Conceptually simple, this process has one significant flaw: downtime.

In order to maintain data consistency, application access to storage must be stopped throughout the dump and restore process. For business applications that can accommodate an outage, this procedure is still the simplest and the most straightforward means of populating a new storage device. However, for those applications with more demanding service levels, a flexible alternative must be sought.

HOST-BASED SOFTWARE Host-based data transfer tools address some of the inadequacies of traditional tape dump migration by allowing a degree of application access to data during the copy process. These solutions require installation of software on each server accessing data to be migrated, and often additional host bus adapters (HBAs) to improve migration performance. The software resides on each host server, sitting between the file system and device driver. Application I/Os are captured before leaving the server, and replicated to the new storage array.

Host-based solutions require careful integration with existing production system hardware and software, if smooth operation during the copy process is to be maintained. Once completed, the items added for data migration must be thoroughly de-installed to return customers to the original server and network configuration.

The most significant problem with host-based migration solutions is that they are host-based. IT administrators are understandably cautious about the effects of new hardware and software components on

both production server stability and application performance. And if no direct network interconnects are to be added, the impact of migration traffic on local area networks (LAN) must be considered. Overcoming IT reticence to installing migration software and hardware on the host requires that Companies perform extensive planning andtesting, and gain a thorough understandingof company-specific change management procedures. All of this can add days and weeks to theproject time line of a data migration.

Host-based migration solutions promise a no-application-outage data transfer process, but require navigation through a minefield of obstacles. Without intricate planning and testing, along with accurate forecasts of a migration’s effect on servers and networks, host-based solutions can easily hit snags that sour Companies perceptions and risk damaging I/T credibility.

DEDICATED MIGRATION APPLIANCEAddressing the shortcomings of host-based methods, the dedicated data migration appliance provides a standalone, off-host approach to the problem of transferring data between storage arrays. Appliance solutions eliminate the need for production server disruption during the data transfer process. As application I/Os pass across the network, they are mirrored to new storage devices. This block-level mirroring simplifies the support of heterogeneous storage subsystem migrations by eliminating the need for involvement in server file systems and OSs.

The low-impact nature of the dedicated migration appliance offers a simple solution to the complexities of fallback planning. In the event of a problem, the appliance can be removed from the environment to return customers to their original configuration.

For I/T Departments, the Champion's dedicated migration appliance truly represents the holy grail of data migration. With no host components to deploy, the time consuming, costly, and politically sensitive task of installing and licensing hardware and software on Companies servers can be avoided. Dedicated appliances can be rolled into an environment when needed and rolled out when the migration is over.

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Champion Data Migration Tool

Developed for use in demanding 24x7 environments, the Champion Data Migration Tool

appliance is a powerful tool for migrating live data between storage arrays. Supporting

heterogeneous hosts and storage, the DME eliminates the need for server-based software,

significantly reducing the complexity and risk of data migration.

Flat Panel Display and Keyboard tray

Management Server

Tool & Cable Box

Portable shock mount rack case

FC switches

Champion DME Modules (8)

Ethernet Switch

FIGURE 1. SAMPLE CHAMPION DATA MIGRATION TOOL RACK CONFIGURATION

CHAMPION'S DATA MIGRATION TOOLThe mobile, rack-mounted appliance, developed specifically for data migration, is powered by a special-purpose operating system. Theappliance, built with expandable, replaceable, and upgradeable components, is configured to load balance across multiple channels, maximizing migration performance and throughput over a FC connection. The product is factory configured for migration, requiring no onsite tuning, and auto-senses host- and device-based LUNs on initial boot. The Tool can be tailored to the specific needs of a Company's professional organization with optional components.

LIVE DATA MIGRATION Champion's Methodology and Tools eliminates the requirement for application downtime during data migration. Utilizing synchronous mirroring techniques, data and live updates are copied between storage devices without impacting host application I/O performance. Once complete, mirror copies are separated transparently, allowing all application I/Os to flow directly to the new storage device. At no point are end-users ever aware that data is being migrated. Champion's Tool supports multiple and simultaneous data transfers for increased copy performance and reduced migration elapse time. The simultaneous transfer facility can also create duplicate target copies, guaranteeing that high-availability configurations are maintained throughout the cutover to a new storage device.

NO HOST FOOTPRINTThe standalone appliance dramatically simplifies the data migration process by eliminating the need forhost-based software. Each Champion appliance is

The Champion Data Migration Tool supportssimultaneous, parallel migrations between heterogeneous storage devices, dramatically reducing migration elapse time and increasing performance. Up to 128 target LUNs are supported by one tool.

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The Data Migration Tool provides a command line interface (CLI), for script-based control, and will be available with a graphical user interface (GUI). Both the CLI and GUI are initiated through direct IP connectivity to the management console. No actions on the customer host-server are necessary to configure, manage or monitor data migrations. Scripting support allows professional services organizat--ions to develop fully automated data transfer processing. Champions engineers using the Data Migration Tool migrates data between devices using block-level mirroring. No changes are made to host data and, in the event of a need to fallback to pre-migration configurations, the DME can simply be removed from the environment with no residual impact on either host servers or storage.

capable of migrating data from many hosts, significantly reducing both the overhead of data transfers on application servers, and the software licensing costs.

No more invasive than an FC switch, Champion's Method--ology end tools requires only dedicated interconnectsbetween the appliance, servers and storage to comp--lete data transfers. Champion's service teams configure, initiate and monitor migration tasks for multiple hosts froma single management interface at the Data Migration Tool.

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HETEROGENEOUS MIGRATIONPerforming block-level transfers of data, Championoffers support for heterogeneous host servers and storage devices. This liberates teams from the complexity of cross-vendor migrations, and the time consuming intricacies of each individualhost OS and file system.

REDUCED COMPLEXITY AND RISKMigration of data using Champion's engineersand the Data Migration Tool is a straight- -forward process. After connecting the appliance tohosts and storage, a direct, block-level copy is madebetween source and target LUNs over the dedicated FC network. Once the copy is complete, mirror pairs are split, and LUN maps are transferred between the source and target devices. As with any mirroring scenario,updates during the synchronization process are writtento both sides of the mirror, allowing migration to continuewith concurrent live access from business applications.

PROACTIVE MONITORINGChampion Data Migration personnel take care of alladministration using auto-detection of host and device-side volume configurations, and proactive monitoring of migration progress. Event-basedalerts, configured through the Data Migration Tool management interface, signal data transfer successes and problems to Champions services teams.

STEP-BY-STEP SIMPLIFICATIONOF DATA TRANSFERSMigration of data using Champion's Data Migration Tool is performed independently of host systems. The migration process begins with the introduction of thenew storage subsystem and DME rack into the environment.

FC SWITCH

SOURCE VOLUMES

HOST SERVERS

FIGURE 2. PRE-DATAMIGRATION CONFIGURATION.With no host agents or licenses, the factory configured Champion's Data Migration Tool is easily installed and removed.

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FC SWITCH

DME

HOST SERVERS

SOURCEVOLUMES

TARGETVOLUMES

FC SWITCH

HOST SERVERS

NEW STORAGE

FIGURE 3. CHAMPION DATAMIGRATION TOOL CONFIGURATION.Once the Champion Data Migration Tool and targetstorage are cabled into the stack, automated processes running on the Data Migration Tool discovers existing

host- and device-side LUN configurations. This information

is then used as input to the DME mirroring process.

FIGURE 4. POST-MIGRATIONCONFIGURATION.Creating mirrored LUN copies on the target storage array is a

simple, single step procedure. Once initiated, the Data

Migration Tool begins synchronizing LUNs immediately.

After the synchronization is complete, the mirrored LUN

pairs can be split, leaving the LUNs on the target storage

device mapped to the application host. The old storage

subsystem and Data Migration Tool components can then

be removed.

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Conclusion

Data migration remains a complex and problematic process, resisting attempts at total

automation. Just as each enterprise computing environment is unique, each migration task is

unique, presenting problems for storage vendor professional services organizations. A solid

toolkit of tried and tested products and procedures that can be tailored to address the needs

of any migration project, no matter how complicated, is imperative. The Champion Data

Migration Tool is an essential component of the data migration toolkit.

Solving the problem of end-user downtime during the data transfer process, Champion's

Migration Tool also offers the heterogeneous support to adapt to any situation that a Corporate

I/T team could encounter. Offering safe-harbor guarantees, Champion Solutions Group assures

complete safety of customer data. Champion's Data Migration methodology has no host-footprint,

eliminating the need for host licensed software, and can be quickly introduced into a customer

environment for a migration project and then seamlessly removed once migration is complete.

Champion Solutions Group is in a unique position to deliver on the promise of data migration

solutions. With years of experience delivering storage solutions to major Companies.

Champion has the domain expertise, support structures and track record to ensure success

in managing business critical data migration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What modifications will I need to do to my hosts and existing storage systems? Answer: For most data migrations you will not need to make any modifications to your host or existing storage systems though the host server must meet the minimum firmware and software requirements to support the new storage. The DMT is designed to be transparent for IO operations between host and source storage. This allows the host to retain the original source storage configuration throughout the data migration operation. When the migration is complete, since the target storage data is identical to the source storage data, the host can simply be booted up on the target storage. The DMT requires that the host is FC fabric aware. Some older adapters may need to be updated to be fabric aware before the migration tool can be placed into the data path. Question:: How much down time is associated with this migration effort? Answer: There are two periods of host down time associated with performing an on-line data migration. The host must be shut down when the DMT is placed in the data path before the migration can begin and when the DMT is removed from the data path after the migration is complete. For each target storage channel, two FC cables need to be moved. Since the DMT can be fully configured before it is placed into the data path, the typical time to physically attach the tool and remove the tool is about 15 minutes, much less than the time to bring down the host system and boot the host system back up. Many customers opt to simply perform the migration off-line. Scheduled planned outages often are in the order of 2 hours during which host resources cannot be used. During the outage the DMT can easily migrate 200GB of data. Question:: Do you migrate all of the data? Answer: Yes, the migration tool copies all the data of each source LUN to the associated target LUN. The DMT will assure that any new writes from the host during the migration are copied to both source and target LUN's. Question:: What happens to my file system? Answer: Since the DMT performs a block level data copy, it moves everything from the source LUN to the target LUN including the file system information. When the host is booted from the target storage, the file system information will be identical to when it was last shut down on the source storage.

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Question: What happens if there is an unforeseen interruption of some type while you are in the middle of a data migration? Answer: The DMT always keeps the source storage synchronously updated for all host writes. In the worst case the DMT can always be removed placing the system back to its original configuration. If a connection is broken between the target storage and DMT, host operation can continue to the source storage, but the migration will need to be restarted once the connection it brought back up. The DMT is designed to take advantage of multi-path redundancy. For multi-path configurations, interruptions to oneof the paths will not affect the migration process.

Since the data migration is independent of host processing, a host reboot does not interrupt the data migrationprocess.

Question:: Can you migrate data from older SCSI attached storage systems to newer fiber channel based storage solutions? Answer: Yes, data can be migrated on-line from older SCSI storage to FC based storage. The DMT by itself does not support the SCSI connection and requires additional Champion product to perform the bridging from FC to SCSI. The migration tool will provide an exact copy of SCSI data on the FC storage. Once the data has been migrated, the target storage can be directly attached to a FC adapter. Contact Champion Solutions Group for additional information concerning these opportunities. Question: How about the proprietary IBM SSA direct connected storage? Answer: Yes, data can be migrated from SSA storage to FC based storage. Optional firmware and hardware must be purchased from Champion to perform the bridging from FC to SSA and to provide the RAID 5 decomposition. The DMT moves the data from the source storage to the target storage. For SSA installations that use host based RAID 5 data protection, during the data movement the migration tool will remove the RAID 5 encoding. Contact Champion Solutions Group for additional information concerning this opportunity. Question: What if I want to change the LUN size on the new storage system that I plan on using? Answer: The DMT will make LUN size of the target device the same as the LUN size of the source device. Question: When will I know that the migration is completed? Answer: The DMT provides the user with information concerning the percentage of the migration that is completed. Question: What will I need to do to begin using the data on my new storage system when the migration has been completed? Answer: Once the DMT has completed the migration, the host must be shut down and the DMT removed from the data path. Once the host is booted back up the data can be used.

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Champion Solutions Group791 Park of Commerce Blvd.

Boca Raton, FL 33487-3632

Main: 561 997-2900

Toll Free: 800 771-7000

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