Migrating a Metro Mirror relationship to a Global Mirror relationship

You can migrate a Metro Mirror relationship to a Global Mirror relationship.

Scenario: I/O operations to the secondary VDisk can be stopped during the migration

In this scenario, you have the ability to stop I/O operations to the secondary VDisk during the migration process.

To stop I/O operations to the secondary VDisk while migrating a Metro Mirror relationship to a Global Mirror relationship, you must specify the synchronized option when you create the Global Mirror relationship.

  1. Stop all host I/O operations to the primary VDisk.
  2. Verify that the Metro Mirror relationship is consistent.
    Important: If the Metro Mirror relationship is not consistent when it is stopped, or if any host I/O operations run between the Metro Mirror relationship being stopped and the Global Mirror relationship being created, the updates are not copied to the secondary VDisk.
  3. Delete the Metro Mirror relationship.
  4. Create the Global Mirror relationship between the same two VDisks.

After the Global Mirror relationship is created, you can start the relationship and resume host I/O operations.

Scenario: I/O operations to the secondary VDisk cannot be stopped during the migration

In this scenario, you do not have the ability to stop I/O operations to the secondary VDisk during the migration process.

If I/O operations to the secondary VDisk cannot be stopped, the data on the secondary VDisk becomes out-of-date. When the Global Mirror relationship is started, the secondary VDisk is inconsistent until all of the recent updates are copied to the remote site.

If you do not require a consistent copy of the VDisk at the secondary site, perform the following steps to migrate from a Metro Mirror relationship to a Global Mirror relationship:

Important: The data on the secondary VDisk is not usable until the synchronization process is complete. Depending on your link capabilities and the amount of data that is being copied, this process can take an extended period of time. You must set the background copy bandwidth for the intercluster partnerships to a value that does not overload the intercluster link.
  1. Delete the Metro Mirror relationship.
  2. Create and start the Global Mirror relationship between the same two VDisks.

If you require a consistent copy of the VDisk at the secondary site, perform the following steps to migrate from a Metro Mirror relationship to a Global Mirror relationship:

  1. Delete the Metro Mirror relationship.
  2. Create a Global Mirror relationship between VDisks that were not used for the Metro Mirror relationship. This preserves the VDisk so that you can use it if you require a consistent copy at a later time.
Alternatively, you can use the FlashCopy® feature to maintain a consistent copy. Perform the following steps to use the FlashCopy feature to maintain a consistent copy:
  1. Start a FlashCopy operation for the Metro Mirror VDisk.
  2. Wait for the FlashCopy operation to complete.
  3. Create and start the Global Mirror relationship between the same two VDisks. The FlashCopy VDisk is now your consistent copy.
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