Volume Moves

Volume move operations allow you to move volumes between folders or between pools. When you move a volume from one pool to another, parts of the volume might exist on either the pool or a folder of that pool. When the move is complete, the data exists only on the destination pool or folder. It is not preserved on the source pool or folder.

Note: Moving VVols using the NimbleOS GUI can be a highly disruptive operation and can lead to a loss of data or VM accessibility.

You should always move VVols from vCenter using storage vMotion.

The two most common reasons to move data are to increase performance by moving a volume from a single-array pool to a multi-array pool or to manually balance space usage between pools.

When you move a volume between pools, you also move all of its snapshots and clones. User access permissions and encryption settings move with the volume.

During a move, the change from one pool to another is transparent. There is no disruption of service, and during the move process, any write is made to the current location of that part of the volume. A move between pools can require some time, depending on the amount of data in the volume, the number of clones, and the pools being migrated to and from. A move to or from a folder is almost immediate.

Important: During a move, some volume data will reside partially on both pools; consequentially, when performing a move, you must use the Nimble Connection Manager (NCM) on the host to facilitate the move. You should also use NCM to check hosts for old connections to targets that connect directly to data IPs.

If such connections exist, then for each target:

confirm that other connections to the corresponding group discovery IP exist, or
establish new connections that point to the corresponding group discovery IPs before disconnecting these old connections.

In addition, make sure you perform the same checks for any defined static, favorite, or persistent targets and update any connections as necessary.

Volumes can be moved independently or simultaneously with other volume-move operations. However, while in the process of a move, you cannot start another move on the same volume.

Note: For Fibre Channel groups, in order to avoid losing data paths between the host and the volume being moved, Nimble recommends that you check that Fibre Channel connectivity exists between the host and the arrays in an FC group prior to initiating a volume move operation.