Migrating NetApp Service Level Manager to Active IQ Unified Manager 9.7
Yizhao Zhuang
One important decision we made in the NetApp® Active IQ® Unified Manager 9.7 release was to combine Unified Manager and NetApp Service Level Manager (NSLM) into the same platform to deliver a simple but powerful active management and automation platform that means a better user experience for our customers and partners.
As we roll out Active IQ Unified Manager 9.7, a common question is how to migrate existing NSLM environments to Unified Manager 9.7. The short answer is that it’s a very straightforward process. This blog describes the detailed steps to start the migration.
There could be a couple of scenarios. If you are using NSLM and you have never used Unified Manager, technically you will install a fresh copy of Unified Manager 9.7. Or perhaps you are using both NSLM and Unified Manager 9.6 and want to migrate to Unified Manager 9.7. Either way, you will be required to start this process with the NSLM 1.3 GA release.
Scenario 1. Fresh Installation of Unified Manager 9.7
If you are using Service Level Manager 1.3 to manage your workloads and want to move to Unified Manager 9.7, follow these steps to migrate your NSLM workloads:- Note all the Custom Performance Service Level (PSL) and Custom Storage Efficiency Policies (SEP) in your NSLM setup.
- Note the number of workloads and their mapping stats. For example, how many workloads are managed and how many are associated with the Value Performance Service Level?
- Note all the clusters in your NSLM setup.
- Follow the steps in the installer guide to install Unified Manager 9.7.
- Manually enter custom SEPs to Unified Manager 9.7 with same definition as those in NSLM 1.3.
- Add all the clusters managed by NSLM 1.3 to Unified Manager 9.7.
- Cluster acquisition migrates your workloads automatically to Unified Manager by using QoS and AQoS Policy group details in NetApp ONTAP®.
- When cluster acquisitions are complete, check whether the number of workloads managed by NSLM 1.3 matches the number managed by Unified Manager.
- Check whether Unified Manager automatically created Custom PSLs.
- If they were not, manually add any missing Custom PSLs to Unified Manager.
Scenario 2. Upgrading Unified Manager to 9.7
Prerequisite: If you have been using an older version of Active IQ Unified Manager (previously called OnCommand® Unified Manager), your instance must be at 9.5 or 9.6 version before proceeding with the 9.7 upgrade. NetApp follows an n-2 approach, and you can always upgrade older versions of Unified Manager with this approach.Suppose that you have Unified Manager 9.6 and NetApp Service Level Manager 1.3 for workload management, and you want to move to Unified Manager 9.7 and migrate workloads from NSLM 1.3 to Unified Manager 9.7. Follow these migration steps:
- Note all the Custom PSLs and Custom SEPs in your NSLM setup.
- Note the number of workloads and their mapping stats. (For example, how many workloads are managed and how many are associated with the Value Performance Service Level?)
- Note all the clusters in your NSLM setup.
- Follow the steps in the installer guide to upgrade to Unified Manager 9.7.
- Create Custom SEPs in Unified Manager 9.7.
- After upgrading, wait for all the workloads to get discovered. Verify by checking the number of workloads shown in NSLM 1.3 against Unified Manager 9.7.
- If there is a cluster in NSLM 1.3 and not in Unified Manager, add it.
- Check whether Unified Manager automatically created Custom PSLs.
- If they were not, manually add any missing Custom PSLs to Unified Manager.
For more information
I hope that wasn’t as difficult as you expected. The process is simple and straightforward. Be sure to check out the Unified Manager 9.7 product demo below and to learn about exciting new product features. If you still have questions, leave them below or contact your account team.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkPqJsouHo&list=PLdXI3bZJEw7mp3jFSg0IJgo3oeDQRY-Gl&index=2&t=0s
Yizhao Zhuang
Yizhao Zhuang is a Technical Marketing Engineer (TME) at NetApp with a focus on ONTAP manageability products. He has previously worked on NetApp Service Level Manager and Active IQ Unified Manager to help customers deploy storage automation solutions within the modern data center and IT infrastructures.
