Migrating between switches

Question

We have a small SAN based on a 9140 switch. We need to expand and have purchased a 9509. I'd like to connect the switches, migrate the connections in my production VSAN onto the 9509, leave the test VSAN on the 9140, and then disconnect the two switches, creating two fabrics. Is there an easy way to do this? I've tried setting up a trunk between the switches but I think I need to create a common domain; as this is disruptive I want to avoid that if possible.

Answer 1

Here is what I would suggest. I assume that the 9140 has all active ports in a single VSAN. I would create that same VSAN number in the 9509, and assign it a different Domain ID. Then connect an ISL cable between the 2 devices. If the VSAN comes up on the E or TE port, the active zoneset from the 9140 should show up in the 9509. If the zone members were created by using the device PWWN, then you move devices over at your leisure. Once all devices are migrated, you can disconnect the ISL to the 9140 and do with it what you want.
In the 9140 to view the current status, here are some commands for the CLI to help you determine what is currently in place.
show vsan membership (shows which physical ports are in which vsan)
show flogi database (shows which devices are logged into the 9140)
show zoneset active vsan x (shows the currently active zoning database for the vsan noted in the command by x)
Steps to do on the 9509.
create the vsan
place the desired number of ports into the vsan
take these ports out of shutdown mode
bring up the ISL between the 2 swtiches
check for the zoneset to show up in the 9509
Again, if the zone members are PWWN, then you can move the devices at your own pace from the 9140, to the 9509. If the zone members are not by PWWN, then you would need to generate the corresponding zones to maintain connectivity as devices are migrated.
If the host/storage are dual attached to the 9140, you can make the migration 1 path at a time and incur no down time.
I hope this helps,
Mike