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Considerations and requirements for appliance node cloning

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Before cloning an appliance node, you must understand the considerations and requirements.

Hardware requirements for the replacement appliance

Ensure that the replacement appliance meets the following criteria:

  • The source node (appliance being replaced) and the target (new) appliance must be the same type of appliance:

    • You can only clone an Admin Node appliance or a Gateway Node appliance to a new services appliance.

    • You can only clone a Storage Node appliance to a new storage appliance.

  • For Admin Node or Gateway Node appliances, the source node appliance and the target appliance don't need to be the same appliance model; however, changing the appliance model might require replacing the cables or SFP modules.

    For example, you can replace a SG1000 node appliance with a SG100 or replace a SG100 appliance with a SG1000 appliance.

  • For Storage Node appliances, the source node appliance and the target appliance don't need to be the same type of appliance; however:

    • The target appliance must have greater storage capacity than the source appliance.

      For example, you can replace a SG5700 node appliance with a SG6000 appliance.

    • The target appliance must have an equal or greater number of object storage volumes than the source appliance.

      For example, you cannot replace a SG6000 node appliance (16 object store volumes) with a SGF6112 appliance (12 object store volumes).

Contact your StorageGRID sales representative for help choosing compatible replacement appliances to clone specific appliance nodes in your StorageGRID installation.

Prepare to clone an appliance node

You must have the following information before you clone an appliance node:

  • Obtain a temporary IP address for the Grid Network from your network administrator for use with the target appliance during initial installation. If the source node belongs to an Admin Network or Client Network, obtain temporary IP addresses for these networks.

    Temporary IP addresses are normally on the same subnet as the source node appliance being cloned and aren't needed after cloning completes. The source and target appliances must both connect to the primary Admin Node of your StorageGRID to establish a cloning connection.

  • Determine which network to use for cloning data-transfer traffic that provides the best data-transfer performance without degrading StorageGRID network performance or data availability.

    Note Using the 1-GbE Admin Network for clone data transfer results in slower cloning.

  • Determine if node encryption using a key management server (KMS) will be used on the target appliance, so that you can enable node encryption during initial target appliance installation before cloning. You can check if node encryption is enabled on the source appliance node as described in the enabling node encryption.

    The source node and target appliance can have different node-encryption settings. Data decryption and encryption is performed automatically during data transfer and when the target node restarts and joins the grid.

  • Determine if the RAID mode on the target appliance should be changed from its default setting, so you can specify this information during initial target appliance installation before cloning. You can view information about the current RAID mode of the source appliance node on the NODES page in Grid Manager. Select the Hardware tab for the appliance.

    The source node and target appliance can have different RAID settings.

  • Plan for sufficient time to complete the node cloning process. Several days might be required to transfer data from an operational Storage Node to a target appliance. Schedule cloning at a time that minimizes the impact to your business.

  • You should only clone one appliance node at a time. Cloning can prevent you from performing other StorageGRID maintenance functions at the same time.

  • After you have cloned an appliance node, you can use the source appliance that was returned to a pre-install state as the target to clone another compatible node appliance.