SA3400 cluster needs replacing. What steps to take?

[Hein]

I am ofcourse going to do a deep dive on this but it can't hurt to ask you for some sage advice.

Currently running two SA3400 in a HA cluster. We need to upgrade that cluster with two SA3410 as the SA3400 have been running 5 years.
What would be the preferred method to go from SA3400 to SA3410?

The one methods i can find is:

• Add two new SA3410 servers in the two datacentres
• Set up a temporary drive and install the exact same DSM version as on the SA3400 server
• Shut the passive server down.
• Move the ethernet cables and harddisks over to the new server in the exact same order
• Fire up the new server. Check if it says ready or migrate and go from there.
• Server starts up and is active in the cluster again

And then switch the active server to passive and repeat the process.

Is my thinking correct that the above steps are what i need to do or is there a easier method?

Or, option B, add a new passive server to the mix. Which according to Synology is also an option.
Do i first need to remove the old passive server before i get the option to a new passive server?

And can i then add the passive with less harddisk space as the previous one? I would like to downgrade the amount of disk space.

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[Rusty]

The wbove method is the proper migration method starting with the passive node first. The fact that you are migrating the drives it will be a text book migration process. Once the new node has been added, failover to it and repeat the process on the "main" side. The only thing here is that the passive node will be removed from the cluster, and once you do a disk swap you can return it to the culster once again.

And can i then add the passive with less harddisk space as the previous one? I would like to downgrade the amount of disk space.

No. The number of drives and the size of the volume needs to be identical.

 

[Hein]

I thought as much with regards to the drives and size. Currently our datacentre sa3400's are massively oversized on the storage. We got the SA3400 and then 3 RX1217 units. The SA3400 has 12*10.9TB and then the expansion units also have that amount of disks. Massive overkill as we only use around 40Tb of the total of 458Tb. Again.. overkill galore.

Like you pointed out the number of disks used and the volume need to be identical.. So my best bet would be, if i want to slim down the amount of disk space, is to first do some work on the excisting SA3400.

Would it be a sound strategy to just remove some disks from the equation. Remove volume 2 entirely and then slim down volume 1 where only the disks on the SA3400 are being used. That way i can move those disks to the SA3410.

 

[Rusty]

Would it be a sound strategy to just remove some disks from the equation

There is no way around it but to do it that way. Yes, the fact that you can't downsize apart from starting fresh with that pool/volume means that is your only option at present.

 

[Hein]

It's probably the best option. Our external hardware vendor wants to build up a complete new set besides the one we got running now. I do not fancy redoing all their mistakes like with the current setup.

Thanks Rusty