Merging together two different VSANs

mattia.moretti · ‎04-26-2010

Hi all.

I need to migrate an actual fabric based on Cisco 9124 and 9134, to a brand new Cisco Director 9506. Actually I have two fabric (fabric 1 and 2) which are not currently merging together. VSAN are not in use in the actual scenario.

I would like to move to a VSAN topology. In order to proceed with migration from actual fabric, my idea would be to create two separate VSANs on the 9506 (VSAN 10 and VSAN20). Then I could merge fabric 1 with VSAN 10 and fabric2 witrh VSAN20. Unfortunately I can't use IVR, then the idea would be to disable trunking on ISLs so I could migrate zones to new directors but maintaining the separation between fabric 1 and 2 (from actual physical separation to new logical one). I am aware merging different VSANs is discouraged, but it is documented by Cisco ("In some cases, you may need to merge traffic from different port VSANs across a non-trunking ISL. If so, disable the trunking protocol. "). Idea would be maintain the ISL for the time required to migrate all the gears (servers and disk arrays) to the new directors. My question then: have you got any experiences or suggestions ? Could I proceed with this unusual merge hoping not encounter any outages ? Many thanks !

bfeeny · ‎05-01-2010

Let me get this straight, today you have 2 physical switches each is a separate fabric, they do not talk to eachother. You are moving to a single 9506 director. The current switches do not use VSAN's, but you are asking if you can create VSAN 10 and 20 on the director.

Yes, this is fine. You should create VSAN 10 and 20 on the director. Connect fabric 1 to VSAN 10. You should use an E-port and disable trunking protocol like you suggested. You can do the same with fabric 2 and VSAN 20. Then copy over all the zones and move the stuff over one port at a time if you like.

There is no issue with what you are discussing. Keep in mind normal fabric "rules" apply, such as timers matching, and other parameters to avoid an isolation. Good luck!

Brian