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Lift and Shift of a Volume from Source to Target

Lift and Shift of a Volume from Source to Target

Apr 13, 2023

Once Lift and Shift Settings have been configured, it is time to configure the volume for transition to the target node. The Lift and Shift Process is broken up into 5 key steps. To begin these steps, select Lift and Shift from the Storage Administration pane. 

Step 1 - Naming the Data Flow

Once Lift and Shift is selected, select Create New from the Lift and Shift pane. 
Enter a name for the Flow you are creating. Click Next. 

In older versions of SoftNAS , an additional step might be required: selecting the platform. If this appears, you would select the platform you are running: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or VMware. 





Step 2 - Enter Node information

Enter the IP address, username and password for the target node.
Select Next and Lift and Shift will begin setting up the communication between the Source and Target.

If the login fails after selecting Next, the credentials for the “cloud connection” need to be checked.

This process will take several minutes so be patient.  If the process takes over 5 minutes without completing, it is a good idea to double-check your 9443 and 8081 firewall or security group settings for both the Source and Target and make sure they are correct.

Once the setup of FlexFiles on the Target is complete, and FlexFiles is restarted successfully, you will automatically be transferred to Step 4.

Step 4 - Configure Volumes

Next, you will specify the volumes to be "lifted" as well as the target to which the volumes will be "shifted".  This can be done either by using the "Create Target Storage Wizard" or the "Advanced Configuration Wizard".

  • The Create Target Storage Wizard handles the configuration details of the disk devices, storage pools and volumes being "shifted" to.

  • The Advanced Configuration Wizard allows you to determine the specific details regarding the disk devices, storage pools and volumes being "shifted" to.

Using an External File Server

If the volumes you intend to move are hosted on a separate file server, you will need to specify that fileserver via DNS.
If you are moving volumes hosted on a fileserver, you will need to specify the protocol they are using - NFS or CIFS. If CIFS is selected, the domain, username and password will need to be provided. These fields will appear upon selecting the CIFS radio button. Click Mount Volumes once the required information is entered.

If using the "Create target storage wizard"

If the volumes are hosted on the SoftNAS instance you are initiating Lift and Shift from (the Source instance), they will appear in "Select Volumes to Lift and Shift". Select the volume or volumes you intend to 'lift'.
Once the volume is specified, it is time to configure the target volume that will receive the data. Specify the Cloud Disk Type from the available options, based on the target instance and the type of storage that is available and appropriate.
Once the Cloud Disk type is specified, select from the options available for that type - in the above example, Amazon EBS Disk was selected. The options available for this selection include General Purpose (SSD), Provisioned IOPS (SSD), Magnetic, Throughput Optimized HDD, and Cold HDD.
Delete on termination is an option that is unlikely to be used in a Lift and Shift environment - if this option is selected, it means that the volume created will not be persistent - if the host instance is terminated, the volume will be deleted, and therefore unrecoverable.
Encryption allows you to encrypt the volume to be created.
RAID Level allows you to select the software RAID level you wish to apply to the pool/volume to be created. It is a good idea to mirror the settings of the source volume. Raid Level will dynamically create the necessary disks to create a pool/volume of the selected RAID level.
Here you will select the size of the pool to be created. It must be at least large enough to host the volume from the source instance.
Enter the name of the pool to be created on the target instance.
You can enable compression for your target volume.
You can also enable Deduplication.
Once you have selected the desired settings, you can select Create Target Storage to move to Step 5.

If using the "Advanced configuration wizard"

You can also use the advanced configuration wizard to configure your target storage. The advanced configuration method allows you more granular control of the pools and volumes created, as well as how they are labelled. 

Select the type of disk you wish to create, based on the target instance type.
Enter the required account credentials (or storage account credentials for Azure) you want to use. 

Enter in the size of the disk(s) and number you want to create on the Target.


After you target disk(s) have been created, select Target Pools to create the pools to use on the target node.  Enter the Pool name, then select and add the newly created disks.
Select Target Volumes to proceed to creating the actual volumes on the Target.
Enter the Volume name and select the magnifying glass to get a list of the available Storage Pools.
Enter the type of volume as well as other volume options you may want on the Target. 
Select Create to create the Target Volume and Next to proceed to Step 5.

Step 5 - Configure (Map) Source to Target

Having specified the pools and volumes to be shifted, and configured the target node to receive the data, it is now time to verify the operation is properly configured.

Simply click Verify to test your configuration. 

If properly configured, you will see "passed" in the status column.

You can now click Finish. The Lift and Shift configuration should now be complete.