7-mode migration to Cluster ontap

When transitioning from 7-mode CIFS/NFS volumes to Cluster Ontap there are 4 main steps:

1. Create destination DP volume on the SVM [Cluster]
2. vserver peer transition create
3. Snapmirror create
4. snapmirror initialize

Please note: Before you do this, make sure snapmirror is licensed on both Cluster and the 7-mode side. You can copy data from 7-Mode volumes to clustered Data ONTAP volumes by using clustered Data ONTAP SnapMirror commands. After the data is copied across, you can then set up the protocols, services, and other configuration to resume services on the cluster side.

Attention: You can transition only volumes in a NAS (CIFS and NFS) environment to clustered Data ONTAP.

This article is not about how to perform those 4 steps, but about error you might receive in the 4th step during initializing.

Issue: Snapmirror between 7-mode and cluster fails to initialize.
ONTAP9::> snapmirror update -destination-path CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
Error: command failed: Volume CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM is not initialized.

Even though you did initialized it for sure:
ONTAP9::> snapmirror initialize -destination-path CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
Operation is queued: snapmirror initialize of destination "CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM".

When you look at the snapmirror show, it reports Uninitialized
ONTAP9::> snapmirror show
                                                                       Progress
Source            Destination Mirror  Relationship   Total             Last
Path        Type  Path        State   Status         Progress  Healthy Updated
----------- ---- ------------ ------- -------------- --------- ------- --------
ontap7.lab.com:vol_CIFS
            TDP  CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
                              Uninitialized
                                      Idle           -         false   -

Cause:
Check the 7-mode console for errors, and you will spot the error.
Sun Apr  9 22:03:18 GMT [ontap832:snapmirror.src.requestDenied:error]: SnapMirror transfer request from vol_CIFS to host CIFS_FG at IP address 192.168.0.60 denied: check options snapmirror.access.

Culprit was : denied: check options snapmirror.access. 192.168.0.60 is the LIF on the SVM which is used to pull the data from the 7-mode.

Solution: Add the SVM to the snapmirror access list on 7-mode.

What this option does?
options snapmirror.access = Specifies the SnapMirror destinations [SVM] that are allowed to copy from the system. So we need to add our SVM to this option.


ontap7> options snapmirror.access
snapmirror.access            legacy
It is set to legacy - When the option is set to legacy, access is controlled by the /etc/snapmirror.allow file. Therefore, simply remove the legacy.


For test purpose I am allowing everything, so I use '*'

Step 1:
ontap7> options snapmirror
snapmirror.access            *

Step 2:
Run the initialize command again.
ONTAP9::> snapmirror initialize -destination-path CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
Operation is queued: snapmirror initialize of destination "CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM".

Step 3:
Check the progress
ONTAP9::> snapmirror show -destination-path CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
                     Source Path: ontap832.lab.com:vol_CIFS
                     Destination Path: CIFS_FG:CIFS_SM
                     Relationship Type: TDP
                     Relationship Group Type: none
                     SnapMirror Schedule: -
                     SnapMirror Policy Type: async-mirror
                    SnapMirror Policy: DPDefault
                    Tries Limit: -
                    Throttle (KB/sec): unlimited
                    Mirror State: Snapmirrored
                    Relationship Status: Idle
                    File Restore File Count: -
                    File Restore File List: -
                    Transfer Snapshot: -
                    Snapshot Progress: -
                   Total Progress: -
                    Network Compression Ratio: -
                    Snapshot Checkpoint: -
                    Newest Snapshot: CIFS_FG(4082368507)_CIFS_SM.1
                    Newest Snapshot Timestamp: 04/09 23:14:25
                    Exported Snapshot: CIFS_FG(4082368507)_CIFS_SM.1
                    Exported Snapshot Timestamp: 04/09 23:14:25
                    Healthy: true
                    Unhealthy Reason: -
                    Constituent Relationship: false
                    Destination Volume Node: ONTAP9-01
                    Relationship ID: f32beda3-1d6f-11e7-8a7b-000c29f1b85e
                   Current Operation ID: -
                   Transfer Type: -
                   Transfer Error: -
                   Current Throttle: -
                   Current Transfer Priority: -
                   Last Transfer Type: initialize
                   Last Transfer Error: -
                   Last Transfer Size: 53.91MB

As seen below - The data from the 7-mode FILER's CIFS volume has been transferred to Cluster Ontap.