Data Migration

Data migration can be used to migrate volumes from legacy systems to the IBM XIV Storage System with practically no downtime.

One of the obstacles in migrating volumes from legacy systems to new systems is the long application downtime while the volumes are being copied to the new system. IBM XIV offers a powerful data migration feature that migrates volumes while preventing downtime.

Data migration to the XIV system takes place as follows:

• The XIV system acts as a host, gaining access to the volume on the legacy system
• The XIV system is configured as a proxy, as follows:
  • Accept an I/O request from a host
  • Generate an I/O request to the legacy system that reflects the host's I/O request
  • Get the response from the legacy system
  • Respond to the host based on the response received from the legacy system
• While acting as a proxy, the system performs a background copy of all the data from the legacy system to the XIV system

The innovative data migration feature allows the migration of volumes from legacy systems to the XIV system with practically no downtime, performing copying of the information while applications are in production.