Project Management: Storage Delivery and Migration
Project Management
This domain tests the delivery discipline around a storage project: scope, survey, design, installation, configuration, testing, migration, acceptance, and handover. In HCIA-Storage terms, a project is not finished when the array powers on; it is finished when the agreed services run, evidence is recorded, and the customer accepts the result.
Core rules
- Start with a site and service survey: rack space, power, cooling, network ports, IP addressing, host OS versions, multipath requirements, and capacity/performance baselines.
- Freeze scope and design before implementation. A design baseline should state RAID layout, LUN mapping, host connectivity, replication topology, backup policy, and acceptance criteria.
- Manage change and risk formally. A change to LUN size, network zoning, or replication direction can affect hosts and must have a rollback plan.
- Migration needs a pre-check, a copy method such as SmartMigration or HyperReplication, a verification step, and a cutover window. Keep the source until the business confirms success.
- Acceptance evidence includes installation records, configuration backups, test results, and signed handover documents.
Worked example
A customer wants to move 20 TB from an old array to a new OceanStor system with minimal downtime. The plan: baseline host I/O and capacity; provision the target LUNs; use SmartMigration to copy and keep synchronization; test read/write and multipath on a pilot host; schedule cutover; stop application I/O, complete the final sync, remap hosts, and validate. Keep the old LUNs read-only for rollback until acceptance.
Traps
Do not start migration without a verified backup; do not accept a system on power-on only; do not let scope creep bypass change control; and do not omit the rollback and communication plan.