# Share Migration

As of the Ocata release of OpenStack, manila supports migration of shares across different pools through an experimental API. Since it was first introduced, several enhancements have been made through the subsequent releases while still in experimental state. This developer document reflects the latest version of the experimental Share Migration API.

## Feature definition

The Share Migration API is an administrator-only experimental API that allows the invoker to select a destination pool to migrate a share to, while still allowing clients to access the source share instance during the migration. Migration of data is generally expected to be disruptive for users accessing the source, because at some point it will cease to exist. For this reason, the share migration feature is implemented in a 2-phase approach, for the purpose of controlling the timing of that expected disruption of migrating shares.

The first phase of migration is when operations that take the longest are performed, such as data copying or replication. After the first pass of data copying is complete, it is up to the administrator to trigger the second phase, often referred to as switchover phase, which may perform operations such as a last sync and deleting the source share instance.

During the data copy phase, users remain connected to the source, and may have to reconnect after the switchover phase. In order to migrate a share, manila may employ one of two mechanisms which provide different capabilities and affect how the disruption occurs with regards to user access during data copy phase and disconnection during switchover phase. Those two mechanisms are:

driver-assisted migration

  This mechanism uses the underlying driver running in the manila-share service node to coordinate the migration. The migration itself is performed directly on the storage. In order for this mechanism to be used, it requires the driver to implement this functionality, while also requiring that the driver which manages the destination pool is compatible with driver-assisted migration. Typically, drivers would be able to assist migration of shares within storage systems from the same vendor. It is likely that this will be the most efficient and reliable mechanism to migrate a given share, as the storage back end may be able to migrate the share while remaining writable, preserving all file system metadata, snapshots, and possibly perform this operation non-disruptively. When this mechanism cannot be used, the host-assisted migration will be attempted.

host-assisted migration

  This mechanism uses the Data Service (manila-data) to copy the source share’s data to a new destination share created in the given destination pool. For this mechanism to work, it is required that the Data Service is properly configured in the cloud environment and the migration operation for the source share’s protocol and access rule type combination is supported by the Data Service. This is the most suited mechanism to migrate shares when the two pools are from different storage vendors. Given that this mechanism is a rough copy of files and the back ends are unaware that their share contents are being copied over, the optimizations found in the driver-assisted migration are not present here, thus the source share remains read-only, snapshots cannot be transferred, some file system metadata such as permissions and ownership may be lost, and users are expected to be disconnected by the end of migration.

Note that during a share migration, access rules cannot be added or removed.

As of Ocata release, this feature allows several concurrent migrations (driver-assisted or host-assisted) to be performed, having a best-effort type of scalability.

## API description

The migration of a share is started by invoking the `migration_start` API. The parameters are:

share

  The share to be migrated. This parameter is mandatory.

destination

  The destination pool in `host@backend#pool` representation. This parameter is mandatory.

force_host_assisted_migration

  Forces the host-assisted mechanism to be used, thus using the Data Service to copy data across back ends. This parameter value defaults to False. When set to True, it skips the driver-assisted approach which would otherwise be attempted first. This parameter is optional.

preserve_metadata

  Specifies whether migration should enforce the preservation of all file system metadata. When this behavior is expected (i.e, this parameter is set to True) and drivers are not capable of ensuring preservation of file system metadata, migration will result in an error status. As of Ocata release, host-assisted migration cannot provide any guarantees of preserving file system metadata. This parameter is mandatory.

preserve_snapshots

  Specifies whether migration should enforce the preservation of all existing snapshots at the destination. In other words, the existing snapshots must be migrated along with the share data. When this behavior is expected (i.e, this parameter is set to True) and drivers are not capable of migrating the snapshots, migration will result in an error status. As of Ocata release, host-assisted migration cannot provide this capability. This parameter is mandatory.

nondisruptive

  Specifies whether migration should only be performed without disrupting clients during migration. For such, it is also expected that the export location does not change. When this behavior is expected (i.e, this parameter is set to True) and drivers are not capable of allowing the share to remain accessible through the two phases of the migration, migration will result in an error status. As of Ocata release, host-assisted migration cannot provide this capability. This parameter is mandatory.

writable

  Specifies whether migration should only be performed if the share can remain writable. When this behavior is expected (i.e, this parameter is set to True) and drivers are not capable of allowing the share to remain writable, migration will result in an error status. If drivers are not capable of performing a nondisruptive migration, manila will ensure that the share will remain writable through the data copy phase of migration. However, during the switchover phase the share will be re-exported at the destination, causing the share to be rendered inaccessible for the duration of this phase. As of Ocata release, host-assisted migration cannot provide this capability. This parameter is mandatory.

new_share_type

  If willing to retype the share so it can be allocated in the desired destination pool, the invoker may supply a new share type to be used. This is often suited when the share is to be migrated to a pool which operates in the opposite driver mode. This parameter is optional.

new_share_network

  If willing to change the share’s share-network so it can be allocated in the desired destination pool, the invoker may supply a new share network to be used. This is often suited when the share is to be migrated to a pool which operates in a different availability zone or managed by a driver that handles share servers. This parameter is optional.

After started, a migration may be cancelled through the `migration_cancel` API, have its status obtained through the `migration_get_progress` API, and completed through the `migration_complete` API after reaching a certain state (see `Workflows` section below).

## Workflows

Upon invoking `migration_start`, several validations will be performed by the API layer, such as:

- If supplied API parameters are valid.

- If the share does not have replicas.

- If the share is not member of a share group.

- If the access rules of the given share are not in error status.

- If the driver-assisted parameters specified do not conflict with force_host_assisted_migration parameter.

- If force_host_assisted_migration parameter is set to True while snapshots do not exist.

- If share status is available and is not busy with other tasks.

- If the destination pool chosen to migrate the share to exists and is running.

- If share service or Data Service responsible for performing the migration exists and is running.

- If the combination of share network and share type resulting is compatible with regards to driver modes.

If any of the above validations fail, the API will return an error. Otherwise, the task_state field value will transition to migration_starting and the share’s status will transition to migrating. Past this point, all validations, state transitions and errors will not produce any notifications to the user. Instead, the given share’s task_state field value will transition to migration_error.

Following API validation, the scheduler will validate if the supplied destination is compatible with the desired share type according to the pool’s capabilities. If this validation fails, the task_state field value will transition to migration_error.

The scheduler then invokes the source share pool’s manager to proceed with the migration, transitioning the task_state field value to migration_in_progress. If force-host-assisted-migration API parameter is not set, then a driver-assisted migration will be attempted first.

Note that whichever mechanism is employed, there will be a new share instance created in the database, referred to as the “destination instance”, with a status field value migrating_to. This share instance will not have its export location displayed during migration and will prevail instead of the original instance database entry when migration is complete.

### Driver-assisted migration data copy phase

A share server will be created as needed at the destination pool. Then, the share server details are provided to the driver to report the set of migration capabilities for this destination. If the API parameters writable, nondisruptive, preserve_metadata and preserve_snapshots are satisfied by the reported migration capabilities, the task_state field value transitions to migration_driver_starting and the driver is invoked to start the migration.

The driver’s migration_start method should start a job in the storage back end and return, allowing the task_state field value to transition to migration_driver_in_progress. If any of the API parameters described previously are not satisfied, or the driver raises an exception in migration_start, the driver-assisted migration ends setting the task_state field value to migration_error, all allocated resources will be cleaned up and migration will proceed to the host-assisted migration mechanism.

Once the migration_start driver method succeeds, a periodic task that checks for shares with task_state field value migration_driver_in_progress will invoke the driver’s migration_continue method, responsible for executing the next steps of migration until the data copy phase is completed, transitioning the task_state field value to migration_driver_phase1_done. If this step fails, the task_state field value transitions to migration_error and all allocated resources will be cleaned up.

### Host-assisted migration data copy phase

A new share will be created at the destination pool and the source share’s access rules will be changed to read-only. The task_state field value transitions to data_copying_starting and the Data Service is then invoked to mount both shares and copy data from the source to the destination.

In order for the Data Service to mount the shares, it will ask the storage driver to allow access to the node where the Data Service is running. It will then attempt to mount the shares via their respective administrator-only export locations that are served in the administrator network when available, otherwise the regular export locations will be used.

In order for the access and mount procedures to succeed, the administrator-only export location must be reachable from the Data Service and the access parameter properly configured in the Data Service configuration file. For instance, a NFS share should require an IP configuration, whereas a CIFS share should require a username credential. Those parameters should be previously set in the Data Service configuration file by the administrator.

The data copy routine runs commands as root user for the purpose of setting the correct file metadata to the newly created files at the destination share. It can optionally verify the integrity of all files copied through a configuration parameter. Once copy is completed, the shares are unmounted, their access from the Data Service are removed and the task_state field value transitions to data_copying_completed, allowing the switchover phase to be invoked.

### Share migration switchover phase

When invoked, the task_state field value transitions to migration_completing. Whichever migration mechanism is used, the source share instance is deleted and the access rules are applied to the destination share instance. In the driver-assisted migration, the driver is first invoked to perform a final sync.

The last step is to update the share model’s optional capability fields, such as create_share_from_snapshot_support, revert_to_snapshot_support and mount_snapshot_support, according to the new_share_type, if it had been specified when the migration was initiated.

At last, the task_state field value transitions to migration_success. If the nondisruptive driver-assisted capability is not supported or the host-assisted migration mechanism is used, the export location will change and clients will need to remount the share.

## Driver interfaces

All drivers that implement the driver-assisted migration mechanism should be able to perform all required steps from the source share instance back end within the implementation of the interfaces listed in the section below. Those steps include:

- Validating compatibility and connectivity between the source and destination back end;

- Start the migration job in the storage back end. Return after the job request has been submitted;

- Subsequent invocations to the driver to monitor the job status, cancel it and obtain its progress in percentage value;

- Complete migration by performing a last sync if necessary and delete the original share from the source back end.

For host-assisted migration, drivers may override some methods defined in the base class in case it is necessary to support it.

## Additional notes

- In case of an error in the storage back end during the execution of the migration job, the driver should raise an exception within the `migration_continue` method.

- If the manila-share service is restarted during a migration, in case it is a driver-assisted migration, the driver’s `migration_continue` will be invoked continuously with an interval configured in the share manager service (`migration_driver_continue_interval`). The invocation will stop when the driver finishes the data copy phase. In case of host-assisted migration, the migration job is disrupted only if the manila-data service is restarted. In such event, the migration has to be restarted from the beginning.

- To be compatible with host-assisted migration, drivers must also support the `update_access` interface, along with its recovery mode mechanism.

### Share Migration driver-assisted interfaces:

class ShareDriver(driver_handles_share_servers, *args, **kwargs)

  Class defines interface of NAS driver.

  migration_cancel(context, source_share, destination_share, source_snapshots, snapshot_mappings, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Cancels migration of a given share to another host.

    Note

    Is called in source share’s backend to cancel migration.

    If possible, driver can implement a way to cancel an in-progress migration.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the original share model.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - source_snapshots – List of snapshots owned by the source share.

      - snapshot_mappings – Mapping of source snapshot IDs to destination snapshot models.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

  migration_check_compatibility(context, source_share, destination_share, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Checks destination compatibility for migration of a given share.

    Note

    Is called to test compatibility with destination backend.

    Driver should check if it is compatible with destination backend so driver-assisted migration can proceed.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the share to be migrated.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

    Returns:

      A dictionary containing values indicating if destination backend is compatible, if share can remain writable during migration, if it can preserve all file metadata and if it can perform migration of given share non-disruptively.

      Example:

          {
              'compatible': True,
              'writable': True,
              'preserve_metadata': True,
              'nondisruptive': True,
              'preserve_snapshots': True,
          }

  migration_complete(context, source_share, destination_share, source_snapshots, snapshot_mappings, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Completes migration of a given share to another host.

    Note

    Is called in source share’s backend to complete migration.

    If driver is implementing 2-phase migration, this method should perform the disruptive tasks related to the 2nd phase of migration, thus completing it. Driver should also delete all original share data from source backend.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the original share model.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - source_snapshots – List of snapshots owned by the source share.

      - snapshot_mappings – Mapping of source snapshot IDs to destination snapshot models.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

    Returns:

      If the migration changes the share export locations, snapshot provider locations or snapshot export locations, this method should return a dictionary with the relevant info. In such case, a dictionary containing a list of export locations and a list of model updates for each snapshot indexed by their IDs.

      Example:

          {
              'export_locations':
              [
                  {
                  'path': '1.2.3.4:/foo',
                  'metadata': {},
                  'is_admin_only': False
                  },
                  {
                  'path': '5.6.7.8:/foo',
                  'metadata': {},
                  'is_admin_only': True
                  },
              ],
              'snapshot_updates':
              {
                  'bc4e3b28-0832-4168-b688-67fdc3e9d408':
                  {
                  'provider_location': '/snapshots/foo/bar_1',
                  'export_locations':
                  [
                      {
                      'path': '1.2.3.4:/snapshots/foo/bar_1',
                      'is_admin_only': False,
                      },
                      {
                      'path': '5.6.7.8:/snapshots/foo/bar_1',
                      'is_admin_only': True,
                      },
                  ],
                  },
                  '2e62b7ea-4e30-445f-bc05-fd523ca62941':
                  {
                  'provider_location': '/snapshots/foo/bar_2',
                  'export_locations':
                  [
                      {
                      'path': '1.2.3.4:/snapshots/foo/bar_2',
                      'is_admin_only': False,
                      },
                      {
                      'path': '5.6.7.8:/snapshots/foo/bar_2',
                      'is_admin_only': True,
                      },
                  ],
                  },
              },
          }

  migration_continue(context, source_share, destination_share, source_snapshots, snapshot_mappings, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Continues migration of a given share to another host.

    Note

    Is called in source share’s backend to continue migration.

    Driver should implement this method to continue monitor the migration progress in storage and perform following steps until 1st phase is completed.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the original share model.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - source_snapshots – List of snapshots owned by the source share.

      - snapshot_mappings – Mapping of source snapshot IDs to destination snapshot models.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

    Returns:

      Boolean value to indicate if 1st phase is finished.

  migration_get_progress(context, source_share, destination_share, source_snapshots, snapshot_mappings, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Obtains progress of migration of a given share to another host.

    Note

    Is called in source share’s backend to obtain migration progress.

    If possible, driver can implement a way to return migration progress information.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the original share model.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - source_snapshots – List of snapshots owned by the source share.

      - snapshot_mappings – Mapping of source snapshot IDs to destination snapshot models.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

    Returns:

      A dictionary with at least ‘total_progress’ field containing the percentage value.

  migration_start(context, source_share, destination_share, source_snapshots, snapshot_mappings, share_server=None, destination_share_server=None)

    Starts migration of a given share to another host.

    Note

    Is called in source share’s backend to start migration.

    Driver should implement this method if willing to perform migration in a driver-assisted way, useful for when source share’s backend driver is compatible with destination backend driver. This method should start the migration procedure in the backend and end. Following steps should be done in ‘migration_continue’.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - source_share – Reference to the original share model.

      - destination_share – Reference to the share model to be used by migrated share.

      - source_snapshots – List of snapshots owned by the source share.

      - snapshot_mappings – Mapping of source snapshot IDs to destination snapshot models.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

      - destination_share_server – Destination Share server model or None.

### Share Migration host-assisted interfaces:

class ShareDriver(driver_handles_share_servers, *args, **kwargs)

  Class defines interface of NAS driver.

  connection_get_info(context, share, share_server=None)

    Is called to provide necessary generic migration logic.

    Parameters:

      - context – The ‘context.RequestContext’ object for the request.

      - share – Reference to the share being migrated.

      - share_server – Share server model or None.

    Returns:

      A dictionary with migration information.

this page last updated: 2026-04-22 07:00:00

Except where otherwise noted, this document is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. See all OpenStack Legal Documents.

found an error? report a bug