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initial configuration aggregate setup

William365

Hello Experts,
We recently purchase a hybrid FAS2750 controller with 12 960GB SSDs and two DS212C shelves with 12 10TB drives each. We want use the SSDs aggr0 and the rest for vSphere esxi. The 24 HDDs (one large aggr) for CIFS. Is it possible to use the SSD (maybe RAID4 to minimize the number of disks) for aggr0? Netapp documentation says aggr0 will use SSDs only if the entire system (controller & shelves) contain SSDs only. Otherwise root aggregate will use HDDs. I don't mind to use HDDs but it seems I will be wasting a lot of disk space for just aggr0. I know you use use ADP for root aggregate but agg0 is created automatically, how do I setup ADP before agg0 is created? We also want to use the leftover SSDs for caching of the HDDs. Any advices on best way to get going? I am fairly familiar with the Netapp OnTap software except on creating aggr0. Any advices will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your help!

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Accepted answers

Ontapforrum

The minimum size for a node’s root volume depends on the platform model (automatically sized).

FAS2750: (minimum recommended size, this info is in HWU site, https://hwu.netapp.com/)
The root aggregate minimum size is 191,488 MiB (roughly 200GB).
The root vol minimum size is 150GB

All comments

Ontapforrum

Applies to - New set up installations (From boot menu: Please select 9a & 9b)

ADP:
https://kb.netapp.com/onprem/ontap/os/What_are_the_steps_followed_to__configure_advanced_drive_partitioning_from_ONTAP_boot_menu_option_9

William365

From the last setup we have done, the initial boot up process does not have the menu option available. The boot up menu only shows up after the system completes the initial setup (along with creation of aggr0). Does anyone know the default setup from the manufacturer? Does it already have ADP turn on? Thank you!

Ontapforrum

Are you saying - Boot up process does not have the menu option ? or it does not have option 9 ?

Do you have Service Processor (SP) configured?

ssh to SP, then go to console:
::> reboot
During boot up, when you get a screen Press Ctl+C for Boot menu, press ctl+C

Do you see the boot menu ?

If you do not see option 9, or if it complains ADP Disabled then refer this kb:

https://kb.netapp.com/onprem/ontap/hardware/FAS2750_migration_to_Advanced_Disk_Partitioning_(ADP)_is_not_working

William365

Thank you for the info! It's better to use the SSD or HDD for the root aggregate with ADP? Thanks again.

Ontapforrum

It doesn't matter as long as ADP is configured, less wastage of storage disk space (especially for root aggr configuration), it greatly improve the storage efficiency. However, having aggr0(vol0) on SSD definitely helps in speeding up your normal ONTAP management operations and failover-giveback etc.

William365

One more dumb question, does ONTAP setup know how large aggr0(vol) should be since it creates vol0 automatically? Would I get the same size for vol0 if I use 3 SSDs versus 5 SSDs?

Ontapforrum

The minimum size for a node’s root volume depends on the platform model (automatically sized).

FAS2750: (minimum recommended size, this info is in HWU site, https://hwu.netapp.com/)
The root aggregate minimum size is 191,488 MiB (roughly 200GB).
The root vol minimum size is 150GB

SEIMTEXTER

Sorry to necro, but is there a way (other than physically removing the spinning disks) to force ONTAP to install to ADP'd SSDs? It chooses the first 8 spinning disks it sees, and I don't seem to have a way to tell it not to do that. I even tried pre-assigning SSDs to the nodes before running 9b, but then it complains there are no disks available to install.

andris

Nope. Though it requires physical presence to do it, pulling out the HDDs for the system init (9a, 9b) is the easy/safe way.

andris

A big question to answer first is what will the SSDs be used for?

If they are going to be configured as Storage Pools for Flash Pool (hybrid aggregate) use, then they cannot be used for root partitions (they use a 4-partition scheme of "allocation units").

See: https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap-cli/storage-pool-create.html

Personally, I think of SSD space as more "precious". The node root volume doesn't require the performance of SSDs. So, I favor initializing for ADP (root-data) on the HDDs.