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FlexPod Express Converged Infrastructure Simplifies VMware Solution Design, Deployment, and Growth

jyhshing — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 20:53:48 GMT

Industry trends indicate that data center transformation is occurring towards a hybrid cloud infrastructure with on-premises shared infrastructure, cloud computing, and the connectivity enabled by data fabric powered by NetApp to seamlessly provide data where it is needed. In addition, organizations seek a simple, reliable, and scalable VMware solution infrastructure for remote and branch offices.

In this blog, I will provide an overview of the three-tier solution architecture design and the FlexPod^® Express NetApp Verified Architecture, which implements a resilient three-tier VMware solution with Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp^® AFF or FAS systems.

Introduction

For a VMware solution to deliver the outcomes that companies depend on, it should be simple to design, deploy, maintain, and also flexible to scale and grow. Figure 1 shows a three-tier solution architecture with resiliency built into the design, including three servers, two network switches, and one highly available storage that supports NAS and SAN protocols.

Figure 1) A resilient three-tier solution architecture.

With this design, workloads can be balanced among the compute servers and compute resources can be scaled by adding additional servers or additional memories in each server. The workload and virtual machines can be live migrated off a server for server maintenance or upgrade purposes.

The networking tier includes two switches to provide redundant connectivity between the servers and the storage system.

The storage tier should meet the performance, capacity, and cost objectives, and provide the storage protocol the solution requires, such as NFS for NAS and iSCSI for SAN.

The redundant components and connectivity in the design ensures high availability for various single-point-of-failure scenarios and allows the component and software upgrade to take place without impacting the availability of the solution.

Solution architecture

Figure 2 shows how the FlexPod Express for VMware vSphere 7.0 solution architecture implements the three-tier architecture that we discussed. It includes a Cisco UCS Mini for compute, a NetApp AFF C190, AFF A220, or FAS 2700 series storage system, and two Cisco Nexus 3000 series switches with redundant connectivity between the component tiers.

Figure 2) FlexPod Express solution architecture with Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp AFF/FAS.

The Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnects embedded in chassis simplify the connectivity between the servers, switches, and the storage system. You can start with a small solution configuration using just three blade servers. Additional blades can be added into the chassis to grow the solution without requiring any additional cables. You can boot a server from its local SD card or from the iSCSI SAN.

You can choose the NetApp storage system that best meets your solution requirements and future growth projections. For a small solution, you can deploy the AFF C190 with only eight SSDs to start. You can use AFF A220 if higher storage capacity or higher I/O performance is required. If minimizing cost is your objective, you can use the FAS 2700 series storage systems.

With the NetApp ONTAP^® storage efficiency features, including thin provisioning, deduplication, compression, and compaction, your data is very efficiently stored in the system. When your data grows, you can add additional disks or disk shelves for more capacity. In addition, you can take advantage of the NetApp FabricPool technology to tier infrequently accessed cold data to the public cloud or to the on-premises object storage using the S3 protocols.

Finally, if you already have an existing networking infrastructure with switches that meets the compliant switches requirements, you can build your solution with those switches and the Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp storage to reduce costs.

Solution benefits

There are three important benefits the solution provides:

A highly flexible architecture with choices of components to meet the performance, capacity, and cost objectives of your VMware solution.
A highly available solution design with multiprotocol support, 3x storage efficiency guarantee for mixed workload, and cloud connected data fabric, making the solution simple to deploy, maintain, and easy to scale and grow.
A highly reliable infrastructure with tier-1 enterprise HW from NetApp and Cisco backed by a cooperative support model.

Summary

In summary, customers can count on NetApp, Cisco, and the FlexPod Express for VMware vSphere with Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp AFF and FAS solution to deliver a highly available, highly flexible, and highly scalable converged infrastructure. This solution will simplify your VMware solution design, deployment, and growth.

References

FlexPod Express for VMware vSphere 7.0 with Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp AFF/FAS NVA Design Guide
https://www.netapp.com/pdf.html?item=/media/22621-nva-1154-DESIGN.pdf
FlexPod Express for VMware vSphere 7.0 with Cisco UCS Mini and NetApp AFF/FAS NVA Deployment Guide
https://www.netapp.com/pdf.html?item=/media/21938-nva-1154-DEPLOY.pdf

Converged Systems Advisor 4.2 - Adding Nexus Devices - ERROR

KSALINVILLE — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 03:07:34 GMT

I'm attempting to configure a new installation of CSA 4.2 in our lab environment and I have been able to add vCenter, UCS Manager, and our NetApp Cluster without any trouble at all. However, adding the Nexus switches did not go as well.

The devices authenticated just fine for the initial add but upon reaching out to validate the devices, CSA encountered the following error on both switches:

The following parsing errors were found: [ParsingError(error_code="EngCisco101", msg="Error while discovering Cisco Nexus device for <IP_ADDRESS_OF_SWITCH> host", traceback="Error while discovering Cisco nexus device : ips_eng_cisco.snapshots.py::common_commands : no hardware slots")]

I have removed and tried to add them again just to be sure that nothing was typed incorrectly with the authentication credentials.

The switches are Nexus 3548 running BIOS version 2.0.10 and system version 6.0(2)A8(10a).

Our CI keep Pulling data but nothing shows from Dashboard

AndersCai — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 23:47:34 GMT

Hi,

Anyone had an issue about CI keep collecting data from CSA portal ? I have confirmed the CSA agent Onprem has access to internet and done culrt -l www.csa.netapp with no issue.

Also all devices are added to CSA Agent which can be picked up from CSA port to create a CI, however there is nothing show on Dashboard only keep asking to collection data.

We are planning to do some testing before we buy any license so the no license is applied, is that the main issue preventing see any details showing from the dashboard?

Any ideas, did I miss anything ?

Cheers

Getting started with Tech Preview of NetApp ONTAP Storage Connector for Cisco Intersight

sree — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 00:08:47 GMT

The most awaited NetApp ONTAP Connector with Cisco Intersight Technical Preview is out and comes with exciting new approach to manage your FlexPod from a single pane of view.

Cisco Intersight is the Cloud based system management as a service that really allows IT to operate at scale at speed beyond human limitations. Cisco Intersight capabilities include Intuitive experience, enhanced support, proactive guidance, secure and extensible SaaS. Through Device Connector Technology Cisco Intersight extends these capabilities to third party devices. VMWare Integrations are already available in Cisco Intersight using this technology. NetApp ONTAP connector is integrated with Cisco Intersight Assist, to extend these capabilities for NetApp ONTAP storage environment.

The architecture of the Integration starts with the instance of Active IQ Unified Manager deployed in your datacenter to manage one or more ONTAP Clusters. Cisco Intersight assist with NetApp ONTAP Connector is deployed as a virtual appliance on-premises. This ONTAP Connector acts as your onsite data collector to transmit data to the cloud. The ONTAP connector is really mapping the Intersight APIs to that of AIQ UM and your ONTAP storage by following NetApp’s latest REST API standards and object representations. So once your storage data is up there with Intersight, UI-SDK (built for NetApp Storage Inventory) enables you to get full access to the key attributes of the NetApp storage from Intersight Inventory view.

This collaboration with Cisco is really looking to make sure that we grow the ONTAP storage support with Cisco Intersight but do that in a way that is complementary to NetApp storage Management tools that you would traditionally have in your environment with NetApp and make sure that in doing so we are well represented into the Intersight eco-system.

Here is a link to the video to can help you Get started with the Tech Preview of NetApp ONTAP Storage for Cisco Intersight.

https://tv.netapp.com/detail/video/6228082818001

Minimum Tech Preview Hardware & software Requirement

Component	Type	Version
Hypervisor	VMware vSphere	7.0
Hypervisor	VMware vSphere	6.7
Cisco Intersight	Advantage Tier	Monitoring NetApp Storage from Cisco Intersight
Cisco Intersight	Premium Tier	Orchestrate workflows across physical compute, storage and virtualization environment.
Cisco UCS	Standalone (without Fabric Interconnect) C-Series M5 claimed in Intersight	Cisco IMC Software 3.1 and later
Cisco UCS	Standalone (without Fabric Interconnect) C-Series M4 claimed in Intersight	Cisco IMC Software 3.0(4) and later
Cisco Nexus/MDS	Cisco MDS, Cisco Nexus, Cisco Nexus-UP	Nexus 9.3(5), MDS 8.4(1a)
NetApp Array	AFF A400, A800, A700, A700s, A300, A220, C190	ONTAP 9.7
NetApp Array	FAS 9000, 8700, 8300, 8200, 2700	ONTAP 9.7
NetApp Software	AIQ Unified Manager	9.8 (Will be available by Tech Preview start)

Lab Configuration minimum requirements

Minimum Intersight Tech Preview Configuration

Lab Topology Examples

This example shows an option where one or more C220 servers are connected to Nexus 93180YC-FX switches with a converged (IP and FCoE) connection. A C220 M5 would contain either the VIC 1455 or 1457 at 10 or 25 Gbps. A C220 M4 would contain a VIC 1225 at 10 Gbps. The Nexus 93180YC-FX is used for both FC SAN and LAN switching. If the fully redundant configuration with vPC is used only one link to each switch (2 of the 4 ports on the VIC 1455/57) can be used since the links are carrying FCoE. Since the VIC FCoE is setup in the Cisco IMC on the server, initiator WWPNs could be queried programmatically in this configuration. Since this is a Tech Preview, it would be acceptable to use only one switch and one storage controller.

This example is similar to the one in the previous slide, except instead of using FCoE from the VIC, a third-party FC card from Emulex or Qlogic (listed as supported in the C220 Spec Sheets) is used to connect the FC to the 93180YC-FX which is again used for both SAN and LAN switching. Since this is a Tech Preview, it would be acceptable to use only one switch and one storage controller.

In this example, an MDS switch is used for the FC switching. Because of this any Nexus switch that supports 10 or 25 Gbps interfaces can be used for the LAN switching. Again, since this is a Tech Preview, it would be acceptable to use only one switch and one storage controller.

Claim NetApp ONTAP Storage from Cisco Intersight

Here is a link to video that demo's the claim process.

https://tv.netapp.com/detail/video/6228080442001

Start with using your existing NetApp Active IQ Unified manager 9.8 instance and connect to Cisco Intersight.

Note: Ensure that API Gateway is enabled in Active IQ Unified Manager(Settings / General / Feature Settings)

Step 1: License tier Check.

Select Settings->Licensing
A minimum of Advantage tier license is required to enable monitoring of the NetApp storage object via widget and from Storage inventory.
Premium tier licensee is required to orchestrate workflows across physical compute, storage and virtual environment.

Step 2: Claim the AIQ UM device

In Admin TAB Select Targets-> Claim a New Target
Select Storage -> NetApp Active IQ Unified Manager and Click Start
Enter the HostName/IP for the device
Enter the user credentials and click Claim
Ensure that the storage device status is connected.

Tech Preview Feature Introduction

The primary features introduced in this release of NetApp ONTAP Storage Integration with Cisco Intersight are monitoring of NetApp Storage Inventory and perform workflow Orchestration for NetApp ONTAP storage from Cisco Intersight via NetApp AIQUM device, which is claimed by Cisco Intersight.

Support for SAN and NAS storage protocols

Supports SAN (FC, ISCSI) and NAS(NFS) Protocols, Meaning Both SAN and NAS objects can be now monitored and managed from Cisco Intersight.

Monitoring ONTAP Storage

Here is a link to video that demo's the Monitoring of NetApp ONTAP Storage from Cisco Intersight.

https://tv.netapp.com/detail/video/6228096841001

ONTAP Storage can be monitored from Cisco Intersight from the Dashboard widgets or Storage inventory tab.

Storage Widgets:

Three Storage widgets are available in this release to monitor the

Storage Version Summary
Top 5 Arrays by Utilization
Top Volumes by Utilization

Storage Version Summary: View the ONTAP Model and version summary of all the ONTAP storage arrays connected via the Active IQ Unified Manager

Top 5 Arrays by Utilization: List of the top 5 ONTAP Storage Arrays based on utilization

Top 5 Volumes by Utilization: List of the top 5 ONTAP Storage Volumes across all the ONTAP Clusters in the storage inventory listed based on Utilization.

NetApp ONTAP Storage Inventory

ONTAP Storage Inventory presents a general view and an Inventory view. NetApp Storage objects in the inventory view are listed in two Sections

Hardware Section:

Nodes
Physical Ports (Ethernet and Fiber Channel)
Disks

Logical Section:

Storage Virtual Machine
Aggregates
Logical Interfaces
Volumes
LUNs
Snapshots
SAN Initiator Groups
Export Policy
Licensee

Storage Inventory General View

Storage Orchestration:

Below is a link to demo Orchestration of NetApp ONTAP Storage Workflows from Cisco Intersight

https://tv.netapp.com/detail/video/6228095945001

Cisco Intersight enables Orchestration of workflows across the physical Compute, Storage and Virtualization environments. Reference workflows are available out of box for you to orchestrate NetApp Storage objects workflows and Storage workflows for VMware VMFS and NFS datastores.

The New, Update and Remove Hypervisor Datastore workflows combine Storage and Virtualization tasks and enable you to create, expand and delete both VMFS and NFS datastores
The New, Remove and Update Storage Host workflows enable you to manage SAN Initiator groups
The New and remove export Policy workflows enable you to manage Export Policies required NFS
The New Storage Virtual Machine workflows enables you to create SVM, enable FC, ISCSI and NFS services and gives you an option to create a SVM Management LIF.
The New Storage Logical Interfaces workflows enable you to create either or both IP and FC logical interfaces for your SVM.
Using the vSphere OVF deploy workflow you can deploy a Virtual Machine using an OVF template on NetApp Storage configured as NFS or VMFS datastore.

Reference Workflows

Reference workflow	#Tasks
New HyperVisor DataStore	1. Create New Storage LUN or Volume. 2 Connect Storage to Host. 3. Create NFS and VMFS DataStore
Update HyperVisor DataStore	1. Get Hypervisor Datastore 2. Find Storage LUN/Volume by ID 3. Expand Storage 4. Expand Hypervisor Datastore
Remove HyperVisor DataStore	1. Remove a VMFS DataStore 2. Find Storage by ID 3. Disconnect LUN from StorageHost
New Storage VM	1. Create New SVM and services
New Logical Interfaces	1. Create New IP Interfaces 2. Create New FC Interfaces
New Storage Host	1. Add new Storage host. 2. Add WWNs or IQNs
Upgrade Storage Host	Disconnect or Connect WWNs or IQNs
Remove Storge Host	1. Remove WWNs or IQNs 2. Remove Storage host
New Export Policy	1. New Storage Export Policy. 2. Add Export Policy to Volume
Remove Export Policy	1. Remove Export Policy
Create VM from OVF on Hypervisor datastore	1. Create New VM on a NFS or VMFS datastore.

20 NetApp ONTAP Storage Tasks are available in the Cisco Intersight storage Library. Storage Administrators can use these tasks and build custom-defined workflows as per your operational needs

NetApp Storage Management Tasks Implemented from Cisco Intersight

Task Name	Task Details
Add Storage Export Policy to Volume	Add an export policy to a volume with Storage Virtual Machine name, Volume name, Export Policy name as the inputs. On successful execution Volume name and Export policy added are generated as outputs.
Connect Initiators to Storage Host	Connect a WWN or IQN list to storage host or iGroup. Inputs are host or iGroup name and list of WWNs or IQNs. Outputs generated are host/iGroup name created, IQN or WWN list associated with the host or iGroup. Task can be used with either WWNs or IQNs. For non-NetApp ONTAP Storage devices if both inputs are given then WWNs are given priority and added.
Expand Storage LUN	Expand a storage LUN with LUN path, Storage Virtual Machine name and LUN size as the inputs. On successful execution path and size of the expanded LUN are generated as outputs.
Expand Storage Volume	Expand a volume with volume name and size as inputs. On successful execution, volume name and size are generated as outputs.
Find NetApp IGroup LUN Map	Find if an Initiator Group is mapped to a LUN with give initiator Group name, Storage Virtual Machine name as the inputs. If initiator Group is mapped to any LUNs then initiator Group name and list of LUN names are generated as outputs, else task will fail with an error "No LUN mapped to the Initiator Group".
New Storage Export Policy	Create a storage export policy with storage virtual machine name, export policy name, Client Match List, Superuser Security Type, list of protocols, list of Read Only export policy rules, list of Read Write export policy rules as the inputs. On successful execution name of the export policy created is generated as output.
New Storage Fibre Channel Interface	Create a FC interface with interface name, Storage Virtual Machine name, Data Protocol and location properties as the inputs. On successful execution Interface Name, WWNN, WWPN are generated as outputs.
New Storage Host	Create a storage host or iGroup with host or iGroup name and list of WWNs and IQNs to be associated with it as input. Outputs are host or iGroup name, and associated IQN or WWN list. NOTE: iGroup is referred as Host for input.
New Storage IP Interface	Create a storage IP interface with IP interface name, interface IP address, interface netmask, ipspace name, storage virtual machine name and location properties as the inputs. On successful execution interface name, interface IP address, interface netmask is generated as outputs.
New Storage LUN	Create a storage LUN with inputs as LUN name, Volume name, Operating System name, Storage Virtual Machine name, size of LUN. On successful execution LUN path, NAAID and LUN capacity are generated as outputs
New Storage LUN ID	For NetApp ONTAP Storage: Connect storage LUN to a iGroup with Inputs as LUN name and iGroup name. On successful execution iGroup name, LUN name and LUN number are generated as outputs. NOTE: iGroup is referred as Host for input. Other Storage devices: Connect storage volume to a host with volume name, host name and LUN number as inputs. On successful execution, host name, volume name and LUN number allocated to connection are generated as outputs.
New Storage Virtual Machine	Create a Storage Virtual Machine with Storage Virtual Machine name and list of protocols to be enabled as inputs. optional parameters for the Management interface include Interface name, Interface IP address, Interface Netmask, Broadcast Domain, location Node name as the inputs. On successful execution Storage Virtual Machine name, Storage Virtual Machine root Volume name, Management IP address, Protocols enabled are generated as outputs.
New Storage Volume	Create a storage volume with volume name and volume size as inputs. Generates the volume name and volume size as outputs.
Remove Storage Export Policy	Remove a storage export policy with export policy name and storage virtual machine name as the inputs. On successful execution name of the export policy removed is generated as output.
Remove Storage Host	Remove a storage host or iGroup with host or iGroup name as input. On successful execution, the host or iGroup name deleted is generated as output. NOTE: iGroup is referred as Host for input.
Remove Storage LUN	Remove a LUN with LUN path and storage virtual machine name as the inputs. On successful execution the path for the LUN removed is generated as output.
Remove Storage LUN ID	For NetApp ONTAP Storage: Disconnect Storage LUN from a iGroup with LUN name and iGroup name as inputs. On Successful execution iGroup name and the LUN Path are generated as outputs. NOTE: iGroup is referred as Host for input. Other Storage devices: Disconnect storage Volume from a storage Host with Volume name and Host name as inputs. On successful execution, host name and volume name are generated as outputs.
Remove Storage Volume	Remove Storage Volume with Volume name as input. On Successful execution, the deleted Volume and Snapshot name is generated as output For NetApp ONTAP storage only deleted Volume name will be listed.

Use Cases

Use Case 1: View the NetApp Storage Inventory and Widgets after setup

Deploy Intersight Assist OVA (OnPrem task in customer vCenter Environment)
Add NetApp AIQ UM devices in Intersight Assist
Navigate the NetApp Storage Inventory
Add Widgets for Storage on Monitor Dashboard

Use Case 2: NetApp Storage orchestration to setup Storage Virtual Machines/ logical Interfaces/ Volume/ LUN / Host or iGroup / Export policy

Add vCenter target to Intersight via Intersight Assist (OVA deployed in Use Case 1 above)
Create storage SVM/ IP or FC Interfaces/ export policy/ Host(iGroup)/ Volume/ LUN on NetApp Storage
Add host to vCenter cluster and scan for Datastore in vCenter

Use Case 3: Workflow Designer Free Form

With NetApp Storage Added + vCenter environment you can custom build workflows using the tasks provided in the workflow designer. Navigate to the Orchestration tab in Intersight and select Create New Workflow.

To benefit from all these features in Cisco Intersight, claim your existing NetApp Active IQ Unified manager 9.8 instance and connect to Cisco Intersight.

Thank you

Credits

John George |TME | Cisco : Helping with the Lab topologies.

About Sree:

Sree is a Senior Solutions Architect at NetApp. She has more than 12 years of experience in data center infrastructure solutions, both in traditional and in hybrid/public cloud space. She collaborates with Marketing, Product management and engineering teams to develop and deliver technical marketing product material, which includes Reference Architectures, technical Report, presentations, blogs, demo videos and white papers. This material is aimed at educating customers, partners or sales team. She has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and an artist in the field of Kuchipudi dance, an Indian classical dance form from Andhra Pradesh. She enjoys organic gardening, hiking and running.

Introducing NetApp ONTAP Storage integration with Cisco Intersight

sree — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:13:20 GMT

“Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design” by Clare Muscutt.

HCI H615C IMPI Certificate Replacement

GarryBaker — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:22:03 GMT

Hi All,

I'm attempting to replace the certificate for the IMPI on our H615C servers, however all combination I've tried are failing with either invalid cert or key.

Does anyone know what combination should be used?

Many thanks

NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

higo — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 10:36:48 GMT

Hi,

can we download a trial version of NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor if exist .

When i try to download it it display that there is 0 tools.

Thanks for your help.

network simple config for HCI (4x4)

higo — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 08:58:41 GMT

Hi,

first of all I'm new on Netapp, that's why some of my questions will seem a little vague

Can we use a default vlan of switch (vlan 100) for all the three network segments .

. Management
• VMware vMotion
• Storage/Data

enabling LACP , spanning-tree port type edge are are sufficient to deploy netapp hci ?

We want to use a simple configuration to succeed the NDE and installation. (hci with 4cnx4sn)

thanks for your help.

BIOS problem -> ESXi error message?

sraudonis — Thu, 14 May 2020 13:44:10 GMT

Hi,

since BIOS update i got this message and the message i get every time when i reboot the system:

During research i found this: Error after BIOS Upgrade: "Untrusty Debug Firmware Key is used"

Now my question:

Is this problem the source of this alert i get in VMware?

Kind regards

Stefan

CSA Appliance Upgrade

kucharski — Fri, 01 May 2020 19:31:15 GMT

I am currently running CSA Appliance verion 1907 and I see 4.1 just recently came out. Is there no way to upgrade the appliance without redeploying it all over again.

Thanks,

Michael

Dedup and conpression on windows file server VM hosted in VMware 6.7 with HCI datastore volume

ChrisBalbuena — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 16:31:51 GMT

Looking around but unable to find any information on leveraging Windows Dedup and compression on a Windows file server VM hosted on VMware 6.7. The data disks I'd like to dedupe and compress are built on an NetApp HCI datastore volume(s). The question I have is if dedup and compression is enabled on the file system of the VM on how it would affected efficiencies on the HCI side of things or if there would be an effect. All disk on the VM are thin provisioned as well. Any thoughts would be great. Thank you

Enabling NKS Services on HCI failed, unable to get network config from NKS config wizzard

html_hyh — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 17:08:52 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know how to enable the NKS on HCI ? Nomatter what I try on mNode v1.6P1 or v1.7P1 version, I still got that issue on "Step 4" as following:

(vSphere vDS feature is enable , but it can't read the vCenter Network config on wizzard)

This screenshot capture on Chrome browser developer mode

Thanks for your any help.

New HCI Deployment on older Nodes

pgee — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 12:24:07 GMT

Hello everyone,

i have a HCI test environment consisting of two H300E compute and four H300S storage nodes.

I wanted to try out NDE Version 1.7P1 on this hardware, but the compute nodes don't seem to want to boot into the NetApp Configurator (the GUI where you set temporary IPs and so on) and after a reboot automatically boot into ESXi instead.

This happens after RTFI'ing the nodes with the 1.7P1 Image, so my theory is, that the newest NDE does not support deployment of H300E compute nodes anymore.

I could not find a summary of which nodes allow which deployment versions anywhere, is there someone who could help me out?

HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 15:36:59 GMT

Hi,

we will purchase a netapp HCI 4 x 4 (4 compute nodes and 4 storage nodes) and we want to know if the solution come with preconfigured switches (vlans, lacp etc..) or we have to spend a time to do it.

thanks

Redeploy HCI with NDE

STEFANDELFS — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 10:51:47 GMT

Hi community,

at the moment we are running a HCI, consisting of

2x Compute H410C-27020

4x H610S-1 Storage Nodes

2 Mellanox Switche SN-2010

for testing purposes.
It has been already configured.

Now we would like to completely freshly redeploy the HCI with the NDE.
But I cannot get to the NDE console because when I enter the IP of a S-Node in my browser it always redirects me to the cluster URL.

So my question:
How can I start the NDE for a HCI that has been already deployed?

Thanks in advance

regards

Adding SSD in existing aggregate

PraveenReddyB — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 08:40:52 GMT

Hi,

We are using converged infrastructure in our data center. For one of my project, we need to add one SSD in the existing Netapp environment. I need some help to identify correct SSD for my environment. Can you please let know the checkpoints and the points that we should condier before procure SSD?

which table in OCI database I can find storagegrid

harold — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 16:30:20 GMT

My customer wants to knwo which table in OCI database can they find storagegrid ?

Specifically, they want to get all tenants on it.

Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Simone_Anastasio — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 09:12:54 GMT

Hello, i have a DR solution with 2 ONTAP FAS in two site that using snapmirror and SRM to protect all the VM from primary to secondary site.

now i have a new HCI system on primary site and have succesfully created a snapmirror replica for some datastore volumes between the HCI system and the FAS at secondary site.

I would like to integrate this with the SRM server but both the ONTAP and ElementOS Storage Replication Adapter can discover the snapmirror relationship only on same systems.

The ONTAP SRA discover only relationship between ONTAP FAS

The ElementOS SRA require to communicate with two ElementOS systems (I have only the HCI system)

Can you help me to understand how i can manage the snapmirror relationship between ONTAP and ElementOS with SRM?

I think that both the SRAs agent should be upgraded to discover this kind of relationship also, not only between omogeneus systems.....

Thank you

Convergred System Advisor setup

CSAsetup — Fri, 03 May 2019 08:15:59 GMT

Hello,

I'm in deployment phase of CSA and i can add all equipment from flexpod exept ontap even with admin account. Can it be related to certificates ? it's default certificates on controllers & appliance.

Thx in advance for your help !

Converged System Advisor 3.0 Docker Bianaries

ECEDERGREN — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 18:49:41 GMT

Currently my security team will not let me deply CSA unless they can scan the bianaries first.

Is there anyway to download the Docker container so I can provide this to our security team?

Is there anyway to point the deployed VM to use internal site instead of Docker?

Convergred System Advisor

ECEDERGREN — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 13:33:27 GMT

I see in the getting started I need to allow access to docker.com & docker.io.

Any time we open access for an internal server to external site I need to be able to give our security team some sort of justification. Is there any documentation that describes why CSA needs access to these sites? Also is any info being sent up to those sites?

New TR Released:TR-4738 Reconfiguring NetApp HCI Compute Interfaces

hariprak — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 06:29:55 GMT

This guide outlines the reconfiguration of NetApp® H-Series compute nodes in an existing NetApp HCI installation configuration from six network interfaces to two interfaces.

For more info, please click here

New TR Released: TR-4721: Sybase ASE on NetApp HCI

hariprak — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 08:13:03 GMT

This document highlights use cases for SAP ASE and describes how to deploy SAP ASE database components on a NetApp HCI system.
For more info, click

How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

SHINSASA — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 06:46:56 GMT

Hi,

We want to know how to shutdown NetAppHCI(compute node and storage node both.)

Could you tell me how to shutdown these system?

We want to know IPMI ip address.

We can not memorise IPMI ip address.

so we think need cold start then check IPMI IP address by TUI(key board and monitor).

Best Regards,

New TR Released: TR-4707: FlexPod for Epic Directional Sizing Guide

hariprak — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 08:27:19 GMT

This document provides guidance for sizing FlexPod (NetApp® storage and Cisco UCS) for an Epic Electronic Health Record (EHR) application software environment.

For more info, please click

New TR Released: TR-4693: FlexPod Datacenter for Epic EHR Deployment Guide

hariprak — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 05:53:14 GMT

FlexPod® provides solutions for the healthcare industry. Epic develops software for the healthcare industry. Healthcare providers increasingly implement FlexPod, a next-generation data center platform, to deliver high availability and sustained high performance for Epic EHR application software while increasing infrastructure efficiency and agility. The combined strengths of this prevalidated FlexPod converged infrastructure from Cisco and NetApp enables healthcare organizations to improve patient care using a fast, agile, highly scalable and cost-effective solution.

For more info, please click here

New TR Released: TR-4694: Visualizing NetApp HCI Perf Using Grafana, Docker, Trident, and Graphi

Jeff_Yao — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 09:16:07 GMT

Overview

Effective monitoring of critical infrastructure is the keystone in maintaining operational readiness and is a key enabler of risk mitigation. Monitoring critical infrastructure for atypical workloads and events can help prevent small issues from becoming outages.

NetApp® HCI includes access to the NetApp Active IQ® platform, which is a cloud-based performance monitoring and alerting platform. Active IQ provides a rich set of preconfigured dashboards that displays real-time cluster performance and alerts and that presents a view of historical data

For more info, please check here

New TR Released: TR-4693: FlexPod Datacenter for Epic EHR Deployment Guide

Jeff_Yao — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 09:14:09 GMT

Overview

Abstract

This technical report is for customers who plan to deploy Epic on FlexPod systems. It provides a brief overview of the FlexPod architecture for Epic and covers the setup and installation of FlexPod to deploy Epic for healthcare.

FlexPod systems deployed to host Epic HyperSpace, InterSystems Caché database, Cogito Clarity analytics and reporting suite, and services servers hosting the Epic application layer provide an integrated platform for a dependable, high-performance infrastructure that can be deployed rapidly. The FlexPod integrated platform is deployed by skilled FlexPod channel partners and is supported by Cisco and NetApp technical assistance centers.

For more info, please check here

Technical webcast repository

lucky9 — Fri, 04 May 2018 07:06:24 GMT

Hi,

Good day!

Are there any recordings on the past technical webcast or repository of previous webinars? Thanks

New TR Released: TR-4679 NetApp HCI Network Setup Guide

Jeff_Yao — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 10:23:01 GMT

1 Introduction

This document describes the steps required to configure networking for the NetApp® HCI system, including network cabling, network switch configuration, and other network resources. This document assumes that:

You have completed the NetApp HCI prerequisites checklist.
You have racked all HCI chassis and installed all NetApp HCI nodes.
You have not yet deployed the NetApp HCI system software using the NetApp Deployment Engine (NDE).

For more info, please check here

What exactly can HyperConverged Offer?

netappmagic — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 00:21:02 GMT

If we use Flexpod as Converged platform as an example, what exactly real examples Hyperconverged can offer, and Flexpod cannot?

Please correct me if I am missing anything here.

Where i can get the HCI power consumption?

prasarn — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 12:39:59 GMT

Hi,

I'm looking for the NetApp HCI power consumption and cannot find any kind of this information on NetApp site. Pls kindly advice.

Rdgs,

Prasarn L.

New Technical Report Released: TR-4036: FlexPod Datacenter Technical Specifications

Jeff_Yao — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 10:52:06 GMT

FlexPod Datacenter Architecture

FlexPod® is a predesigned, best practice data center architecture that is built on the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS), the Cisco Nexus family of switches, and NetApp® fabric-attached storage (FAS) or V-Series systems.

FlexPod is a suitable platform for running a variety of virtualization hypervisors as well as bare-metal operating systems and enterprise workloads. FlexPod delivers not only a baseline configuration but also the flexibility to be sized and optimized to accommodate many different use cases and requirements.

For more detailed info, check here

FlexPod with Metrocluster (FCoE) using NX5596UP

RudiVK — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:04:52 GMT

Hi,

we need to replace an old NetApp Metrocluster and the compute layer by a FlexPod based infrastructure. The NetApp controllers use FC today. The new FlexPod need to have a Metrocluster config at the NetApp storage layer but we want to move forward using FCoE in order to lower the costs of the FC links between the compute layer and the storage and accross the DC's (note: i'm not talking here about the FC links between the controllers and the diskshelves in this switches Metrocluster config).

The switches we intend to use at the switching layer between the UCS FI's and the NetApp controllers would be NX5596UP which do support FCoE. This configuration is validated for cDOT clusters but i do not find any validation of this setup with a Metrocluster config. The only CVD/NVA i find for Metroclusters using FCoE is using NX7700 series switches with VDC's and OTV.

The problem with the NX5596UP config seems to be the configuration/isolation of the two FC fabrics per DC. However per DC i will have two NX5596UP's and therefore i could define a VSAN-A on the first and a VSAN-B on the second. Would it suffice to connect the respective VSAN's then accross the two DC's (i.e. VSAN-A in DC1 --> VSAN-A in DC2). If so i can use FCoE links (cheaper) between the DC's while maintaining the possibility to interconnect to an existing FC SAN at the NX5596UP level using the UP ports.

Is this documented somewhere and validated ?

many thanks,

Rudi

Need Help! Cisco MDS Software Release for 2-Node MetroCluster

vFalk — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 19:23:11 GMT

Hi,

we're currently building a 2-node streched metrocluster, based on AFF A300 Controllers.

The customre needs a FC Frontend, so Cisco MDS 9148S switches came into place.

We have big troubles with this setup, because in case of a metrocluster switchover or switchback, the FC LIFs doesn't come up. They are getting stucked with status:

FDISC error - ID could not be acquired for this virtual port.

A manual interface reset on MDS or dis-/enable of affected LIFs will bring the LIF up, but that's not an option.

I've raised a ticket at Cisco for this and it looks like, that we hit a couple of bugs. For example this one: https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCve72490

I know, there are so many Metroclusters with an MDS SAN frontend outside. Can you please provide me your running versions (NX-OS and Ontap)?

We're currently running on Ontap 9.1P2 and NX-OS 8.1.1 (recommended by Cisco).

Thanks!

Regards from austria.

Falk

Understanding NAS with Flexpod

Sir-Loin-of-Beef — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 00:33:05 GMT

As a new user of Flexpod I have discovered that the FAS can run as both a SAN & NAS. How is this possible? NAS is nothing more than a bunch of disks in a RAID, shared out on a network (VLAN'ed, of course). NAS has none of the SANs redundacny or resiliancy, or does it in Flexpod?

Can someone please help explain this? I have a SAP implimentation that recommends NAS and that makes zero sense to me.

Netapp FAS 2554 SAN (CDOT 8.3.2) cann't establish connectivity to Cisco N5K 5548UP

Kennedy — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 12:44:21 GMT

Dear All,

we're deploying a new Flexpod system which is composed of Netapp FAS 2554 filler, cisco nexus 5548UP fabric switch and 5108 UCS blade chassis having two 460 series blade servers.

all ports used for filler cliuster are up and working (we've used e0e and e0f for cluster connectivity)

all management ports are up and working

ports connected to cisco nexus 5548UP fabric switches are physically up but when we see FC/FCoE ports status on the oncommand system manager both e0c and e0d are being shown as "link not connected". kindly advise on this issue

Regards

Cisco UCS Direct Attached Storage for NFS

KHerrick — Fri, 06 May 2016 12:30:56 GMT

Hi,

We are implementing one Flexpod solution UCS 6200 series with FAS8040 8.3 Direct Attached Storage.

I am a newbie in the UCS environment and was inquiring if there are documents/diagrams on how to cable/configure this solution between the Netapp and UCS. I have found a few links but not a clear picture.

Thanks

VM Datastore Latency

wpatterson9 — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 23:04:33 GMT

Below is a link to a post on cisco's support forums for the VM datastore latency that I have been troubleshooting on our system for a few weeks now. I've tried to keep the post as organized/detailed as possible. Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if this is a faux-pas for linking to another forum but its cleaner to have on location for all the things i've done. Again, thanks for taking the time to read/research!

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12755971/vm-datastore-latency

Cisco UCS does not see NetApp FA2040 (Cisco MDS ports showing FL not F)

paraspiral — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 17:24:26 GMT

I worked with my SAN administrator to get a FAS 2040 plugged (port 0a and 0b) in to my Cisco 9148 (port fc1/7 on both switches). When I do a show int brief on both switches they show the port as FL instead of F. I tried to hard code the port to F and that cause the port to stay in a reinitializing state. Would this be what is keeping my Cisco UCS from seeing FAS 2040? Is the NetApp making the port change from F mode to FL mode?

What's your experience with FlexPod and Flash?

mharding — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 19:06:03 GMT

FlexPod designs with Flash have been available since last year, but are now getting a boost with big changes to the All-Flash product set. What has been your experience with FlexPod and Flash, then or now? Related blog post: http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/FlexPod-Flash-Performance-Then-and-Now/ba-p/106767

Is HCI the answer to all your problems?

mharding — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 15:15:20 GMT

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, HCI, is making news, but is it making all your IT problems go away? Where are you finding it useful in your environment? Share a comment on the recent blog post.

http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/HCI-The-new-Hammer-If-All-Your-World-s-a-Nail/ba-p/103394

Cisco UCS Direct Attached Storage for NFS

ORONA_MIKEL — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 04:42:30 GMT

We are configurating one Flexpod solution.
UCS 6296UP with Fas8020 Ontap 8.3 Direct Attached Storage for NFS

This is the information found

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6100-series-fabric-interconnects/whitepaper_c11-702584.html

We are create the "appliance ports" but this are in error.

Error: ENM source pinning failed

Thanks

Flexpod and degraded speeds on LACP configuration

ThePoster — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 09:05:43 GMT

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing some odd transfer speeds on my SAN.

Quick background, I am running a single core nexus 3064 10gb, which connects to 2x cisco UCS hosts running vmware, which connect to 2 isolated 3064 10gb which then connect to a FAS2552 (see attached image)

When i test speeds between devices i get the following results:

vm on ucs1 local disk --> lun ::: this starts around 1.2GBps transfer speeds and drops after seconds and fluctuates between 80 & 250MBps

vm on ucs2 local disk --> lun ::: this starts around 1.2GBps and lasts ~twice as long as ucs1 then fluctuates betweeen 50 & 60MBps

vm on ucs2 lun --> lun attached to ucs1 ::: starts around 300MBps and fluctuates between 50 & 60MBps

vm on ucs2 lun --> lun attached to the same server, but presented as a different drive, starts at 300 and drops to 50-60mbps

simple copy and pasting file into the excat same location eg e:\test.txt to e:\test_copy.txt starts at 200, drops to 100-160mbps.

There is definitely something wrong here i just cant put my finger on it will all the device involved in a flexpod solution.

Guidance would be greatly appreciated.

James

Sun servers

SAREK070770 — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 09:55:24 GMT

Is it supported when i have a flexpod envoiroment to add 7 Sun server to the flexpod and still have a supported envoiroment?

THe type of server i would like to connect are:

Type: SUN Server X4-2
Model: 32323558+1+1
Firmware: 3.1.2.30
OS: Oracle Linux 6

Thx in advance for the answer

Is Software Defined Storage just another flavor of storage?

mharding — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 17:44:21 GMT

This blog post is stiring up responses re: Software Defined Storage - is it really a new, seperate thing? Is it just the lastest label for Storage? Does this debate even matter in a world rapidly moving to converged solutions and cloud services? Share your perspective:

http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/Software-Defined-Storage-vs-Converged-Infrastructure-Or-The-Unexpected-Virtue-of/ba-p/101889

what is flexpod?

TDUBB1234 — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 21:22:08 GMT

What is the definition of flexpod? Is it specific netapp storage to be certified a a flexpod config?

I am running Cisco UCS B200 M3 Blades connected to Cisco Nexus 7k switches and the storage is Netapp 8020 head. Its connected to brocade FC switch VA-40FC

Is this considered a flexpod?

Share your thoughts on DIY IT vs. Converged infrastructure

mharding — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 19:08:18 GMT

If you're reading this forum, then you are probably already involved with Converged Infrastructure solutions like FlexPod. But maybe not yet. Or maybe it wasn't that long ago when you were a specialist in just one type of technology like Storage. How has using Converged solutions changed how you work? Or how do you Expect it to change things? Please share your thoughts.

Best Way to Cable from FAS6240 to UCS

CLOUDMINER — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 00:15:48 GMT

I need to cable from a FAS6240 to a UCS, so that I can present iSCSI LUNs. Should I connect my 6240 directly to the UCS Fabric Interconnect? The UCS Fabric Interconnect is also connected to Nexus 7000K switches. I could connect the 6240 to the 7000K, and then iSCSI traffic would flow through the 7000K and from there to the Fabric Interconnect. Which is the best option? There is no option to have a dedicated switch for iSCSI.

Thanks!

Asking for iSCSI Multipath design of Flexpod Medium

ThantZinSoe — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 03:16:26 GMT

Hello Everyone,
I would like to ask iSCSI Multipath design for Vshpere 5.5 environment.
I can only find implementation guide of NetApp NFS System with Vsphere 5.5. But not with iSCISI. I have already implemented NFS in FlexPod Express Medium based on Flexpod implementation guide. Now, my customer would like to get iSCSI Multipath.
So, could you please instruct me how to implement or give me link for this implementation.
In my case, I’ll use two dedicated software based iSCSI NIC of UCS server.Please kindly see my flexpod design.

Some implementation, they use different VLAN for each NIC card of UCS Server. Some not.
I’m looking forwards to your feedback soon.
Thanks & Best Regards,

OK to Connect NetApp Controller's 10g Interfaces to FEX Ports?

MRJORDANG — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:52:17 GMT

Hello,

We use NFS datastores (vmware) over 10g pretty heavily and I recently noticed our NetApp's RX PAUSE frame counters (RECEIVE - Xoff & Xon) steadily increasing throughout the day and increasing rapidly during times of high utilization. Upon further investigation I discovered that our 10g ports are connected to FEX ports rather than the parent Nexus 5K switch.

By default, Flow Control send and receive are disabled on each port on the 5K. On the other hand, Flow Control send is enabled on the FEX ports (receive is off). We also have Flow Control send and receive enabled on our NetApp's 10g interfaces. I know best practice, per NetApp, is to disable Flow Control throughout the environment (switches, NetApp controllers, ESXi hosts).

All of the FlexPod design docs I've seen that involve Nexus 5K's and FEX's show the NetApp controllers connected directly to the 5K's. However, I can't find any documentation that recommends against connecting the 10g interfaces on NetApp controllers to FEX ports.

Should we NOT connect our NetApp controller's 10g interfaces to FEX ports? I assume we should NOT because there is some level of oversubscription (sharing) with FEX ports which could result in PAUSE frames. This assumption also seems to align with the documentation I've found on NetApp and Cisco's sites that show NetApp controllers connected to the 5K's.

Another person seems to have gone down this road as well and ended up moving their 10g interfaces off the FEX to the parent 5K switch. Just trying to determine if it is a best practice of some sort to avoid connecting the NetApp's 10g interfaces to FEX ports.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12219911/flow-control-cisco-nexus-fabric-extenders

Thanks,

MRJG

FlexPod and ACI Mailbag

mharding — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 02:25:25 GMT

Since the 'Ask the Expert' session ended kind of quickly back in the Fall, here are a number of additional FlexPod and ACI questions that have been coming up in one form or another. And for related reading, check out the full Tech OnTap article on FlexPod and ACI.

Q. What will adding ACI to a FlexPod environment achieve?

A. FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco ACI delivers network virtualization, management, and automation that complements the capabilities provided by Cisco UCS servers and NetApp FAS storage for end-to-end automation.

Q. How does Cisco ACI differ from other SDN products?

A. In software-defined networking (SDN), the data plane is separate from the control plane. ACI takes SDN a step further, viewing network provisioning and management from an application perspective. This creates additional ease of use and applies policy in a relevant application-centric way.

Q. What is the FlexPod ACI solution?

A. The FlexPod ACI solution combines NetApp FAS storage with Cisco UCS servers, the Nexus 9000 switch along with the APIC software. This combination delivers on the traditional data, space, energy and management efficiency benefits of FlexPod, and then adds to it automation capabilities for enhanced admin efficiencies along with improved operational agility.

Q.What are the available FlexPod ACI designs out already?

A. We have now published a number of ACI-related FlexPod designs: FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.1 U1 and Cisco ACI Design Guide (publication here), FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft SharePoint 2013 and ACI Design Guide (publication here) and FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft Exchange 2013 and ACI Design Guide (publication here).

Q. Are there more on the way?

A. Yes, we have plans for another popular Microsoft application validation on top of the ACI stack, as well as designs that utilize packaged and open source orchestration tools. More news should be out in the Spring.

NetApp FAS2240 FC connection to Cisco UCS 220M3

NERMINHUSIC — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 09:31:01 GMT

Hello,

we have a FAS2240-2 FC and we need to connect it to Cisco UCS 220 M3, what we need are FC cards.

We found LPe12002 on e-bay.

Question is, would they help us to make direct connection between FAS2240-2 and Cisco UCS 220 M3??

Best regards,

Best way to do a non disruptive migration to a new Flexpod

VELSOLADMIN — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 20:43:16 GMT

I have a new flexpod that we are going to be installing. The new flexpod has Nexus 3548 switches. I need to connect a the Nexus 3548 switch on the new flexpod to our existing 5548 on the old flexpod. I don't have a maintenance window to migrate the virtual machines so I would like to storage vmotion them first and then move the vmoiton the compute after. I want to connect two ports from each Nexus and setup a 20G LAG. Right now we have our storage vlan for NFS and the networking vlan for VMware on different subnets that don't touch each other. Once the vms are migrated and running on the new flexpod they will still need to get out to the internet via the old 5548's until we migrate the top level networking. How would I do this with my 20G LAG? The UCS Fabric interconnects and the NetApp are on their own port channels using vpc between both 5548's. I would like to setup the same thing on the new flexpod with the 3548's. The old Flexpod contains the following:
vSPhere 5.1 (All datastores are NFS)
UCS B230 M2's
NetApp 3240's DOT 7 Mode
Nexus 5548's

The New Flexpod contaisn the following:
vSphere 5.5 (all datastores are iscsi VMFS5)
UCS B200 M3's
NetApp E5500 running Santricity
Nexus 3548's

Whats your opinion on the best way to configure the Nexus switches to accomplish this non-disruptive migration? Thanks.

Cloud Orchestration tools supported on the Flexpod

Durga — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:13:09 GMT

Where can one find a list of cloud orchestration tools supported on the Flexpod?

Why flexpod

Rangan — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:10:35 GMT

How does flexpod help me when I have large San and u s infra on board

Symantec Data Insight on FlexPod solution

mharding — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 23:41:50 GMT

Symantec and NetApp have jointly developed a solution using Symantec Data Insight and FlexPod to help organizations improve data governance. Data Insight integrates with NetApp® FAS storage systems to discover and collect activity and permissions information. This solution will be especially valuable for customers running Microsoft Sharepoint, Exchange or File Shares on top of their FlexPod infrastructure. More info is in the attached document.

expresspod, fas2240a, C220, how to delay boot on servers

infonet — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:21:13 GMT

Hello,

it is probably questions for Cisco forum but I rarely go there. I have customer where they often lose power, ups drains out and after power is back, things are turned on. Netapp boots later then C220 so you know problem.

Is there a way on UCS to delay boot of OS or hypervisor for certain number of minutes in order to wait for FAS2240 to boot up?

Thanks,

Damir

Are there special tools or information available for deploying FlexPod with ACI?

AggieLandry — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:06:52 GMT

What is the difference between ACI and Software Defined Networking?

Suzette — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 21:50:10 GMT

Ask the Expert about FlexPod and ACI -- week of October 13!

mharding — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 02:00:54 GMT

Wondering about FlexPod and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure? The FlexPod Community will be the site of our first Ask the Expert session, which will tackle this hot topic. Post any questions you have about FlexPod and Cisco ACI, and our product team experts will be especially alert for your questions and will provide their best anwers. The FlexPod product team on duty next week will include Mark Cates, Senior Product Manager for FlexPod solutions, who is on point for our ACI validated designs. Watch this community space October 13-18 and Ask the Expert about ACI.

FlexPod Fall Performance News

mharding — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:15:39 GMT

What's the latest for FlexPod? We've announced a slew of updates to our FlexPod solutions, with an emphasis on All-Flash designs as well as those using the new Cisco ACI technology. More info is here along with links to recently published Design docs: http://community.netapp.com/t5/Technology/FlexPod-Ups-Performance-with-All-Flash-and-Software-Defined-Networking/ba-p/90473

Upgrade DOT in FlexPod solution

ADDEDMARIORF3 — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 20:55:27 GMT

Hello Team,

I'll execute an update in NetApp DOT storages (from version 8.1.1 to 8.2) and the storages are part of a FlexPod solution. Has anyone done this before or has any recommendation?

I'll use upgrade advisor to get a action plan.

Thank you very much.

MRF

Industry first Converged Infrastructure solution with Cisco ACI has published

mharding — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:17 GMT

The FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.1u1 and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Design guide has just published! It's a big milestone for the FlexPod program and the Converged Infrastructure industry overall. This validated design is the first one of its kind - using this new software defined networking technology from Cisco as part of a converged infrastructure -- and will now become a baseline architecture for FlexPod. Because it was going to be such a value to our resellers and customers, we worked to quickly deliver the tested design within just 30 days of Cisco's ACI FCS. We hope the FlexPod community now puts it to good use. Post any questions you have for the product team.

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/flexpod_esxi51u1_n9k_aci_design.pdf

New FlexPod awards page

mharding — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 16:49:51 GMT

In you are researching a business case, and need the latest info and research on FlexPod leadership in the Converged Systems space, use our new 'Awards' page. It highlights the latest data and research available, with links to the full reports. http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/flexpod/awards.aspx

New VMware 5.5 Designs available online

mharding — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:34 GMT

NetApp and Cisco worked to rush out a validated design guide to deliver VMware vSphere 5.5 U1 currency to our Cisco Nexus 9000 switch Top of Rack design, in time for VMworld next week.

In addition, we also now have our FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.5 (U1) and NetApp FAS8000 Series storage Design and Implementation guides available online.

FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1 and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Design Guide (link to document)
FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1 Design Guide (link to document)
FlexPod Datacenter with VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 1 Deployment Guide (link to document)

FlexPod with MS Private Cloud Deployment guide has published

mharding — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:41 GMT

Hello Converged Infrastructure practitioners. The FlexPod Datacenter Microsoft Private Cloud Clustered Data ONTAP Deployment Guide (TR-4094) has been published for your immediate use, and is available through the NetApp.com site: http://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4094.pdf

FlexPod is #1 Again!

mharding — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 22:14:27 GMT

Have you seen the latest news about FlexPod! Positioned as Gartner's magic quadrant Leader, crossing the $3 billion dollar mark with partner Cisco, and now ranked #1 by IDC! Here's a link to the latest news on this latest milestone. Thanks to our partners and customers who are making all these great things happen!

New Validated Design on Citrix XenDesktop with XenServer now available

mharding — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:47 GMT

Our latest validated design, "FlexPod Datacenter with Citrix XenDesktop 7.1 and Citrix XenServer 6.2" just published. The design guide provides technical details on a single server environment for a 2000-Seat Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with Citrix XenDesktop 7.1 using Cisco UCS B200-M3 Blade Servers with NetApp® FAS3200 Series storage systems and Citrix XenServer 6.2. The 400 page guide is available online here.

In addition, Citrix published a story about the new guide on StorageReview.com, available here.

Automate FlexPod with UCS Director

mharding — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 14:35:46 GMT

Read the recent Cisco blog with news on UCS Director as a way to automate your FlexPod. http://blogs.cisco.com/?p=146421

CiscoLive SF week

mharding — Mon, 19 May 2014 13:52:18 GMT

In case you're trying to reach a FlexPod team member, many will be at CiscoLive in San Francisco this week. Did you know that the CiscoLive event itself, hosting 20,000 or so attendees, is running on FlexPod? You can read about how we did it here. And our apologies in advance if we're a little slow to respond this week

Newbie question: Fabric logins with HA pairs of filers

NIKSHERIDAN — Tue, 06 May 2014 12:02:11 GMT

Hi forum! I am a Cisco guy, so please don't hate me

I checked my MDS switch and I notice the same wwn logged into multiple ports

Does a HA pair of filers share a common wwn?

thanks!

Is there a time frame for FlexPod with vSphere 5.5 and FAS8000 Series?

herschelboyd — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:24 GMT

Anything available yet?

FlexPod and converged Infrastructure for VMware and Citrix VDI/XenApp

DHEERESHLODHI — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:52:59 GMT

Hi All,

Could you please share best practice document of Flexpod for VMware and Citirx VDI and XenApp setup.

Regards

ABC

iSCSIでのsnapshotバックアップ・リストア方法 with ESX

YOKOMATSUMOTO — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:41:53 GMT

これまでNFS/CIFSばかりだったのですが新環境が初めてのiSCSIで慣れていないため、教えてください。

ESXにiSCSIでLUNをマウントしており、SMVIでsnapshotを取りNetbackupでテープバックアップを考えています。

(1)この場合、リストア時はLUN配下にリストアできるものでしょうか？

（netbackupで試したところ、volume配下に直接リストアはできたのですがLUN配下を指定するとエラーになりました。）

(2)一度どこかのvolume上にリストアして、ESXでマウントしなければならないなどありますか？

(3)リストアした先の領域はiSCSIとしてマウントできるのでしょうか？

要件はESX上に構築したVMをテープ等にバックアップしておきたい、というものです。

snapshot size is difference between oncommand and netbackup

YOKOMATSUMOTO — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 10:04:13 GMT

Dear All,

I have a plan to create backup by SMVI and Netbackup.

The target volume is connected to ESX by iSCSI as a datastore, so I made a snapshot via SMVI.

My quiestion is , Oncommand System manager shows that snapshot size is 4.83GB

but on Netbackup much bigger size was written into tape.

It's big difference, which is correct and how can I estimate for backup of all virtual machines??

oncommand : 4.83GB

netbackup kilobytes written : 34040833(=roughly 32GB)

Flexpod with vmware vcloud suite

PATELVC7601 — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 17:15:45 GMT

Do flexpod supported with vmware vcloud suite ? Do we have any Implementation guide for this ?

Sincerely

Viral Patel

What's your Internet of Things?

mharding — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 19:19:10 GMT

There's lots of talk today about the "Internet of Things", coming from vendors as well as analysts. What's your experience with it, or thoughts about it? Please share here and get the discussion started.

Nexus 3K Support

waynes — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:01:19 GMT

Are the Nexus 3K switches supported as part of a FlexPod solution? Are there any plans to support the Nexus 3K switches?

New Shelf

MISUPPORT — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 14:14:12 GMT

Hello gang, I am in need of some help with a new shelf.

I started off with 1 SAS shelf and 1 SATA shelf, with 2 aggregates created one for SAS and one for SATA. I added a new SAS shelf and I am trying to find some best practices in how to use the new disks in the newly added SAS shelf. Would it be best practice to me to add the disk to the already created SAS aggregate which would span it across 2 shelves (seems like the way to go to me) or is it best practice to create an aggregate per shelf or aggregates based on need.

Thanks in advanced for the help

Customer Ready Material

paulw — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:21:13 GMT

Fantastic news on Flexpod execution. Can someone point me to all the customer ready material to be shared with our customers and if its scatered amongst around a variety of portals, can I suggest we consolidate customer ready content in a sub space of the FlexPod community. Thank you.

FlexPod Fall News is Out!

mharding — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 23:52:42 GMT

Hello FlexPod Community – we’re bringing the FlexPod Fall announcement news to you, the practitioners of FlexPod converged solutions. Please take a moment to read up on the latest FlexPod validated designs and program enhancements. This will be valuable for you, your customers or stakeholders.

We have 2 new validated designs -- one for Cisco VMDC, and one for NetApp MetroCluster expected to publish shortly, plus program enhancements including Citrix joining the FlexPod Cooperative Support and full stack management options. A quick executive video highlights these items. And a new blog post gives you the detailed run-down on the Fall update to the FlexPod program.

You may also be seeing more coming out on FlexPod ranking #1 by IDC in Worldwide Integrated Infrastructure, as well FlexPod turning 3 years old. We have more news than we can manage but it's all true, and all there for you to leverage as you talk up FlexPod with your contacts.

For NetApp Partners there’s additional FlexPod Fall reference material, a recorded briefing, and a number of new sales tools becoming available through the FlexPod Field Portal (FlexPodPartners.com).

Please share this news, and thank you for helping us realize another productive season for the FlexPod business.

FlexPod with Microsoft Hyper-V Windows Server 2012 Deployment Guide Errors

lallin — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:28:50 GMT

I'm trying to follow the deployment guides posted on Cisco's website to set up a Flexpod using Hyper-V 2012 and I'm having some issues with the documentation.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/flexpod_mspc_hvws12.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/ucs_flexpod_mspc30_sc12_deploy.pdf

It appears that there are several typos, omissions, and other issues with the documentation--both documents have the same issues. I was just curious if someone that has the ability to review the documentation is monitoring this forum and we could discuss some of the issues that I'm seeing with the documentation. Some of these issues, I'm not sure how to correct since I've never messed with Cisco UCS before and I'm not great with the Cisco Nexus command line. Any help would be appreciated. I'd be happy to take the discussion offline if you'd like to see what I've found.

FlexPod_Solution_TestPlan.pdf

rarvind — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:57:40 GMT

FlexPod Data Center Solution : Validation Testplan Template

This testplan tests the High Availability functions of the elements of FlexPod.

It also includes the design and implementation of a Standard workload that is required to execute the test procedures.

Problem with the cf takeover and cf giveback in the FlexPod

thomastrendel — Thu, 11 Jul 2013 19:12:31 GMT

Hallo,

Problem is am I doing a cf takeover with Kopf1 (vfiler with NFS) on it so that head takes over two. Run all the VM's lying vfiler on the NFS without any problems.

I'm doing cf giveback one but so that everything works again on Kopf1, the VM's stand. Only two ping dropouts are Ping on the vfiler with NFS.

What me but in the then in the nexus noticed is that here, I get these Errors: In the Annex

May be that cf takeover and cf giveback Problem??

Config from the nexus in the annex.

Many tank times in advance for a small tip

Thomas

New CVD covering FlexPod with FCoE

mckelvey — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 17:48:28 GMT

If you're interested in fully converged fabric in your FlexPod, recent validation efforts include multi-hop FCoE. Also latest vSphere and the Cisco Nexus 7000:

Check out the CVD

Cisco UCS and NetApp MetroCluster

radek_kubka — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 11:11:37 GMT

Hi all,

Anyone with any thoughts re this:

Dual site setup with NetApp Fabric MetroCluster (two storage controllers stretched over fiber links)
Two Nexus 5000 switches at each site, so we have two FC fabrics, stretching both sites (as required for MetroCluster)
To be introduced: UCS with dual Fabric Interconnect Modules at *each* site

Are there any references or documentation describing this? I have a slight concern that we will have UCS FIC modules across two sites on the same FC fabric (A & B respectively) & I’m not 100% sure they will behave nicely.

Thanks,

Radek

FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud wins Best of TechEd 2013!

mharding — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:08:03 GMT

The word came in last night from our staff working the Microsoft TechEd show in New Orleans: FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud wins Best of TechEd in the System Management and Operation category.

Congrats to the FlexPod team for creating and getting to market this award winning offering -- and thanks to the community of technology partners, resellers, consultants and users who are making FlexPod the most exciting story in IT today.

I expect there will be more info about the awards available on the show site and related awards sites later today.

How to upgrade Flexpod? - All components

KUBER_KATANA1 — Fri, 31 May 2013 04:03:14 GMT

Hi,

What is the procedure of upgrading the Flexpod if all components (UCS, Netapp, ESXi) need updates?

I got hold of this:

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-4030.pdf

Is there a steps by steps guide on this?

Also, is there an Interoperability matrix for Flexpod?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Interested in UCS directly attached to NetApp in FlexPod?

mckelvey — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:30:37 GMT

Here's a great link I found about UCS direct attach to NetApp... now with UCS Manager 2.1

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2177874

FlexPod + Oracle, lots of new validation

mckelvey — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:17:34 GMT

It's been very encouraging to hear the positive responses to our increased efforts with Oracle around FlexPod. Oracle is simply a great part of what FlexPod users put into their data centers and it's great to support their needs.

Take a look at

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/04/12/netapp-expands-flexpod-lineup-catches-oracles-attention/

for more info.

What is the most important part of FlexPod's Oracle support for your organization?

NetApp makes bold move into Coffee?

mharding — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:07:28 GMT

Press release found here: http://www.storagescaler.com

N-Series European Converged Infrastructure Roadshow in progress

mharding — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:14:44 GMT

EMEA teams, introduce your accounts to what we're doing with IBM for converged infrastructure solutions on N-Series. Free roadshow continues across Spain, UK and Czech Republic through the end of March. Info and registration at: http://www.vnroadshow.com/

Share a testing Plan on FlexPod ?

HENRYPAN2 — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:34:12 GMT

Dear NetApp Gurus,

Would you be kind enough to share your testing plan on FlexPod to fully discuss/verify the functionality of the FlexPod ?

Thanks in advance & looking forward to share a piece of you.

Cheers & Good w/e

Henry

Questions on XenDesktop, XenClient, Cisco UCS, dedupe & FlexPod Management

MIKESTANLEY — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:35:43 GMT

Just posted this to my blog today.

Would love to hear from people with experience using any or all of these technologies, either here, or in the comments on my blog.

Thanks!

Mike

flexpod support of ontap 8.0.1

daniel_kaiser — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:26:21 GMT

Hi,

Does anyone know if the Flexpod (UCS/Vmware/NetApp) solution is validated to run on OnTap 8.0.1. From what i've recently read, the latest release of supported OnTap is version 7.3.5. Thanks.

Dan

On-demand Webcast : Ask Princeton Insurance how it created a secure private cloud

peluso — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:44:28 GMT

Princeton Insurance, FlexPod, and the Private Cloud - The company's vision was to create a secure private cloud with shared resources that could be rapidly provisioned, increasing business agility while reducing IT overhead.

When: Feb 3rd 2011

Time: 11:00 a.m. PT ; 2:00 p.m. ET

Who: Nicole Gadbois, director of Network Operations at Princeton Insurance, along with technical experts from NetApp, Cisco, and VMware, will be online to answer your questions about the Princeton Insurance IT deployment or your own journey to IT as a service.

Participate in this interactive session and learn how you can:

- Protect your investment with unified support for FC, FCoE, ISCSI.

- Perform a nondisruptive, data-in-place upgrade.

- Respond to business opportunities with flexible and cost-efficient technology.

Feel free to submit questions ahead of time or discuss FlexPod^™ here on the community or via Twitter with #flexibleit.

Cache data protection

nigel_foley — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 07:04:32 GMT

Can anyone explain how cache data protection works in the event of a total power failure? I'm assuming that battery power somehow writes cache contents to disk?

Thanks

A shift in how we architect?

garcia — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:36:55 GMT

Hey folks,

Way back in the day, I used to carefully look at the resources on Mainframes, and schedule jobs to fit the availability of resources on the frame. In many respects, I was fitting the work to the infrastructure architecture. This approach had some notable attributes:

Inconvenient job scheduling
High asset utilization
Closed environment for applications

Then came the client server revolution. The infrastructure was less expensive, but it was also less capable. So we needed to carefully study application requirements and fit the infrastructure architecture to the work.

Open environment for applications
Low asset utilization (because infrastructure was designed for peak load)
Convenient job scheduling

About ten years ago, everyone got interested in virtualization as a means of consolidating workloads and driving up asset utility. This is great, but it also created a lot of questions about application support. I think we've matured past many of these uncertainties, but we are left with a lot of technology to integrate.

High asset utilization
Low predictability for infrastructure consumption
Complex integrated environment
Convenient and open application environment

What occurs to me is that this has led us to the Cloud, or IT as a Service where we must deliver

High asset utilization
Open application environments
Rapid provisioning
Easy management
Agile, whole infrastructure allocation and management
The ability to pre-provision infrastructure, knowing that it can meet most requirements

Do you think we need a flexible, whole infrastructure solution?