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Re: Converged Systems Advisor 4.2 - Adding Nexus Devices - ERROR

DanBarber — Mon, 17 May 2021 18:14:03 GMT

Kristopher,

Let's touch base and I see if I can give you an update on what you're trying to do.

Dan Barber

Solution Architect | Data Center

Re: Converged Systems Advisor 4.2 - Adding Nexus Devices - ERROR

ttran — Thu, 13 May 2021 06:31:56 GMT

Hello ,

Since Converged Systems Advisor is End of Availability, our Internal Team informed me they will be working with the Account Team to respond to your issue. I have provided them the details in your original post.

Regards,

Team NetApp

Re: Cisco UCS Direct Attached Storage for NFS

Kishor — Sat, 08 May 2021 10:27:22 GMT

Thanks Chris. In my case the issue was that I didn't create the same VLAN in the LAN cloud but only created in appliance cloud. Hence it failed. Issue got resolved after creating the same VLAN in LAN cloud after referring your solution.

Re: Converged Systems Advisor 4.2 - Adding Nexus Devices - ERROR

ttran — Wed, 05 May 2021 09:01:50 GMT

Hello Ksalinville,

I reached out to our Interoperability Matrix Tool Team to verify compatibility with your specific version. I will update you once I receive a response.

Regards,

Team NetApp

Re: FlexPod Express Converged Infrastructure Simplifies VMware Solution Design, Deployment, and Grow

jyhshing — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 16:40:20 GMT

Thank you Ramesh!

Yes, the compute in the solution can be scaled by using the licensed QSFP port to add additional C-series servers or a second blade chassis.

The design guide compute scaling section goes over that information in more details.

Re: FlexPod Express Converged Infrastructure Simplifies VMware Solution Design, Deployment, and Grow

Ramesh_Isaac — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 13:09:51 GMT

Nice summary of the solution value Jyh-shing!

Another thing to consider is that the customer does have potential expansion capabilities with the still available 40G QSFP port on each 6324, which could support another chassis or some C-series servers.

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

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

JeremyHall — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 15:49:43 GMT

Excellent work on this.

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.

Re: HCI H615C IMPI Certificate Replacement

NetApp_RZ — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 05:05:58 GMT

Hello Gary.

I am not sure if the following will help in your situation but his comments about certificate formats is so true as it is the same issue we face on other products with self signed certs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDik8l82IG0&feature=youtu.be

Not sure what version of HCI you are running which also may change the procedure for doing this.
Are you changing the certificate because it is expiring?
If so, an update to the version of HCI software may be needed.

Internally, all I was able to find for IPMI on H615C was the following which is really just the password setup.
https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/hci/docs/hci_prereqs_final_prep.html#change-the-default-ipmi-password-for-h610c-h615c-and-h610s-nodes

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

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

elementx — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:30:32 GMT

Hi Higo

I suggest to contact NetApp Support so that they can figure this out (and maybe give you access to download before the problem is fixed) - unfortunately those of us not from NetApp Support don't have a way to find out where the problem is.

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

higo — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:45:49 GMT

Hi,

Yes, i logged in. (see attached).

thanks for your response.

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

elementx — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 08:01:37 GMT

That is strange (and must be annoying, sorry!)

Are you logged in when you see that screen (i.e. when you do not see anything in Tools)?

When I am logged in (NetApp employee) I can see Config Advisor in the tools section (right-hand side).

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

higo — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 07:51:54 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for your your answer.

the link mentions 0 tools (see attached image).

Best regards

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

elementx — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 01:20:36 GMT

HCI documentation failed to mention it's not a Product but a (free) Tool so many - including myself - failed to find it by searching for it in Products. I submitted a bug report for documentation. The link by SpindleNinja above is where the tool can be currently downloaded.

Re: network simple config for HCI (4x4)

elementx — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 01:13:09 GMT

There are two topologies with regard to the number of cables on Compute nodes. If you use the 2 cable option, you need vSphere Enterprise Plus and "VLAN tagging is required for storage and vMotion networks for all compute and storage nodes."

https://docs.netapp.com/hci/topic/com.netapp.doc.hci-ude-180/GUID-11DA74B6-10B1-436A-8550-4BD651114BD3.html?cp=3_0_2_4

If you use six cable option, you still need to be able to separate Management and the rest. Even if you had just one VLAN on your network ports, you'd need additional VLAN tags applied on vSphere (ESXi) hosts, so you'd have to have those switch ports changed to Trunk Mode (from Access Mode, which is common for single-VLAN configs) to allow for host-side tagging to VLANs.

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/hci/docs/hci_prereqs_network_switch.html

It's not that difficult and nodes can be easily reset in the case configuration wizard fails (due to problems with network switch settings, or otherwise).

There's also a tool that can help you validate network configuration before you begin:

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/hci/docs/hci_prereqs_task_validate_config_advisor.html

It should be able to identify most common issues before you begin.

Re: NetApp Active IQ Config Advisor.

SpindleNinja — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:44:55 GMT

see if this works.

https://mysupport.netapp.com/site/tools/tool-eula/activeiq-configadvisor/download

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.

Re: BIOS problem -> ESXi error message?

sraudonis — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:10:15 GMT

All is fine, i have currently the BIOS NA3.7.

My initial question was regarding the VMware error message, if it was possible that the message in VMware has the same source as the BIOS message. But i think the source of this message was the Test-Certs from the vSphere 7 Beta... As i wrote already.

Re: BIOS problem -> ESXi error message?

NetApp_AU — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 03:12:47 GMT

Hello sraudonis,

What version of BIOS are you using?

The issue in the KB you linked is specifically seen in NA3.4 which had unused signature modules leftover in the code which is why the "Untrusty Debug Firmware Key" was seen.

The fix is included in the NA3.5 version which removed the unused signature modules.

As the KB says though, you can ignore the "Untrusty Debug Firmware Key" for now.

Re: BIOS problem -> ESXi error message?

sraudonis — Fri, 15 May 2020 08:09:09 GMT

Just resolved the "alert" in VMware, two things i changed:

1. Changed in the BIOS the boot mode from LEGACY to UEFI.

2. There was a VIB from the latest beta installed, in removed it: VMware_bootbank_vib-test-certs_7.0.0-1.0.15525992

At the moment i can't say what of the two resolved the issue...

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

Re: CSA Appliance Upgrade

kucharski — Tue, 05 May 2020 19:42:22 GMT

Will NetApp ever fix the option to upgrade the appliance without having to re-deploy it from scratch? It would be nice.

Thanks....

Re: CSA Appliance Upgrade

AC_NTAP — Tue, 05 May 2020 16:30:43 GMT

Launch a web browser and visit the following URL for your environment:

https://<agent_ip>/agent/v1/version

It will list the version id of the current version of CSA running.

Now one caveat is while this does provide updates to CSA, it does not update the agent host OS itself, no additional updates are applied other than CSA definitions.

If you want the updates to the OS, then the only option is to re-deploy the agent entirely.

Hope this helps.

Re: CSA Appliance Upgrade

kucharski — Tue, 05 May 2020 15:10:20 GMT

AC,

How can I tell if 4.1 is running after the appliance reboot?

Michael

Re: CSA Appliance Upgrade

AC_NTAP — Mon, 04 May 2020 17:51:08 GMT

Hey Michael,

You should be able to just reboot the CSA Agent Appliance, and when the CSA service restarts, it will update the agent and pull in the new rule sets for the environment that are available.

Cheers,

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

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

Accidental-QA — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:23:02 GMT

Any dedupe or compression higher in the stack will reduce it further down.

In this case, using dedupe and compression inside the Windows VM will reduce the savings on the HCI storage.

Normally it is better to let the storage handle it, because the system can dedupe across multiple VMs whereas running it inside one VM will only dedupe the data inside that machine.

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

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 15:58:05 GMT

hi,

I need help to configure Mellanox SN2010 Switch with 4c x 4s with.

Thanks

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

elementx — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 14:07:29 GMT

That can work but

a) Matching client-side network VLANs should match (or be created), or if you have conflicting VLAN IDs for other purposes, y ou'd have to change the VLAN IDs from these config files

b) You probably won't be able to complete configuration by simply copy-pasting these config files.

The order of different sections may (or may not, I haven't tried that particular config file) need to be changed. If you copy-paste the entire file and it failes between 0% and 100%, you'll be stuck and maybe have to undo and try different order

c) Uplinks are locked to 10G which may or may not fit your environment

d) Switches need to be initialized, management IPs configured, etc. before you can use them

You won't break them by attempting several times, but you may need to spend a day or two until you get it right.

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 13:33:08 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.
The attached configuration is good for me !

Best regards

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

elementx — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 11:51:03 GMT

Long answer:

The exact cabling for 4C + 4S depends on how many 10/25 G cables you want to use on each Compute node.

If you have vSphere Enterprise Plus (and vDS), then you can use only two per node.

If you don't, then 4 per node.

In any case, you will need more than just 4 ports per switch:

a) 4 storage nodes x 2 = 8

b) 4 compute nodes x (at least) 2 = 8

So you'd need 8 ports per switch. In the vSS scenario, you'd need 12 per switch.

And the exact configuration of switches depends on which cabling option is picked (because in the 2 cable per compute node scenario all VLANs reside on the 10/25G NICs, whereas in the vSS switch some VLANs will use additional 1G cables (on top of 4 x 10/25G cables).

And even when all of the above is clear and final, there are still environment-specific options and potentially additional configuration commands that need to be executed.

In your attempt iSCSI ports are missing, and even for compute ports (assuming a 2 cable scenario) there's an assumption that default network will be VLAN 100 but you should definitively create more VLANs.

Short answer:

NetApp partner or SE can arrange a "WebEx" session and walk you through 10 or so questions regarding your network requirements, and as you answer them they'll key in your answers into an Excel spreadsheet, and once it's all done (20 mins?) they'll have enough info to produce a valid configuration file to deliver with the system.

Without it, it's not easy to make a config valid for your environment by referencing a TR.

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:17:31 GMT

Thanks,

the example in tr-4735.pdf is for 2c x 4s we ordered a 4c X 4S.

#Configure data ports (compute nodes)
interface ethernet 1/11-1/12 mtu 9216 force =======================> 1/11-1/14
interface ethernet 1/11-1/12 spanning-tree bpdufilter enable  =======================> 1/11-1/14
interface ethernet 1/11-1/12 spanning-tree port type edge  =======================> 1/11-1/14
interface ethernet 1/11-1/12 spanning-tree bpduguard enable  =======================> 1/11-1/14
interface ethernet 1/11-1/12 switchport mode hybrid  =======================> 1/11-1/14

interface ethernet 1/11 description HCI-CMP-01 eth4:portE
interface ethernet 1/12 description HCI-CMP-02 eth4:portE

interface ethernet 1/13 description HCI-CMP-01 eth4:portE
interface ethernet 1/14 description HCI-CMP-02 eth4:portE

interface ethernet 1/11 switchport hybrid allowed-vlan all
interface ethernet 1/12 switchport hybrid allowed-vlan all

interface ethernet 1/13 switchport hybrid allowed-vlan all
interface ethernet 1/14 switchport hybrid allowed-vlan all

interface ethernet 1/11 switchport access vlan 100
interface ethernet 1/12 switchport access vlan 100

interface ethernet 1/13 switchport access vlan 100
interface ethernet 1/14 switchport access vlan 100

IS IT CORRECT ??

sorry, the configuration of the switches is not my strong point 😞

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

Ontapforrum — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 10:55:06 GMT

Hi,

I suggest opening a ticket with NetApp.

Some references related to your topic:

Enable NKS for Your NetApp HCI Account:
https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/kubernetes-service/hci-enable-nks-for-netapp-hci.html#log-in-at-netapp-cloud-central

Network ports used by NetApp HCI (should be open bidirectionally)
https://docs.netapp.com/hci/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.hci-ude-17P1%2FGUID-8800A247-DA07-4949-A462-27C2376F934C.html&lang=en

Breakfix:
Enabling Cloud Services on HCI returns:
https://kb.netapp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1093299

Thanks!

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.

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

elementx — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 08:32:42 GMT

You won't have to spend much time.

As others have mentioned you can get a customized copy-paste CLI config script for 2 x Mellanox SN2010 as long as you provide inputs in advanced to a NetApp partner or service delivery guy. They need to generate that and revert to you.

The same goes for NDE install wizard: you need to decide what you will enter into the UI, and that may require some planning and consideration on your side (as well as some inputs from the network side).

If you spend 30 minutes on Zoom with a partner or service delivery guy to provide this info (network IPs, VLANs, etc.), assuming the info is correct, you will be able to save a ton of time and install without much effort. They key is to make these decisions days before implementation.

Edit: I should also add, it's unlikely you can have it delivered pre-configured, because certain services like NTP, ADS, etc. are site-specific so it must be done on-site. It is very important that VLANs, gateways, DNS, NTP, etc. is in place for everything to work out.

Re: New HCI Deployment on older Nodes

elementx — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 04:57:02 GMT

Here's how that works with HCI v1.7

https://youtu.be/BCPI-I7lPmE

Re: New HCI Deployment on older Nodes

Trubida — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 13:54:10 GMT

If the compute nodes have already been deployed you will need to RTFI the nodes. Have you mounted and booted to the 1.7P1 ISO yet? If not that would be your first step. Once that's complete you can boot to NetApp safemode, choose maintenance tasks and then factory reset. That process takes about 15 minutes or so. Once complete, you can run through the NDE on one of your storage nodes.

Re: New HCI Deployment on older Nodes

pgee — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 13:27:16 GMT

Yes, it did not like the NetApp Configurator Boot Option tho.

What worked was booting into "NetApp Safe Mode" though i can't say if that supports the NDE Deploy. But i will try now and report back later !

Re: New HCI Deployment on older Nodes

Accidental-QA — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 13:19:02 GMT

Those nodes are still supported. 🙂

The system will alternate which boot device so you may need to reboot again to get into the configurator (or you may need to grab the Boot Menu and force it.)

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?

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

AlexDawson — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 05:32:16 GMT

Hi Higo!

We have a simple configuration guide for the Mellanox switches starting Page 15 at https://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4735.pdf

Hope this helps - it should not take too long!

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

amayacitta — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 12:44:14 GMT

The NDE (NetApp Deployment Engine) is very good yes, it will automate the depoyment based on your inputs.

In terms of the switch configuration, I beleive there is a web interface as part of the Mellenox switch OS. It might take more clicks to get it done but could be easier for you to deploy if your not comfortable with the CLI.

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 11:46:50 GMT

Hi,

Before committing to netapp HCI, I believed that Deployment Engine does everything by providing it with the information (names, DNS, Ip addresses for the three segments management storage and vmware vmotion) and he takes care of everything.
is there a simpler configuration for the Mellanox SN2010 switch?

note: I have read NetApp HCI 1.7P1

Thanks

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

amayacitta — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 09:54:01 GMT

Yep that one is useful, this document is also worth a read, it's slightly out of date but is still valuable.

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2856899

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

higo — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 08:22:27 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for your answer

In my country netapp is not present, we use the documents provided by the Netapp site for the installation of the netapp hci 4X4 solution. The switch for the solution is Mellanox SN2010.
I found a doc of the configuration of Mellanox SN2010 switch provided by Stephen Carl, (HCI Tech Solutions, NetApp
December 2018 | TR-4735-1218) which is interesting I provide you the link.

https://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4735.pdf.
The wiring configuration on page 14 and the switch configuration is on page 15.
This is our first time with the Netapp HCI solution.

Re: Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

amayacitta — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 23:27:17 GMT

It is indeed a SRM thing, you would need a NetApp plug-in that can understand how to differentiate between ONTAP and Elements and call either. That's gonna be a bit of a challenge when doing re-protects between two different storage architectures.

Obviously doing it through vSphere replication would work fine as it's not array dependant, but of course your then not doing array replication. It would work for you in your situation though and save having to become a Powershell Ninja 😉

Re: HCI preconfigured ?

amayacitta — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 23:22:19 GMT

Hi, if you purchase HCI and get a partner to deploy it, the kit comes unconfigured but the partner will use tools such as config builder to build the switch configuration and integrate the system. This could include joining an existing virtual estate or integrating with an existing one.

The config builder tool gives the partner a deployment workbook which, when filled in will allow the deployment engineer to copy paste configuration elements into the switches and into the HCI NDE (NetApp deployment engine). It's a pretty rapid deployment once all the information is captured into the tools, the whole thing will stand up within an hour or two easily.

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

Re: Redeploy HCI with NDE

elementx — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 02:40:23 GMT

Normally we would access NDE at http://managementIP of any storage node *before* anything has been configured (either storage or compute or Management Node) and deploy HCI that way:

http://docs.netapp.com/hci/topic/com.netapp.doc.hci-ude-17P1/GUID-8CED8C44-68D4-4AFD-9DB8-F611914AA637.html?cp=2_0_2_0

But wIth NDE you could not install only storage nodes, for example, because a minimum NetApp HCI cluster currently consists of 4 storage + 2 compute nodes. If you have the h/w but decide to install a storage cluster first, that'd be a "SolidFire" storage cluster. It is easier to install a "full HCI" cluster than separately.

If storage-ony cluster has been built, you'd use HCI Compute Node ISO that corresponds to ISO used to buid HCI Storage Cluster. For example if you used storage ISO from HCI 1.7.0, you'd get compute ISO from HCI 1.7.0 as well. This comes with Element (SolidFire) v11.5.

Newest HCI version is 1.7.1 which contains Element (SolidFire) v11.7:

https://mysupport.netapp.com/products/p/hci.html

When you get Compute Node ISO for HCI that corresponds to storage OS you got, assuming you backed up compute nodes' data you want to keep, you'd install Compute Node ISO which would do 2 things: refresh compute nodes' BIOS and firmware (if necessary), and install Bootstrap OS on the first internal SATADOM.

After a reboot, these nodes would be ready to deploy with NDE, which runs on storage nodes and deploys ESXi on the second internal SATADOM on compute node.

As I mentioned in top paragraphs, storage-only clusters are easy to install but if you already have all the h/w it's best to install from scratch using NDE.

1) HCI v1.7.1 would require management node VM to be installed and configured. Then you could go to:

https://[management node IP]/mnode

NDE installs Management VM for you, but if your existing storage cluster doesn't have it, you may install and configure it on your own, which may be harder than to just use NDE to install HCI from scratch.

2) HCI v1.6 and earlier (maybe even 1.7.1, I haven't tried), try HTTP management IP of any storage node

http://[any-storage-node-management-ip]

This "easy scale" function will let you add compute nodes only if they're properly cabled, VLANs and MTUs correct, etc. so while it requires just a few clicks (https://youtu.be/krWod7ZaBqE) to complete, network preparation requires the understanding of HCI networking options and other details (http://docs.netapp.com/hci/topic/com.netapp.doc.hci-ude-17P1/GUID-67E1EEF6-900D-4C7A-B1CD-3598A000E7FD.html?cp=2_0_2_5).

Personally if I had a system with no data to keep, I'd wipe everything clean and install using Compute and Storage ISOs from HCI v1.7.1.

Using 4 USB sticks: yes, I meant it saves you time to have 4 sticks for 4 storage nodes (4.5GB per image = you can use USB keys 8GB or larger). Compute nodes ISOs are getting close to 20GB and for those a fast USB 3.0 key moved from one node to another one may be better than several slow USB keys in parallel.

USB cables or kesy need to be slim enough to not get pushed by VGA cable which can cause read errors.

Re: Redeploy HCI with NDE

STEFANDELFS — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 13:38:56 GMT

Hi,

sorry - my bad.
I wanted to say: The C-Nodes have never been installed - so no ESX installed

The S-Nodes are up and running at the moment and building a solidfire cluster...

Re: Redeploy HCI with NDE

elementx — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 13:02:58 GMT

You're welcome.

If there are no storage nodes, then there's no h/w to run NetApp Deployment Engine (NDE) (to deploy HCI), which means you'd use a standard ESXi procedure. One way is:

1) Get one of supported ESXi, e.g., 6.7U3 ISO from VMware and install it

2) Get required drivers (Mellanox and Intel NICs, for example)

https://mysupport.netapp.com/products/hci/1.7P1/downloads.html

You may not have networking working when you install these in which case you'd have to copy them to ESXi OS from USB key or otherwise.

You may need to read a KB or ask NetApp SE or Support for help, if you get stuck.

http://docs.netapp.com/hci/topic/com.netapp.doc.hci-ude-17P1/GUID-5BDC16C7-7BA6-49CC-B744-FD3B25308741.html?resultof=%22%64%72%69%76%65%72%73%22%20%22%64%72%69%76%65%72%22%20

Re: Redeploy HCI with NDE

STEFANDELFS — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:49:31 GMT

Hi,

ty very much for the answer!
At the moment it is not a "real" HCI so the storage nodes have never been installed - they are empty.
You mentioned 4 USB sticks - that is just for speed and not because there is a need of installing all 4 nodes ath the same time, cottect?

Thank you.

regards

Re: Redeploy HCI with NDE

elementx — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 02:18:53 GMT

You can't deploy a deployed cluster. You can scale (add new nodes, storage or compute) a deployed cluster - that URL is in NetApp HCI user docs, but you don't want that either.

You want to re-deploy, which means you need to reset first. Assuming you don't want to keep any data, and you don't want to rearrange your network cabling or settings, you could write down your IPs, netmasks, VLANs, gateways, DNS, NTP currently used, and then reset all of the nodes, which would return you to the initial "factory" state.

I wouldn't recommend to try unless you've done it before or at least watched somebody do it beore, because you're likely to get stuck, but if you want to go ahead I would suggest to reset compute nodes by rebooting and immediately (it's shown for 1 second only) pick a Bootstrap OS menu to avoid booting to ESXi, and in it find the reset function. That would reset compute nodes. Then for Element OS (storage nodes), it's best to download Storage Node ISO and re-install over IPMI or via 4 slim USB keys (faster) plugged into storage nodes.

Once everything is reset you will see the NDE Web UI on the storage node(s).

NDE docs (for current version; for other versions, navigate to your own):

http://docs.netapp.com/hci/topic/com.netapp.doc.hci-ude-17P1/GUID-8CED8C44-68D4-4AFD-9DB8-F611914AA637.html?cp=2_0_2_0

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

Re: Adding SSD in existing aggregate

RajeshPanda — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 08:21:42 GMT

can you please look into the response and update thread ?

Re: Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Piyushag — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:55:35 GMT

Cleondris Solution is an elegant solution for DR - supports failover and Failback. Let me know if you would like to look at the Cleondris HCC solution for HCI www.cleondris.com/en/hci-control-center.xhtml.

Happy to work with you to find a solution for your situation.

Re: Adding SSD in existing aggregate

GidonMarcus — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 14:51:07 GMT

actually. just noticed you didn't specify it's ontap as well. NetApp has 3 other platforms that has SSD.. if it's need further attention. please provide the model name. OS version, and current riad configuration.

Re: Adding SSD in existing aggregate

GidonMarcus — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 14:49:37 GMT

if your aggr is hybrid, (SSD and HDD) - look for the articles for flash cache and confirm the limits for your configuration.

if the whole AGGR is just SSD you'll need to:

1. confirm the model number of the other SSD's (command in 7 mode sysconfig -a, in cdot - disk show -aggr <aggr nameL> -fields model)

2. confirm the aggr max size and disk count to your controller model against hwu.netapp.com

3. confirm the maximum and recommended amount of SSD in raid group (28) is not exceeded (command in 7 mode sysconfig -r and aggr show-status ). if it does - you might not be able to add just one disk to the aggr to add space.

https://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.dot-cm-psmg%2FGUID-EE30CDA9-095F-4DD1-9A29-BB9F0E55DB4F.html

once that all confirm - you can likely order the extra disk. Make sure you get it from a certified partner. Otherwise, you might risk the warranty/support of your array, and might get a refurbished or not proper compatible dire.

When you get the disk.

1. check if you need to increase the maxraidsize (in 7mode aggr options, in cdot - aggr show -aggr <aggr name> -fields maxraidsize)

2. insert the disk and confirm it's visible in disk show or sysconfig -r

3. assign it to the node where the aggr is on with disk assign command (7 mode and cdor)

4. add the disk to the aggr with aggr add-disks command.

5. run vol reallocation - to spread the workload across all the disks, and avoid having your disk deemed to be "cold"

Good luck

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?

Re: Understanding NAS with Flexpod

OZWALKERZ — Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:51:29 GMT

I'm probably 2 years too late to be a useful answer, but NetApp NAS is far more than a bunch of disks!

Think of all the redundancy features you expect from a top notch SAN, and then appliy that to NAS file services.

All the disks are in double-parity raid groups, almost every component is duplicated, and the software offers rich features to assist with cross site duplication and management just to name two....

The new flash (SSD) arrays come with deduplication and compression enabled as standard, and are blindingly fast!

We serve Oracle databases and VMWare datastores over NFS, and although you do need to make sure your network has enough bandwidth, it's just as fast as FC. (We've got at 4 x 10GBps on some nodes and 2 x 40GBps connections on others!)

Add in the AutoSupport function which allows the NAS to effectively order it's own replacement disks when one fails, and it makes life very easy! Very nice function when you're managing 700 disks...

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.

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

elementx — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:54:43 GMT

Where's the file?

Re: Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

elementx — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:51:39 GMT

I think it's a VMware SRM thing - I believe both sites/sides must use the same SRA, but maybe someone from HCI product team may be able to confirm or correct this.

Re: Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

Simone_Anastasio — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:21:30 GMT

Thank you for your reply,

unfortunately it was just what I imagined and feared!
Making a solution using powershell unfortunately now becomes my plan A.
I agree that PowerShell is a great and powerful tool (I use it for many tricks), but any script created would not be a certified solution and this can create problems in production (or DR) environments.

I hope that as soon as possible the SRA agents will be updated in order to support this type of solution as well, because in a "Data Fabric" world, today, it would be the minimum ...

Thank you

Re: Snapmirror HCI to ONTAP with Site Recovery Manager (SRM)

elementx — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 14:18:27 GMT

That is currently not achievable with VMware SRM (Element and ONTAP plugins can't coordinate with SRM).

The closest workaround that doesn't require crazy skills is PowerShell-drive manual failover and failback.

Element OS PowerShell integration is excellent and ONTAP is getting better, so with these two and PowerCLI, you may be able to make something that you can run manually when you need to. Both ONTAP and Element have a VM version which is a low cost to have a close-to-identical (as far as automation goes) Dev/Test environment that doesn't cost much. You're welcome to learn more about PowerShell and automation at https://netapp.io/ (there's a community Slack, too) and check out https://github.com/solidfire/PowerShell for Element PS Tools and some examples.

Or maybe take a look at www.cleondris.com/en/hci-control-center.xhtml

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

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

ajeffrey — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 14:18:15 GMT

You can get more information by running the following command on the CSA agent:

csa@csa:~$ docker logs `docker ps|grep agent|awk '{print $1}'` | tee docker.log

Then you can examine the contents of the docker.log file to see where things went wrong.

It is best to generate a fresh failure before running this command.

Thanks

Jeff

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

CSAsetup — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:32:57 GMT

Hello case is still open but no solution yet. Someone else encounter the same kind of behaviour ? connection accepted but discovery of ontap stay at 0%. SSh key ? Proxy ?

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

HemanthaSKota — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 12:57:57 GMT

unable to download TR getting below error

Item '/us/media/tr-4679.pdf' not found for Localization '10'

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

ajeffrey — Mon, 06 May 2019 20:14:20 GMT

We have tested on FAS 8080 (ONTAP 9.3P10) so that's a very close to perfect match. I doubt it's version related. I also doubt it's related to certificates.

Having said all this it is possible that you are instead hitting a software issue in the collection process. If you’d like to troubleshoot here is where to start:

The primary thing to look at are the logs from docker. You can get them by ssh'in into your agent and running the following command:

csa@csa:~$ docker logs `docker ps|grep agent|awk '{print $1}'` | tee docker.log

This will generate a file docker.log in the current directory that you could look at (and also send to support if it's not apparent what the failure is).

It would be best to generate a fresh failure before running this command.

Thanks!

Jeff Applewhite

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

CSAsetup — Mon, 06 May 2019 07:01:48 GMT

9.3P11 on AFF8080.

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

ajeffrey — Fri, 03 May 2019 15:48:26 GMT

Can you share what version of ONTAP and what hardware model you are using?

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

CSAsetup — Fri, 03 May 2019 15:41:09 GMT

Hi Aaron,

Thx for your interest, i don't have any error message it's accepted but stay at 0% on global device page.

Re: Convergred System Advisor setup

Aaron_Kirk — Fri, 03 May 2019 13:19:46 GMT

Hi ,

Can you share the message you are receiving when trying to add ONTAP in the agent?

-Aaron

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 !

Re: Converged System Advisor 3.0 Docker Bianaries

ajeffrey — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 19:05:31 GMT

This question is addressed in another thread:

https://community.netapp.com/t5/Converged-Infrastructure-Discussions/Convergred-System-Advisor/m-p/146192#M261

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?

Re: Convergred System Advisor

DanSarisky — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 15:09:51 GMT

It should just need it at initial setup and then run fine so long as it can get to csa.netapp.com.

If we push revised agent versions, it will attempt to download and restart, and may fail at that point. You will start getting "agent offline" emails that should notify you of that condition if it occurs.

Re: Convergred System Advisor

ECEDERGREN — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:42:02 GMT

The CSA is using this to download Binaries, after initial setup will the CSA still need access to the site?

For me it would be easier to get approval to open it up tempoarly for initial setup than close it down.

Re: Convergred System Advisor

DanSarisky — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 11:34:20 GMT

The CSA agent software is developed and tested by Netapp. We however do not have a publicly facing docker registry. Hence we use docker.com and docker.io to actually have the binary images available for download to a customer.

Re: Convergred System Advisor

AlexDawson — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 03:53:31 GMT

Hi there! Fair question. I have reached out to our development team to ask. I will let you know what I hear back.

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?

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

elementx — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 14:51:18 GMT

For the impatient, there's a video in the repo at https://github.com/jedimt/hcicollector (look for the MP4 file) as well as the code itself...

Currently it is strongly recommended to use it with FQDN-based vSphere as IP address-based cluster w/o DNS names still creates some usability issues in the GUI (this will be fixed soon).

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

elementx — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 14:45:13 GMT

That's fine, but you can't shutdown ESXi from vSphere when you shut down vCenter/VCSA in the previous step - ESXi could be shut down via PowerCLI or from each server's ESXi Web Management Interface.

Also for the storage cluster, a simpler way is to use PowerShell (and have the script ready, to shut down all ESXi, sleep for a minute, and then move on to shut down all storage nodes).

Assuming storage node IDs are 1,2,3,4:

PS> Invoke-SFShutdown -Node 1,2,3,4 -Option Halt

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

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

SHINSASA — Tue, 25 Dec 2018 04:42:59 GMT

Hi CHRISMAKI,

Thank you for you reply.

I understood shutdown by GUI.
(You use postman. I did not know that plugin thx.)

Very easy and simple.

I think best asnwer.

But we want to clean shutdown. But vcetner running on ComputeNode of NetAppHCI.

So I think this is clean shudown...

1. Guest VM shutdown. (by vCenter web client )
2. Mnode(VM) shutdown. (by vCenter web client )

3.vCenter(VCSA) shutdown(by vCenter web client )

4.ESX shutdown(by vsphere web client )

Mentenance mode and shutdown.

5. Storage Node(solidfire) shutdown.(by web browser)

https://<mvip>/json-rpc/1.0?method=Shutdown&nodes=[1,2,3,4]&option=halt
<mvip> = Your Cluster Management IP

[1,2,3,4] = The Nodes you want to shut down. If you have 5 or 6 Node you have to list them.
(by Mr.ANDRESCHMITZ comment)

if you have good idea tell me please.

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

CHRISMAKI — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 22:14:57 GMT

I used to use Postman to shutdown my lab cluster but recently came across this.

As for the compute nodes, that's standard vSphere:

You may get a chicken/egg scenario if your vCenter server is on your HCI storage however.

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

ANDRESCHMITZ — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 21:02:50 GMT

Have fun and leave a Like for me in this thread 😉

By the way... to Shut down the Compute Nodes, do what you have done in history with normal ESX Hosts. Shut down vms, shut down ESX Hosts.

Kind regards

Andre

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

SHINSASA — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 07:45:54 GMT

Hi,ANDRESCHMITZ

Thank you for your reply.

This is great.

I want to test this command.

Best Regards,

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

Re: How can I shutdown NetAppHCI

ANDRESCHMITZ — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:13:22 GMT

HI SHINSASA,

you can shutdown all Storage Nodes by entering the following command in your browser:

https://<mvip>/json-rpc/1.0?method=Shutdown&nodes=[1,2,3,4]&option=halt

<mvip> = Your Cluster Management IP

[1,2,3,4] = The Nodes you want to shut down. If you have 5 or 6 Node you have to list them.

For Example if you want to shutdown all 6 Nodes:

https://192.168.1.150/json-rpc/1.0?method=Shutdown&nodes=[1,2,3,4,5,6]&option=halt

Kind regards

Andre

Re: What exactly can HyperConverged Offer?

JFMartin_ESI — Tue, 16 Oct 2018 00:48:22 GMT

If you have invested quite a bit in CI, I don't see the need "replace" or "convert" to HCI... the latter is a matter of having a pre-assembled compute+storage+network coupled with an "easy" setup process... maybe for your next innovation iteration you could consider HCI and have a more closer look ! 🙂

Re: What exactly can HyperConverged Offer?

netappmagic — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 19:21:57 GMT

Okay. I can understand what HCI can offer versus CI.

Now, if we have a already well CI storage cluster, any strong reasons we should convert it to HCI, keep in mind that this will cost fortune.