topic 7-Mode to CDOT in ONTAP Discussions

7-Mode to CDOT

Chaos — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:24:13 GMT

Can anyone comment on performing an actual conversion from 7-Mode to CDOT? What resources did you use? What procedure did you follow? Was it done in the field? By a customer?

I'm worried that KB 1013517 might not be the whole story...

It's kind of top-secret. You can find it with a search on kb.netapp.com, but you just get a note about needing to ask for access. This makes me wonder if I'm missing some updates.
The caution in big red letters about needing to be a NetApp or partner employee ("don't try this at home") is a bit disconcerting.
The procedure given in 1013517 seems too simple. It basically boils down to Loader option 7. ("Install new software first.") That seems too simple. No firmware update? No loader update? No BIOS flash? No netboot?
A simple question earlier here on a related subject turned up complex considerations on the upgrade path and not much agreement.

Update: I'm just trying to focus on the OS part of the conversion. Assume no data volumes at all. I just want to move completely empty, disk-wipeable filers from 7-Mode to CDOT 8.3. We have lots of 2240-2 filers that should make nice CDOT platforms. Yes, we are adding 10GbE mezzanine cards for the cluster interconnect.

FInal update: I followed the KB instructions and the update went smoothly. The upgrade procedure is convenient and well documented. It really was as simple as it appeared, and other than the disk wipe, it's not much different than an ordinary within-mode OS update, which is easy to do. Just get the license keys first and upgrade the BIOS if needed. (The SP upgrade comes with the OS. I updated 7-mode to the tip revision first just to be safe.)

Re: 7-Mode to CDOT

bsnyder27 — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:12:44 GMT

Depends on how you are defining conversion.

There is no upgrade path to CDOT from 7-mode for controllers without wiping all of your data. You need to use the 7MTT to assit with the data migration to a completely separate controller or controller pair stood up.

I did our transition during a hardware refresh this past year. We purchased a new FAS controller, but we also needed to replace some older shelves and HDDs that were going out of hardware support. As a result, we had enough storage to migrate all of the data over.

We're small and could swing such. I'm not sure how others are able to migrate when it wouldn't be nearly as easy for them to have enough extra storage to do such except for the option of renting/borrowing the 'swing' storage to perform the upgrade.

Re: 7-Mode to CDOT

aborzenkov — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:17:23 GMT

The procedure given in 1013517 seems too simple. It basically boils down to Loader option 7. ("Install new software first.")

No. It boils down to setting correct environment variables and reinstalling. Eveything else are extra steps. If you do not know whether you can skip them - follow article to the letter.

Re: 7-Mode to CDOT

neto — Tue, 19 May 2015 18:53:59 GMT

Hi Chaos,

This is neto from Brazil

How are you?

I believe you have got your answer. Please if you need help, pelase do not hesitate to ask me.

Thanks

neto