topic Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0 in ONTAP Discussions

how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

bhuvan — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 19:35:57 GMT

Hi All,

we have 6 nodes cluster with OS version 8.2.3P2 cluster mode at our Prod and DR DC's, our remote site's has flexpod concept with 2 nodes of OS version 8.3. Currently we are planning to upgrade the OS version to 9.0

Please suggest and help how to upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0 and request to provide detail steps of the upgrade process with pre and post checks for this upgrade.

Also let us know do we have any compatibility issues or bugs on 9.0 version? We are using Hitachi storage array's in our cluster mode setup.

Regards,

Bhuvan

Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

Sahana — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:16:21 GMT

Refer the links below:

https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMLP2492508/html/GUID-224CFB44-A17D-434C-8B3B-DEC3923D2C52.html

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2507747

Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

MarcSchindler — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:01:14 GMT

Hello, Please consult a partner or professional service for the upgrade, because there was a network configuration change between both versions and the IMT (SW dependencies) have to be checked before. It's not possible to describe the complete upgrade steps here, because if something is missing then you need someone as soon as possible to reduce a possible downtime. The Upgrade Advisor in MyASUP can assist you during the upgrade procedure. Best regards, Marc

Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

georgevj — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:38:12 GMT

True.

ONTAP9 is still RC, not good for production systems. If I was the storage admin, I would wait for a GA release.

Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

aborzenkov — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 06:48:51 GMT

ONTAP9 is still RC, not good for production systems.

"What's in the name"? Today's RC was known as GA and today's GA was known as GD in the past. So the difference is mostly in amount of testing and length of exposure to "real world" workloads.

Quoting current release model definition:

RCs are fully tested and are suitable in development / test environments and in production environments, including those with business-critical workloads.

I do not endorse using RC, but at least we need to stay with facts 🙂

Re: how to perform cluster mode ontap upgrade from 8.2.3P2 to 9.0

georgevj — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 08:19:21 GMT

aborzenkov,

Agree with you.

My statement was specific to this release of ONTAP. Lots of features have changed since the previous release. I was thinking from the customer's perspective. What if the existing customer environment has some configuration that is unsupported and not yet documented? I would try a new product in a test environment before I push that to production, be it RC or GA.

From the definition of RC: ( link: http://mysupport.netapp.com/NOW/products/ontap_releasemodel/ )

"RCs are suitable for customers who want to start exploring or certifying the release in their environment for either new features or bug fixes.RCs are fully tested and are suitable in development / test environments and in production environments, including those with business-critical workloads. NetApp might deliver multiple RCs for a release, as necessary, to address specific issues before the release is designated as a General Availability (GA) release."

From that of GA:

"The GA designation is given to the Release Candidate to indicate that earlier release(s) performed extraordinarily well across multiple deployments. Based on rigorous testing by NetApp's quality assurance organization and the experience gained from hundreds of customer systems running the Release Candidate extensively in various customer environments, the release demonstrated sufficient maturation. This maturation enables customers to achieve five-9s availability or better in production environments, including those with business-critical workloads."

Personally, I am a big fan of "five 9s" and would like to stick to GA. May be my personal point of view, other opinions are also welcome!