topic Cascading 2 Cluster Interconnect Switches in ONTAP Discussions

Cascading 2 Cluster Interconnect Switches

nachin — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:07:39 GMT

Greetings everyone,

This question may sound strange, but I do wonder if we can cascade two CN1610's to form the cluster interconnection. By that I mean a node is connected to a CN1610, and this CN1610 is connected to another CN1610, then to another node. To provide path redundency, another 2 CN1610's are needed, so this involves total 4 CN1610's.

If I recall correctly, NetApp uses Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) for the IP addresses of cluster LIF, that is an IP address like 169.254.x.x. For each interconnection, 2 CN1610's form a single Layer-2 so two controllers at each side can still communicate with each other using its 169.254.x.x IP address as if only one CN1610 is between them.

Any replication would be appreciated in advance. Thank you.

Re: Cascading 2 Cluster Interconnect Switches

aborzenkov — Wed, 03 May 2017 16:08:51 GMT

Cluster interconnect expects full mesh connectivity. So while it may work I'm pretty sure it is not supported.

Re: Cascading 2 Cluster Interconnect Switches

robinpeter — Wed, 03 May 2017 20:30:28 GMT

I'll recommend you requesting for a PVR from netapp.

For migration purpose, between two datacenter (distance less then 200M)

somthing similar was approved via PVR.

I believe it will be depends on the destance between the switches.

seems like what you need is a metro cluster...

Based on you post.. if there if considerable distance between both switch (or both set of switch)

how you will achieve the HA multi path SAS cabling between the two nodes !?

Keep in mind path redundency is not just in Cluster switch level. You need to achieve that

in SAS cabling by having multiple path to both nodes.

In case, if you are planning to have an HA pair on both location.

thats *might* be very similar to metro cluster setup.

Ontap uses "169.254.x.x.", if you leave the custer configuraiton as "Auto"

during the cluster configuration you can specify any IP for those interfaces.

As long as they can communicte, cluster setup will not give you any problem.

hope this help.