topic Re: OnTap 9.5 4 node cluster SVM NFS lifs in ONTAP Discussions

OnTap 9.5 4 node cluster SVM NFS lifs

kelwin — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 11:15:33 GMT

We have a cluster and recently added 2 nodes to cluster (4 nodes total). We have an svm that supports nfs (vmware) with data lifs for the original 2 nodes. We'd like to expand the svm across all 4 nodes but want to understand how lifs function on an svm that has access to aggregates on 2 HA pairs. Do we need an nfs lif per node on the svm? If we connecting to a datastore on nodes1/2 do we connect to the same lifs when accessing a datastore on nodes3/4?

Re: OnTap 9.5 4 node cluster SVM NFS lifs

SpindleNinja — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 01:56:31 GMT

Here's a good starting point for you. https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2496234 .

But yes. generally you want at minimum 1 lif per node to allow direct access to the volume and not go through the cluster network.

Re: OnTap 9.5 4 node cluster SVM NFS lifs

pedro_rocha — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 15:07:06 GMT

"If we connecting to a datastore on nodes1/2 do we connect to the same lifs when accessing a datastore on nodes3/4? "

You can, but you should not. As previously said, 1 LIF per node per SVM.

Re: OnTap 9.5 4 node cluster SVM NFS lifs

TMACMD — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 15:43:08 GMT

I suspect in your case, I would do this:

Create a NEW NFS LIF on the two new nodes.
Create a NEW datastore on each of the two new nodes (use VSC and it should mount also)
Mount the new datastores to all ESXi nodes
Use VMware and perform a storage vMotion to the datastores. Here is where you can distribute the VMs across all the nodes.

This is of course a high level overview. There are number of finer details that can/should be interpreted.