topic Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount? in ONTAP Discussions

Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

heightsnj — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:53:03 GMT

In stead of using LIF, for instance, "vserver-lif1", if I use an IP address "10.172.19.8", will it gets failed to the other node in case of something wrong with the connection?

Please advise.

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

TMACMD — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 18:46:26 GMT

As long as other nodes in the cluster have working ports in the same broadcast domain then it should fail over

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

AlainTansi — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:13:45 GMT

Hello @heightsnj

If you are referring to an SSH or HTTP access to the storage, then either ways should work if you have your DNS set up correctly.

Not sure if i understood what you meant by ...failed to the other node...

However,

Please if this post resolved your issue, please help others by selecting ACCEPT AS SOLUTION or adding a KUDO or both!

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

tahmad — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 09:51:27 GMT

Please check if you have enabled the LIF to failover in case of connection/hardware failure.

Configuring failover settings on a LIF

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

heightsnj — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 10:40:44 GMT

Thanks for all your inputs!

On the cluster level, when I do "net int show..." on lif_name, failover-group, and failover-policy all seem fine, and target ports were defined fine as well

My question is on the client side. instead of using lif_name, if we use IP address on the Linux server, not lif_name, would that cause issues?

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

Mjizzini — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 11:15:23 GMT

The lif name is just a dns entry for the ip address. Using Ip address will always reach the Netapp.

From the NetApp side, The lif with the ip address will failover to a working port during Takeover or Giveback.

Note that some specific configuration will need SPN name. e.g. Kerberos NFS will fail using ip.

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

heightsnj — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 12:29:17 GMT

If I use the lif_name on Linux, connection can be failed to the other ports if a problems occur, since the lif_name is a common DNS name.

But, what I don't understand is how NetApp can fail the connection over to the other ports, if the IP is used on Linux, not lif_name?

Re: Using IP address instead of Logical Interface for NFS mount?

Mjizzini — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 09:53:46 GMT

When the lif do fail to another port in Ontap, the new port will host the lif with its IP. The same lif name and same IP will be online living on the new network port. From the client perspective, it will be treated as a network drop.