topic Re: Install 9.6P9 on FAS8020 without upgrade in ONTAP Discussions

Install 9.6P9 on FAS8020 without upgrade

Kamal — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:40:04 GMT

Hi ,

we have FAS 8020, and not serving any data, currently it has 8.2.3P3 7 mode. now i wanted to convert the system to C mode with latest version. I am planning to have 9.6P9.

I need suggestion here, whether i can directly install 9.6P9 Image, since this system is not serving any data. and how to perform

Regards

Kamal

Re: Install 9.6P9 on FAS8020 without upgrade

GidonMarcus — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:06:41 GMT

yes. but converting a node from 7-mode to Cdot involves a few tasks:

1. change boot vat to cdot, netboot a cdot image, disk and system reinitialization.

2. ~~Obtain new set of licences for features in Cdot and a cluster licence.~~ Per reply below - confirm you have a copy of the 8.2 licence keys.

3. Change the network connectivity to create the intercluster network between the nodes.

4. confirm hardware compatibility with the version you're going to (Disks, shelves, PCI cards and their location) at hwu.netapp,com

Speak with a NetApp or a partner to see if and how they can help with this~~. And to help with generating new set of licences (which I assume thy can only do for in-support systems).~~

Re: Install 9.6P9 on FAS8020 without upgrade

aborzenkov — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 12:18:55 GMT

@GidonMarcus wrote:
2. Obtain new set of licences for features in Cdot and a cluster licence.

7-Mode 8.2 and C-Mode 8.3+ are using the same node-locked feature licenses. Quoting Data ONTAP Licensing :

In Data ONTAP 8.2 and 8.3, the only new license key required to build a cluster is a Cluster Base Key, which you can request through your Sales team. For licensable Data ONTAP 8.2 features, the same license keys used for 7-Mode are also used for clustered Data ONTAP 8.2.

And Cluster Base license is no more mandatory (at least from technical point of view). Quoting FAQ: Licensing updates in Data ONTAP 9.2 :

Cluster Base License Key (aka Cluster Base Key) is no longer required to invoke the Create Cluster command in Data ONTAP 9.2. Installing a Cluster Base Key is optional starting in Data ONTAP 9.2.

Re: Install 9.6P9 on FAS8020 without upgrade

Mjizzini — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 06:15:28 GMT

How to repurpose a Data ONTAP 8.1.x or later 7-Mode node to ONTAP 9

This article describes the procedure that should be followed to repurpose a Data ONTAP 8.1.x 7-Mode or later storage controller to ONTAP 9.

Re-purposing Data ONTAP 7-Mode HA to clustered Data ONTAP HA can be performed in two ways:

Switchless cluster
Joining to the existing cluster with additional networking

Note:

Data ONTAP 7-Mode and clustered Data ONTAP licenses are different. Contact the sales team to obtain new licenses.
The image of ONTAP 9 cannot be installed on a system that is up and running Data ONTAP 7-Mode OS.

Warning:

On-disk data is not preserved during the usage of this procedure. All data will be lost
This procedure should only be performed by a NetApp employee or a NetApp Partner performing an installation.
The minimum requirement is an OS version of Data ONTAP 8.1.y 7-Mode. Do not attempt to repurpose the node while running Data ONTAP 8.0.y 7-Mode.

Note: Contact the partner/sales team for more information and access to information in this article.