topic Re: Conversion from 7-Mode to ONTAP is stuck in ONTAP Discussions

Conversion from 7-Mode to ONTAP is stuck

Quang-Chinh — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:17:27 GMT

A customer is trying to convert a 7-Mode system running 8.2.5P5 to ONTAP 9 version.

He is following https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/How_to_repurpose_a_Data_ONTAP_8.1.x_or_later_7-Mode_node_to_ONTAP_9 but he is stuck at step 2 :

"Run the set-defaults command to clear any existing bootargs, and then set the following bootargs at the LOADER prompt:"

According to him, the node is not booting to something like "NetApp Data ONTAP 8.2.1 Cluster-Mode" but instead, he is having "NetApp Data ONTAP 8.2.5P5 7-Mode ONLY"

Could you please help him to understand what is missing here?

Re: Conversion from 7-Mode to ONTAP is stuck

aborzenkov — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:02:06 GMT

@Quang-Chinh wrote:
"NetApp Data ONTAP 8.2.5P5 7-Mode ONLY"

That's correct, version 8.2.5 exists for 7-Mode only. The latest version for C-Mode was 8.2.4 (with corresponding patch).

Just perform netboot of ONTAP 9 to install new version.

Re: Conversion from 7-Mode to ONTAP is stuck

TMACMD — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 12:03:24 GMT

After disabling cluster in 7 mode (cf disable) and “halt”ing both nodes, verify there are at the LOADER prompt. At the loader prompt continue:

LOADER-A> set-defaults
LOADER-A> setenv bootarg.init.boot_clustered true
LOADER-A> setenv AUTOBOOT false
LOADER-A> boot_ontap

If the second line is done exactly then it will not work as expected. If it is booting “7-mode” then either there was a typo or the line was skipped all together.

there are a lot of little steps to this process. If you can’t get by the second step you may want to reconsider the process

Re: Conversion from 7-Mode to ONTAP is stuck

TMACMD — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 12:07:06 GMT

Another note

you will want to confirm you have access to your license codes.

when you get to the end of the process you will need license codes to activate any ontap features. I have seen edge cases where license codes are not available due to lack of support

should verify before the system becomes unusable