topic How to reconfigure intercluster ports to snapmirror ports? in ONTAP Discussions

How to reconfigure intercluster ports to snapmirror ports?

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

Dear all,

Customer would like to reconfigure his current infra.

"We have currently 4 ports per controller dedicated to intercluster : e0a, e0b, e0c e0d.

We need to reduce it to 2 so we can use the 2 others 10Gb ports for snapmirror relations (currently running on 1Gb ports..) :

Current situation :

Node1.e0a -> Node2.e0a (intercluster)
Node1.e0b -> Node2.e0b (intercluster)
Node1.e0c -> Node2.e0c (intercluster)
Node1.e0d -> Node2.e0d (intercluster)

Target situation :

Node1.e0a -> Node2.e0a (intercluster)
Node1.e0b -> Node2.e0b (intercluster)
Node1.e0c -> switch (snapmirror)
Node1.e0d -> switch (snapmirror)
Node2.e0c -> switch (snapmirror)
Node2.e0d -> switch (snapmirror)"

Is the target configuration supported/following best practices? (I believe the minimum is to have 2 intercluster ports at minimum)

We would like to confirm if there is known caveat to do this?

(How to remove the 2 ports from intercluster with the minimum impact?)

Thank you so much.

Regards,

Quang-Chinh

Re: How to reconfigure intercluster ports to snapmirror ports?

maffo — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 14:29:56 GMT

hey @Quang-Chinh

I'm not sure I get the question here: Intercluster LIFs are the ones used for SnapMirror traffic (they are a pre-requisite to set up cluster peers - https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/peering/create-cluster-relationship-93-later-task.html).

Re: How to reconfigure intercluster ports to snapmirror ports?

Quang-Chinh — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 13:27:10 GMT

Hi Lorenzo,

Actually, I double check to clarify the needs after reviewing your feedback.

Customer have 4 ports with "cluster" role.

He would like to reuse 2 of them as "intercluster"

Based from HWU, I do see having only 2 ports is supported even if not best recommended:

Is this something "hard" to do and any known caveats?

Thanks

Re: How to reconfigure intercluster ports to snapmirror ports?

Ontapforrum — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 19:28:53 GMT

Interesting question and a good one.

I was looking at the installation guide, and it says - Optional - (e0b & e0d) for Two node switchless cluster.
https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2408043

10gbe additional ports are certainly wasted in a 2-node switchless cluster, so I am also curious to know if the ports can be used (as IC_LIF) for 'snapmirror' between Clusters.

Not sure, but what if you do remove the ports (e0b and e0d) from -ipspace "Cluster" to "default" and then can it be used as IC Lif?
https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/ONTAP_Cluster_setup_aborted_with_%22Unused_cluster_ports_exist_in_the_cluster%22

I am curious - Normally, IC_LIF are used for snapmirror between two separate CLUSTERS, which are usually apart in a WAN network (1gbe or less). So, is the other Cluster in the same site/dc and going to the 10gbe switch?

Just FYI - I wouldn't call those LIFs intercluster, they are cluster-interconnect or rather IntraCluster (For data mirror/volcopy/move with-in the cluster).