NetApp not recognizing disk shelves

HUX20002000 — Fri, 30 May 2025 19:56:44 GMT

I have a FAS8300 (no disks), a DS4246 shelf (24 x 200 GB SSD) and a DS460 shelf (60 x 4 TB SAS). These were all previously in use in other clusters and I'm trying to set them up as a new switchless cluster.

At the boot menu, I chose option 4 ("Clean configuration and initialize all disks"). However, ONTAP failed to boot, saying the following:

BOOTMGR: The system has 2 disks assigned whereas it needs 3 to boot, will try to assign the required number.
May 30 19:20:55 [localhost:raid.autoPart.disabled:ALERT]: Disk auto-partitioning is disabled on this system: the system needs a minimum of 8 usable hard disks.
BOOTMGR: already_assigned=2, min_to_boot=3, num_assigned=0
May 30 19:20:55 [localhost:callhome.raid.adp.disabled:notice]: Disk auto-partitioning is disabled on this system: ADP DISABLED.
May 30 19:20:55 [localhost:diskown.split.shelf.assignStatus:notice]: Split-shelf based automatic drive assignment is "disabled".
May 30 19:20:55 [localhost:cf.fm.noMBDisksOrIc:error]: Could not find the local mailbox disks. Could not determine the firmware state of the partner through the HA interconnect.
.
Terminated

Looking at the connections, I see link lights between the two shelves but I don't see link lights on either shelf on the ports connected to the FAS8300.

I did the cabling per this setup guide: https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap-systems/media/PDF/215-14512_2021-02_en-us_FAS8300orFAS8700_ISI.pdf

Controller to shelf:

Node 1, port 0a --> DS4246, IOM A square port

Node 2, port 0a --> DS4246, IOM B, square port

Node 1, port 0d --> DS460, IOM B, port 3

Node 2, port 0d --> DS460, IOM A, port 3

Shelf to shelf:

DS4246, IOM A, circle port --> DS460, IOM A, port 1

DS4246, IOM B, circle port --> DS460, IOM B, port 1

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Re: NetApp not recognizing disk shelves

chenguanghui — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 09:13:58 GMT

hello:

This link might be helpful to you.

https://kb.netapp.com/on-prem/ontap/Ontap_OS/OS-KBs/ONTAP_fails_to_initialize_with_BOOTMGR_error

Best regards.

Re: NetApp not recognizing disk shelves

HUX20002000 — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:07:59 GMT

The problem was that the disks were not correctly assigned to their respective nodes. I needed to boot into maintenance mode and then assign the disks correctly.

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NetApp not recognizing disk shelves

Re: NetApp not recognizing disk shelves

Re: NetApp not recognizing disk shelves