topic Re: Can two filers have same system ID in ONTAP Discussions

Can two filers have same system ID

Ashitkumar — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:58:54 GMT

Can two physical filers have same System ID?

Basically i want to know if the system id uniquely identifies a filer. I know serial number is unique for a filer but want to know if same holds for system id too.

Re: Can two filers have same system ID

raef_mansour — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 09:27:52 GMT

A filer has both a serial number and a system ID

serial number => linked to hardware, changes when hardware is replaced
system ID => set in software, doesn't change when hardware is replaced

So I think that 2 fillers can't have same sys ID

Re: Can two filers have same system ID

Ashitkumar — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:10:38 GMT

Thanks.

So you say that everytime we upgrade/replace the software or hardware the System-id or serial number is unique (unique identifier).

Re: Can two filers have same system ID

raef_mansour — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:19:23 GMT

A filer has both a serial number and a system ID

serial number => linked to hardware, changes when hardware is replaced
system ID => set in software, doesn't change when hardware is replaced

So I think that 2 fillers can't have same sys ID

If you replace hardware the serial number change but sys ID no

when you upgrade software serial number and sys id dosn't change

Re: Can two filers have same system ID

akw_white — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:34:17 GMT

They can but they shouldn't. The system ID is used as a unique identifier for the filer in some circumstances (e.g. Operations Manager discovery).

Can two filers have same system ID

paleon — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:15:55 GMT

From my experience, when we have upgraded filers, we have not bothered with changing the system ID of the new filer to match the old one. We have always had NetApp perform the head upgrades for us -- it is included in the installation services, and installation services are included in SupportEdge Premium. If you don't want to buy SUpportEdge Premium, I would suggest at least buying installation services with the new equipment purchase.

The changing system ID did cause a minor issue for our SnapMirror replication. The replication worked just fine, but the common snapshots with the old SystemID of the destination filer needed to be manually deleted. I usually wait a week or two, manually update the SnapMirror relationship, and delete the errant snapshot. I then perform a second manual update of the SnapMirror relationship. Deleting snapshots from a SnapMirror source volume has occasionally necessitated a resync of the SnapMirror relationship, which is why I perform a snapmirror update before deleting the snapshot.

Are there specific issues you are trying to avoid, or is the question purely accademic?

Re: Can two filers have same system ID

OPMANAGER — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:18:32 GMT

In monitoring point of view I would like to know which is the unique part of my filers. So if someone from NetApp could clarify it would be of great help. Is it System ID or Serial Number that keeps a filer unique around the globe. Or is there something else that I could make use of?

As people point out here, if System-ID or Serial Number can be changed by the user for convenience or during upgrades do I have to manually update my third party monitoring systems to pick up the info about the filer again.

Please clarify.