topic DS14 cabling configuration in ONTAP Discussions

DS14 cabling configuration

mcarlton4 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:42:20 GMT

Hi,

I am due to be onsite tomorrow 29-10-2011 to rerack some equipment for a customer and they have asked for a configuration I am not sure is supported and wondered if any one could let me know either way.

They have requested to rack all 12 shelves in 1 rack (2 loops) and the FAS3140HA in a second rack they would like to connect the shelves through a fibre patch pannel between the 2 racks this is using 50/125 fibre.

I haven't seen this done before and I have asked a few people at NetApp who suggested posting something to see if any engineers have implemented this configuration.

Thanks in advance

Regards

Mark

DS14 cabling configuration

pascalduk — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:33:11 GMT

The patch panels I have seen are used in stretch metroclusters for the controller - disk shelf connections. See TR 3517 e.g., which mentions patch panels in a few sections. If the quality of the panel is good and the total distance is not over 100 meters than then technically there will probably be no issue. But I don't know if this actually means it is supported in your case. You could contact netapp support on an official statement.

One tip regarding patch panels. If you don't get a working connection immediately check if the transmit and receive are not reversed on the patch panel

Re: DS14 cabling configuration

aborzenkov — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:40:19 GMT

Well … I tend to think that this is supported, because

KB article https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=3011253 says that optical connection is fully supported up to limits discussed in http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/san/guides/CFO_cable/cabledistance.shtml The latter clearly shows example of intermediate patch panel.

For mid-distances in stretch MetroCluster you again may need to go via patch panel. Which is apparently supported as well. I do not see any difference between standard HA pair and stretch with regards to shelf connection.

Of course, I’d love if someone from NetApp confirmed it.

Keep in mind, it makes loop troubleshooting a bit more difficult. You will have to proof the problem is not in the part between patch panels ☺

DS14 cabling configuration

mcarlton4 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:19:50 GMT

Thanks very much, I am only going to be running the cables about 3 metre at the most the distance between patch panels is less than a metre.

DS14 cabling configuration

mcarlton4 — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:20:56 GMT

Thanks very much I read both docs, just as backup I have requested them to purchase longer cables.