topic Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership in ONTAP Hardware

Shelf removal in hardware ownership

saranraj456 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 06:05:10 GMT

Hi Folks.

We have planned to move 2 * 300GB DSMK4 shelves from unused FAS 3050( hardware based ownership) to a new controller . We have destroyed the aggregate and zeroed the disks as spare.

The steps to be followed are

1.CF disable in the old controller ( since not in use)

2.Halt the controller

3.Power down the shelf manually

4.Unplug it & plug it new controller

I am so skeptical, the disks should have to come up fine with out tagging of old serial numbers>?

Suggestions please..

Thanks

Saran

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

radek_kubka — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:55:05 GMT

It should work fine - similar procedure to a head swap when doing a controller upgrade: disks / disk shelves can change the 'owner', no issues with that.

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

saranraj456 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:04:10 GMT

Thanks radek,

While doing a head swap in software ownership,we need to destroy a mailbox disk, does the same kind of stuff applicable in hardware ownership too...

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

aborzenkov — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:43:50 GMT

Yes. Mailbox is not related to software/hardware disk based ownership and should always be cleaned up when head identity changes.

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

saranraj456 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:13:23 GMT

Putting up in a wrong thread,still didnt clear with that.

Mailbox destroy was due to mainly because of serial number and what other specific reasons behind that?

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

aborzenkov — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:23:26 GMT

Yes, mailbox holds information about current state of disks (e.g. which head is current owner of disks), so it makes sense to clear this information when head identity changes.

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

saranraj456 — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:31:14 GMT

If it is going to have the serial number of the filer in mind.Why we are not destroying mailbox while replacing a motherboard or NVRAM?

Re: Shelf removal in hardware ownership

aborzenkov — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:33:38 GMT

Because in this case filer knows they were replaced. Just try to switch heads off and replace - you will get nasty surprise.