topic Re: advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode in ONTAP Hardware

advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode

luca-219 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 04:35:13 GMT

hi all,

i'm beginner in netapp, I wanted some advice from those who have more experience.

I have fas 2520 dual controller ,data ontap 8.3, 12 hard disk 600gb sas. I connect two host vmware 5.5 to manage some Virtual machine.

I'm confused, it is better to start 7-mode o cluster mode?

The goal, to get continuity of service for V.M. If a controller fails the V.M must function.

The goal, use more space as possible, of 7,2tb least min 2tb available for data.

any suggestion is appreciated
thanks

Re: advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode

RPHELANIN — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 10:08:30 GMT

ontap 8.3 does not exist for 7 mode, only cDOT

the latest release for 7 mode is 8.2.3. 7 mode is no longer being developed so for that reason alone you should install cDOT

with ontap 8.3 you can take advantage of ADP which will give you more usable capacity than 8.2

Re: advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode

luca-219 — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 10:23:52 GMT

thanks for the replay,

you can tell me some document for this:

> take advantage of ADP

reagrds

Re: advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode

RPHELANIN — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 10:32:50 GMT

this is a good start

http://www.datacenterdan.com/blog/netapp-dataontap-83-adp-root-disk-slice-deep-dive

Re: advise vmware fas2520 dual controller 7-mode vs cluster mode

JamesIlderton — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 21:11:11 GMT

If the system ships to you with 8.3, it should have provisioned the root aggregates for the nodes using ADP already. If you purchased the system before 8.3 went GA, then you'll have to take a few extra steps to enable this great feature and save a ton of capacity on these smaller systems. Here's some instructions on how to do this:

http://alexdawson.net/2014/11/converting-a-netapp-fas22xx-or-fas25xx-or-aff-system-to-advanced-drive-partitioning/

Keep in mind it will use the disks in the onboard shelf for this, so if you have a hybrid configuration (like mine with 4xSSD + 20xSAS), you probably want to pull the SSDs out during the procedure then insert them and provision your FlashPool separately once your cluster is setup.