topic USB port on FAS/AFF 8000? in ONTAP Hardware

USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

aborzenkov — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:58:40 GMT

Any chance to use it for software/firmware updates with ONTAP 9?

Re: USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

andris — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 18:02:20 GMT

I'm pretty sure the USB support for "system node firmware download", i.e. -package file://usb0/<filename> is only available with the current-generation FAS/AFF hardware platforms - not the FAS/AFF80x0. But hey... give it a shot and prove me wrong 🙂

Re: USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

AlexDawson — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 04:31:48 GMT

From the documentation I have reviewed, it should be impossible in all public release builds.

If you find a way to do it, please submit a BURT 🙂

Re: USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

wbrock — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 15:02:01 GMT

Does anyone have link to documenation that show the functions of using the USB on the controller.

Re: USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

andris — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 17:48:34 GMT

There's a release note item and more details in the respective man pages of the related commands.

Support for installing ONTAP software and firmware from an external USB mass storage device

For hardware models initially supported by ONTAP 9.1, you can install the ONTAP software and firmware from an external USB mass storage device. With this enhancement, the external USB port on hardware platforms installs or copies ONTAP software and firmware on the embedded boot media.

The USB device is specified as file://usb0/filename. For example, the file name can be image.tgz. The ONTAP software and firmware installation package must be present in the root directory of the USB mass storage device.

The following commands access the ONTAP software and firmware installation package from the external USB mass storage device:

system node image get
system node image update
system node firmware download
storage firmware download

Note: The commands system node firmware download and storage firmware download are available to cluster administrators at the advanced privilege level.

Re: USB port on FAS/AFF 8000?

AlexDawson — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:51:14 GMT

And for all older systems, you can use it (unsupported) to charge your iPhone, plug in a USB light, or power your serial to bluetooth/wifi device