topic Re: IOM3 to IOM6 Question in ONTAP Hardware

IOM3 to IOM6 Question

clm24 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 13:53:06 GMT

I have a couple of DS4243 and 2240-4 shelves that i'm looking to swap to IOM6 and add them to a FAS2500 running 9.2 or 9.3. They all have X306A-R5 2TB Drives in them. So no EOA or EOS on the drives.

The equipment was purchased in 2012/3 and are currently on maintenance.

Will there be any issues with support?

Re: IOM3 to IOM6 Question

AlexDawson — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 05:14:21 GMT

Hi there,

From a technical point of view, this will work fine.

In terms of the support contract supporting the systems it was previously attached to, or will be attached to, you should contact your local NetApp account team to address any "true-up" needed. There is no "right to use" licensing required, but to be covered by the support arrangement, some transcation might be required.

Re: IOM3 to IOM6 Question

clm24 — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 03:02:02 GMT

Thank you for your response. One more clarification if you wouldn't mind. The DS4243 EOS with IOM3 modules is EOS in 3/2021, but with IOM6 modules will still be supported beyond that date (not announced yet?)

HWU is just confusing (maybe just to me) because under tne main DS4243 page it says EOS is 3/2021, but when you click on the modules link, it only shows IOM3 with that date, and no announced date for IOM6 or IOM12.

I'm just somewhat novice at how these conversions work.

Thanks again.

Re: IOM3 to IOM6 Question

AlexDawson — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 03:58:21 GMT

I think I can understand where you're coming from. There's a couple of things to consider:

IOM3 in DS424 - Supported in ONTAP 7.3.2 through 9.1

IOM6 in DS424 - Supported in ONTAP 7.3.4 onwards

IOM12 in DS424 - Supported in ONTAP 9.0 onwards

IOM6 in DS224 - Supported in ONTAP 7.3.3 onwards

IOM12 in DS224 - Supported in ONTAP 9.0 onwards

Then, the drives need to be supported in ONTAP - there are minimum versions for DS424 drives, but at this time, no maximum versions.

Then, you need to be able to buy support contracts, which is commonly something admins want, but not totally required. Some older drives are not available to be covered by support contracts anymore, or will soon hit that time. In general - if the drives are attached to the system when its contract is renewed, and there is no EOS date for the drives, they will be covered while the system is under support, along with the shelf components.

With the DS424 shelves, there are only a handful of components other than the drives - the chassis, the power supplies (2 or 4), the IOMs and a module that holds the shelf ID, and the power supplies are by far the most common part to need to replace. So basically - they'll be supportable from both a contract and a software point of view for quite a while.

I hope this clarifies the various issues around it - please feel free to post any follow up questions.