NTP connectivity issue when cluster_mgmt and node_mgmt are on different VLANs

HakanHedman — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 15:29:45 GMT

We’re running ONTAP 9.16.1P7 and have cluster_mgmt and node_mgmt LIFs on different VLANs.

Setup:

node_mgmt network: 192.168.10.x

cluster_mgmt LIF: 192.168.20.210 (home node: node10)

NTP server: 192.168.20.15 (same VLAN as cluster_mgmt)

Issue: All node_mgmt LIFs (nodes 07–10) can ping 192.168.10.254 (gateway).
However, when cluster_mgmt is active on a node (e.g., node10), that node’s node_mgmt LIF can no longer ping 192.168.20.1 or 192.168.20.15 (NTP).
If cluster_mgmt is migrated to another node (e.g., node09), the problem follows — node09’s node_mgmt LIF then loses connectivity to the NTP network. All other nodes continue to work fine.

It seems that the node hosting cluster_mgmt loses network reachability from its node_mgmt LIF toward the 192.168.20.x network (where NTP resides).

If the NTP server were located on a different VLAN (not the same as cluster_mgmt), this would likely not be an issue — so it seems related to VLAN separation and how ONTAP handles management traffic between these subnets.

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Could it be related to routing, ARP isolation, or VLAN handling of management LIFs in ONTAP?

Thanks for any insights.

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NTP connectivity issue when cluster_mgmt and node_mgmt are on different VLANs