topic Re: Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ? in VMware Solutions Discussions

Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ?

kevin_hubbard — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:19:19 GMT

I have a pair of FAS3160 which are active active I need to remove 3 shelves. obviously I need to destroy the vols and aggr's but am I safe to down just the filer that the shelves are connected to or do I need to down both ?

Thanks k

Re: Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ?

doug_clendening — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:10:30 GMT

NetApp doesn't currently support hot shelf removal, so you should shutdown both nodes of the cluster.

It's best to zero the drives and remove ownership before removing them.

wdc

Re: Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ?

kevin_hubbard — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:19:24 GMT

Many thanks

I also found this

Solution ID: kb40710

Last updated: 4 MAY 2009

Is hot removal, hot swapping or hot moving of a disk shelf supported?

View Environment section

Symptoms

Can disk shelves (any generation) be hot removed, hot swapped or hot moved with NetApp Storage Appliances?

Is hot removal or hot swapping of a DS-14 shelf supported?

Solution

Hot removal, hot swapping or hot moving of any kind of disk shelves is not supported at this time and the node(s) need to be halted to perform either of these operations. While there are some scenarios where this may appear to work, there are issues that may appear in the future.

NOTE: In clustered environments, BOTH storage controllers need to be halted.

The correct procedure to remove or to hot-swap a disk shelf:
A) halt filer (or both filers in a cluster)
B) change/remove shelf
C) boot filer(s)

Related Documents:
"Replacing a disk shelf" in the disk shelf Hardware Service Guides
"Adding disk shelves without powering down" in the Active/Active Guide for your version of Data ONTAP

https://now.netapp.com/Knowledgebase/solutionarea.asp?id=kb40710

Re: Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ?

stratify_tc — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:46:56 GMT

Kevin,

I beg to differ with the previous poster on the hot removal not being supported.

I do this all day long, without issue.

I will say that there are certian caveats to be aware of. If you are running Data OnTap 7.3.1.1 there is a bug:

Bug ID	332630
Title	Disk removal and inserts in quick succession may lead to a panic
Duplicate of
Bug Severity	2 - System barely usable
Bug Status	Fixed
Product	Data ONTAP
Bug Type	Unknown
Description Formatted	Under very rare circumstances, removal and inserts of a spare disk from a system in quick succession may lead to a panic.
Workaround Formatted	Avoid unnecessary removal and inserts of disks from a system. If a disk must be removed, follow the guidelines listed in the Storage Management Guide to do so.
Notes Formatted
Related Solutions
Fixed-In Version	Data ONTAP 7.3.2RC1 (First Fixed) - Fixed Data ONTAP 7.3.2 (GD) - Fixed Data ONTAP 8.0RC3 (RC) - Fixed A complete list of releases where this bug is fixed is available here.
Related Bugs
Bug Watch Status	OFF

This has been fixed, so hot removing in 7.3.2 is good to go. As a side note, you may occasionally need to reseat on or two drives per loop when you hot add them.

Best of luck with it.

Re: Removing a shelf from 2 clustered FAS3160 ?

timothycook — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:31:14 GMT

It works, and it's supported are two very different things. The KB you posted is simply referring to removing individual disks, not an entire tray from a loop.

The KB he found on the other hand is up to date and accurate, as evidenced by the environments it applies to:

Environment

NetApp filer

Data ONTAP GX

Data ONTAP 8.0 Cluster-Mode

Data ONTAP 8.0 7-Mode

Data ONTAP 7G and earlier

Don't hot remove shelves, feel free to contact NetApp support and they'll tell you the same thing.