SSD's interchangeable / swap-able between FAS and AFF?

[Jgiardino]

Good Afternoon NetApp Community! 

I hope we are all having a great week so far! I am reaching out with hopes of answering my question on if you can use the same SSD's between a FAS hybrid array and a AFF array. We have a customer seeking to decom a FAS6240 that was using flash cache and wishes to take the SSD's in use and place them into one of his AFF arrays. If this is even possible, will firmware / previous FAS array's Data ONTAP version play a factor? I greatly appreciate your time and assitance! 

[aborzenkov]

You need to check HWU; this is authoritative source of support information for all NetApp equipment.

[Jgiardino]

I did start at HWU but do not see anywhere that really makes it clear / answers my question. 

[aborzenkov]

I am not sure where is the problem. You check whether your existing SSD is supported for target AFF/shelf. If you want someone to do it for you, you need at the very least provide exsiting SSD part number and target AFF or shelf models.

[Jgiardino]

I didnt even see the nodes in question, the AFF8K series, available to select with the version of ONTAP 8.3 they are running in the menu for drives. I do not know what shelf type the 8K series is based off of I guess would be my problem.

[aborzenkov]

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@Jgiardino wrote:

I didnt even see the nodes in question, the AFF8K series, available to select with the version of ONTAP 8.3 they are running in the menu for drives.

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You cannot install drives into AFF8000 chassis, why do you expect them to be listed? Both FAS6200 and AFF8000 require shelves and that is what you need to compare.

[andris · Accepted solution]

By "flash cache", I assume you actually mean "flash pools" - SSD's used in hybrid aggregates?

As others have mentioned, determine the SSD model number and shelf model to look up in HWU and compare between your old and new systems. If the shelves are the same, there's no reason why they can't be repurposed.

Just one caveat:  SSD's have a finite rated life.  SSD's used in flash pools are written heavily and you may find that the rated life is too high to consider repurposing (it ranges between 0% and 100%).  Do not use an SSD with a rated life approaching 100%.

> store show disk -a   (in 7-Mode/nodeshell).