Ontap 7-mode end of life

[JFLeblond]

We have 3x V3250 (2x production, 1x DR) for our file serving needs.

Both production units are failover one another. None of V3250 have disk. They're configured in virtulize mode connected to our EMC VMAX2 (or VNX in DR).

They are both replicating to ou DR V3250.

We're using Ontap 7-mode because we needed the snapdiff integration with IBM TSM and it wasn't avaible back then in Cluster mode.

Besides snadiff, we're not using any special features. We're using CIFS and NFS protocols that weren't supported on the VMAX2.

The end of support for the V3250 has been anounced for January 2020.

We want to extend the life of the V3250 to June 2021.

We intend to use a third party to provide hardware support. 

Our Ontap version is 8.2.3P6  and the most up to date is 8.2.5.

My question is on regards to 7-mode.

We're not too fond of migrating to Cluster mode to make the V3250 live to mid- 2021.

Is 7-mode already end of life?

Do you think extending 7-mode to mid-2021 would be very risky?

Regards,

JF Leblond

[SpindleNinja]

EOS/EOL of 7mode is Dec 2022

As far as 3party support.  I'd never personally run production on 3 party.    

i'm not a TSM expert, but have you looked to see what's current as far as supported?     I did a quick search and found this: 

https://kb.netapp.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1081444/~/ibm-tivoli-storage-manager-unable-to-perform-snapdiff-backup- 

- Earlier the IBM TSM version 7.1 and before, did not support SnapDiff backup with Clustered Data ONTAP Systems. 
- IBM later released a Cdot supported version. Hence, after TSM 7.1.2, Cdot was supported for SnapDiff Backup.
- Customer has to use IBM TSM 8.1.4 which is compatible with ONTAP 9.3. Refer 

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21474217

[Vikram]

Hi JFLeblond,

   With regards to your query regarding "Is 7-mode already end of life?" as you want to "extend the life of the V3250 to June 2021."

Ontap 8.2.5 7-mode, which is supported on the V3250 has End of Full Support (EOES) on 31-Dec-2020,  but the End of Limited Support (EOVS) continues till 31-Dec-2022. So you should able to continue using this Ontap version till June 2021.

Definition of End of Limited Support (EOVS):   The time period where NetApp provides partial support for a version of a software product, including Technical support, root cause analysis, documentation and software available online. Service Updates, maintenance and patch releases are not provided for versions under limited support.

Reference: https://mysupport.netapp.com/info/web/ECMP1147223.html

Hope the above explanation helps.

Feel free to post further queries if any.

Regards,

Vikram Kumbar

NetApp TSE.