FAS direct attached iSCSI

[KevinTang]

Hi everyone

    I have read from the documentation of Netapp saying that direct attached iSCSI is not support on HA pair, however I have a FAS2552 HA pair direct attached to a ESXi server through iSCSI which I am able to present the LUN to the server, and the path failover worked too. So I was wondering why Netapp keep saying that direct attached iSCSI is not working on HA pair? Has anyone have the experience that using direct attached iSCSI with HA pair really will cause a lot of trouble?

Thanks

Kevin

[aborzenkov]

7-Mode or C-Mode? Which Data ONTAP version?

[KevinTang]

Hi Aborzenkov

    Its in C-mode and the version is 8.3RC1

Kevin

[aborzenkov]

Then I'm with you. I do not see any fundamental reason why this should not work with C-Mode. Unfortunately I have never seen any explanation that goes beyond "it is not supported, there could be issues". Hopefully someone from NetApp will chime in.

[Newbie999]

Hi:

   I'm an absolute newbie in NetApp product (1 day, since yesterday, and didn't even touched one before this).  I heard from the guy doing installation for a demo unit that direct attached (we're trying FC) is not supported anymore, be it iSCSI or FC.  I've also read from this thread

http://community.netapp.com/t5/Network-Storage-Protocols-Discussions/FAS2552-HA-pair-direct-attach-with-C240/td-p/105599

and someone from NetApp actually come out and say that it's due to the ALUA failover issue.  However, from my previous experience with other storage products (Sun, IBM, HP, Dell) together with a host of operating systems (Windows/Linux/Solaris/Vmware), there has been no mention about an ALUA capable storage not being able to do direct attach.  I'm just wondering what is the explanation to this. 

[Newbie999]

Oh, and I forgot to add that the 'not supported' thing is because the config is being 'disabled' in the System Manager (option turned red and shown as disabled), but the connection from the storage to server is correctly identified as p2p.  Thanks.

regards,

SF

[SYNTAXERROR]

Hi Guys

Check the SAN Configuration Guide for any concerns or solutions about direct attached configurations:

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2495115

Cheers

[SeanHatfield]

FC direct attach will not work because NPIV requires a switch.