Going upgrade my Ontap version from 7.3.5 to 8.1 Mode , Can anybody tell how much time it will take for upgrade and any down time needed , All suggestions are welcomed , please guide me to complete this successfully.
Yes its FAS2040 A-A pair and configured as failover , no specific reason going for 8.1 in fact i don't know which version to choose , hope i will go with 8.1.1P1 as per your comment. Can i directly upgrade from my current version to 8.0.3 or 8.1.1P1 ????
Yes, you can go directly from 7.3.x to 8.1 (check release notes and update guide for prerequisites). Do you have any reason to update at all? Any specific functionality that is missing? Have you ever heard “never touch a running system”? ☺
8.x is more resource demanding, so 7G may be better choice on low end systems unless you need some features missing in 7G.
Could you be more precise regarding " RESOURCE DEMANDING " and i will be very happy if you can list out MERITS and DEMERITS and also advise if this upgradation recommended on this particular filer model as we are using FAS2040
Sadly NVRAM is a fixed size per controller so you have only really two options, buy a head upgrade to FAS3200 or get a second HA pair of FAS2200. C-mode could be an option but you have to flatten your current 7-mode box to change ONTAP flavour
