64 bit aggr in place upgrade

[nsitps1976]

Is it possible to upgrade an aggregate to 64bit (and its volumes) in place without having to add sufficient disks to the aggregate? I am looking to mirror data from this system to a new 8.1.1 system with 64bit aggregates, this I am not concerned about as I know the volumes will be upgraded once made read/writeable…. However, I will be required to reverse the mirror after data migration back to the original system which has a single 34bit aggr.

The original system runs 8.0.1P3 which I will upgrade to 8.1.1, however I won’t be adding new disks and I do not want to have to rebuild the system based on a 64bit aggr……

[aborzenkov · Accepted solution]

At the moment in-place update without capacity extension is not supported. You may try to raise the issue with your NetApp representative, if they can come with solution.

If you update to 8.1.1 anyway, it is possible to reverse SnapMirror from 64 bit back onto 32 bit aggregate. You will get 64-bit volume on 32-bit aggregate.

[nsitps1976]

thanks for the quick reply.... if I can mirror back that's what I am after.. thanks

[nsitps1976]

Hi

I want to be able to mirror between 32 and 64bit volumes which can be done with 8.1.1, however, does this mean that mirror which existed prior to the source upgrade to 8.1.1 would need to be re done once at 8.1.1. Or can the mirrors stay and once the source is at 8.1.1 I can reverse the mirror (ie, from 64bit to 32bit)

I want to get the VSM in place now; however, I can’t as yet upgrade the source from 7.3.4 to 8.1.1.

Thanks

[aborzenkov]

One of my customer currently doing VSM from 8.0 to 8.1 until source is updated. All mirrors were retained during target update.

[ziobro]

Here is best practice for aggregate conversion in case you need it...

http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3978.pdf

[nsitps1976]

Hi. Customer won't be converting the aggr to 64bit as they will not be adding any disks. The only reason for the upgrade is to allow replication to be reversed back from a 32 to 64bit aggr (vol)

[nsitps1976]

Once this customer upgraded could they reverse the mirror back to a still 32bit aggr?

[aborzenkov]

They did not update source yet.

[nsitps1976]

thanks - I will give it go.