Technically ONTAP 9.4P8 support DS4243 IOM3 IO module ?

[AlexSaw]

Hi All,

I have a FAS2554 with some DS4243 disk shelves running IOM3 module, ONTAP version 9.3P4. I am refreshing this system to a AFF A220, would like to join them in the same cluster and perform volume move for migration.

In order to archive that, according to Hardware Universal, i will need to upgrade FAS2554 to ONTAP 9.4 therefore i generate the upgrade advisor plan from ActiveIQ. In the document have statement saying - DS4243/IOM3 shelves are recognized as "unsupported" on ONTAP 9.4P8. It should not report "unknownshelf on channel".

I would like to know, technically, will IOM3 able to run with ONTAP 9.4P8 ? Anyhow is only temporary for migrating purpose. After migration, FAS2554 will be retire.

Thanks

Alex

[TMAC_CTG]

I had a customer upgrade. It did in fact show the IOM3 as unsupported. I think the other side effect is that you are no longer able to get correct environmental information from the shelf. 

It just got too scary for me!

I suspect what will work: On your A220, use the serial console and configure the Node IP. Then break away to the CLI (skip cluster setup). Find out one of the "Cluster LIF" IPs on each of the new nodes. (net int show -vserver Cluster)

Then run a command like this from your current cluster

cluster add-node -cluster-ips 169.254.204.213, 169.254.234.125-allow-mixed-version-join true

where 169.254.204.213, 169.254.234.125 represent one of the CLUSTER-IPs from each of the A220s.

Migrate to the new controllers. Then "cluster remove-node" of the older units. The cluster will likely jump to whatever release is on the A220s

[AlexSaw]

Hi,

Thanks for the information and your suggestion might be another option.

I would like to know after your customer upgrade, is the system still runs without any interruption or panic ? Cannot get the latest environmental information should be fine for me, as i am migrating them away.

[TMAC_CTG · Accepted solution]

Honestly, we just wanted to get to a "supported" model ASAP as they were not migrating. We ended up getting a number of IOM6 modules to upgrade the shelves. They ran for about 4 weeks with unsupported modules.

They did not see any issues, but it is possible if something were to happen, ONTAP would not be able to detect it.

I would try to do the add-node on the most recent version of 9.3P release in case your migration has a hiccup and takes longer than you think it will.

[AlexSaw]

Thanks again for the information and sharing your experience on the upgrade scenario.

[SpindleNinja]

You could also see if they will do an fPVR to support it during the migration.   Talk with your account team.