Transition to Cluster Mode

[MJABER]

hello all, 

i have one system that running ontap 8.2 and i am going to upgrade to 8.3 . there are telling me no more upgrade and i have to move to Cluster Data Ontap.

this is my first time to do that and i am preparing to do it soon .

any concern i have to keep in mide or better to say where i can start ?

there is 7 Mode Transition Tool that is used for such purpose .

can any one tell me his experiance using this tools and what do i need to keep in mind while using this tools .

t

[RANJBASSI]

As far as I am aware, the transition advisor will show you what features you have now are supported with the cluster data ontap and it will tell you what isn't compatible. 

I am in a similar position as you as we are on 7-mode and at some point would like to move to cDOT however you need to bear in mind that the filers need to be completely formatted with the new OS when moving to it you can not do a non disruptive upgrade from 7-mode to cDOT. There will need to be downtime and if you have data presented you would need to move the data to another storage device before you continue. 

here is a few useful docs to get you started:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.netapp.com%2Ffukiw75442%2Fattachments%2Ffukiw75442%2Ftech-on-tap-articles%2F410%2F1%2F1501to...

http://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4052.pdf

[richard_payne]

So why is it you need 8.3, are there particular features/improvement that would benefit you? As others have said, this isn't just an upgrade but a complete re-install from scratch. Keep in mind, depending on your hardware configs you may need additional network ports as well. If you don't need anything in 8.3 Cmode then I'd suggest leaving it as is. I still have a lot of machines running 8.1, and even a few on 8.0.

--rdp

[MJABER]

hi ,

why do i need to move the data to another storage ?

there is no any other way to do such upgrade without moving the data ?

[RANJBASSI]

moving to cDOT from 7-mode will not allow you to do an in place upgrade due to wiping the 7-mode OS first before you install cDOT. 

Even if you have a HA pair it still not possible to have one controller runnng 7-mode whilst you upgrade the other controller to cDOT. 

So if in your case the NetApp is your primary storage you will need to somehow migrate the data over to another storage device (either NetApp or something else) before you upgrade the NetApp to cDOT. 

There is no other way to achieve upgrading whilst keeping the data intact. 

[MJABER]

hi ,

so if the Netapp people is going to do this migration they will ask for extra device storge to complete this task ?

[RANJBASSI]

Yes that is correct.

We recently did some professional services with our prefered NetApp partner here in the UK and when we looked at the feasibility to moving to cDOT they said we would need temporary storage to move our current data whilst the NetApp is rebuilt.

We have a similar problem as our NetApp is our only primary storage device.

They did mention that NetApp/NetApp reseller do have the ability to acquire 'Swing kit' where NetApp will temporary hire storage out to a customer for them to achieve cDOT migration if they have no other storage available however this will come at an additonal cost but the costs are reasonable as NetApp are keen for customers to move to cDOT and want to make the transition as simple as possible.

My recommendation would be to speak to your NetApp partner or account manager.