Where is the partner interface options getting pulled from?

[mdvillanueva]

Hi

After running HA config checker, we got this message.

"Interface sm-storage91 (sm-storage91) reffered by filer2 for failover is missing on filer1"

I look interface configuration under the Partner Interface (see attached diagram), and I believe it is supposed to choose sm-storage-91 (10.x.x.11) instead of sm-storage91. There is a missing 'dash'

Where are the options in the drop-down list getting pulled from? from the host file? How do I receive the error? Do I change here first in the interface configuration and then change the /etc/rc file also?

Weird thing is, we were able to perform takeover/giveback before without any issue.

Thanks,

Maico

[scottgelb]

Definitely a good catch by the NetApp tech...and not easy to see.  It likely was set correctly before (you can check autosupports in the past and make sure...or maybe even snapshots depending on your retention) and the gui may have caused this when making a network change.

[joker_morgan]

just to close the loop a little more on our experiences with rc file work.  We have seen errors like this when we do a paste into a wrfile statement. Seems to be an occasional issue with buffers and characters getting munged.

[mdvillanueva]

Yes, that’s true! thanks guys!

Maico

[joker_morgan]

we were just running wiregauge with our rep yesterday and found a few things good and chased a few things that were bogus. 

[mdvillanueva]

hey scott,

I know that editing the rc won’t cause interruption. How about editing the interface configuration?

Maico

[scottgelb]

Changing the partner parameter “ifconfig interface partner” won’t cause a disruption.

[scottgelb]

It looks like the gui is reporting it is set to .21 but the files will set to .11 on boot or giveback.  Is .21 the right address?  If so, updating hosts to .21 should be the fix.

[joker_morgan]

so I got stuck on the dash and missed the entire 21 11 thing... wow.  so I guess I understand how that is okay if the missing of it is consistent. 

As far as viewing things in a gui I am (and as a Windows guy this is hard to say) not at all a fan of it for anything having to do with NetApp.  We have been burned many times doing anything other than direct file editing with Ultra-Edit and sourcing the files. 

Thanks for helping me better understand what was going on. 

[mdvillanueva]

Scott,

The IP address are correct. the issue is with the dash. If this is an issue with IP then we would have been having issue right now.

see my explanation above. I just am not sure where to correct the missing dash. in rc or ifconfig?

[joker_morgan]

so is this just a matter of adding this:

Here is what in filer 2                                                                                               

here is the entry in rc.                                                                                              

ifconfig sm-storage-91 `hostname`-sm-storage-91 netmask 255.255.255.0 partner sm-storage91 mtusize 9000 trusted –wins

changed to this:

ifconfig sm-storage-91 `hostname`-sm-storage-91 netmask 255.255.255.0 partner sm-storage-91 mtusize 9000 trusted –wins

and then sourcing that one line?

[scottgelb]

correct

[joker_morgan]

thanks guys... hosts files and rc files are still an area I struggle. Nice to follow the thread on this.

[edgel]

Thanks indeed.   I was wondering how to update a partner designation on an interface without bouncing the interface.   We changed our RC file to use partner interface name instead of IP but the ifconfig -a output still showed the partner designated by IP.  I figured this would clear up on the next takeover/giveback but did not realize I could fix it dynamically and was worried it could affect takeover/giveback.   Cool.  

[scottgelb]

And a takeover/giveback in current ontap using an ip instead of name isn't supported (and I think doesn't work) so good to change dynamically before the next cluster takeover event

[edgel]

Good times!  Don't want to learn that the hard way!

[mdvillanueva]

Is there another file other than rc that contains HA and failover info?

[scottgelb]

For an admin checking ifconfig and setting in rc/hosts for boot is how you setup HA and failover.  There are registry entries but editing is not supported and needs support if you ever get in there... you can walk the registry in advanced mode with "registry walk" though and you will see where some of the ifconfig info is stored but it is dynamic since we set at boot from rc/hosts.

While on this topic, there is another thing worth looking at....There is also negotiated failover that can be enabled by setting "options cf.takeover.on_network_interface_failure on" then you also need to put "nfo" in the ifconfig statement to enable negotiated failover.  This will initiate a failover of the controller if the network drops... I only set this when using ifgrps (so all ports would have to be down on the ifgrp).  By default a controller doesn't failover if it loses networking and is enabled on the controller then set per ifconfig interface.  The default policy is "all_nics" meaning all ifconfig statements with nfo go down (every interface covered by the nfo parameter)... we often set the policy to any_nic by running "options cf.takeover.on_network_interface_failure.policy any_nic" which will initate the failover if all nics in a single ifgrp go down (but not every ifgrp with nfo).

[mdvillanueva]

is ifconfig same as exportfs in a sense that it does not stick after reboot? I get confuse sometimes if is it ifconfig or rc that configures the interfaces.

in regards to the nfo, we did not configure that since we a multimode within a single mode (2x10G and 2x1G, with favor on the 2x10G).

I thought 'any nic' means if any or just one ifgrp goes down, while 'all_nic" is if all igrp go down.

[scottgelb]

All Ifgrp with nfo enabled go down. Or any Ifgrp with nfo go down. It works well for single level Ifgrps in case both ports go down.

Rc runs at startup and runs ifconfig. That keeps it persistent by running rc on boot or giveback.

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