FAS2040-2 active/passive mode

[soper_2010]

Hi!

we have bout a new FAS2040-2 with 2 controller and 24 SAS disks. when i set up it the become active/active and they own halv of abount disks each. I need more disk space, and ofcourse some security such HA functionality. is there any way to configure it so the two controller become active/passive instead of active/actiive?

Thanks for any helps

/Soran

[DIDIER_THILL_ATOS]

Hi

You can achieve a kind of active/passive configuration by assigning all but 3 disks to one controller. Those 3 remaining disks would be used to host aggr0 /vol0 of this passive controller , and nothing else. This controller will be of course able to take over controller 1 if needed ( failure , ontap update , ...)

This maximize disk space but keep in mind that all the IO will be served by only one controller.

[soper_2010]

Thank you Dider!
But how can i assign all disk to one controller? is there a documents/guids /commands?

[DIDIER_THILL_ATOS]

There are a  *lot* of documentations/guides. check it out @ http://support.netapp.com

In this case the helpfull command is "disk assign"

What is your current aggregate configuration ? are all disks already added to aggregate0 ( of each controller) ?

[soper_2010]

each controller have an aggregate (aggr0) and a vol (vol0), 11 disks assigned each aggregate. can i destroy the aggregates?

[DIDIER_THILL_ATOS · Accepted solution]

You cannot destroy aggr0

You cannot remove a disk from an aggregate.

Assuming that your FAS isn't yet hosting any data :

One solution would be : (summary)

* disable takeover ( cf disable)

* disable automatic disk assignment ( options  disk.auto_assign  off) on both controllers.

* reboot controller2 and perform a re-installation from the special boot menu , this will use only 3 disks and let the other one unowned ,thus assignable to controller1.

Another solution would be : (summary)

As you have 2 spares , you could assign the controller1 spare to controller2 , build a new raid4 aggregate on ctl2 with the 2 spare disks  , move vol0 on the new aggregate , promote this new aggregate as root aggr , reboot ,  then destroy the old aggr0 and reassign all but two disks to controller 1.

You will have to change some defaults options like minimum amount of spares, ...

Warning : these are  advanced tasks , if you are not (yet) confident with NetApp , I recommend you to call your IT integrator or even  NetApp Professional  Services.

[soper_2010]

Thank you for all help Didier! I am not very familyer with NetApp so i opened a case on NetApp and i hope the can help me

[adrianlowe]

Hello Soper,

Here is a link I posted in the past which might be of interest to you for the differen options for setting up the system: FAS2020 Optimize Storage Capacity and Upgrade optimization for the Future. (RAID-DP & RAID4 Active/Passive Controllers) https://communities.netapp.com/thread/11901. Basically its suggesting having the systems set up in an Active/Passive set up but still retaining the HA functionality of your controllers i.e. a RAID DP aggregate on one controller with 1 spare disk with the second controller having RAID-4 with just the root volume and a small are for storage).

It doesn't go in to the details of commands and so on but Didier suggested, you'd be best off getting PS on this to perform configuration. Its not difficult stuf BUT you do need to know what your doing. If you look to destroy any aggregates/root volumes. Make sure you retain a copy of your license key (this should be accessible via your NetApp NOW account) otherwise you can use the NetApp Data Collector tool to obtain a copy of your controller configuration which includes the license keys unlike the autosupport emails the data collector tool can be downloaded from the following link: http://synergy.netapp.com/disclaimer.htm and is very simple to run.

Best Regards,

Adrian

[soper_2010]

Thank you Adrian! 

a very good link!

Best Regards

Soran