hot-swap heads on FAS270?

[jetjaguar]

We have two FAS270 shelves. Each has two controllers, and those two controllers are on different networks from each other, and each control half of the total disks on each shelf.

We want to switch a volume on one of the shelves with a volume on the other shelf. So two volumes on separate shelves are going to trade places.

We know how to do it by moving the disks and leaving the controllers in place, and then changing the ips and network cables of the controllers to reflect the network of their new disk tenants.

But since the controllers of the two volumes in question have no other volumes that will remain in place, it strikes us that it would save a lot of network configuration if we could move the controllers along with the disks.

Is that possible with the FAS270? Are the controllers hot-swappable?

In Summary:

Each shelf has two volumes, and a controller per volume. We want to swap two volumes between shelves. It would save network config if the controllers could be moved along with the disks. Is that possible? Wed like to not shutdown the controllers and volumes that are not being moved.

I am attaching a pdf. Each big rectangle represents a shelf. The controller-volume sets that are to trade places are (Netapp 270-2 + "Web" volume)  and (Netapp 270-4 + "PPSP backup/Monexa Backup"). The "Home, unix-sources & development" volume is being migrated off netapp completely.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

[aborzenkov]

FAS270 head is hot-swappable, but system configuration is kept on root volume, not on controller itself, so swapping them won't buy you anything. If your goal is to provide access to volumes under different IP address, I am afraid the only way is to physically copy volumes to another head. If you have Snapmirror license, downtime can be reduced to several minutes of cutover.

[jetjaguar]

We are proposing to move the controller, and all the disks associated with it, to a different shelf. Can that be done without shutting down the other controllers in the source and destination shelves, and will it be relatively simple? That is my question in nutshell.

Thanks.

[spence]

There are a lot of questions that I have regarding your scenario.

1. What is the target system? FAS3000 series, FAS3100 series, FAS6000 series? Is this system already up and running and configured running Data ONTAP?

2. Is you intention to take the disks in the FAS270 and use them as spares in the to be system based upon the question above?

3. Do you care about the data on the FAS270 disks? Are you trying to preserve\migrate the data or will you destroy it?

4. The term Shelf in NetApp world means a DS14MK2 or DS14MK4. The FAS270 uses a DS14MK2 shelf, unless you have a really old one then it might be a DS14MK1 shelf. If it is a DS14MK1 shelf, then be aware that DS14MK1 shelves are no longer supported with Data ONTAP 7.3 or later. You question seems to imply that you will be taking the disks out of the FAS270 system and putting them into a blank DS14MK2\4 shelf on the system you describe in question 1. If that is not the case and you intend to take the FAS270 disks and shelf and move them to the system described in question 1, then that is not possible as you will need to purchase ESH2 modules to replace the FAS270 controller modules before you can add it onto the system in question 1.

5. If you do intend to buy ESH2 modules and move the shelf into an existing configuration based upon question 1, then are you adding it to an existing loop or will you be creating a new loop?

6. If you are adding to an additional loop, then how many shelves are in the existing loop? Do you have the available shelf to shelf cables?

7. If you are creating a new loop, then do you have enough FC ports to do this? If not do you have open available slots to insert bus expansion cards for FC ports. Do you have SFPs and fibre cables to run to the new loop? Are you going to run single path or multi-path?

As you can see there are great deal of variables based upon your question that warrant further investigation before you make a decision. As for your title, head swaps are for systems where you are leaving the disk and data in place and upgrading the controllers. Now the FAS200 and FAS2000 series makes this a little more problematic since they have internal disks. In those scenarios you have to purchase additional disks so that you can migrate the data off of local disk prior to doing the head-swap.

If you are looking to perform an upgrade to an existing FAS270 and don’t feel like answering all the above and have some free moments then please call me and I can get you started and then try to find the appropriate sales resource to visit you for a quote.

Chris Spence

Professional Services Consultant

970.214.8188 - Mobile

NetApp

www.netapp.com <http://www.netapp.com/>

NetApp Support

1.888.463.8277 or now.netapp.com <http://now.netapp.com/

[jetjaguar]

1.       What is the target system?  FAS3000 series, FAS3100 series, FAS6000 series?  Is this system already up and running and configured running Data ONTAP?

==Target is also FAS270. We want to swap volumes between two shelves, and hope to save time by swapping the controllers as well, so we don't have to do disk assigning to new controllers, and changing network config of controllers.

2.       Is you intention to take the disks in the FAS270 and use them as spares in the to be system based upon the question above?.

==The data in the two volumes being swapped is important and we need it all running as is. Just in opposite shelves from where it is now.

3.       Do you care about the data on the FAS270 disks?  Are you trying to preserve\migrate the data or will you destroy it?

==Trying to migrate between shelves. Two volumes trading shelves. We hope not to have to move just the disks beczue then we have to do disk assgning and network reconfig. If we move controllers along with shelves, if possible, much simpler we hope.

We have two FAS270's. Each one has a two controllers and 1 volume per controller. So 4 volumes in total. We need to physically relocate two of the four volumes. The problem is, those two volumes are not in the same shelf. So we have to get the two volumes that are going to move out of the building into the same shelf. We care deeply about all four volumes. We want them all to keep running.

*+*+*++So do we just move the disks containing each volume, and reassign the disks to their new controllers, and reconfigure network settings? Or, can we save that reconfig and reassign by moving the controllers along with the disks?+*+*+*+*+

. If someone understands my question, yet doesnt know the answer, but knows a clearer way to ask it, please chime in.

Thanks very much for the answers so far.

Peter

[jetjaguar]

Also, both shelves and all 4 controllers are identical.

[jetjaguar]

Here is a better diagram that illustrates what we want to do.