Hi Bren,
Good question. Here's my suggestion of the Top 10 things to try:
- Just go through the process of C-Mode setup and init.
- Create a cluster on one of the nodes and Join the second node to the cluster on the first node
- Create a new aggregate from the spare disks
- Create a new Vserver
- Configure the Vserver to serve data over NFS
- Play around with various Global Namespace capabilities:
- building hierarchical relationships between volume
- unmounting a volume to hide it from the namespace
- reconnecting the volume to a different spot in the namespace
- Move volumes between different aggregates and nodes
- Generate cross node traffic by mounting a network interface on one node, and doing IO to a volume that lives on the other node.
- Connect to the Cluster Element Manager (Web GUI), play around with it, and try monitoring the system using the Cluser View dashboard. See if you can identify the cross node traffic on the network links and aggregates when you do things like volume move or access the volume from a network interface on the other node.
- Use the C-Mode SnapMirror to create mirror volumes, replicate the volume to synchronize the mirror, and add a schedule to synchronize the mirrors on a regular basis.
Most of these are relatively basic, but if you're new to Cluster-Mode it will be a great way to get more familiar. The documentation should help. I'm not sure if there's another Community for Cluster-Mode questions, but that would be a good place to follow up if you get stuck somewhere.
Take care and hope that helps,
Miroslav