New FAS2020+Shelf DM14mk4 FC for ESX env

[jasggomes]

HI, I'm new around this systems and I would like a feedback from you guys about a setup for a FAS2020 + DM14mk4.

The system is to be used on an ESX 4 environment, and we would like to use as much as possible from the data storage. Since we do have 2 controllers on the system, they are consuming right now 8 disks from the 12 SATA Shelf. By default is RAID-DP for each controller, so how would be the ideal setup?

Thanks in advance.

Jorge Gomes

[aborzenkov]

I would put SATA disks on one head and FC disks on another. Anything else would waste disk space without any benefits.

[jasggomes]

Hi, and thank you.

Than will be in active/active right?, and as RAID4 or RAID-DP configuration?

Tha way I wont wast drives on FC unit? they are 300GB drives....

Regards

[aborzenkov]

Any NetApp HA pair is technically active/active. You need to be more specific in your questions.

For SATA it is really RAID_DP. RAID4 will require the same amount of parity disks with drastically reduced reliability and manageability.

For FC it is really up to you. Both are possible, RAID4 gives you extra drive but e.g. makes online FW update impossible.

[jasggomes]

Hi aborzenkov

Thank you for your kind reply.

I think that was my English that was confusing, I didn't check it properly.

So, regarding to your first reply, I was saying that was concerning a 'Active/active' configuration, and you said that is that way 'out of the box'.

My cencerns are regarding the maximizing of disk space on our HW.

Your 2nd reply says that using the 'out of the box' config are in fact the best one. - For us, it's ok for now, since we are on the beggining of setting up this box, and since it's our first one ever, we are experimenting on it, so sorry for the 'newbie' questions. We are more EMC and HP guys, and in fact I've never seen a configuration like this. That 2 ctrls use 2 set's of disks for storing it's SO.

So beeing more specific:

Best config ?

a) - Active/Active ?

b) -Active/Passive ?

a.1) CT1 - RAID-DP on SATA disks, aggr0 or CT1 - ( 8 of12 used disks so far, on the 2 CTs )

       CT2 - RAID4/RAID-DP on FC disks, aggr1 for CT2

        or ???

b.1) - Any suggestions? I've seen some docs regarding this, but didn't test it.

I'm on the process to upgrade the ONTAP 7.3.1 to 7.3.5 on this CT's - It's a good idea ?

Haven't checked the FW of the Shelfs yet.

Hope this have given an idea of our messes ....

Regards.

PS - I have tried to remove the spae disk from the first aggr on the CT1 ... how can i put it back ??? - Struggling with this also... but no worries for now.

[aborzenkov]

You can’t combine SATA and FC disks in the same aggregate so you will need at least two of them. It makes no sense to assign both aggregates to one head and leave the second one idle (even assuming it were possible). So the only sensible setup in this case I see is SATA on one controller and FC on another one. I personally would simply go for one RAID_DP with single spare on each side.

If you are going to update it makes sense to update to the latest version which is 7.3.5.1 as of now.

Aggregate consists of data and parity disks; spare disks are not part of any aggregate. So did you remove parity disk from aggregate or spare from controller (how exactly? Which commands?)

[jasggomes]

Ok.

So, cenario:1

CT1 - aggr for SATA disks FAS2020 Shelf0

CT2 - aggr for FC disks - DM14mk4 Shelf1

upgrade done to 7.3.5.1 - Done!

Going to try the cenario 1, any hints? Since what I need is to re-do the config for CT2 to use the Shelf 1

The spare was 'removed' (Broken state) using the GUI, but when upgraded the SO, it was back to 'spare' again 😉

Thnks fro your help.

[aborzenkov]

I assume that currently you have small aggregate on rest of SATA disks on controller 2. So you will need to connect external shelf, allocate its disks to controller 2 and move root volume (and any other data) off SATA disks onto new shelf. After that you can destroy old aggregate on SATA disks and re-assign them to controller 1 and add to existing aggregate. It will keep all data and setup of controller 2.

[jasggomes]

Hi, and thank you for your patience.

I did assign all the SATA disk to CTRL1 and all FC disks to CTRL2.

I created the aggr1 on CTRL2 with all FC disks as RAID-DP.

I still have aggr0 assigned to both CTRLs, and disks from SATA on both CTRLs.

How to move the root to CTRL2 and de-assign the disks frm CTRL2 on aggr0, for them to be reassigned to CTRL1, concluding the cenario1 and your porposal.

Many thanks again.

[aborzenkov]

See https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1010097&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1304417072930 for procedure to move root volume.

I myself usually use simple “vol copy” to copy existing root volume onto another one.