I would like, just for the sake of vol copy, create a degraded aggregate with only 1 disk underlying the aggregate, I understand that the parity disks will not be provisioned and I could lose all the data, but I am wondering if there is a way to do that?
#Is it possible to create a degraded aggregate (8.2, 7-mode); that is, an aggregate without parity?
prime crypt
dim moon
oooh that's an interesting question ... one that I have personally dipped into quite a bit in the past 🙂
it will not be a "degraded" aggregate but it is indeed possible to create an aggregate without any parity disk(s)... basically a RAID0 aggregate
prime crypt
oh, how?
dim moon
as I understand it, that was used quite a bit in the old "netcache" filers, apparently, and in the v-series (aka "gateway filer")
I'm not sure about the details right now but basically you enter the boot menu by pressing ctrl-c during boot, and when it gives you the 7 options you type 22/7 to get an expanded menu. In that you can do a create_temp_root (I think?) that can be used to create an aggregate with a number of disks you specify. You can give it an option (probably -t raid0 or similar) to have it create a RAID0 aggregate that works just as any other aggregate after you boot from it
I'm not sure if it is still possible in newer ONTAP versions, but it would be interesting to try it 🙂
prime crypt
what does 22/7 means, is it some kind of hidden option?
dim moon
yeah it's basically some sort of diag mode for the boot menu
prime crypt
interesting
dim moon
most of these options are not very useful though (other than the "regular" diag mode that has many useful things)
prime crypt
I've noticed that in 8.2's ontap raid0 isn't available when using "aggr create" only raid4 & raid_dp
dim moon
yeah you definitely cannot do it in regular bootmode
prime crypt
cool
dim moon
let me check on my FAS270 over here real quick..
there you go 😉
https://pastebin.com/WBWvN9Bc
something like create_temp_root aggr1 -t raid0 0a.13 0a.14 0a.15 will do the trick. The system will use that to boot from, so you might want to move the root flag to your original root volume afterwards and reboot again, but after that you can do everything with that aggregate that you can do with regular aggregates (i.e. delete the TEMPROOT volume that's on it and/or create other volumes as desierd)
man I totally forgot how fast these things booted back then 😄
prime crypt
this is great!
dire wigeon
Just a caution, be careful with any of the items that display with 22/7
prime crypt
Oh no worries, it's a lab filer
green gale
Yeah 22/7 is a hidden command so anything you say or do may cause bad effects when using it.
prime crypt
well understood
past raft
What happens during those 2 missing hours in 22/7? 🧐🤔
green gale
Exactly. It messes with the time/space continuum.
prime crypt
lol
