#ONTAP 9.16.1 is GA πππ
worldly tide
green fulcrum
as always, the Release Highlights are interesting
green fulcrum
Important PSA:
If you still have SAS2 storage attached to your system (e.g. DS2246, DS4246 or DS4486 shelves), even if you have replaced the IOM6 with an IOM12, DO NOT UPGRADE to 9.16.1
9.16.1 removes support for SAS2 based shelves and it will not detect those shelves anymore. The system will still work, but all shelf maintenance/monitoring etc. will stop working, and your event log will be filled with "Unsupported disk shelf" alerts
This is not being checked during ONTAP image validation
mental smelt
Important PSA:
If you still have SAS2 storage attached to your system (e.g. DS2...
Thanks for the heads up... looking forward to the customer we have that just updates to the latest version not even looking at the release notes... π but I guess there is no support for systems with SAS2 shelfs anyway... (not for the shelfs...) most issues can be "fixed" by replacing the shelf with later version with SAS3 backplane.. but what happens if you have any disks that only supports SAS2, but they are placed in a SAS3 shelf? π I know it's a "thought experiment" π
green fulcrum
Thanks for the heads up... looking forward to the customer we have that just upd...
yes, the "fix" is to get new shelves and move the disks over, but this is usually disruptive unless you have swing gear. Also there is no 1:1 replacement for the DS424C shelf (i.e. the DS4246 with IOM12 upgrade) so you need two DS212C shelves in that case, which means more cables, different shelf IDs and possibly SAS stack changes
the disks work fine, they're backwards compatible (i.e. don't expect SAS3 speeds from a SAS2 disk)
it would be nice if they had provided a bootarg to get the shelves supported for a little while (like they did for the ATTO bridges), but apparently there is no such option
mental smelt
OK so SAS2 disks will be OK in later SAS3 shelfs?
...and there isn't any warning while you update? π
I guess it won't be able to do giveback?
green fulcrum
...and there isn't any warning while you update? π
no, and I couldn't even find it mentioned in the Release Notes. HWU has the details, of course, but who checks that every time before an upgrade π
green fulcrum
I guess it won't be able to do giveback?
what do you mean?
mental smelt
the system will not be able to do a giveback of the aggregate ...
green fulcrum
it will. The system runs "fine" even with the unsupported shelves
you just see things like that
mental smelt
but didn't just just state that SAS2 was not seen... so if you had an aggregate on SAS2 shelfs you would have an issue during giveback
ahh ok π
green fulcrum
yes the shelf is not seen the disks are
mental smelt
I understand, not so "critical" then... π
green fulcrum
yeah, well, define "critical" π having no way to upgrade shelf firmware, maybe not even a way of detecting cabling or multipath-issues, and having the system event log filled with "ALERT" type messages might be seen as critical by some people π
at least sasadmin expander_map and sasadmin shelf still work
mental smelt
You are right.. I feel sad for the ones with the bastard shelf DS4486 π And I feel lucky that I went for the DS460C a few years ago... (we have 8 of those) ...
worldly tide
no, and I couldn't even find it mentioned in the Release Notes. HWU has the deta...
It's in the release notes, but question is how many people will scroll down to page 21 π
worldly tide
Another general question: While a DS2246 shelf has an EOS date 31-Jan-2025, the IOM12 modules have EOS 30-Sep-2028.
So if one puts IOM12 modules in a DS2246 shelf, is the whole shelf now supported until 2028? (Does NetApp even store SAS2 chassis until 2028? I guess in the next years if a SAS2 chassis/backend breaks you will get a SAS3 chassis as a replacement.)
Or are all "DS2246/DS4246 with IOM12" shelves without support end of this week?
green fulcrum
Does NetApp even store SAS2 chassis until 2028?
They wouldn't even need to... They could just replace failed SAS2 shelves with SAS3 shelves
mental smelt
Another general question: While a DS2246 shelf has an EOS date 31-Jan-2025, the ...
If they run out of SAS2 chassis they can just give me a call π
lilac elbow
Another general question: While a DS2246 shelf has an EOS date 31-Jan-2025, the ...
Iβve been told if the shelf has the iom12 it will be supported. You may limit your upgrade path, per this thread. So in this case you can go to 9.15 and just stay there until the iom is no longer supported.
Kind of like when support was removed for the iom3. If you upgraded to 9.4, your had the same issue described here. Of course NetApp did make a patch to bring the iom3 back for a short while
iron harbor
**Happy SAS2 HW EOS day! **π
ALL of the SAS2-based hardware is EOS as of 31-Jan-2025. We're talking all shelf components, IOM6 and SAS2-vintage drives.
See: CPC-00133 - End of Availability: DS2246 and DS4246 Disk Shelves and Media, 6TB NSE NL-SAS HDD
https://mysupport.netapp.com/info/communications/ECMLP2853432.html
As noted earlier, when on ONTAP 9.16.1+ active drives and filesystems remain online, so that data migrations can be performed. But the SAS2 storage is not monitored or managed.
If you swap in IOM12 (or IOM12B) modules, ONTAP 9.16.1 will manage them. But NetApp Support will not replace an EOS hardware part, regardless.
timber latch
Hi all, when will the simulator for this version be available please ? Thanks in advance.
green fulcrum
yeah, wondering that as well. Also will there be a way to simulate an ASA r2 with the simulator? This is something that we were asked by customers already