#Couldn't do headsswaping from A400 to A800

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ruby quiver
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The aggregate couldn't be relocated to the other node.

I was told that A800 couldn't work with exisiting disks/shelves is because the A800 controller that we have can only work with SED, not regular non-SSD as A400 has.

I am not sure if it is true. But, In another post, @onyx herald said the following:

`When the head swap happens, make sure that whomever does it boots the 800 and runs option 9a or at least go into maintenance mode and remove owners from all internal disks

The upgrade will utilize the disks from the external shelves.`

So, it sounds like removing the owner from all internal drives is the solution.

My question is, why A800 can utilize the disks from the external shelves(I guess, same as not able to take the aggregate from the other node) if we remove the onwers from all internal disks? Why would internal drives stop recognize external shelves?

gusty venture
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The A800 can of course use either SED drives or regular non-SED drives. But you cannot mix them NSE and nonNSE drives within an HA pair. So if you have NSE drives internally, but regular drives on a shelf (or vice-versa), that will not work. It has nothing to do with internal vs external disks

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And that post you were quoting has nothing to do with SED drives, it was about (auto-)partitioning

ruby quiver
onyx herald
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Self-encrypting FIPS-certified SAS or NVMe drives are supported on all FAS and AFF systems. These drives, called FIPS drives, conform to the requirements of Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-2, level 2. The certified capabilities enable protections in addition to encryption, such as preventing denial-of-service attacks on the drive. FIPS drives cannot be mixed with other types of drives on the same node or HA pair.

Beginning with ONTAP 9.6, self-encrypting NVMe drives that have not undergone FIPS testing are supported on AFF A800, A320, and later systems. These drives, called SEDs, offer the same encryption capabilities as FIPS drives, but can be mixed with non-encrypting drives on the same node or HA pair.

gusty venture
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yeah, I assumed it was FIPS drives because they were told that it wouldn't work with the old drives (which would be true if the old drives are FIPS and the new aren't, or vice-versa). If it's just regular SEDs then it will work

ruby quiver
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Right, so, why could not the node accept the other’s aggtegate? I was told that the A800 controller is different and we need one to be able to work with non SED’s? What is the solution here?

gusty venture
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you can check HWU to see what drives are supported on the A800. Do the drives you have show up there?

onyx herald
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Non-sed could be FIPS certified or non-encrypted. Which is it? What are the model of disks in the 800 and model of disks in the 400?

ruby quiver
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Model of internal disks in A800: x4010A-2-I-N-C, 2x1.92TB, NVMe SED

Model of external disks in A400: DS224-12/X319_TPM5V7T6ATE, believe they are just non-encrypted.

onyx herald
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So @ruby quiver
On the new platform, have you made sure only the new drives are attached (if any) and booted to the special boot menu and used option 9/9a to clear the attached drives/partitions?
then halted the nodes and physically removed the drives (at least detached from the back plane)?
Then start the head swap?

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It’s been a minute since I’ve done a head swap (I know a bunch are coming this year though) but if the internal drives are configured in any way it will 100% interfere with the process. Your root and data aggregates will be on the sas attached drives. During boot you don’t need or want any confusion during the process.

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If you wipe them, after the swap you can simply insert them and they should become spares

ruby quiver
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No, we didn't try what you advised, I wish we did.

So, why you think it would work by removing Internal SED's first in A800? Why the internal SED's in A800 could interere with working with the drives in A400?

onyx herald
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Again, I don’t think it’s because they are sed drives, it is because they are drives that have information on them. ONTAP may be confused during boot.

Whenever I’ve done a head swap I always make sure that any drives “purchased “ with the system are wiped so that nothing is on them. Take it a step further and even remove them after wiping to be sure

Remember a head swap is not expecting any other drives except those from the donor system. Anything else may cause issues

gusty venture
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If you have new nodes and new disks, a simple upgrade by moving volumes is probably easier and quicker (and you can still attach the old shelves later for more capacity).
Anyway, if you are unsure about how to best do the upgrade, I would suggest using NetApp PSE resources to help you with that. There are many many things to consider and many places where doing something wrong or omitting a step can lead to data loss so you want to be sure that you know the process well before attempting it for the first time

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especially since for the A400 to A800 I think you need to do the manual ARL process as the controller replace command doesn't support that combination

onyx herald
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Wow. I’m really shocked the a400->a800 is not in the support matrix but the a300->a800 is