We have an old workhorse running 9.8, which we consider upgrading to FAS2600 or maybe FAS2700.
We could of cause just do a headswap and remain on one controller, but what if we wanted to "expand" to two nodes?
We will most likely add disks in the process, but I can see that the existing system have already done the Root-data-data partitions so we have 23 root partition as spares.
Would the procedure be something like a headswap to the newer controller, and then adding the 2nd controller and running a manual disk assign on that, following a boot_ontap menu option 4 ? Or are there other stuff to be aware of? (I can see that partitions P1 and P2 have been used to build one data aggregate which works and don't think it will cause any issues?) we will add another shelf and create a new data aggregate for the new controller...
#Upgrade from FAS2552 (single controller) to FAS2620 Dual?
kindred grove
rustic cedar
It is not possible to headswap a SAS-3 controller (FAS26xx, FAS27xx) into a SAS-2 shelf. The connectors on the back of the PCMs are not the same.
Your better bet is to get a new HA pair and join it into the cluster for volume moves (provided that you are running "close" ONTAP releases)
Else, SnapMirror and/or SVM Migrate will be your best friends
cedar solstice
Svm migrate is great but the destination can only be two versions ahead (9.8 -> 9.10).
Done it a bunch and works great
kindred grove
It is not possible to headswap a SAS-3 controller (FAS26xx, FAS27xx) into a SAS-...
You are right, but the play could be to just move the disks over to a SAS-3 shelf while we are at it. The disks may not be able to do 12G, but should not matter. (since there is only one node, downtime is inevitable anyway)... This is a budget upgrade with old hardware we have spare from other projects. The plan was just to get it in a HA setup...
kindred grove
Svm migrate is great but the destination can only be two versions ahead (9.8 -> ...
Yeah but we need spare disks for a migration... the plan was a budget friendly upgrade to a HA setup
rustic cedar
So either way, you're going to need a SAS-3 enclosure with FAS27xx systems. In that case, the FAS27xx was sold HA pair only. You can setup that system with 12x drives to get it configured for the volume migrations. Then, after you unjoin the FAS2552 controller from the cluster and wipe the drives (option 9a) then you can reinsert the drives into the empty bays. That is, as long as they are under a valid support contract.
kindred grove
So either way, you're going to need a SAS-3 enclosure with FAS27xx systems. In ...
I know that FAS2700 only sells as HA, but trust me, it works just fine as a single node cluster 😉 (I even have a FAS8200 running as a single node cluster right now (for a migration project) works just fine with no complaining... of cause it may not be supported... so "I am the support") The only thing I am a bit nervous about in the "upgrade" is the init of the boot aggregate for the new node on the available partitions... but I guess as long as I boot both nodes up into maint mode, and take care to re-assign the spare root paritions to the new controller it should only use those when it boots...
real venture
the system will not touch disks or partitions that have a foreign sysid on them. it only touches its own assigned disks/partitions, or unowned ones
rustic cedar
So if you are going to do this offline and reassign the disks manually via Maintenance Mode, ensure that you perform a clean shutdown on the FAS2552. That way, you get a clean copy of the varfs for restoration.
The root partition sizes on the FAS27xx are much smaller (9.4 made that change)
so, in theory, you ought to be OK....