Ansible with single node cluster (homelab Proxmox) | NetApp | Page 1

west vector Apr 29, 2026, 7:06 PM

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Hi all,

I’m a beginner DevOps engineer and currently learning Ansible with the NetApp API. I’ve built a homelab to practice.

Right now I’m running into an issue getting an HA pair working on Proxmox. Before I spend too much time troubleshooting that, I have a more fundamental question:

Is it a problem to develop and test Ansible automation against a single-node NetApp cluster (no HA pair)?
Will I run into limitations or unexpected behavior with API calls compared to a real HA setup?

In other words: is a single-node lab “good enough” for learning and building automation, or is HA really required to avoid bad habits / edge cases?

Thanks in advance!

wet flicker Apr 30, 2026, 7:22 AM

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I don't think the HA pair is necessary, the API will work fine with a single node.
You will obviously be missing the failover/rolling upgrade part of automation.

oblique olive Apr 30, 2026, 7:37 AM

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yeah it should work just fine. In the past, single-node clusters were a thing even on hardware and that also did work.
Are you using the ONTAP Simulator or ONTAP Select?

west vector Apr 30, 2026, 8:48 AM

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I am using Ontap Simulator

oblique olive Apr 30, 2026, 9:10 AM

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yeah that should work but you won't have HA on the simulator anyways. AFAIK HA on the simulator only works on ESX so far (and it's undocumented and painful to set up manually)

trim aspen Apr 30, 2026, 1:33 PM

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single node vsim works fine for Ansible.

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the only thing you don't really get to do is re-home for lifs

oblique olive Apr 30, 2026, 2:28 PM

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re-home to different ports should work fine. Just not to other nodes

#Ansible with single node cluster (homelab Proxmox)