Some words about NetApp FAS (IBM N series) initial storage configuration

In many cases just delivered NetApp FAS (or IBM N series) storage system isn’t configured as you want, especially if it has two controllers (filers). And if network and storage protection settings can be modified relatively easy, storage reconfiguration needs often much more time, and sometimes system configuration must be rebuild from the scratch.

There are some steps which can save time performing initial storage configuration:

·         Usually, just shipped storage system has the following configuration:

o   aggr0 is built from 3 HDDs, and root volume vol0 is configured for each filer.

o   Other unused HDDs can be assigned to different filers or can remain unassigned.

·         If it’s necessary to redistribute disks across different filers and/or disk shelves:

o   Make a serial connection to both filers: 9600-8-1-None-None

o   For each filer go to the maintenance mode:

§  Perform reboot of each filer: reboot

§  During Data ONTAP boot press Ctrl-C and in boot menu press 5.

o   In maintenance mode see what disks are assigned to what filer type : disk show

o   To see unassigned disks type: disk show -n

o   It’s impossible to reassign already assigned disks. First of all they need to be unassigned. On each filer type: disk assign disk names -s unowned.  Disk names – IDs of disks, which should be given to other filer.

o   Optional, if disks are going to be moved to another disk shelf: stop both filers: halt. Switch power down (filers, then disk shelves), move unassigned disks to required bays. Switch filers on (disk shelves, then filers), boot Data ONTAP in maintenance mode.

o   Assign unassigned disks to the filer by typing on this filer: disk assign disk names. Check that all disks are assigned using disk show and disk show -n commands.

o   Reboot filers in normal mode. During reboot after maintenance mode system periodically stops on the boot loader stage. In this case type boot_ontap and filer will be booted in normal mode.

·             If you add disks to the aggregates using na_admin web console, new raid groups can be created and disk resources may not be optimally used. It’s better to define the maximum size of raid group – maximum quantity of disks per raid group:  aggr aggrname options raidsize number, and after that add required quantity of disks: aggr add aggrname -g raidgroup -d disk names.

Detailed description of commands can be found in DataONTAP Command Guide. It can be found in your filer (http://Filer_IP_address/na_admin/man/index.html)  and NetApp Community public forum.