When IBM support does a motherboard change they actually change the serial number of the board. Once the serial number of the new board is changed to match the original board the 90 day timer on the license keys will stop.
If you don't have an active contract with IBM, I would contact them to see if you can get some kind of 1 time support contract. Let them know that you had to replace a motherboard and you need the serial number changed.
As far as a downgrade goes I wouldn't do it, but that's just me. The list of things needed to be done to actually complete a downgrade from 8.2 to 8.1 is about as long as your arm. For instance, any snapshots that exist will need to be deleted, among many other things. It's actually a revert that would need to be done, so trying to do a takeover to accomplish this wouldn't work. The RAID labels on the disks have already been upgraded, so a system that is running 8.1 wouldn't even be able to properly recognize the disks that have been upgraded to the RAID label version that 8.2 uses. The labels would have to be "reverted" in order for the system to use them.
Honestly, even if you went through with the revert I kind of doubt that you would be able to reapply the key. Something tells me that NetApp would have thought about users doing that and built in some kind of mechanism to counter it.
IMHO your best bet is contacting IBM and paying for some kind of support that would get them to help you through a serial number change.
-Brad
On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 3:25 PM, Payne, Richard richard.payne@amd.com wrote:
You can’t get new keys from IBM, that’s the way it should work (that’s the way it works for us with NetApp hardware)?
--rdp
*From:* toasters-bounces@teaparty.net [mailto:toasters-bounces@ teaparty.net] *On Behalf Of *Eric Peng *Sent:* Thursday, August 31, 2017 3:09 PM *To:* toasters@teaparty.net *Subject:* 7-mode DOT downgrade question
Folks,
We have a rebranded NetApp array (IBM N-series) that we upgrade the ONTAP from 8.1 to 8.2 a few months back. In upgrading to 8.2, the protocol licensing keys were upgraded to the long format and also bound to the controller’s S/N. Recently we had to replace the motherboard and now we’ve lost licensing on the one controller. The partner node is still licensed, both nodes are running.
I am thinking about doing a “cf takeover” from the partner node and trying to downgrade the ONTAP back to 8.1 version on the controller with the replaced motherboard. Then reapplying our original 8.1 license keys and then upgrading back to ONTAP 8.2 version, while leaving workloads running on the partner node.
Has anyone tried anything similar in the past? Any potential gotchas you can share?
Thanks,
Eric
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