Hi all, Is it trivial to switch between cluster mode and 7 mode? I understand that the data on the array will be wiped, but are there other caveats to be aware of? Are there any licensing or cost issues to be aware of?
Does anyone know what additional hardware is included in the FAS 2240 Cluster mode configuration? I understand there is a switch, potentially multiple switches included in cluster mode configurations.
AtDhVaAnNkCsE
---- Daniel Murphy-Olson Systems Administrator Mathematics & Computer Science Division Argonne National Laboratory 630-252-0055
It is not terribly bad, but the filesystems are not compatible at all. ALL data is wiped/disks are zero'd
Plus you need to get license keys from NetApp for cluster mode. Set some environment variables.
Make sure you have proper networking... i.e. 2 x Cisco 5010 switches solely for the cluster backend and 2 x Cisco 2960 switches for the administration network and then whatever networking you want to add on top of that for your data network(s).
Make sure you have multi-path storage properly configured.
You are best off getting the simulator and playing with that for a while to see how it goes. The downside to the simulator is that it now longer supports ha mode (it did way back in 7.x days, but not not so much) so you end up with two single nodes with now sfo/cfo capability.
--tmac Tim McCarthy Principal Consultant
RedHat Certified Engineer 804006984323821 (RHEL4) 805007643429572 (RHEL5)
On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Dan Olson dolson@mcs.anl.gov wrote:
Hi all, Is it trivial to switch between cluster mode and 7 mode? I understand that the data on the array will be wiped, but are there other caveats to be aware of? Are there any licensing or cost issues to be aware of?
Does anyone know what additional hardware is included in the FAS 2240 Cluster mode configuration? I understand there is a switch, potentially multiple switches included in cluster mode configurations.
AtDhVaAnNkCsE
Daniel Murphy-Olson Systems Administrator Mathematics & Computer Science Division Argonne National Laboratory 630-252-0055
Toasters mailing list Toasters@teaparty.net http://www.teaparty.net/mailman/listinfo/toasters
tmac> It is not terribly bad, but the filesystems are not compatible tmac> at all. ALL data is wiped/disks are zero'd
tmac> Plus you need to get license keys from NetApp for cluster mode. tmac> Set some environment variables.
tmac> Make sure you have proper networking... i.e. 2 x Cisco 5010 tmac> switches solely for the cluster backend and 2 x Cisco 2960 tmac> switches for the administration network and then whatever tmac> networking you want to add on top of that for your data tmac> network(s).
This seems amazingly excessive. You can't use those same two Cisco 5010s for boththe cluster *and* the management? It's got 20 10gib/s ethernet ports, how many do you need for the backend?
tmac> Make sure you have multi-path storage properly configured.
tmac> You are best off getting the simulator and playing with that for tmac> a while to see how it goes. The downside to the simulator is tmac> that it now longer supports ha mode (it did way back in 7.x tmac> days, but not not so much) so you end up with two single nodes tmac> with now sfo/cfo capability.
I assume you meant "no sfo/cfo" instead? But could you please explain sfo/cfo as well? Is that 'single failover/cluster failover' like I suspect? I'm certainly motivated to spin up the simulator to start getting used to this new OS and to see how it would impact us if/when we upgrde our existing systems.
John John Stoffel - Senior Staff Systems Administrator - System LSI Group Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. - http://www.toshiba.com/taec john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com - 508-486-1087
The process of converting a 7-Mode system to Cluster-Mode is neither trivial nor supported (or more importantly - documented). In addition, you would need fairly recent systems since Cluster-Mode is only available for 64-bit systems. You would need at least two systems but four would be better.
If you just want a chance to see how Cluster-Mode works and to get a feel for it, you are best off to download a simulator as John suggests. You can create as many as you want to make a bigger Cluster but four simulators would be enough. A two-node cluster is okay but not very indicative of how a Cluster was designed to work. One system is not a cluster and thus would not allow you to understand how Cluster-Mode works.
The simulators don't support what is "now-a-days" called high-availability, which means that two-nodes in the cluster are cabled together (like what used to be called CFO on 7-Mode) such that if one controller fails, the other controller can take over its disks. That is okay for testing and you'll still be able to test the other features.
If you want to experiment with real hardware, you would have switches for the Cluster network and you would also have a separate management network and a network for data. The cluster network is a special switch configuration. Although, you can share when testing, you need all three networks in a production environment.
Just some things to think about.
--April
----- Forwarded Message ----- From: John Stoffel john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com To: tmac tmacmd@gmail.com Cc: toasters@teaparty.net Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 7:57 AM Subject: Re: switching between cluster mode and 7 mode
tmac> It is not terribly bad, but the filesystems are not compatible tmac> at all. ALL data is wiped/disks are zero'd
tmac> Plus you need to get license keys from NetApp for cluster mode. tmac> Set some environment variables.
tmac> Make sure you have proper networking... i.e. 2 x Cisco 5010 tmac> switches solely for the cluster backend and 2 x Cisco 2960 tmac> switches for the administration network and then whatever tmac> networking you want to add on top of that for your data tmac> network(s).
This seems amazingly excessive. You can't use those same two Cisco 5010s for boththe cluster *and* the management? It's got 20 10gib/s ethernet ports, how many do you need for the backend?
tmac> Make sure you have multi-path storage properly configured.
tmac> You are best off getting the simulator and playing with that for tmac> a while to see how it goes. The downside to the simulator is tmac> that it now longer supports ha mode (it did way back in 7.x tmac> days, but not not so much) so you end up with two single nodes tmac> with now sfo/cfo capability.
I assume you meant "no sfo/cfo" instead? But could you please explain sfo/cfo as well? Is that 'single failover/cluster failover' like I suspect? I'm certainly motivated to spin up the simulator to start getting used to this new OS and to see how it would impact us if/when we upgrde our existing systems.
John John Stoffel - Senior Staff Systems Administrator - System LSI Group Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. - http://www.toshiba.com/taec john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com - 508-486-1087 _______________________________________________ Toasters mailing list Toasters@teaparty.net http://www.teaparty.net/mailman/listinfo/toasters
Depends on how many nodes you have. They reserve port 13-20 (8 ports) as an ISL. That allows you to connect up to 12 nodes. There is an expansion slot on the 5010 to allow for more ISL's and more nodes, if needed. I think they take you to a set of 5020's for a full 24-node cluster.
Oh, and you may think it seems excessive, it is if you only have a handful of nodes. But, if you are purchasing from NetApp, they basically, "throw in" the extra switches. i.e. the 5010's and the 2960's
SFO - Storage failover CFO - Controller Failover
CFO is used when you have a two node system. It is basically the same thing as failover in 7-mode/ONTAP7
Storage Failover allows for only aggregates to failover, not necessarily waiting on the controller. Since there is a global namespace and logical interfaces, controller failover is not needed when using more than 2 nodes.
And as been said a few times now...you get no SFO/CFO capability in the simulator. they are only stand alone nodes.
--tmac Tim McCarthy Principal Consultant
RedHat Certified Engineer 804006984323821 (RHEL4) 805007643429572 (RHEL5)
On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:57 AM, John Stoffel < john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com> wrote:
tmac> It is not terribly bad, but the filesystems are not compatible tmac> at all. ALL data is wiped/disks are zero'd
tmac> Plus you need to get license keys from NetApp for cluster mode. tmac> Set some environment variables.
tmac> Make sure you have proper networking... i.e. 2 x Cisco 5010 tmac> switches solely for the cluster backend and 2 x Cisco 2960 tmac> switches for the administration network and then whatever tmac> networking you want to add on top of that for your data tmac> network(s).
This seems amazingly excessive. You can't use those same two Cisco 5010s for boththe cluster *and* the management? It's got 20 10gib/s ethernet ports, how many do you need for the backend?
tmac> Make sure you have multi-path storage properly configured.
tmac> You are best off getting the simulator and playing with that for tmac> a while to see how it goes. The downside to the simulator is tmac> that it now longer supports ha mode (it did way back in 7.x tmac> days, but not not so much) so you end up with two single nodes tmac> with now sfo/cfo capability.
I assume you meant "no sfo/cfo" instead? But could you please explain sfo/cfo as well? Is that 'single failover/cluster failover' like I suspect? I'm certainly motivated to spin up the simulator to start getting used to this new OS and to see how it would impact us if/when we upgrde our existing systems.
John John Stoffel - Senior Staff Systems Administrator - System LSI Group Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. - http://www.toshiba.com/taec john.stoffel@taec.toshiba.com - 508-486-1087
tmac> Depends on how many nodes you have.
Heh, two? I've got two clusters, and a bunch of standalone filers, all running 7.3.x. When looking at upgrade options, it does look like moving to 8 with vfilers might be a good thing to do, esp if it would let us get our FC heavy filers seperatated from our NFS only filers.
I need to watch that introduction from Netapp at some point...
tmac> They reserve port 13-20 (8 ports) as an ISL. tmac> That allows you to connect up to 12 nodes. tmac> There is an expansion slot on the 5010 to allow tmac> for more ISL's and more nodes, if needed. I think they take you to tmac> a set of 5020's for a full 24-node cluster.
tmac> Oh, and you may think it seems excessive, it is if you only have tmac> a handful of nodes. But, if you are purchasing from NetApp, tmac> they basically, "throw in" the extra switches. i.e. the 5010's tmac> and the 2960's
Ok, that makes more sense that these switches are included in the basic cluster setup. It just seemed excessive for a two or three node cluster that I'd be likely to have in my environment.
tmac> SFO - Storage failover tmac> CFO - Controller Failover
tmac> CFO is used when you have a two node system. It is basically the tmac> same thing as failover in 7-mode/ONTAP7
tmac> Storage Failover allows for only aggregates to failover, not tmac> necessarily waiting on the controller. Since there is a global tmac> namespace and logical interfaces, controller failover is not tmac> needed when using more than 2 nodes.
How well does cluster mode work with CIFS, iSCSI and FC failovers? I know NFS failovers will be just fine since they seem to work ok with OnTap 7. But I worry about the block based modes more.
tmac> And as been said a few times now...you get no SFO/CFO capability tmac> in the simulator. they are only stand alone nodes.
Bummers... hard to test how things would work in SFO/CFO failures ahead of time.
We converted an eight-node GX cluster to four HA pairs of version 8 7-mode. It is do-able, but definitely not trivial. You will probably have to get an OK from NetApp, since the license for cluster mode probably doesn't entitle you to run 7-mode.
On 7/22/12 5:38 PM, Dan Olson wrote:
Hi all, Is it trivial to switch between cluster mode and 7 mode? I understand that the data on the array will be wiped, but are there other caveats to be aware of? Are there any licensing or cost issues to be aware of?
Does anyone know what additional hardware is included in the FAS 2240 Cluster mode configuration? I understand there is a switch, potentially multiple switches included in cluster mode configurations.
-
Andrew Siegel -
April Jenner -
Dan Olson -
John Stoffel -
tmac