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Manage LIFs for all SAN protocols

Contributors netapp-thomi

Initiators must use Multipath I/O (MPIO) and asymmetric logical unit access(ALUA) for failover capability for clusters in a SAN environment. If a node fails, LIFs do not migrate or assume the IP addresses of the failed partner node. Instead, the MPIO software, using ALUA on the host, is responsible for selecting the appropriate paths for LUN access through LIFs.

You need to create one or more iSCSI paths from each node in an HA pair, using logical interfaces (LIFs) to allow access to LUNs that are serviced by the HA pair. You should configure one management LIF for every storage virtual machine (SVM) supporting SAN.

You can configure two LIFs per node, one for each fabric being used with FC and to separate Ethernet networks for iSCSI.

After LIFs are created, they can be removed from port sets, moved to different nodes within a storage virtual machine (SVM), and deleted.