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ONTAP software upgrade methods

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You can perform an automated upgrade of your ONTAP software using System Manage. Alternately, you can perform an automated or manual upgrade using the ONTAP command line interface (CLI). The method you use to upgrade ONTAP depends upon your configuration, your current ONTAP version, and the number of nodes in your cluster. NetApp recommends using System Manager to perform automated upgrades unless your configuration requires a different approach. For example, if you have a MetroCluster configuration with 4 nodes running ONTAP 9.3 or later, you should use System Manager to perform an automated upgrade (sometimes referred to as automated nondisruptive upgrade or ANDU). If you have a MetroCluster configuration with 8 nodes running ONTAP 9.2 or earlier, you should use the CLI to perform a manual upgrade.

An upgrade can be executed using the rolling upgrade process or the batch upgrade process. Both are nondisruptive.

ONTAP rolling upgrades

In the rolling upgrade process, a node is taken offline and upgraded while its partner takes over its storage. When the node upgrade is complete, the partner node gives control back to the original owning node, and the process is repeated on the partner node. Each additional HA pair is upgraded in sequence until all HA pairs are running the target release. The rolling upgrade process is the default for clusters with fewer than 8 nodes.

ONTAP batch upgrades

In the batch upgrade process, the cluster is divided into several batches, each of which contains multiple HA pairs. In the first batch, one node of each HA pair is upgraded, followed by their HA partners. The process is then repeated sequentially for the remaining batches. The batch upgrade process is the default for clusters of 8 nodes or more.

For automated upgrades, ONTAP automatically installs the target ONTAP image on each node, validates the cluster components to ensure that the cluster can be upgraded nondisruptively, and then executes a batch or rolling upgrade in the background based on the number of nodes. For manual upgrades, the administrator manually confirms that each node in the cluster is ready for upgrade, then performs steps to execute a rolling upgrade.

Upgrade methods supported by your configuration are listed in order of recommended usage.

Configuration ONTAP version Number of nodes Recommended upgrade method

Standard

9.0 or later

2 or more

Standard

9.0 or later

Single

Automated disruptive

MetroCluster

9.3 or later

8

MetroCluster

9.3 or later

2,4

MetroCluster

9.2 or earlier

4, 8

Manual nondisruptive for 4 or 8 node MetroCluster using the CLI

MetroCluster

9.2 or earlier

2

Manual nondisruptive for 2-node MetroCluster using the CLI

ANDU using System Manager is the recommended upgrade method for all patch upgrades regardless of configuration.

Note A manual disruptive upgrade can be performed on any configuration. However, you should not perform a disruptive upgrade unless you can take the cluster offline for the duration of the upgrade. If you are operating in a SAN environment, you should be prepared to shut down or suspend all SAN clients before performing a disruptive upgrade. Disruptive upgrades are performed using the ONTAP CLI.