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Verify the LIF failover configuration

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-forry netapp-thomi

Before you upgrade ONTAP, you must verify that the cluster's failover policies and failover groups are configured correctly.

During the upgrade process, LIFs are migrated based on the upgrade method. Depending upon the upgrade method, the LIF failover policy might or might not be used.

If you have 8 or more nodes in your cluster, the automated upgrade is performed using the batch method. The batch upgrade method involves dividing the cluster into multiple upgrade batches, upgrading the set of nodes in the first batch, upgrading their high-availability (HA) partners, and then repeating the process for the remaining batches. In ONTAP 9.7 and earlier, if the batch method is used, LIFs are migrated to the HA partner of the node being upgraded. In ONTAP 9.8 and later, if the batch method is used, LIFs are migrated to the other batch group.

If you have less than 8 nodes in your cluster, the automated upgrade is performed using the rolling method. The rolling upgrade method involves initiating a failover operation on each node in an HA pair, updating the node that has failed over, initiating giveback, and then repeating the process for each HA pair in the cluster. If the rolling method is used, LIFs are migrated to the failover target node as defined by the LIF failover policy.

Steps
  1. Display the failover policy for each data LIF:

    If your ONTAP version is…​ Use this command

    9.6 or later

    network interface show -service-policy *data* -failover

    9.5 or earlier

    network interface show -role data -failover

    This example shows the default failover configuration for a two-node cluster with two data LIFs:

    cluster1::> network interface show -role data -failover
             Logical         Home                  Failover        Failover
    Vserver  Interface       Node:Port             Policy          Group
    -------- --------------- --------------------- --------------- ---------------
    vs0
             lif0            node0:e0b             nextavail       system-defined
                             Failover Targets: node0:e0b, node0:e0c,
                                               node0:e0d, node0:e0e,
                                               node0:e0f, node1:e0b,
                                               node1:e0c, node1:e0d,
                                               node1:e0e, node1:e0f
    vs1
             lif1            node1:e0b             nextavail       system-defined
                             Failover Targets: node1:e0b, node1:e0c,
                                               node1:e0d, node1:e0e,
                                               node1:e0f, node0:e0b,
                                               node0:e0c, node0:e0d,
                                               node0:e0e, node0:e0f

    The Failover Targets field shows a prioritized list of failover targets for each LIF. For example, if 'lif0' fails over from its home port (e0b on node0), it first attempts to fail over to port e0c on node0. If lif0 cannot fail over to e0c, it then attempts to fail over to port e0d on node0, and so on.

  2. If the failover policy is set to disabled for any LIFs, other than SAN LIFs, use the network interface modify command to enable failover.

  3. For each LIF, verify that the Failover Targets field includes data ports from a different node that will remain up while the LIF's home node is being upgraded.

    You can use the network interface failover-groups modify command to add a failover target to the failover group.

    Example
    network interface failover-groups modify -vserver vs0 -failover-group fg1 -targets sti8-vsim-ucs572q:e0d,sti8-vsim-ucs572r:e0d
Related information

Network and LIF management