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ONTAP MetroCluster

Considerations when using unmirrored aggregates

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Considerations when using unmirrored aggregates

If your configuration includes unmirrored aggregates, you must be aware of potential access issues that follow switchover operations.

Considerations for unmirrored aggregates when doing maintenance requiring power shutdown

If you are performing a negotiated switchover for maintenance reasons requiring site-wide power shutdown, you should first manually take offline any unmirrored aggregates owned by the disaster site.

If you do not take any unmirrored aggregates offline, nodes at the surviving site might go down due to multi-disk panics. This could occur if switched over unmirrored aggregates go offline, or are missing, because of the loss of connectivity to storage at the disaster site. This is the result of a power shutdown or a loss of ISLs.

Considerations for unmirrored aggregates and hierarchical namespaces

If you are using hierarchical namespaces, you should configure the junction path so that all of the volumes in that path are either on mirrored aggregates only or on unmirrored aggregates only. Configuring a mix of unmirrored and mirrored aggregates in the junction path might prevent access to the unmirrored aggregates after the switchover operation.

Considerations for unmirrored aggregates and CRS metadata volume and data SVM root volumes

The configuration replication service (CRS) metadata volume and data SVM root volumes must be on a mirrored aggregate. You cannot move these volumes to an unmirrored aggregate. If they are on an unmirrored aggregate, negotiated switchover and switchback operations are vetoed. The MetroCluster check command provides a warning if this is the case.

Considerations for unmirrored aggregates and SVMs

SVMs should be configured on mirrored aggregates only, or on unmirrored aggregates only. Configuring a mix of unmirrored and mirrored aggregates can result in a switchover operation that exceeds 120 seconds and result in a data outage if the unmirrored aggregates do not come online.

Considerations for unmirrored aggregates and SAN

In ONTAP versions prior to 9.9.1, a LUN should not be located on an unmirrored aggregate. Configuring a LUN on an unmirrored aggregate can result in a switchover operation that exceeds 120 seconds and a data outage.