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Create a cluster peer relationship

Contributors netapp-lenida netapp-aherbin netapp-dbagwell netapp-ahibbard

Before you can protect your data by replicating it to a remote cluster for data backup and disaster recovery purposes, you should create a cluster peer relationship between the local and remote cluster.

About this task

This procedure applies to FAS, AFF, and current ASA systems. If you have an ASA r2 system (ASA A1K, ASA A70, or ASA A90), follow these steps to create set up Snapshot replication. ASA r2 systems provide a simplified ONTAP experience specific to SAN-only customers.

Several default protection policies are available. You must have created your protection policies if you want to use custom policies.

Before you begin
Steps

Perform this task using ONTAP System Manager or the ONTAP CLI.

System Manager
  1. In the local cluster, click Cluster > Settings.

  2. In the Intercluster Settings section, click Add Network Interfaces and enter the IP address and subnet mask to add intercluster network interfaces for the cluster.

    Repeat this step on the remote cluster.

  3. In the remote cluster, click Cluster > Settings.

  4. Click Menu options icon in the Cluster Peers section and select Generate Passphrase.

  5. Select the remote ONTAP cluster version.

  6. Copy the generated passphrase.

  7. In the local cluster, under Cluster peers, click Menu options icon and select Peer cluster.

  8. In the Peer cluster window, paste the passphrase and click Initiate cluster peering.

CLI
  1. On the destination cluster, create a peer relationship with the source cluster:

    cluster peer create -generate-passphrase -offer-expiration <MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS|1...7days|1...168hours> -peer-addrs <peer_LIF_IPs> -initial-allowed-vserver-peers <svm_name|*> -ipspace <ipspace>

    If you specify both -generate-passphrase and -peer-addrs, only the cluster whose intercluster LIFs are specified in -peer-addrs can use the generated password.

    You can ignore the -ipspace option if you are not using a custom IPspace. For complete command syntax, see the man page.

    If you are creating the peering relationship in ONTAP 9.6 or later and you do not want cross-cluster peering communications to be encrypted, you must use the -encryption-protocol-proposed none option to disable encryption.

    The following example creates a cluster peer relationship with an unspecified remote cluster, and pre-authorizes peer relationships with SVMs vs1 and vs2 on the local cluster:

    cluster02::> cluster peer create -generate-passphrase -offer-expiration 2days -initial-allowed-vserver-peers vs1,vs2
    
                         Passphrase: UCa+6lRVICXeL/gq1WrK7ShR
                    Expiration Time: 6/7/2017 08:16:10 EST
      Initial Allowed Vserver Peers: vs1,vs2
                Intercluster LIF IP: 192.140.112.101
                  Peer Cluster Name: Clus_7ShR (temporary generated)
    
    Warning: make a note of the passphrase - it cannot be displayed again.

    The following example creates a cluster peer relationship with the remote cluster at intercluster LIF IP addresses 192.140.112.103 and 192.140.112.104, and pre-authorizes a peer relationship with any SVM on the local cluster:

    cluster02::> cluster peer create -generate-passphrase -peer-addrs 192.140.112.103,192.140.112.104 -offer-expiration 2days -initial-allowed-vserver-peers *
    
                         Passphrase: UCa+6lRVICXeL/gq1WrK7ShR
                    Expiration Time: 6/7/2017 08:16:10 EST
      Initial Allowed Vserver Peers: vs1,vs2
                Intercluster LIF IP: 192.140.112.101,192.140.112.102
                  Peer Cluster Name: Clus_7ShR (temporary generated)
    
    Warning: make a note of the passphrase - it cannot be displayed again.

    The following example creates a cluster peer relationship with an unspecified remote cluster, and pre-authorizes peer relationships with SVMsvs1 and vs2 on the local cluster:

    cluster02::> cluster peer create -generate-passphrase -offer-expiration 2days -initial-allowed-vserver-peers vs1,vs2
    
                         Passphrase: UCa+6lRVICXeL/gq1WrK7ShR
                    Expiration Time: 6/7/2017 08:16:10 EST
      Initial Allowed Vserver Peers: vs1,vs2
                Intercluster LIF IP: 192.140.112.101
                  Peer Cluster Name: Clus_7ShR (temporary generated)
    
    Warning: make a note of the passphrase - it cannot be displayed again.
  2. On source cluster, authenticate the source cluster to the destination cluster:

    cluster peer create -peer-addrs <peer_LIF_IPs> -ipspace <ipspace>

    For complete command syntax, see the man page.

    The following example authenticates the local cluster to the remote cluster at intercluster LIF IP addresses 192.140.112.101 and 192.140.112.102:

    cluster01::> cluster peer create -peer-addrs 192.140.112.101,192.140.112.102
    
    Notice: Use a generated passphrase or choose a passphrase of 8 or more characters.
            To ensure the authenticity of the peering relationship, use a phrase or sequence of characters that would be hard to guess.
    
    Enter the passphrase:
    Confirm the passphrase:
    
    Clusters cluster02 and cluster01 are peered.

    Enter the passphrase for the peer relationship when prompted.

  3. Verify that the cluster peer relationship was created:

    cluster peer show -instance
    cluster01::> cluster peer show -instance
    
                                   Peer Cluster Name: cluster02
                       Remote Intercluster Addresses: 192.140.112.101, 192.140.112.102
                  Availability of the Remote Cluster: Available
                                 Remote Cluster Name: cluster2
                                 Active IP Addresses: 192.140.112.101, 192.140.112.102
                               Cluster Serial Number: 1-80-123456
                      Address Family of Relationship: ipv4
                Authentication Status Administrative: no-authentication
                   Authentication Status Operational: absent
                                    Last Update Time: 02/05 21:05:41
                        IPspace for the Relationship: Default
  4. Check the connectivity and status of the nodes in the peer relationship:

    cluster peer health show
    cluster01::> cluster peer health show
    Node       cluster-Name                Node-Name
                 Ping-Status               RDB-Health Cluster-Health  Avail…
    ---------- --------------------------- ---------  --------------- --------
    cluster01-01
               cluster02                   cluster02-01
                 Data: interface_reachable
                 ICMP: interface_reachable true       true            true
                                           cluster02-02
                 Data: interface_reachable
                 ICMP: interface_reachable true       true            true
    cluster01-02
               cluster02                   cluster02-01
                 Data: interface_reachable
                 ICMP: interface_reachable true       true            true
                                           cluster02-02
                 Data: interface_reachable
                 ICMP: interface_reachable true       true            true

Other ways to do this in ONTAP

To perform these tasks with…​ See this content…​

System Manager Classic (available with ONTAP 9.7 and earlier)

Volume disaster recovery preparation overview