Replacing the controller module

You must review the prerequisites for the replacement procedure and select the correct one for your version of the ONTAP operating system.

Before you begin

All drive shelves must be working properly.
If your system is in a MetroCluster configuration, you must review the section Choosing the correct recovery procedure in the MetroCluster Management and Disaster Recovery Guide to determine whether you should use this procedure.
If this is the procedure you should use, note that the controller replacement procedure for a node in a four or eight node MetroCluster configuration is the same as that in an HA pair. No MetroCluster-specific steps are required because the failure is restricted to an HA pair and storage failover commands can be used to provide nondisruptive operation during the replacement.

You must replace the failed component with a replacement FRU component you received from your provider.
You must be replacing a controller module with a controller module of the same model type. You cannot upgrade your system by just replacing the controller module.
You cannot change any drives or drive shelves as part of this procedure.
In this procedure, the boot device is moved from the impaired node to the replacement node so that the replacement node will boot up in the same version of ONTAP as the old controller module.
It is important that you apply the commands in these steps on the correct systems:
- The impaired node is the node that is being replaced.
- The replacement node is the new node that is replacing the impaired node.
- The healthy node is the surviving node.
You must always capture the node's console output to a text file.
This provides you a record of the procedure so that you can troubleshoot any issues that you might encounter during the replacement process.