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FlexPod

Optional features

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NetApp supports several optional components to further enhance FlexPod Datacenter architectures. Optional components are outlined in the following subsections.

Note SAN boot is optional but strongly recommended, as it allows server profile moves during hardware upgrades or replacements.

iSCSI boot option

The minimum requirements for the iSCSI boot option include:

  • An iSCSI license/feature activated on the NetApp storage controller

  • A two-port 10Gbps Ethernet adapter on each node in the NetApp storage controller HA pair

  • An adapter in the Cisco UCS server that is capable of iSCSI boot

The following figures show an example of FlexPod Datacenter with X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers for the IP-based iSCSI configuration.

FlexPod Datacenter for IP-based iSCSI connectivity

For more information on this configuration, see FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS M7 IMM, VMware vSphere 8.0, and NetApp ONTAP 9.12 Design Guide.

FC Boot with Cisco MDS

To provide increased scalability by using a dedicated SAN network, FlexPod supports FC through Cisco MDS switches. The FC SAN boot option through Cisco MDS has the following licensing and hardware requirements:

  • A minimum of two FC ports per NetApp storage controller; one port for each SAN fabric

  • An FC license on each NetApp storage controller.

  • An adapter in the Cisco UCS server that is capable of FC boot.

The following figure shows an example of FlexPod Datacenter with X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers for FC-based SAN configuration with MDS switches.

FlexPod Datacenter for FC-based SAN connectivity

For more information on this configuration, see FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS M7 IMM, VMware vSphere 8.0, and NetApp ONTAP 9.12 Design Guide.

FC SAN boot with Cisco Nexus

Cisco Nexus 93180YC-FX, 93360YC-FX2, or 9336C-FX2-E Switches can be used to provide the switching fabric for both LAN and SAN.

The following figure shows an example of FlexPod Datacenter with X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers for FC-based SAN configuration with Cisco Nexus SAN switching.

Note To use the Cisco Nexus switches for FC SAN connectivity, storage add-on license is required on the Cisco Nexus switches.

FlexPod Datacenter for FC-based SAN connectivity with Cisco Nexus

For more information on this configuration, see FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS M7 IMM, VMware vSphere 8.0, and NetApp ONTAP 9.12 Design Guide.

End-to-end FC-NVMe

An end-to-end FC-NVMe seamlessly extends a customer’s existing SAN infrastructure for real-time applications while simultaneously delivering improved IOPS and throughput with reduced latency. An existing 32G FC SAN transport can be used to simultaneously transport both NVMe and SCSI workloads.

For more information on this configuration, see FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS M7 IMM, VMware vSphere 8.0, and NetApp ONTAP 9.12 Design Guide.

Cisco UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached AFF/ ASA/ FAS for FC and IP based SAN

NetApp storage controllers can be directly connected to the Cisco UCS fabric interconnects without any upstream SAN switch. FlexPod supports both FC and iSCSI boot with the UCS X-Series Direct.

The licensing and hardware requirements are as follows:

  • A protocol license on the NetApp storage controller is required.

  • A Cisco UCS adapter (initiator) is required on the server. For a list of supported Cisco UCS adapters, see the NetApp IMT.

  • A target adapter on the NetApp storage controller is required.

The following figure shows an UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached ASA topology for IP-based SAN.

UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached ASA topology for IP-based SAN

Notes:

  • Cisco UCS is configured in Ethernet switching mode.

  • iSCSI ports from the target to fabric interconnects are configured as Ethernet storage ports for iSCSI data.

The following figure shows an UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached ASA topology for IP-based and FC-based SAN.

UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached ASA topology for IP-based and FC-based SAN

Notes:

  • Cisco UCS is configured in FC switching mode.

  • FC ports from the target to fabric interconnects are configured as FC storage ports.

For more information about this configuration, see FlexPod SAN Solution with Cisco UCS X-Series Direct and NetApp ASA.

Note The above examples use the NetApp ASA storage controller, but the same configuration is supported with the NetApp AFF and FAS storage controllers.

MetroCluster

FlexPod MetroCluster IP with VXLAN Multi-Site fabric solution consists of two FlexPods, located at two sites separated by some distance, but connected and paired together to provide a highly available, highly flexible, and highly reliable data center solution that can provide business continuity despite a site failure. The maximum supported distance between the sites is approximately 435 miles (700km).

In the FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution, the Cisco VXLAN Multi-Site solution allows you to interconnect and centrally manage VXLAN fabrics deployed in separate,geographically dispersed data centers. NetApp MetroCluster IP provides a synchronous replication solution between two NetApp storage clusters providing storage high availability and disaster recovery in a campus or metropolitan area. The solution enables you to design a VMware vSphere-based private cloud on a distributed integrated infrastructure and deliver a unified solution that enables multiple sites to behave in much the same way as a single site while protecting data services from a variety of single-point-of-failure scenarios, including a complete site failure.

The following two figures depict the VXLAN Multi-Site fabric and the MetroCluster IP storage fabric for a FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution with VXLAN Multi-Site fabric deployment.

  • VXLAN Multi-Site fabric for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

VXLAN Multi-Site fabric for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

  • MetroCluster IP storage fabric for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

MetroCluster IP storage fabric for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

For more information about this configuration, see FlexPod MetroCluster IP with VXLAN Multi-Site FrontendFabric.

SnapMirror active sync solution for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

Using the NetApp Snapshot technology in NetApp ONTAP software, mission-critical SAN data services can be rapidly restored with data from Snapshot-based backups.

  • The two ONTAP clusters deployed at two different sites are peered and configured with SnapMirror active sync for synchronous data replication and disaster recovery.

  • The ONTAP Mediator is deployed in a third failure domain as shown in figure below.Along with the clusters, the ONTAP mediator completes the quorum for the SnapMirror active sync solution.

  • The ONTAP mediator receives health information from the peered ONTAP clusters and nodes and orchestrates between them to determine their status. The health data helps clusters distinguish between various types of failures and decide whether to perform an automated failover.

SnapMirror active sync solution components for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

Symmetric active-active multi-path support for FlexPod MetroCluster IP solution

To allow hosts / clients to use the replicated LUNs, create igroups in the remote cluster, assign the replicated LUNs to the corresponding igroups, and set up the hosts / clients so they can find the iSCSI target and LUNs available from the remote cluster as additional paths.

As illustrated in figure below, enterprise applications can be deployed on a storage client using iSCSI-based LUNs hosted by two ONTAP ASA clusters configured for synchronous data replication between sites. A consistency group, shown in the diagram, includes three application-specific LUNs where data is synchronously replicated to the peered cluster by SnapMirror active sync.

SnapMirror active sync symmetric active-active SAN Multipathing

For more information, see Level up FlexPod SAN solution storage resiliency with SnapMirror active sync.