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Cluster and storage switches

Migrate from an older Cisco switch to a Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 cluster switch

Contributors netapp-jolieg

You can perform a nondisruptive migration from an older Cisco cluster switch to a Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 cluster network switch.

Review requirements

Ensure that:

  • Some of the ports on Nexus 9336C-FX2 switches are configured to run at 10GbE or 40GbE.

  • The 10GbE and 40GbE connectivity from nodes to Nexus 9336C-FX2 cluster switches have been planned, migrated, and documented.

  • The cluster is fully functioning (there should be no errors in the logs or similar issues).

  • Initial customization of the Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 switches is complete, so that:

    • 9336C-FX2 switches are running the latest recommended version of software.

    • Reference Configuration Files (RCFs) have been applied to the switches.

    • Any site customization, such as DNS, NTP, SMTP, SNMP, and SSH, are configured on the new switches.

  • You have access to the switch compatibility table on the Cisco Ethernet Switches page for the supported ONTAP, NX-OS, and RCF versions.

  • You have reviewed the appropriate software and upgrade guides available on the Cisco web site for the Cisco switch upgrade and downgrade procedures at Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches Support page.

Note If you are changing the port speed of the e0a and e1a cluster ports on AFF A800 or AFF C800 systems, you might observe malformed packets being received after the speed conversion. See Bug 1570339 and the Knowledge Base article CRC errors on T6 ports after converting from 40GbE to 100GbE for guidance.

Migrate the switches

About the examples

The examples in this procedure use two nodes. These nodes use two 10GbE cluster interconnect ports e0a and e0b. See the Hardware Universe to verify the correct cluster ports on your platforms.

Note The command outputs might vary depending on the different releases of ONTAP.

The examples in this procedure use the following switch and node nomenclature:

  • The names of the existing two Cisco switches are cs1 and cs2

  • The new Nexus 9336C-FX2 cluster switches are cs1-new and cs2-new.

  • The node names are node1 and node2.

  • The cluster LIF names are node1_clus1 and node1_clus2 for node 1, and node2_clus1 and node2_clus2 for node 2.

  • The cluster1::>* prompt indicates the name of the cluster.

During this procedure, refer to the following example:

Initial switch setup
About this task

The procedure requires the use of both ONTAP commands and Nexus 9000 Series Switches commands; ONTAP commands are used, unless otherwise indicated.

This procedure covers the following scenario:

  • Switch cs2 is replaced by switch cs2-new first.

    • Shut down the ports to the cluster nodes. All ports must be shut down simultaneously to avoid cluster instability.

    • Cabling between the nodes and cs2 are then disconnected from cs2 and reconnected to cs2-new.

  • Switch cs1 is replaced by switch cs1-new.

    • Shut down the ports to the cluster nodes. All ports must be shut down simultaneously to avoid cluster instability.

    • Cabling between the nodes and cs1 are then disconnected from cs1 and reconnected to cs1-new.

Note No operational inter-switch link (ISL) is needed during this procedure. This is by design because RCF version changes can affect ISL connectivity temporarily. To ensure non-disruptive cluster operations, the following procedure migrates all of the cluster LIFs to the operational partner switch while performing the steps on the target switch.

Step 1: Prepare for migration

  1. If AutoSupport is enabled on this cluster, suppress automatic case creation by invoking an AutoSupport message: system node autosupport invoke -node * -type all -message MAINT=xh

    where x is the duration of the maintenance window in hours.

    Note The AutoSupport message notifies technical support of this maintenance task so that automatic case creation is suppressed during the maintenance window.
  2. Change the privilege level to advanced, entering y when prompted to continue:

    set -privilege advanced

    The advanced prompt (*>) appears.

Step 2: Configure ports and cabling

  1. On the new switches, confirm that the ISL is cabled and healthy between the switches cs1-new and cs2-new:

    show port-channel summary

    Show example
    cs1-new# show port-channel summary
    Flags:  D - Down        P - Up in port-channel (members)
            I - Individual  H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
            s - Suspended   r - Module-removed
            b - BFD Session Wait
            S - Switched    R - Routed
            U - Up (port-channel)
            p - Up in delay-lacp mode (member)
            M - Not in use. Min-links not met
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Group Port-       Type     Protocol  Member Ports
          Channel
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1     Po1(SU)     Eth      LACP      Eth1/35(P)   Eth1/36(P)
    
    cs2-new# show port-channel summary
    Flags:  D - Down        P - Up in port-channel (members)
            I - Individual  H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
            s - Suspended   r - Module-removed
            b - BFD Session Wait
            S - Switched    R - Routed
            U - Up (port-channel)
            p - Up in delay-lacp mode (member)
            M - Not in use. Min-links not met
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Group Port-       Type     Protocol  Member Ports
          Channel
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1     Po1(SU)     Eth      LACP      Eth1/35(P)   Eth1/36(P)
  2. Display the cluster ports on each node that are connected to the existing cluster switches:

    network device-discovery show

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network device-discovery show -protocol cdp
    Node/       Local  Discovered
    Protocol    Port   Device (LLDP: ChassisID)  Interface         Platform
    ----------- ------ ------------------------- ----------------  ----------------
    node1      /cdp
                e0a    cs1                       Ethernet1/1        N5K-C5596UP
                e0b    cs2                       Ethernet1/2        N5K-C5596UP
    node2      /cdp
                e0a    cs1                       Ethernet1/1        N5K-C5596UP
                e0b    cs2                       Ethernet1/2        N5K-C5596UP
  3. Determine the administrative or operational status for each cluster port.

    1. Verify that all the cluster ports are up with a healthy status:

      network port show -ipspace Cluster

      Show example
      cluster1::*> network port show -ipspace Cluster
      
      Node: node1
                                                                             Ignore
                                                        Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
      Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
      --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
      e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
      e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
      
      Node: node2
                                                                             Ignore
                                                        Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
      Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
      --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
      e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
      e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    2. Verify that all the cluster interfaces (LIFs) are on their home ports:

      network interface show -vserver Cluster

      Show example
      cluster1::*> network interface show -vserver Cluster
      
                  Logical      Status     Network            Current     Current Is
      Vserver     Interface    Admin/Oper Address/Mask       Node        Port    Home
      ----------- -----------  ---------- ------------------ ----------- ------- ----
      Cluster
                  node1_clus1  up/up      169.254.209.69/16  node1       e0a     true
                  node1_clus2  up/up      169.254.49.125/16  node1       e0b     true
                  node2_clus1  up/up      169.254.47.194/16  node2       e0a     true
                  node2_clus2  up/up      169.254.19.183/16  node2       e0b     true
    3. Verify that the cluster displays information for both cluster switches:

      system cluster-switch show -is-monitoring-enabled-operational true

      Show example
      cluster1::*> system cluster-switch show -is-monitoring-enabled-operational true
      Switch                      Type               Address          Model
      --------------------------- ------------------ ---------------- ---------------
      cs1                         cluster-network    10.233.205.92    N5K-C5596UP
            Serial Number: FOXXXXXXXGS
             Is Monitored: true
                   Reason: None
         Software Version: Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS) Software, Version
                           9.3(4)
           Version Source: CDP
      
      cs2                         cluster-network     10.233.205.93   N5K-C5596UP
            Serial Number: FOXXXXXXXGD
             Is Monitored: true
                   Reason: None
         Software Version: Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS) Software, Version
                           9.3(4)
           Version Source: CDP
  4. Disable auto-revert on the cluster LIFs.

    network interface modify -vserver Cluster -lif * -auto-revert false

  5. On cluster switch cs2, shut down the ports connected to the cluster ports of the nodes in order to fail over the cluster LIFs:

    cs2(config)# interface eth1/1-1/2
    cs2(config-if-range)# shutdown
  6. Verify that the cluster LIFs have failed over to the ports hosted on cluster switch cs1. This might take a few seconds.

    network interface show -vserver Cluster

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network interface show -vserver Cluster
                Logical       Status     Network            Current    Current Is
    Vserver     Interface     Admin/Oper Address/Mask       Node       Port    Home
    ----------- ------------- ---------- ------------------ ---------- ------- ----
    Cluster
                node1_clus1   up/up      169.254.3.4/16     node1      e0a     true
                node1_clus2   up/up      169.254.3.5/16     node1      e0a     false
                node2_clus1   up/up      169.254.3.8/16     node2      e0a     true
                node2_clus2   up/up      169.254.3.9/16     node2      e0a     false
  7. Verify that the cluster is healthy:

    cluster show

    Show example
    cluster1::*> cluster show
    Node       Health  Eligibility   Epsilon
    ---------- ------- ------------- -------
    node1      true    true          false
    node2      true    true          false
  8. Move all cluster node connection cables from the old cs2 switch to the new cs2-new switch.

    Cluster node connection cables moved to the cs2-new switch

    Cluster node connection cables moved to the cs2-new switch
  9. Confirm the health of the network connections moved to cs2-new:

    network port show -ipspace Cluster

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network port show -ipspace Cluster
    
    Node: node1
                                                                           Ignore
                                                      Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
    Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
    --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
    e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    
    Node: node2
                                                                           Ignore
                                                      Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
    Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
    --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
    e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false

    All cluster ports that were moved should be up.

  10. Check neighbor information on the cluster ports:

    network device-discovery show -protocol cdp

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network device-discovery show -protocol cdp
    
    Node/       Local  Discovered
    Protocol    Port   Device (LLDP: ChassisID)  Interface      Platform
    ----------- ------ ------------------------- -------------  --------------
    node1      /cdp
                e0a    cs1                       Ethernet1/1    N5K-C5596UP
                e0b    cs2-new                   Ethernet1/1/1  N9K-C9336C-FX2
    
    node2      /cdp
                e0a    cs1                       Ethernet1/2    N5K-C5596UP
                e0b    cs2-new                   Ethernet1/1/2  N9K-C9336C-FX2

    Verify that the moved cluster ports see the cs2-new switch as the neighbor.

  11. Confirm the switch port connections from switch cs2-new's perspective:

    cs2-new# show interface brief
    cs2-new# show cdp neighbors
  12. On cluster switch cs1, shut down the ports connected to the cluster ports of the nodes in order to fail over the cluster LIFs. The following example uses the interface example output from step 7.

    cs1(config)# interface eth1/1-1/2
    cs1(config-if-range)# shutdown

    All cluster LIFs will move to the cs2-new switch.

  13. Verify that the cluster LIFs have failed over to the ports hosted on switch cs2-new. This might take a few seconds:

    network interface show -vserver Cluster

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network interface show -vserver Cluster
                Logical      Status     Network            Current     Current Is
    Vserver     Interfac     Admin/Oper Address/Mask       Node        Port    Home
    ----------- ------------ ---------- ------------------ ----------- ------- ----
    Cluster
                node1_clus1  up/up      169.254.3.4/16     node1       e0b     false
                node1_clus2  up/up      169.254.3.5/16     node1       e0b     true
                node2_clus1  up/up      169.254.3.8/16     node2       e0b     false
                node2_clus2  up/up      169.254.3.9/16     node2       e0b     true
  14. Verify that the cluster is healthy:

    cluster show

    Show example
    cluster1::*> cluster show
    Node       Health  Eligibility   Epsilon
    ---------- ------- ------------- -------
    node1      true    true          false
    node2      true    true          false
  15. Move the cluster node connection cables from cs1 to the new cs1-new switch.

    Cluster node connection cables moved to the cs1-new switch

    Cluster node connection cables moved to the cs1-new switch
  16. Confirm the health of the network connections moved to cs1-new:

    network port show -ipspace Cluster

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network port show -ipspace Cluster
    
    Node: node1
                                                                           Ignore
                                                      Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
    Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
    --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
    e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    
    Node: node2
                                                                           Ignore
                                                      Speed(Mbps) Health   Health
    Port      IPspace      Broadcast Domain Link MTU  Admin/Oper  Status   Status
    --------- ------------ ---------------- ---- ---- ----------- -------- ------
    e0a       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false
    e0b       Cluster      Cluster          up   9000  auto/10000 healthy  false

    All cluster ports that were moved should be up.

  17. Check neighbor information on the cluster ports:

    network device-discovery show

    Show example
    cluster1::*> network device-discovery show -protocol cdp
    Node/       Local  Discovered
    Protocol    Port   Device (LLDP: ChassisID)  Interface       Platform
    ----------- ------ ------------------------- --------------  --------------
    node1      /cdp
                e0a    cs1-new                   Ethernet1/1/1   N9K-C9336C-FX2
                e0b    cs2-new                   Ethernet1/1/2   N9K-C9336C-FX2
    
    node2      /cdp
                e0a    cs1-new                   Ethernet1/1/1   N9K-C9336C-FX2
                e0b    cs2-new                   Ethernet1/1/2   N9K-C9336C-FX2

    Verify that the moved cluster ports see the cs1-new switch as the neighbor.

  18. Confirm the switch port connections from switch cs1-new's perspective:

    cs1-new# show interface brief
    cs1-new# show cdp neighbors
  19. Verify that the ISL between cs1-new and cs2-new is still operational:

    show port-channel summary

    Show example
    cs1-new# show port-channel summary
    Flags:  D - Down        P - Up in port-channel (members)
            I - Individual  H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
            s - Suspended   r - Module-removed
            b - BFD Session Wait
            S - Switched    R - Routed
            U - Up (port-channel)
            p - Up in delay-lacp mode (member)
            M - Not in use. Min-links not met
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Group Port-       Type     Protocol  Member Ports
          Channel
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1     Po1(SU)     Eth      LACP      Eth1/35(P)   Eth1/36(P)
    
    cs2-new# show port-channel summary
    Flags:  D - Down        P - Up in port-channel (members)
            I - Individual  H - Hot-standby (LACP only)
            s - Suspended   r - Module-removed
            b - BFD Session Wait
            S - Switched    R - Routed
            U - Up (port-channel)
            p - Up in delay-lacp mode (member)
            M - Not in use. Min-links not met
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Group Port-       Type     Protocol  Member Ports
          Channel
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    1     Po1(SU)     Eth      LACP      Eth1/35(P)   Eth1/36(P)

Step 3: Verify the configuration

  1. Enable auto-revert on the cluster LIFs.

    network interface modify -vserver Cluster -lif * -auto-revert true

  2. Verify that the cluster LIFs have reverted to their home ports (this might take a minute):

    network interface show -vserver Cluster

    If the cluster LIFs have not reverted to their home port, manually revert them:

    network interface revert -vserver Cluster -lif *

  3. Verify that the cluster is healthy:

    cluster show

  4. Verify the connectivity of the remote cluster interfaces:

ONTAP 9.9.1 and later

You can use the network interface check cluster-connectivity command to start an accessibility check for cluster connectivity and then display the details:

network interface check cluster-connectivity start and network interface check cluster-connectivity show

cluster1::*> network interface check cluster-connectivity start

NOTE: Wait for a number of seconds before running the show command to display the details.

cluster1::*> network interface check cluster-connectivity show
                                  Source          Destination       Packet
Node   Date                       LIF             LIF               Loss
------ -------------------------- --------------- ----------------- -----------
node1
       3/5/2022 19:21:18 -06:00   node1_clus2      node2_clus1      none
       3/5/2022 19:21:20 -06:00   node1_clus2      node2_clus2      none

node2
       3/5/2022 19:21:18 -06:00   node2_clus2      node1_clus1      none
       3/5/2022 19:21:20 -06:00   node2_clus2      node1_clus2      none
All ONTAP releases

For all ONTAP releases, you can also use the cluster ping-cluster -node <name> command to check the connectivity:

cluster ping-cluster -node <name>

cluster1::*> cluster ping-cluster -node node2
Host is node2
Getting addresses from network interface table...
Cluster node1_clus1 169.254.209.69 node1     e0a
Cluster node1_clus2 169.254.49.125 node1     e0b
Cluster node2_clus1 169.254.47.194 node2     e0a
Cluster node2_clus2 169.254.19.183 node2     e0b
Local = 169.254.47.194 169.254.19.183
Remote = 169.254.209.69 169.254.49.125
Cluster Vserver Id = 4294967293
Ping status:
....
Basic connectivity succeeds on 4 path(s)
Basic connectivity fails on 0 path(s)
................
Detected 9000 byte MTU on 4 path(s):
    Local 169.254.19.183 to Remote 169.254.209.69
    Local 169.254.19.183 to Remote 169.254.49.125
    Local 169.254.47.194 to Remote 169.254.209.69
    Local 169.254.47.194 to Remote 169.254.49.125
Larger than PMTU communication succeeds on 4 path(s)
RPC status:
2 paths up, 0 paths down (tcp check)
2 paths up, 0 paths down (udp check)
  1. Enable the Ethernet switch health monitor log collection feature for collecting switch-related log files.

ONTAP 9.8 and later

Enable the Ethernet switch health monitor log collection feature for collecting switch-related log files, using the following two commands: system switch ethernet log setup-password and system switch ethernet log enable-collection

NOTE: You will need the password for the admin user on the switches.

Enter: system switch ethernet log setup-password

cluster1::*> system switch ethernet log setup-password
Enter the switch name: <return>
The switch name entered is not recognized.
Choose from the following list:
cs1-new
cs2-new

cluster1::*> system switch ethernet log setup-password

Enter the switch name: cs1-new
RSA key fingerprint is e5:8b:c6:dc:e2:18:18:09:36:63:d9:63:dd:03:d9:cc
Do you want to continue? {y|n}::[n] y

Enter the password: <password of switch's admin user>
Enter the password again: <password of switch's admin user>

cluster1::*> system switch ethernet log setup-password

Enter the switch name: cs2-new
RSA key fingerprint is 57:49:86:a1:b9:80:6a:61:9a:86:8e:3c:e3:b7:1f:b1
Do you want to continue? {y|n}:: [n] y

Enter the password: <password of switch's admin user>
Enter the password again: <password of switch's admin user>

Followed by: system switch ethernet log enable-collection

cluster1::*> system  switch ethernet log enable-collection

Do you want to enable cluster log collection for all nodes in the cluster?
{y|n}: [n] y

Enabling cluster switch log collection.

cluster1::*>

NOTE: If any of these commands return an error, contact NetApp support.

ONTAP releases 9.5P16, 9.6P12, and 9.7P10 and later patch releases

Enable the Ethernet switch health monitor log collection feature for collecting switch-related log files, using the commands: system cluster-switch log setup-password and system cluster-switch log enable-collection

NOTE: You will need the password for the admin user on the switches.

Enter: system cluster-switch log setup-password

cluster1::*> system cluster-switch log setup-password
Enter the switch name: <return>
The switch name entered is not recognized.
Choose from the following list:
cs1-new
cs2-new

cluster1::*> system cluster-switch log setup-password

Enter the switch name: cs1-new
RSA key fingerprint is e5:8b:c6:dc:e2:18:18:09:36:63:d9:63:dd:03:d9:cc
Do you want to continue? {y|n}::[n] y

Enter the password: <password of switch's admin user>
Enter the password again: <password of switch's admin user>

cluster1::*> system cluster-switch log setup-password

Enter the switch name: cs2-new
RSA key fingerprint is 57:49:86:a1:b9:80:6a:61:9a:86:8e:3c:e3:b7:1f:b1
Do you want to continue? {y|n}:: [n] y

Enter the password: <password of switch's admin user>
Enter the password again: <password of switch's admin user>

Followed by: system cluster-switch log enable-collection

cluster1::*> system cluster-switch log enable-collection

Do you want to enable cluster log collection for all nodes in the cluster?
{y|n}: [n] y

Enabling cluster switch log collection.

cluster1::*>

NOTE: If any of these commands return an error, contact NetApp support.

  1. If you suppressed automatic case creation, reenable it by invoking an AutoSupport message: system node autosupport invoke -node * -type all -message MAINT=END