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Prepare your AFF A400 or C400 system to hot-add an NS224 shelf

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Prepare your AFF A400 or C400 system to hot-add an NS224 shelf by ensuring sufficient RoCE-capable storage ports, configuring them for storage use, recabling existing shelves for slot resiliency, and disabling automatic drive assignment.

Install RoCE-capable PCIe cards or I/O modules

If your system supports the use of RoCE-capable PCIe cards or I/O modules, your HA pair must have enough available RoCE-capable Ethernet ports to support the number of shelves you are hot-adding.

Steps

  1. For each shelf you are hot-adding, verify that there are two RoCE-capable ports on each controller.

    These ports can be on board the controllers, on RoCE-capable PCIe cards, a combination of both, or on RoCE-capable I/O modules, as supported by your system.

  2. If your HA pair does not have enough available RoCE-capable ports, install the additional PCIe cards or I/O modules into the correct controller slots, as supported by your system.

    1. Identify the correct controller slots for your system. See NetApp Hardware Universe.

    2. See your system's documentation for PCIe card or I/O module installation instructions.

Configure RoCE-capable ports for storage use

On some systems, RoCE-capable ports automatically default to storage use when you install a RoCE-capable PCIe card or I/O module in a supported controller slot. However, you should complete this procedure to verify that the ports are configured correctly for storage use.

Configuring non-dedicated RoCE-capable ports for storage use is a nondisruptive procedure. You do not need to reboot the controllers unless one or both are in maintenance mode. This procedure assumes that neither controller is in maintenance mode.

If you need to change ports from storage use to networking use in the future, use the command storage port modify -node node_name -port port_name -mode network.

Steps

  1. Verify that you installed any additional RoCE-capable PCIe cards or I/O modules in each controller.

  2. Log in to the cluster using SSH or the serial console port.

  3. Verify that the non-dedicated ports in the HA pair are configured for storage use by entering the command storage port show.

    The command output varies depending on your ONTAP version:

    • ONTAP 9.8 or later: Non-dedicated ports configured for storage use display storage in the Mode column. Ports not configured for storage use display network in the Mode column.

    • ONTAP 9.7: Non-dedicated ports configured for storage use display false in the Is Dedicated? column and enabled in the State column. Ports not configured for storage use display false in the Is Dedicated? column and disabled in the State column.

  4. If the non-dedicated ports are configured for storage use, you are done with this procedure. Otherwise, complete the following steps to configure the ports.

  5. Configure the non-dedicated ports for storage use on one of the controllers. You must repeat the applicable command for each port you are configuring.

    If your HA pair is running…​ Use this command…​

    ONTAP 9.8 or later

    storage port modify -node node_name -port port_name -mode storage

    ONTAP 9.7

    storage port enable -node node_name -port port_name

  6. Repeat the previous step for the second controller.

  7. Verify that the non-dedicated ports on both controllers are configured for storage use by entering the command storage port show.

    The command output varies depending on your ONTAP version:

    • ONTAP 9.8 or later: Non-dedicated ports configured for storage use display storage in the Mode column.

    • ONTAP 9.7: Non-dedicated ports configured for storage use display false in the Is Dedicated? column and enabled in the State column.

Recable existing shelves

When you hot-add a second shelf to an A400 or C400 HA pair, you need to recable the first shelf across two sets of RoCE-capable ports on each controller.

  • For the A400, the procedure assumes the existing shelf is cabled to RoCE-capable onboard ports e0c/e0d on each controller, and you recable across onboard e0c/e0d and slot 5.

  • For the C400, the procedure assumes the existing shelf is cabled to RoCE-capable ports in slot 4 on each controller, and you recable across slot 4 and slot 5.

Steps

  1. Depending on your system, do one of the following:

    • On the A400:

      Recable the first shelf across the two sets of RoCE-capable ports, onboard e0c/e0d and in slot 5, on each controller.

      1. On controller A, move the cable from port e0d to slot 5 Port b (e5b).

      2. Repeat the same cable move on controller B.

    • On the C400:

      Recable the first shelf across the two sets of RoCE-capable ports in slot 4 and slot 5, on each controller.

      1. On controller A, move the cable from slot 4 port a (e4a) to slot 5 port b (e5b).

      2. Repeat the same cable move on controller B.

  2. Verify that the recabled shelf is cabled correctly using Active IQ Config Advisor.

    If any cabling errors are generated, follow the corrective actions provided.

Disable automatic drive assignment

If you are unsure whether you should manually assign drive ownership, or want to understand the automatic assignment of drive ownership policies for your storage system, go to About automatic assignment of disk ownership.

Steps

  1. Verify whether automatic drive assignment is enabled: storage disk option show

    You can enter the command on either node.

    If automatic drive assignment is enabled, the output shows on in the Auto Assign column for each node.

  2. If automatic drive assignment is enabled, disable it: storage disk option modify -node node_name -autoassign off

    You must disable automatic drive assignment on both nodes.

What's next

Go to install the shelf.