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Install or upgrade ONTAP Mediator

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To install or upgrade ONTAP Mediator, you need to meet all prerequisites, download the installation package, and run the installer on the host.

  • Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, you can use any version of ONTAP Mediator to monitor an SnapMirror active sync relationship.

  • You can use any version of ONTAP Mediator to monitor a MetroCluster IP configuration.

Installation and upgrade considerations

Review these points before upgrading or installing ONTAP Mediator.

Note ONTAP Mediator 1.8 and earlier is not compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) FIPS mode and prevents it from installing successfully. You can check if FIPS mode is enabled using the fips-mode-setup --check command. You can disable FIPS mode using the fips-modesetup --disable command. Reboot after disabling FIPS mode to successfully install ONTAP Mediator 1.8 or earlier.

  • You should upgrade ONTAP Mediator to the latest version. Older versions still work with all ONTAP releases, but newer versions include security patches for third-party components.

  • When you upgrade to a new ONTAP Mediator version, the installer automatically upgrades to the recommended SCST version unless a higher version is available. For instructions on manually installing a higher SCST version, see Manage ONTAP Mediator. For supported versions, see the SCST support matrix.

Note

  • If the installation fails, you might need to upgrade to a newer version of ONTAP Mediator.

  • From June 15, 2025, you can't install or upgrade ONTAP Mediator 1.9 and 1.8 because their code signing certificates have expired. If the installation or upgrade fails, use the ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 patch version instead.

  • If you install the yum-utils package, you can use the needs-restarting command.

  • Beginning with ONTAP Mediator 1.11, IPv6 is supported for MetroCluster IP configurations.

Host requirements

Follow these requirements when installing RHEL or Rocky Linux and configuring the associated repositories.

Note

If you modify the installation or configuration process, you might need to perform additional steps.
Linux distribution requirements

  • Install RHEL or Rocky Linux according to Red Hat's best practices. Because CentOS 8.x has reached end-of-life, compatible versions of CentOS 8.x are not recommended.

  • When installing ONTAP Mediator, ensure the system has access to the required repository so the installation program can retrieve and install all required software dependencies.

  • To enable the yum installer to find dependent software in the RHEL repositories, register the system during installation or afterwards using a valid Red Hat subscription.

    Note

    See the Red Hat Subscription Manager documentation for further information.
Networking requirements

Ensure that the following ports are available and unused for ONTAP Mediator:

Port/services

Source

Direction

Destination

Purpose

22/tcp

Management host

Inbound

ONTAP Mediator

(Optional) SSH / ONTAP Mediator management

31784/tcp

Cluster management LIFs

Inbound

ONTAP Mediator web server

(Required) REST API (HTTPS)

3260/tcp 1

Node Data LIFs or Node Management LIFs

Bidirectional

ONTAP Mediator iSCSI targets

(Required for MetroCluster IP configurations) iSCSI data connection for mailboxes

For SMBC customers, ONTAP doesn't require port 3260 to be enabled or connected.

  • If using a third-party firewall, see Firewall requirements for ONTAP Mediator.

  • For Linux hosts without internet access, make sure the required packages are available in a local repository.

    If you are using Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) in a Linux environment, configure the kernel and set the sysctl net.ipv4.conf.all.arp_ignore to 2.

OS requirements

Your OS must meet the following requirements:

  • 64-bit physical installation or virtual machine

  • 8 GB RAM

  • 1 GB disk space (used for applications installation, server logs, and the database)

  • User: Root access

The following table shows the supported OSs for each version of ONTAP Mediator.

ONTAP Mediator version

Supported Linux versions

1.11

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • Compatible: 9.5 1

    • Recommended: 10.1, 10.0, 9.7, 9.6, 9.4, and 8.10

  • Rocky Linux 10.1, 9.7, and 8.10

  • Oracle Linux 10.0 and 9.6

1.10

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • Compatible: 9.5 1

    • Recommended: 10.0, 9.6, 9.4, and 8.10

  • Rocky Linux 10.0, 9.6, and 8.10

1.9.1

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • Compatible: 9.3, 9.1, 8.9, 8.7, 8.6, 8.5, and 8.4 1

    • Recommended: 9.5, 9.4, 9.2, 9.0, 8.10, and 8.8

  • Rocky Linux 9.5 and 8.10

1.9

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • Compatible: 9.3, 9.1, 8.9, 8.7, 8.6, 8.5, and 8.4 1

    • Recommended: 9.5, 9.4, 9.2, 9.0, 8.10, and 8.8

  • Rocky Linux 9.5 and 8.10

1.8

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

    • Compatible: 8.7, 8.6, 8.5, and 8.4 1

    • Recommended: 9.4, 9.3, 9.2, 9.1, 9.0, 8.10, 8.9, and 8.8

  • Rocky Linux 9.4 and 8.10

1.7

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

    • Compatible: 8.7, 8.6, 8.5, and 8.4 1

    • Recommended: 9.3, 9.2, 9.1, 9.0, 8.9, and 8.8

  • Rocky Linux 9.3 and 8.9

1.6

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

    • Compatible: 8.7, 8.6, 8.5, and 8.4 1

    • Recommended: 9.2, 9.1, 9.0, and 8.8

  • Rocky Linux 9.2 and 8.8

1.5

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.5, 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

  • CentOS: 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

1.4

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.5, 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

  • CentOS: 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

1.3

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

  • CentOS: 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

1.2

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.1, 8.0, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

  • CentOS: 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, and 7.6

  1. Compatible means that Red Hat no longer supports these RHEL versions, but ONTAP Mediator can still be installed on them.

OS required packages

The following packages are required by ONTAP Mediator:

Note The packages are either pre-installed or automatically installed by the ONTAP Mediator installer.

All RHEL/CentOS versions

Additional packages for RHEL 10.x / Rocky Linux 10

Additional packages for RHEL 9.x / Rocky Linux 9

Additional packages for RHEL 8.x / Rocky Linux 8

  • openssl

  • openssl-devel

  • kernel-devel-$ (uname -r)

  • gcc

  • make

  • libselinux-utils

  • patch

  • bzip2

  • perl-Data-Dumper

  • perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker

  • efibootmgr

  • mokutil

  • python3.12

  • python3.12-devel

  • elfutils-libelf-devel

  • policycoreutils-python-utils

  • python3

  • python3-devel

  • elfutils-libelf-devel

  • policycoreutils-python-utils

  • redhat-lsb-core

  • python39

  • python39-devel

The Mediator installation package is a self-extracting compressed tar file that includes:

  • An RPM file containing all dependencies that cannot be obtained from the supported release's repository.

  • An install script.

A valid SSL certificate is recommended.

OS upgrade considerations and kernel compatibility

  • You can update all library packages except the kernel, but you might need to reboot to apply changes in ONTAP Mediator. Schedule downtime if you need to reboot.

  • You should keep the OS kernel up to date. Upgrade the kernel core to a supported version listed in the ONTAP Mediator version matrix. You must reboot the system, so plan a maintenance window for the outage.

    • Uninstall the SCST kernel module before you reboot, and then reinstall it afterwards.

    • Prepare a supported version of SCST to reinstall before you start the kernel OS upgrade.

Note

  • The kernel version must match the operating system version.

  • Do not upgrade the kernel past the supported OS version for your ONTAP Mediator release as the tested SCST module probably won't work.

Install ONTAP Mediator when UEFI Secure Boot is enabled

ONTAP Mediator can be installed on a system with or without UEFI Secure Boot enabled.

About this task

You can choose to disable UEFI Secure Boot before installing ONTAP Mediator if it is not needed or if you are troubleshooting ONTAP Mediator installation issues. Disable the UEFI Secure Boot option from your machine settings.

Note

For detailed instructions on disabling UEFI Secure Boot, refer to the documentation for your host OS.

To install ONTAP Mediator with UEFI Secure Boot enabled, you must register a security key before the service can start. The key is generated during the SCST installation's compile step and saved as a private-public key pair on your machine. Use the mokutil utility to add the public key as a Machine Owner Key (MOK) to your UEFI firmware, enabling the system to trust and load the signed module. Save the mokutil passphrase in a secure location as this is required when rebooting your system to activate the MOK.

Steps

  1. Check if UEFI Secure Boot is enabled on your system:

    mokutil --sb-state

    The results indicate whether UEFI Secure Boot is enabled on this system.

    If…​

    Go to…​

    UEFI secure boot is enabled

    The step where you run the mokutil utility

    UEFI secure boot is disabled

    Upgrade the host operating system and then ONTAP Mediator
    Note

    • You are prompted to create a passphrase that you must store in a secure location. You'll need this passphrase to enable the key in the UEFI Boot Manager.

    • ONTAP Mediator 1.2.0 and earlier versions do not support this mode.

  2. If the mokutil utility is not installed, run the following command:

    yum install mokutil