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Broadcast domain overview (ONTAP 9.7 and earlier)

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Broadcast domains are intended to group network ports that belong to the same layer 2 network. The ports in the group can then be used by a storage virtual machine (SVM) for data or management traffic.

A broadcast domain resides in an IPspace. During cluster initialization, the system creates two default broadcast domains:

  • The Default broadcast domain contains ports that are in the Default IPspace.
    These ports are used primarily to serve data. Cluster management and node management ports are also in this broadcast domain.

  • The Cluster broadcast domain contains ports that are in the Cluster IPspace.
    These ports are used for cluster communication and include all cluster ports from all nodes in the cluster.

If you have created unique IPspaces to separate client traffic, then you need to create a broadcast domain in each of those IPspaces.

Note Create a broadcast domain to group network ports in the cluster that belong to the same layer 2 network. The ports can then be used by SVMs.

Example of using broadcast domains

A broadcast domain is a set of network ports in the same IPspace that also has layer 2 reachability to one another, typically including ports from many nodes in the cluster.

The illustration shows the ports assigned to three broadcast domains in a four-node cluster:

  • The Cluster broadcast domain is created automatically during cluster initialization, and it contains ports a and b from each node in the cluster.

  • The Default broadcast domain is also created automatically during cluster initialization, and it contains ports c and d from each node in the cluster.

  • The bcast1 broadcast domain has been created manually, and it contains ports e, f, and g from each node in the cluster.
    This broadcast domain was created by the system administrator specifically for a new client to access data through a new SVM.

Broadcast domain image

A failover group of the same name and with the same network ports as each of the broadcast domains is created automatically. This failover group is automatically managed by the system, meaning that as ports are added or removed from the broadcast domain, they are automatically added or removed from this failover group.