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Prerequisites for SnapMirror active sync in ONTAP

Contributors netapp-sarajane netapp-ahibbard netapp-dbagwell
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When planning your SnapMirror active sync deployment, ensure you have met the various hardware, software, and system configuration requirements.

Hardware

The following table outlines the supported NetApp cluster configurations.

Cluster type

Supported models

Supported features

Nodes supported

AFF

A-Series, C-Series

Automated Failover Duplex (Symmetric Active/Active), Automated Failover (Asymmetric Active/Active)

Two-node or four-node clusters 1

All San Array (ASA)

A-Series, C-Series

Automated Failover Duplex (Symmetric AA), Automated Failover (Asymmetric AA)

Two-node or four-node clusters 1

ASA r2

-

Automated Failover Duplex (Symmetric AA)

Two-node high availability (HA) clusters

  1. Support for four-node clusters is available beginning with ONTAP 9.16.1 and requires Symmetric AA.

The table below outlines the capability for replication between cluster types.

Cluster type 1

Cluster type 2

Replication supported?

A-Series

C-Series

Yes

AFF

ASA

No

ASA (legacy) 1

ASA r2

ASA (legacy)

  1. For more information on the cluster types ASA supports, see All-Flash SAN Array configuration limits and support.

Software

  • ONTAP 9.9.1 or later

  • ONTAP Mediator 1.2 or later

  • A Linux server or virtual machine for the ONTAP Mediator running one of the following:

ONTAP Mediator version

Supported Linux versions

1.9

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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

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

  • Rocky Linux 8 and 9

1.8

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, and 9.4

  • Rocky Linux 8 and 9

1.7

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3

  • Rocky Linux 8 and 9

1.6

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2

  • Rocky Linux 8 and 9

1.5

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

  • CentOS: 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

1.4

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

  • CentOS: 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

1.3

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

  • CentOS: 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

1.2

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

  • CentOS: 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9

  1. Compatible means that RHEL no longer supports this version but ONTAP Mediator can still be installed.

Licensing

  • SnapMirror synchronous license must be applied on both clusters.

  • SnapMirror license must be applied on both clusters.

    Note If your ONTAP storage systems were purchased before June 2019, see NetApp ONTAP Master License Keys to get the required SnapMirror synchronous license.

Networking environment

  • Inter-cluster latency round trip time (RTT) must be less than 10 milliseconds.

  • Beginning with ONTAP 9.14.1, SCSI-3 persistent reservations are supported with SnapMirror active sync.

Supported protocols

  • Only SAN protocols are supported (not NFS/SMB).

  • Only Fibre Channel and iSCSI protocols are supported.

  • The default IPspace is required by SnapMirror active sync for cluster peer relationships. Custom IPspace is not supported.

NTFS Security Style

NTFS security style is not supported on SnapMirror active sync volumes.

ONTAP Mediator

  • The ONTAP Mediator must be provisioned externally and attached to ONTAP for transparent application failover.

  • To be fully functional and to enable automatic unplanned failover, the external ONTAP mediator should be provisioned and configured with ONTAP clusters.

  • The ONTAP Mediator must be installed in a third failure domain, separate from the two ONTAP clusters.

  • When installing the ONTAP Mediator, you should replace the self-signed certificate with a valid certificate signed by a mainstream reliable CA.

  • For more information about the ONTAP Mediator, see Prepare to install the ONTAP Mediator service.

Other prerequisites

  • SnapMirror active sync relationships are not supported on read-write destination volumes. Before you can use a read-write volume, you must convert it to a DP volume by creating a volume-level SnapMirror relationship and then deleting the relationship. For details, see Convert an existing SnapMirror relationships to SnapMirror active sync.

  • Storage VMs using SnapMirror active sync cannot be joined to Active Directory as a client computed.

Further information