Skip to main content
SnapCenter Software 6.0

Add storage systems

Contributors netapp-soumikd netapp-nsriram netapp-asubhas
PDFs

You should set up the storage system that gives SnapCenter access to ONTAP storage or Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP to perform data protection and provisioning operations.

You can either add a stand-alone SVM or a cluster comprising of multiple SVMs. If you are using Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, you can either add FSx admin LIF comprising of multiple SVMs using fsxadmin account or add FSx SVM in SnapCenter.

Before you begin

  • You should have the required permissions in the Infrastructure Admin role to create storage connections.

  • You should ensure that the plug-in installations are not in progress.

    Host plug-in installations must not be in progress while adding a storage system connection because the host cache might not be updated and databases status might be displayed in the SnapCenter GUI as “Not available for backup” or “Not on NetApp storage”.

  • Storage system names should be unique.

    SnapCenter does not support multiple storage systems with the same name on different clusters. Each storage system that is supported by SnapCenter should have a unique name and a unique data LIF IP address.

About this task

  • When you configure storage systems, you can also enable Event Management System (EMS) & AutoSupport features. The AutoSupport tool collects data about the health of your system and automatically sends the data to NetApp technical support, enabling them to troubleshoot your system.

    If you enable these features, SnapCenter sends AutoSupport information to the storage system and EMS messages to the storage system syslog when a resource is protected, a restore or clone operation finishes successfully, or an operation fails.

  • If you are planning to replicate Snapshots to a SnapMirror destination or SnapVault destination, you must set up storage system connections for the destination SVM or Cluster as well as the source SVM or Cluster.

Note If you change the storage system password, scheduled jobs, on demand backup, and restore operations might fail. After you change the storage system password, you can update the password by clicking Modify in the Storage tab.

Steps

  1. In the left navigation pane, click Storage Systems.

  2. In the Storage Systems page, click New.

  3. In the Add Storage System page, provide the following information:

    For this field…​ Do this…​

    Storage System

    Enter the storage system name or IP address.

    Note Storage system names, not including the domain name, must have 15 or fewer characters, and the names must be resolvable. To create storage system connections with names that have more than 15 characters, you can use the Add-SmStorageConnectionPowerShell cmdlet.
    Note For storage systems with MetroCluster configuration (MCC), it is recommended to register both local and peer clusters for non-disruptive operations.

    SnapCenter does not support multiple SVMs with the same name on different clusters. Each SVM that is supported by SnapCenter must have a unique name.

    Note After adding the storage connection to SnapCenter, you should not rename the SVM or the Cluster using ONTAP.
    Note If SVM is added with a short name or FQDN then it has to be resolvable from both the SnapCenter and the plug-in host.

    User name/Password

    Enter the credentials of the storage user that has the required privileges to access the storage system.

    Event Management System (EMS) & AutoSupport Settings

    If you want to send EMS messages to the storage system syslog or if you want to have AutoSupport messages sent to the storage system for applied protection, completed restore operations, or failed operations, select the appropriate checkbox.

    When you select the Send AutoSupport Notification for failed operations to storage system checkbox, the Log SnapCenter Server events to syslog checkbox is also selected because EMS messaging is required to enable AutoSupport notifications.

  4. Click More Options if you want to modify the default values assigned to platform, protocol, port, and timeout.

    1. In Platform, select one of the options from the drop-down list.

      If the SVM is the secondary storage system in a backup relationship, select the Secondary checkbox. When the Secondary option is selected, SnapCenter does not perform a license check immediately.

      If you have added SVM in SnapCenter then, user need to select the platform type from the dropdown manually.

    2. In Protocol, select the protocol that was configured during SVM or Cluster setup, typically HTTPS.

    3. Enter the port that the storage system accepts.

      The default port 443 typically works.

    4. Enter the time in seconds that should elapse before communication attempts are halted.

      The default value is 60 seconds.

    5. If the SVM has multiple management interfaces, select the Preferred IP checkbox, and then enter the preferred IP address for SVM connections.

    6. Click Save.

  5. Click Submit.

Result

In the Storage Systems page, from the Type drop-down perform one of the following actions:

  • Select ONTAP SVMs if you want to view all the SVMs that were added.

    If you have added FSx SVMs, the FSx SVMs are listed here.

  • Select ONTAP Clusters if you want to view all the clusters that were added.

    If you have added FSx clusters using fsxadmin, the FSx clusters are listed here.

    When you click on the cluster name, all the SVMs that are part of the cluster are displayed in the Storage Virtual Machines section.

    If a new SVM is added to the ONTAP cluster using ONTAP GUI, click Rediscover to view the newly added SVM.

Note If you have upgraded the FAS or AFF storage systems to All SAN Array (ASA), you must refresh the storage connection in the SnapCenter Server to reflect the new storage type in SnapCenter.

After you finish

A cluster administrator must enable AutoSupport on each storage system node to send email notifications from all storage systems to which SnapCenter has access, by running the following command from the storage system command line:

autosupport trigger modify -node nodename -autosupport-message client.app.info -to enable -noteto enable

Note The Storage Virtual Machine (SVM) administrator has no access to AutoSupport.