NetApp - Convert 7-Mode to Cluster-Mode and Upgrade ONTAP 8.X to 9.8

 

In this first post of 2022 I will show you how to convert from Data ONTAP 7-Mode to Data ONTAP Cluster Mode 8.X (and later versions). In this step-by-step, the source version is v8.2 and the final version will be v9.8. Be aware that this process will wipe all the data. So, you first need to backup all the data or move it to another repository.

First you need to check if yout Netapp has one or two controllers.

• One Controller: You don't need to perform any additional step;
  
• Two Controllers: You need to connect both controllers with a DAC Cable.
  

There are several in-between version upgrades that we need to do first, so we can go to v9.8. Let´s first see the Upgrade compatibility.

The following table show you the Upgrade steps. So, if i'm in 8.2 version, I first need to upgrade to 8.3, then, 9.1, 9.3 and then 9.7 or 9.8.

 The following table show you the EOF support for the different Netapp versions:

The process for the upgrade:

1. Backup or migrate to a new storage, because all of your data will be wiped; 
2. Download all the images from the Netapp Site in TGZ format: 

• 832_q_image.tgz
• 91P20_q_nodar_image.tgz
• 93P21_q_nodar_image.tgz
  
• 95P16_q_nodar_image.tgz
• 97P12_q_nodar_image.tgz
• 98P3_q_nodar_image.tgz
  

1. On the Netapp Console insert the following commands:
   

• set-privilege advanced
• storage aggregate 64bit-upgrade 32bit-disable -check
• storage aggregate 64bit-upgrade 32bit-disable -force

       4. Disable ‘Storage Failover’ or ‘Cluster Failover’ and reboot the node to the LOADER prompt. Do not perform a takeover;

       5. At the LOADER prompt, run the following commands:

• LOADER> set-defaults
• LOADER> setenv bootarg.init.boot_clustered true
• LOADER> setenv bootarg.bsdportname e0M
• LOADER> boot_ontap
  

      6. Stop the boot process at the special Boot menu and select option 4:

• The node automatically performs a wipeconfig, zeroes the disks and creates a 3-disk root aggregate with a FlexVol root volume.
• Mine took 7 hours to wipe (about 20TB)
  
• Perform the node setup, like IP Addresses and NetApp name
  

      7. Upgrade to 8.3.X version

• It's more simple if you have a internal Webserver do deploy the images. Run the following commands:
• system node image update -node NAME_NETAPP -package http://IP_WEBSERVER/832_q_image.tgz -setdefault true
• reboot
  

       8. Do the previous step for upgrade to version 9.1 with the right image;

       9. Do the previous step for upgrade to version 9.3 with the righe image;

       10. To upgrade to version 9.7 there are two stages (you must have both 9.5 and 9.7 images)

• cluster image package> get http://IP_WEBSERVER/97P12_q_nodar_image.tgz
• cluster image package> get http://IP_WEBSERVER/95P16_q_nodar_image.tgz
• cluster image> update -version 9.7P12 -ignore-validation-warning true
• Stage 1: Cluster will be upgraded to intermediate release (Data ONTAP 9.5P16)
• Stage 2: Cluster will be upgraded from Data ONTAP 9.5P16 to Data ONTAP 9.7P12
  

• cluster image show-update-progress
• Upgrade Stage (1 of 2): Upgrade from 9.3P21 to 9.5P16
• It took about 1 hour to complete
• Upgrade Stage (2 of 2): Upgrade from 9.5P16 to 9.7P12
• It took about 1 hour to complete

       11. Upgrade to version 9.8, but this time you can use the web interface to upgrade

• If you want o upgrade to later releases, now you can always use the web interface

       12. After the upgrade to 9.8, I had a SSL issue and I could not login from the browser, If you have the same issue, run the commands:

• ssl show
• security certificate create -vserver NAME_NETAPP -common-name NAME_NETAPP -size 2048 -type server -country PT -expire-days 3650 -hash-function SHA256
• ssl modify -vserver NAME_NETAPP -server-enabled true
• ssl show
  

 

Hope it was enlightening in all the steps to be taken.

If you have any questions, please let me know.