Hardware Architecture NetApp Cluster Mode

Hardware Architecture NetApp Cluster Mode

In this video we will discuss about hardware architecture of NetApp Cluster Mode which includes Components of netapp cluster mode, how Netapp hardware are connected to each other and types of cluster mode and finally we will see how requests flows in netapp cluster mode.

If you are interested for SAN architecture the click here to read more about it.

Components Of NetApp Cluster Mode Architecture

There are three main components of netapp cluster mode Architecture which are described below.

Controllers Or Node Netapp Cluster Mode

Controller of node is the computing part of NetApp which process all incoming and outgoing request for netapp cluster. Netapp node has slots having IO/Module which has Ethernet, FC, FCoE and SAS Port. Ethernet ports connects to network switches for LAN connectivity. FC port connects to SAN switches which support FC protocol. You can use FCoE for both as Ethernet and FC ports.

Last SAS ports connects the controller to disk shelves. Node also contains main other small hardware such as NVRAM, CPU, PSU and Fans which has different purpose.

Disk Shelves NetApp Cluster Mode

Disk shelves in Netapp Cluster Mode consists of Physical disks. NetApp support various types of disk and has various models as well. Click the link for more details.

Disk shelves and controller are connected to each other via SAS ports. In a HA Pair the disk shelves are connected to both controller.

Inter Cluster Switches NetApp Cluster Mode

Inter cluster switches or cluster switches are network switches which provides connection between Controllers for data flows. Each node in cluster has minimum of two cluster port which connects to cluster switches.

What Is Cluster Mode NetApp

Cluster Mode NetApp is basically combination of multiple HA Pair Nodes which are interconnected via Inter Cluster Switches for data flow.

Cluster Mode Set Up Can be of three types. First once is Single Node Cluster, second one is Two Node Switchless Cluster and the last type is Two Node Netap Cluster with cluster switches.

In Netapp Cluster Mode the cluster with switches can have maximum of 24 nodes which means 12 HA Pairs.

Single Node Netapp Cluster

In Single node netapp cluster has only one node. Single node cluster does not provide and redundancy and always has risk of outage and data loss.

Two Node Switch less NetApp Cluster 

Two node switch less cluster has two nodes in HA pair. These nodes are connected to each other directly and not via inter cluster switches. The direct connection between two node for data flow is called as Cluster Interconnect.

Two Node NetApp Cluster With Cluster Switch

In Two Node NetApp Cluster the nodes are connected to each other via Inter Cluster Switches for Data Flow.

Four Node NetApp Cluster Mode With Cluster Switch

Four node NetApp Cluster consists of four node means two HA pair. All Nodes are connected to two cluster switches. If you want to add another HA pair to cluster then first perform the physical connection of nodes to both cluster switches.

How Data Flows In NetApp Cluster Mode

First Read or write request comes to any one of the NetApp node. Data Ontap check if the data resides on local node or remote node.

If Data found in local node request is processed and sent back to client through same path. Now If Data does not present in local node and exists in remote node then request is sent to remote node via cluster network.

In remote node data is processed and the request is sent back to client through the same path.

Hope you gain some knowledge on hardware architecture of netapp cluster mode. For all list of blog on netapp cluster mode click here.
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