How to Prepare a New Clustered ONTAP Node with a DOT Patch Release

In this post we run through obtaining and installing a Data ONTAP patch release prior to doing a cluster join. In this example we are joining a two-node cluster running 8.1.2P1. The newly delivered nodes have 8.1.2 and require raising to the 8.1.2P1 patch level before cluster join.

How to Obtaining a Data ONTAP Patch

Scroll down to the bottom of the list of products, and ‘To access a specific’
From the drop-down select ‘Data ONTAP’ and manually type in the P-version 8.1.2P1

Image: Obtaining Data ONTAP P (Patch) Release

Read the bugs fixed, take heed of the cautions, accept understanding of any issues described, and proceed to download the 812P1_q_image.tgz.
Note i: There is just one q image which covers all FAS series with CDOT or 7DOT.
Note ii: FYI current - at time of writing - latest 8.1.2 P-Release is 8.1.2P4.

How to Install the Data ONTAP Patch on a New System

Connected to the serial port …

Boot the controller, and where you see:

NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1.2 Cluster-Mode
******************************
* Press Ctrl-C for Boot Menu *
******************************

Hit Ctrl-C

Note: From the line ‘… ONTAP 8.1.2 …’ above, we can see this isn’t running a patch release (if it was it would ‘… ONTAP 8.1.2PX …’)

From the Boot Menu select:

(7) Install new software first

Follow through the prompts as below (with example inputs in green):

This procedure is not support for Non-Disruptive Upgrade on an HA pair. The software will be installed to the alternative image, from which the node is not currently running. Do you want to continue? y
Select the network port you want to use for the download? e0a
The node needs to reboot for this setting to take effect. Reboot now? y

REBOOTS

Follow through the prompts as below:

Enter the IP address for port e0a: 10.0.0.101
Enter the netmask for port e0a: 255.255.0.0
Enter IP address of default gateway: 10.0.0.2
What is the URL of the package? http://10.0.0.15/812P1_q_image.tgz
What is the user name on “10.0.0.15”, if any?

Note: Here you’ll need a web server running (like HFS) with the package presented as in the image below (there is no user name for HFS.)

Image: HFS and the P-release package URL.

If all’s good, the text ‘Installation complete’ will be received, and the prompts below follow on:

Do you want to set the newly installed software as the default to be used for subsequent reboots? y
Do you want to reboot now? y

REBOOTS

And that’s pretty much it !
On the reboot it will load as:

NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1.2P1 Cluster-Mode

To verify, from the DOT CLI, you can run:

system node run -node localhost version

Note: It is fine to ‘exit’ or ‘quit’ the Cluster Setup script and run later. The default username is admin with no password.

Further reading:
Check out this post from March 2013 - ‘How to Setup a Clustered ONTAP Cluster Without Using Cluster Setup Wizard’

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