My E-Series and EF-Series Notes & Learnings

A few notes and resources from a development task to learn about NetApp E and EF Series

A good place to start:

1) E-Series and EF-Series Systems Documentation Center

SANtricity® Release 11.25

There is a link there to some useful Knowledge Bytes videos:

How to Install a 4U E-Series Shelf into a Rack

How to Upgrade SANtricity Controller Firmware

How to Upgrade E-Series Storage System ESM Firmware

How to Upgrade E-Series Storage System Drive Firmware

How to Cable a Host to an E-Series Controller Shelf

How to Create a Volume Using a Disk Pool

How to Create a Volume using a Volume Group

How to Define Hosts and Map Volumes on E-Series Storage Systems

Links to data sheets, these TRs (all are Feature Overviews with SANtricity 11.25) -

TR-4493 Introduction to NetApp E-Series E2700

TR-4494 Introduction to NetApp E-Series E5600

TR-4496 Introduction to NetApp EF560 Flash Array

- and there’s a simulator too (NetApp/Partners only)!

The E-Series community:

http://community.netapp.com/t5/E-Series-SANtricity-and-Related-Plug-ins/ct-p/e-series-santricity-and-related-plug-ins

And various sections:

- Getting Started

- Installing & Configuring

- Upgrading

- Using SANtricity Storage Manager

- Maintenance

- Reference

2) NetApp University Courses

@ https://learningcenter.netapp.com

- Technical Overview of NetApp E-Series Storage Systems

- Technical Overview of NetApp EF-Series All-Flash Array

- Configuring E-Series: What FAS Experts Need to Know in 15 Minutes

- Troubleshooting and Servicing NetApp E-Series and EF-Series Storage Systems

- Designing NetApp E-Series Storage Systems

Note: All the above are Web-based

3) IMT (http://mysupport.netapp.com/matrix)

Search with “Solution: E-Series SAN Host” which lists the E/EF controllers and supported:

- Protocol: iSCSI, SAS, FC, IB-iSER, IB-SRP

- Host OS…

- Host Platform…

- Host HBA…

- Host Multipath…

- Host Clustering…

- Host Feature…

- Software Initiator: iSCSI Software Initiator

- E-Series Controller Firmware…

- Storage Attachment: Fabric Attach, Direct Attach

- Host Utilities: Windows Unified Host Utilities 7.0, Linux Unified Host Utilities 7.0

Some other relevant sections of the IMT:

- Solution: SAN-Switch (FAS, E-Series)

- Component Explorer:

E-Series VMware vCenter Plug-in

E-Series VASA Provider

E-Series SMI-S Provider

E-Series Plug-in for Storage Replication Adapter

E-Series Plug-in for Oracle Enterprise Manager

E-Series Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM

E-Series Add-in for SQL Server Management Studio

4) NetApp Documentation Product Library A-Z

E-Series Specific Documentation:

E-Series Disk Shelves

E-Series: NetApp High Performance Storage Rack

E2600 Series

E2700 Series

E5400 Series

E5500 Series

E5600 Series

EF540 Flash Array

EF550 Flash Array

EF560 Flash Array

SANtricity Management Plug-ins

SANtricity SMI-S Provider

SANtricity Storage Manager

Also relevant:

Host Utilities

5) Software

@ https://mysupport.netapp.com/NOW/cgi-bin/software/

See:

- E-Series/EF-Series SANtricity SMI-S Provider

- E-Series/EF-Series SANtricity Storage Manager*

- E-Series/EF-Series SANtricity OS (Controller Firmware) for:

E2600 / E2700 / E5400 / E5500 / E5600 / EF540 / EF550 / EF560

- E-Series/EF-Series SANtricity Management Plug-ins for:

Microsoft  SQL Server (SSMS) / Microsoft System Center (SCOM) / Oracle EM / VMware SRA / VMware VASA / VMware vCenter / WebServices

Also:

- Host Utilities - SAN for:

AIX / ESX / HP-UX / Linux / Solaris / Windows

Disk Firmware:

https://mysupport.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/diskfw_eseries/

Config Advisor with E-Series plugin:

http://mysupport.netapp.com/tools/index.html

*SANtricity Storage Manager software is used to configure, manage, and monitor a storage array. IMPORTANT: You must start the monitoring service to use the following features: (1) AutoSupport, (2) Alert generation/delivery, and (3) Automatic legacy support bundle collection. This should be on a single machine with 24-hour access to the storage arrays.

Miscellaneous

From “What FAS experts need to know in 15 minutes”

Storage Partitions: Using Default Group is not best practice

DDP: RAID 6 D-stripes span 10 drives, distributed across many disks

E-Series Traditional Disk Structure:

- Physical Disks > Volume Groups > Volumes (LUNs)

- Use FEW volumes per Traditional RAID Group

E-Series DDP Disk Structure:

- Physical Disks > Dynamic Disk Pool > Volumes (LUNs)

- Use MANY volumes with a DDP

Key Steps:

- MPIO

- Create and use Storage Partitions

- Identify Requirements per Workload

- Create Pools or Volume Groups

- Create Volumes within each pool/group

- Map Volumes to Host(s) or Host Group(s)

Find the host WWPNs:

- Win 2008: MMC -> “Storage Explorer” / HBA Utilities

- Linux: CLI -> systool -vc fc_host | grep port_name

- AIX: CLI -> lsattr -El fcsN

- vSphere 5.1: CLI -> esxcli storage san fc list

- Solaris: prtconf -vp | grep port-wwn

Image: Workload Types

Image: Workloads suited for Traditional RAID

Image: Workloads suited for Dynamic Data Pool

Default IPs

Power up the E-Series system, wait a few minutes for DHCP discovery to time out, and then plug in to the RJ45 ports via a crossover cable or switch:

192.168.128.101 / 102 A ports (use .100 for your laptop)

192.168.129.101 / 102 B ports (use .100 for your laptop)