Linux interview: Move a disk from one NetApp controller to another controller ( unassign a disk from filer )

July 31, 2011

Move a disk from one NetApp controller to another controller ( unassign a disk from filer )

Filed under: NetApp — Akther @ 6:42 pm
Tags: moving a disk in netapp filer, unassign a disk

We have a Netapp 2050 filer with 2 controllers. Both controllers are having 10 disks each. I am looking to move a disk from controller2 to controller1. How to do this?

Below command will show you all the disks in filer and which controller is owned these disks

FAS2050A> disk show
DISK       OWNER
———— ————-
0c.00.4      FAS2050B
0c.00.9      FAS2050A
0c.00.2      FAS2050B
0c.00.3      FAS2050A
0c.00.11     FAS2050A
0c.00.1      FAS2050A
0c.00.12     FAS2050B
0c.00.6      FAS2050B
0c.00.19     FAS2050A
0c.00.5      FAS2050A
0c.00.8      FAS2050B
0c.00.17     FAS2050A
0c.00.0      FAS2050B
0c.00.14     FAS2050B
0c.00.15     FAS2050A
0c.00.16     FAS2050B
0c.00.10     FAS2050B
0c.00.13     FAS2050A
0c.00.7      FAS2050A
0c.00.18     FAS2050A

This is the filer view from FAS2050A ( to get better understanding of disk type, whether it’s data/spare/parity ordparity). In this picture you can see 0c.00.16 disk is currently assigned to FAS2050B ( controller2). I want to move this disk in to FAS2050A (Controller1)

Ok, lets move on

FAS2050B> disk assign 0c.00.16 -s unowned -f

This will remove disk ownership from controller2

FAS2050A> disk show
DISK       OWNER
———— ————-
0c.00.4      FAS2050B
0c.00.9      FAS2050A
0c.00.2      FAS2050B
0c.00.3      FAS2050A
0c.00.11     FAS2050A
0c.00.1      FAS2050A
0c.00.12     FAS2050B
0c.00.6      FAS2050B
0c.00.19     FAS2050A
0c.00.5      FAS2050A
0c.00.8      FAS2050B
0c.00.17     FAS2050A
0c.00.0      FAS2050B
0c.00.14     FAS2050B
0c.00.15     FAS2050A
0c.00.10     FAS2050B
0c.00.13     FAS2050A
0c.00.7      FAS2050A
0c.00.18     FAS2050A

NOTE: Currently 1 disks are unowned. Use ‘disk show -n’ for additional information.
Here we can see that disk 16 is not there in list and it is un owned.

FAS2050A> disk show -n
DISK       OWNER                  POOL   SERIAL NUMBER
———— ————-          —– ————-
0c.00.16     Not Owned              NONE   3SL0N4JZ00009044DC1R

Now i am going to assign this disk in to controller1 ( FAS2050A)

FAS2050A> disk assign 0c.00.16 -o FAS2050A

Sun Jul 31 18:28:26 AST [FAS2050A: diskown.changingOwner:info]: changing ownership for disk 0c.00.16 from unowned (ID -1) to FAS2050A .

Now we can see this 0c.00.16 disk is in FAS2050A (Controller1) and it will be the spare disk in controller1

FAS2050A> disk show
DISK       OWNER
———— ————-
0c.00.4      FAS2050B
0c.00.16     FAS2050A
0c.00.9      FAS2050A
0c.00.2      FAS2050B
0c.00.3      FAS2050A
0c.00.11     FAS2050A
0c.00.1      FAS2050A
0c.00.12     FAS2050B
0c.00.6      FAS2050B
0c.00.19     FAS2050A
0c.00.5      FAS2050A
0c.00.8      FAS2050B
0c.00.17     FAS2050A
0c.00.0      FAS2050B
0c.00.14     FAS2050B
0c.00.15     FAS2050A
0c.00.10     FAS2050B
0c.00.13     FAS2050A
0c.00.7      FAS2050A
0c.00.18     FAS2050A

There is one more way we can change disk ownership between two controllers

FAS2050A> vol status -s

Pool1 spare disks (empty)

Pool0 spare disks

FAS2050A> vol status -s

Pool1 spare disks (empty)

Pool0 spare disks

RAID Disk       Device
———       ——
Spare disks for block
spare           0c.00.13
spare           0c.00.15
spare           0c.00.16
spare           0c.00.17
spare           0c.00.19

I want to move 0c.00.17 to controller2 ( to do this login in to filer advanced mode)

FAS2050A> priv set advanced
Warning: These advanced commands are potentially dangerous; use
them only when directed to do so by NetApp
personnel.
FAS2050A*> disk remove_ownership 0c.00.17
Disk 0c.00.17 will have its ownership removed
Volumes must be taken offline. Are all impacted volumes offline(y/n)?? y

Then login to controller2
FAS2050B*> disk assign 0c.00.17
Sun Jul 31 15:55:11 GMT [FAS2050B: diskown.changingOwner:info]: changing ownership for disk 0c.00.17 from unowned (ID -1) to FAS2050B
FAS2050B*> vol status -s

Pool1 spare disks (empty)

Pool0 spare disks

RAID Disk       Device
———       ——
Spare disks for block or
spare           0c.00.12
spare           0c.00.14
spare           0c.00.17

To move out from filer advanced mode type below command

FAS2050B*> priv set

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Comments (7)

7 Comments »

Nice article.
Can you plz send me your contact email address.

Comment by Faisal Ghulam — September 12, 2011 @ 6:39 pm | Reply
Few steps to move spares from one controller to its partner.

1. priv set advanced
2. disk remove_ownership
3. go to the partner node
4. disk assign
5. aggr add -d

If the disk is in a ‘failed’ or broken mode, do the following

1. Add the disk to the spare pool (type following command)
2. disk assign
3. Follow steps in the previous scenario

Comment by Rajesh Nair — March 28, 2012 @ 10:38 am | Reply
- thank u for ur information
  
  Comment by venkappa — January 2, 2013 @ 9:58 am | Reply
Just what I needed, thanks!

Comment by liftingingoshen — June 20, 2012 @ 7:32 pm | Reply
excellent article!! .. If I have a new shelf and the ID of the shelf not agrees with the IDS of the controllers. How to I can change the owner of the disk??

Comment by Diego — September 10, 2012 @ 2:35 pm | Reply
- can we see the new shelf hard disk with disk show commands?
  
  Comment by Akther — September 12, 2012 @ 6:59 am | Reply
Always need to be causious while dealing with disk ids for changing ownership..
You will see different disk id on partner node for same disk as adpater is changed.
Eg. For disk 0c.00.17 on controller1, there can be an id 0d.00.17 on controller2…

So, 1st way mentioned above is always better.. But make sure that disk is not assigned to any volume at partner node…

Comment by vijuranade — December 5, 2012 @ 7:32 am | Reply