NetApp™: The new features of cDOT MetroCluster

Our trainer team has gathered interesting information about the new cDOT MetroCluster. Starting from ONTAP 8.3.2, the following features are supported for the cDOT MC:

1. Max. ISL length up to 300km (only with Brocade™ FC switches; max. 200km with Cisco™ FC switches)

2. The new ATTO Bridge 7500N is supported from 8.3.2 GA. It now has two power supplies, two usable 16 Gb FC ports, and four usable 12 Gb SAS ports, and it is significantly more performant than the old 6500N.
   There are new Golden Images/ RCFs (V1.2) for the use of one or both FC ports, which can also be installed without a segmentation fault on FOS 7.4. Unfortunately, the zoning and monitoring has not improved with this.
   With the four SAS ports, up to four disk shelf stacks can now be connected to a pair of ATTO Bridges 7550N. Due to the improved performance, a meaningful operation of the AFF systems is now possible.
   While the 6500N only supported two complete SSD shelves, the 7500N allows up to four SSD shelves per bridge pair; however, the total number of shelves is limited to a maximum of ten shelves for both types, except that these can be distributed across up to four stacks with the 7500N.
   The default factory configuration for the ATTO 7500N is to use both FC ports and distribute the shelves across the four SAS ports. SNMP monitoring is also not allowed with the ATTO 7500N! The ATTO 6500N can be seamlessly replaced by a 7500N.

3. New FC-VI/FC card (exclusively) for FAS8020/AFF8020 with two FC-VI and two FC initiator ports (X1132A-EN-R6-C)

4. Instead of FC ISLs between sites, with the help of Cisco™ MDS 9250i switches, an ISL (10 GbE) up to 200km in length can be used via FCIP protocol for each fabric.
   Due to throughput and latency reasons, this solution is only conditionally recommended.
   

Learn more about this topic in our training ST271.