Which MetroCluster component ensures automatic failover decisions?

The MetroCluster Mediator is a lightweight software component installed at a third site that serves as a witness and tie-breaker for a four-node MetroCluster IP configuration. Its primary role is to monitor the health of both sites and, in the event of a site disaster, automatically trigger an unplanned switchover (AUSO) without manual intervention. This prevents split-brain scenarios and ensures business continuity by making an informed failover decision.

B. The Volume Scheduler is an ONTAP feature for managing volume-related tasks like Snapshot copies, not for high-availability failover decisions.

C. The Snapshot Service is responsible for creating point-in-time copies of data for backup and recovery, not for orchestrating site failovers.

D. The Disk Manager is a low-level ONTAP process that manages the physical disks and their states, not cluster-level failover logic.

1. NetApp, Inc. (2023). MetroCluster IP Installation and Configuration Guide (ONTAP 9.13.1), Section: "MetroCluster components". This section explicitly states, "The ONTAP Mediator service... provides a monitoring service to trigger an automatic unplanned switchover when a site disaster occurs."

2. NetApp, Inc. (2023). MetroCluster Management and Disaster Recovery Guide (ONTAP 9.13.1), Section: "Overview of automatic unplanned switchover". This section describes the Mediator's function in the AUSO process.