A company has a 4-node FAS9000 fabric MetroCluster cluster separated by 101 km. Site A has an unmirrored HDD aggregate. An FC-VI card fails in one of…

In a NetApp MetroCluster environment, a switchover operation transfers control of a site's resources to its partner site. When the switchover occurs from Site A to Site B, the nodes in Site B take over the identity and storage virtual machines (SVMs) of Site A. This process includes taking ownership of all aggregates, both mirrored and unmirrored, that belonged to Site A. The unmirrored aggregate, physically located at Site A, becomes accessible to clients through the nodes at Site B, which serve the data over the MetroCluster interconnect. This ensures data availability for non-replicated datasets even during a site disaster or component failure that necessitates a switchover.

A. The aggregate is accessible using Site A's surviving node.

After a switchover, the surviving node at Site A is in a degraded state and no longer serves data. Control and data-serving functions are transferred to the partner cluster at Site B.

B. Only SSD aggregates are accessible.

The type of storage media (HDD or SSD) does not determine the accessibility of an unmirrored aggregate after a switchover. The MetroCluster functionality supports both media types equally.

C. The distance is not supported.

A distance of 101 km is well within the supported limit for a Fabric-Attached MetroCluster, which can extend up to 300 km.

1. NetApp TR-4705: MetroCluster Solution Architecture and Design

Section 3.1, MetroCluster Components, Unmirrored Aggregates: "During a switchover, the unmirrored aggregates are relocated to the partner cluster, and data service continues." This statement directly confirms that the partner cluster (Site B) takes over and provides access to the unmirrored aggregate.

Section 2.1, Fabric-Attached MetroCluster Configuration: This section details the architecture, showing that distances up to 300km are supported, making 101km a valid configuration.

2. NetApp ONTAP 9 Documentation: MetroCluster Management Guide

Section: "How switchover and switchback work": The documentation explains that during a switchover, the DR partner site (Site B) takes over the storage from the disaster site (Site A). It states, "The DR partner takes over and serves data from the disaster site's storage, including the root aggregates and any non-mirrored data aggregates." This verifies that Site B's cluster serves the data from Site A's unmirrored aggregate.