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Performing a negotiated switchover

A negotiated switchover cleanly shuts down processes on the partner site, and then switches over operations from the partner site. You can use a negotiated switchover to perform maintenance on a MetroCluster site or to test the switchover functionality.

Before you begin

  • All previous configuration changes must be completed before performing a switchback operation.

    This is to avoid competition with the negotiated switchover or switchback operation.

  • Any nodes that were previously down must be booted and in cluster quorum.

    The System Administration Reference has more information about cluster quorum in the Understanding quorum and epsilon section.

    System Administration Guide

  • The cluster peering network must be available from both sites.

  • All of the nodes in the MetroCluster configuration must be running the same version of ONTAP software.

  • The option replication.create_data_protection_rels.enable must be set to ON on both of the sites in a MetroCluster configuration before creating a new SnapMirror relationship.

  • For a four-node MetroCluster configuration, the mismatched versions of ONTAP between the sites are not supported.

About this task

The recovering site can take a few hours to be able to perform the switchback operation.

The metrocluster switchover command switches over the nodes in all DR groups in the MetroCluster configuration. For example, in an eight-node MetroCluster configuration, it switches over the nodes in both DR groups.

While preparing for and executing a negotiated switchover, you must not make configuration changes to either cluster or perform any takeover or giveback operations.

For MetroCluster FC configurations:

  • Mirrored aggregates that are owned by the surviving cluster will remain in normal state if the remote storage is accessible.

  • Mirrored aggregates that were switched over from the remote cluster will become degraded after the negotiated switchover if access to the remote storage is lost.

For MetroCluster IP configurations:

  • Mirrored aggregates that are owned by the surviving cluster will become degraded after the negotiated switchover.

  • Mirrored aggregates that were switched over from the remote cluster will become degraded after the negotiated switchover.

  1. Use the metrocluster check run, metrocluster check show and metrocluster check config-replication show commands to make sure no configuration updates are in progress or pending.
  2. Enter the following command to implement the switchover: metrocluster switchover

    The operation can take several minutes to complete.
    Attention

    In MetroCluster FC configurations, the unmirrored aggregates will only be online after a switchover if the remote disks in the aggregate are accessible. If the ISLs fail, the local node may be unable to access the data in the unmirrored remote disks. The failure of an aggregate can lead to a reboot of the local node.

  3. Monitor the completion of the switchover: metrocluster operation show 

    cluster_A::*> metrocluster operation show
      Operation: Switchover
     Start time: 10/4/2012 19:04:13
          State: in-progress
       End time: -
         Errors: 

    cluster_A::*> metrocluster operation show
      Operation: Switchover
     Start time: 10/4/2012 19:04:13
          State: successful
       End time: 10/4/2012 19:04:22
         Errors: -


  4. Reestablish any SnapMirror or SnapVault configurations.