How eight- and four-node MetroCluster configurations provide local failover and switchover
Eight- and four-node MetroCluster configurations protect data on both a local level and cluster level. If you are setting up a MetroCluster configuration, you need to know how MetroCluster configurations protect your data.
MetroCluster configurations protect data by using two physically separated, mirrored clusters. Each cluster synchronously mirrors the data and storage virtual machine (SVM) configuration of the other. When a disaster occurs at one site, an administrator can activate the mirrored SVM and begin serving the mirrored data from the surviving site. Additionally, the nodes in each cluster are configured as an HA pair, providing a level of local failover.
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.