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Creating intercluster LIFs (starting with ONTAP 9.4)

Creating intercluster logical interfaces (LIFs) enables the cluster network to communicate with a node. You must create an intercluster LIF within each IPspace that will be used for peering, on each node in each cluster for which you want to create a peer relationship.

About this task

You can configure intercluster LIFs on dedicated ports and it’s also possible to create on shared data ports. Doing so typically increases the available bandwidth for replication traffic.

The following example describes how to configure the intercluster LIFs on dedicated ports. For the complete command syntax, refer to the main page.

Procedure

  1. To list the ports in the cluster, run the command network port show.
    Following is the example for listing the network ports in cluster01:
    cluster01::> network port show
    Speed (Mbps)
    Node Port IPspace Broadcast Domain Link MTU Admin/Oper
    ---- ------- --------- -------- ---- ------ --------
    cluster01-01
    e0a Cluster Cluster up 1500 auto/1000
    e0b Cluster Cluster up 1500 auto/1000
    e0c Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0d Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0e Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0f Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    cluster01-02
    e0a Cluster Cluster up 1500 auto/1000
    e0b Cluster Cluster up 1500 auto/1000
    e0c Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0d Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0e Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
    e0f Default Default up 1500 auto/1000
  2. To determine which ports are available to intercluster communication, run the command network interface show -fields home-port,curr-port.
    Following is the example for the scenario that the e0e port and the e0f port are not assigned to LIFs:
    cluster01::> network interface show -fields home-port,curr-port
    vserver lif home-port curr-port
    ----- --------------- ------ ------
    Cluster cluster01-01_clus1 e0a e0a
    Cluster cluster01-01_clus2 e0b e0b
    Cluster cluster01-02_clus1 e0a e0a
    Cluster cluster01-02_clus2 e0b e0b
    cluster01
    cluster_mgmt e0c e0c
    cluster01
    cluster01-01_mgmt1 e0c e0c
    cluster01
    cluster01-02_mgmt1 e0c e0c
  3. To create a failover group for the dedicated ports, run the command network interface failover-groups create -vserver system_SVM -failover-group failover_group -targets physical_or_logical_ports.
    Following is the example for assigning the e0e port and the e0f port to the intercluster01 failover group on the cluster01 system SVM:
    cluster01::> network interface failover-groups create -vserver cluster01 -failover-group
    intercluster01 -targets cluster01-01:e0e,cluster01-01:e0f,cluster01-02:e0e,cluster01-02:e0f
  4. To verify whether the failover group is created, run the command network interface failover-groups show:
    Following is the example:
    cluster01::> network interface failover-groups show
    Failover
    Vserver Group Targets
    -------- ------------ ------------------------------
    Cluster
    Cluster
    cluster01-01:e0a, cluster01-01:e0b,
    cluster01-02:e0a, cluster01-02:e0b
    cluster01
    Default
    cluster01-01:e0c, cluster01-01:e0d,
    cluster01-02:e0c, cluster01-02:e0d,
    cluster01-01:e0e, cluster01-01:e0f
    cluster01-02:e0e, cluster01-02:e0f
    intercluster01
    cluster01-01:e0e, cluster01-01:e0f
    cluster01-02:e0e, cluster01-02:e0f
  5. Create intercluster LIFs on the system SVM and assign them to the failover group.
    Note
    The options for different versions of ONTAP include:
    • ONTAP 9.6 or later versions: network interface create -vserver system_SVM -lif LIF_name -service-policy default-intercluster -home-node node -home-port port -address port_IP -netmask netmask -failover-group failover_group

    • ONTAP 9.5 or earlier versions: network interface create -vserver system_SVM -lif LIF_name -role intercluster -home-node node -home-port port -address port_IP -netmask netmask -failover-group failover_group

    Following is the example for creating the LIFs cluster01_icl01 intercluster and the cluster01_icl02 intercluster in the intercluster01 failover group:
    cluster01::> network interface create -vserver cluster01 -lif cluster01_icl01 -service-
    policy default-intercluster -home-node cluster01-01 -home-port e0e -address 192.168.1.201
    -netmask 255.255.255.0 -failover-group intercluster01

    cluster01::> network interface create -vserver cluster01 -lif cluster01_icl02 -service-
    policy default-intercluster -home-node cluster01-02 -home-port e0e -address 192.168.1.202
    -netmask 255.255.255.0 -failover-group intercluster01
  6. Verify that the intercluster LIFs are created.
    Note
    The options for different versions of ONTAP include:
    • ONTAP 9.6 or later versions: network interface show -service-policy default-intercluster

    • ONTAP 9.5 or earlier versions: network interface show -role intercluster

    Following is the example:
    cluster01::> network interface show -service-policy default-intercluster
    Logical Status Network Current Current Is
    Vserver Interface Admin/Oper Address/Mask Node Port Home
    -------- --------- --------- ---------------- ----------- ------- ----
    cluster01
    cluster01_icl01
    up/up 192.168.1.201/24 cluster01-01 e0e true
    cluster01_icl02
    up/up 192.168.1.202/24 cluster01-02 e0f true
  7. Verify that the intercluster LIFs are redundant:
    Note
    The options for different versions of ONTAP include:
    • ONTAP 9.6 or later versions: network interface show -service-policy default-intercluster -failover

    • ONTAP 9.5 or earlier versions: network interface show -role intercluster -failover

    Following is the example for failing over the cluster01_icl01 intercluster LIF and the cluster01_icl02 intercluster LIF on the e0e port system SVM to e0f port:
    cluster01::> network interface show -service-policy default-intercluster –failover
    Logical Home Failover Failover
    Vserver Interface Node:Port Policy Group
    ------- ------------ -------------- ----------- --------
    cluster01-01
    cluster01-01_icl01 cluster01-01:e0e local-only intercluster01
    Failover Targets: cluster01-01:e0e,
    cluster01-01:e0f
    cluster01-01_icl02 cluster01-02:e0e local-only intercluster01
    Failover Targets: cluster01-02:e0e,
    cluster01-02:e0f