Before updating the ONTAP software, you should review resources to understand issues you must resolve, understand new system behavior in the target release, and confirm hardware support.
Confirm that your hardware platform is supported in the target release.
Confirm that your cluster and management switches are supported in the target release.
Your NX-OS (cluster network switches), IOS (management network switches), and reference configuration file (RCF) software versions must be compatible with the version of ONTAP to which you are upgrading.
If your cluster and management switches do not have the minimum software versions for the target ONTAP release, upgrade to supported software versions.
If your cluster is configured for SAN, confirm that the SAN configuration is fully supported.
All SAN components—including the target ONTAP software version, host OS and patches, required Host Utilities software, multipathing software, and adapter drivers and firmware—should be supported.