Selecting your update method for non-MetroCluster configurations

Nondisruptive and disruptive updates​

Nondisruptive upgrade and downgrade procedures perform the operation while maintaining service to clients.

In a disruptive upgrade or downgrade, storage failover is disabled for each HA pair, and then each node is rebooted one at a time. Disruptive upgrades can be performed more quickly than nondisruptive upgrades, and require fewer steps to complete. However, you should not perform a disruptive upgrade unless you can take the cluster offline for the duration of the upgrade. If you are operating in a SAN environment, you should be prepared to shut down or suspend all SAN clients before performing a disruptive upgrade.

Automated and manual updates​

Automated nondisruptive upgrades (NDU) are the preferred method of upgrading a cluster. With NDU, ONTAP automatically installs the target ONTAP image on each node, validates the cluster components to ensure that the cluster can be upgraded nondisruptively, and then executes the upgrade in the background.

Nondisruptive manual upgrades involve manual steps to confirm the ONTAP configuration on each node and then use the rolling update method to perform the upgrade or downgrade. In the rolling update method, a node is taken offline and updated while its partner takes over its storage. When the node upgrade is complete, the partner node gives control back to the original owning node and the process is repeated, this time on the partner node. Each additional HA pair is upgraded in sequence until all HA pairs are running the target release

Choosing the right procedure​

You can use the following diagram to determine which procedure you should use, based on the following criteria:

• Your cluster configuration

• Whether you choose nondisruptive or disruptive procedures

Below the diagram are links to the procedures.