Upgrading from releases earlier than Data ONTAP 5.3

Information about the Data ONTAP 5.3 release family you should know

The following sections discuss upgrade issues that you should be aware of if you are upgrading from releases earlier than Data ONTAP 5.3.

Only SCSI-2 compliant tape media changers supported

Starting with Data ONTAP 5.3, the filer only supports tape media changers that are SCSI-2 compliant. If you plan to upgrade from a pre-5.3 release, make sure that any tape media changers attached to your filer are SCSI-2 compliant. A noncompliant media changer would prevent the filer from booting.

CIFS cannot access pre-5.3 snapshots

Upgrading from a pre-5.3 release to Data ONTAP 5.3 or later results in a loss of CIFS access to any snapshots that you previously made.

Default SPANS device name changed

Data ONTAP 5.3 included an updated version of Simple Protocol for ATM Network Signaling (SPANS). The updated version of SPANS uses the default device name fa0; previous releases used the default device name a0.

If you are updating a filer running a pre-5.3 version, edit the filer /etc/rc file to reflect the ATM interface name change. If you do not change the name in the /etc/rc file, the ATM interface will not come up after the software upgrade.

Clustered F700 series filers must be running firmware 2.3_a2 or later

If you have clustered F700 series filers, you must upgrade the filer system firmware to version 2.3_a2 or later before upgrading the filers in your cluster configuration to Data ONTAP 5.3.5 or later. These releases check the filers to ensure that filer system firmware 2.3_a2 or later is running. If earlier versions of filer system firmware are running, Data ONTAP forces the filers in the cluster configuration to halt.

You can find filer system firmware 2.3_a2 on the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/NOW/tools/releasetable.shtml. Follow the instructions given there to download and install filer system firmware 2.3_a2.