System requirements

About your system requirements

Your current system configuration determines what you need to modify before cabling your individual filers into a clustered system. You should determine the following information:

What type of hardware is currently in your filers and what type of disk shelves you have
What version of Data ONTAP^TM software your filers are running
What versions of filer and disk and shelf firmware are on your filers
What new hardware you are adding to your filers
What version of Data ONTAP, filer firmware, and disk shelf firmware you need to support the new hardware
Whether synchronous mirroring will be used
The distance between the local and partner nodes. If they are more than 30 meters apart, you should install the cluster_remote license, as described in Chapter 6, Creating Mirrored Clusters. If the nodes are more than 500 meters apart, you must configure your cluster as described in Chapter 7, Cabling a MetroCluster.

For detailed information

For details about how to determine what you currently have in your filers and what you might need to update, see the following sections: