Prerequisites to software upgrade

What you need for the upgrade

To upgrade the filer software to the latest release of Data ONTAP, you need the following items:

System files
You can get the latest system files from the following locations:
- On the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/
- On the CD-ROM that is supplied in your media package
The latest version of the firmware for your model of filer
The version information is available on the NOW site at http://now.netapp.com/NOW/tools/releasetable.shtml.

Note
The system files package includes the latest version of system firmware that can be downloaded on CompactFlash-based systems.

The F85 and F87 filers use firmware that does not need to be upgraded.
Data ONTAP system boot diskettes
You need these only if your filer meets one or more of the following conditions:
- The filer is diskette-based (F700 series filers, and F85, F810, F820, and F840 filers).
- The filer is running a release of Data ONTAP earlier than 4.0.
- The filer is not running at all.
For information on creating boot diskettes, see Appendix A, Creating Diskettes.

Preparing for the upgrade

Before installing the latest Data ONTAP release on your filer:

Verify that you have resolved any upgrade issues identified in Resolving upgrade issues.
Verify whether you need to update filer firmware as described in Determining whether your filer needs a system firmware update.
Verify whether you need to update disk firmware as described in Detecting outdated disk firmware.
If you have clustered filers, verify that they are correctly configured using the Cluster Configuration Checker as described in Before upgrading clustered filers.
If you are running SnapMirror, identify filers with destination volumes and upgrade them before upgrading filers with source volumes as described in Planning for upgrading filers running SnapMirror.

You should also check whether you need to perform one or both of the procedures described in the following table.

Procedure	Complete the procedure if...
Verifying that the filer has a domain account	You are running CIFS on the filer and are using a Windows NT 4.0 domain controller for authentication. In this case, the filer must have a domain account.
Enabling DNS with Windows 2000 name server addresses	You are running CIFS on the filer and are using a Windows 2000 domain controller for authentication.

Enabling DNS with Windows 2000 name server addresses

To enable DNS with Windows 2000 name server addresses, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	Using a text editor, create or open the /etc/resolv.conf file in the root volume. Enter up to three lines, each specifying a Windows 2000 name server host in the following format: nameserver ip_address Example: nameserver 192.9.200.10
2	Save the file.
3	Enter the following command at the filer console to enable DNS: options dns.enable on

Step

Action

Using a text editor, create or open the /etc/resolv.conf file in the root volume. Enter up to three lines, each specifying a Windows 2000 name server host in the following format:

nameserver ip_address

Example:

nameserver 192.9.200.10

Save the file.

Enter the following command at the filer console to enable DNS:

options dns.enable on

Verifying that the filer has a domain account

To verify that the filer has a domain account, complete the following step.

Step	Action
1	From the filer, enter the following command: cifs lookup