gFiler neighborhood described

gFiler neighborhood defined

A gFiler neighborhood is one or more stand-alone gFiler gateways or clustered gFiler gateways that share access to LUNs on the storage subsystem. By sharing access to LUNs, these gFiler gateways can view the same LUNs on the storage subsystem. Through the LUN ownership feature in the gFiler configuration, you use Data ONTAP to restrict access to a particular LUN to a specific gFiler, thereby preventing one gFiler from writing over LUNs assigned to another gFiler in the neighborhood.

Note
LUN access control mechanisms allow sharing of ports while preventing hosts from accessing each others' LUNs. These mechanisms can be used only for LUNs in different neighborhoods or for non-gFiler hosts.

Guidelines for designing your gFiler neighborhood

Use the following guidelines and rules when designing a gFiler neighborhood:

There can be up to six nodes in a gFiler neighborhood, four of which can be in MetroClusters.
In a given gFiler neighborhood, you can configure a maximum of two MetroClusters. If needed, you can have two additional gFiler gateways outside of the MetroClusters.
You can have multiple gFiler neighborhoods in a switch fabric, that is, multiple zones in the fabric.
Migration of volumes through SnapMover is supported between the six nodes in a gFiler neighborhood. (See the gFiler Software Setup, Installation, and Management Guide for more information about SnapMover.)
A gFiler neighborhood can support different gFiler models. However, GF270c gateways cannot be mixed with other gFiler models in a gFiler neighborhood.

You must adhere to the following rules:

Zone switch ports that connect to your gFiler Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) so that each gFiler in the neighborhood can access each other's LUNs.
Set the access control on your storage subsystem so that the gFiler gateways can access each other's LUNs.
If there are multiple MetroClusters, each MetroCluster interconnect adapter must be in a separate zone.