E-Series Configuration

E-Series Configuration

  • E-Series drivers are being deprecated and will be removed after the S release

E-Series Prerequisites

The prerequisites for NetApp E-Series are:

  • The driver requires the use of the NetApp SANtricity Web Services. Please refer to the table below for the required Web Services Proxy version.
  • The storage controller should have a firmware version installed that is supported by the NetApp SANtricity Web Services Proxy. Refer to the proxy documentation for the most recent list of firmware versions that are supported.

SANtricity Web Services Proxy

The NetApp SANtricity Web Services Proxy provides access through standard HTTPS mechanisms to configuring management services for E-Series storage arrays. You can install Web Services Proxy on either Linux or Windows. As Web Services Proxy satisfies the client request by collecting data or executing configuration change requests to a target storage array, the Web Services Proxy module issues SYMbol requests to the target storage arrays. Web Services Proxy provides a Representative State Transfer (REST)-style API for managing E-Series controllers. The API enables you to integrate storage array management into other applications or ecosystems.

When Cinder is used with a NetApp E-Series system, use of the SANtricity Web Services Proxy is currently required. The SANtricity Web Services Proxy may be deployed in a highly-available topology using an active/passive strategy.

While WFA can be utilized in conjunction with the NetApp unified Cinder driver, a deployment of Cinder and WFA does introduce additional complexity, management entities, and potential points of failure within a cloud architecture. If you have an existing set of workflows that are written within the WFA framework, and are looking to leverage them in lieu of the default provisioning behavior of the Cinder driver operating directly against a FAS system, then it may be desirable to use the intermediated mode.

Important

As of the Mitaka release, only NetApp SANtricity Web Services Proxy version 1.4 and greater are supported by the E-Series Cinder driver. If an older version is installed, the user will be notified that an upgrade is required upon starting the Cinder-Volume service.

Important

Unless you have a significant existing investment with OnCommand Workflow Automator that you wish to leverage in an OpenStack deployment, it is recommended that you start with the direct mode of operation when deploying Cinder with a NetApp FAS system. When Cinder is used with a NetApp E-Series system, use of the SANtricity Web Services Proxy in the intermediated mode is currently required. The SANtricity Web Services Proxy may be deployed in a highly-available topology using an active/passive strategy.

Storage Networking Considerations

  1. Ensure there is segmented network connectivity between the hypervisor nodes and the network interfaces present on the E-Series controller.
  2. Ensure there is network connectivity between the cinder-volume nodes and the interfaces present on the node running the NetApp SANtricity Web Services Proxy software.

Nova Live Migration of Instances with Attached E-Series Volumes

Live migration of Nova instances with attached volumes hosted on E-Series are disabled by default. Setting netapp_enable_multiattach to true will allow this operation, however, it is facilitated by mapping to a host group on the E-Series array, and comes with some limitations:

  • There is a maximum of 256 Cinder volumes for this backend.
  • E-Series hosts representing Nova Compute nodes must not be assigned to a foreign E-Series host group.

Irrespective of this option, live migrations between hosts may fail due to ‘LUN id’ collisions where the immutable attachment identifier of the attached volume is already in use on the destination host.