Feb 2, 2017 update notes for Visio by DBTPB Stencil collection
NetApp DS460C front shapes and DS460 SAS stack shapes
NetApp released a new dense disk shelf a while ago, DS460C, following the same naming convention as previous shelves, this shelf can accommodate up to 60 (LFF) disk drives in 4U form factor.
I’ve always thought that “C” in new shelf names stood for “Cluster”, since there is now four SAS ports per shelf IOM module and you could in theory connect four-node cluster into one shelf, but I read somewhere that “C” stands for 12 Gbps SAS speed , ( C = 12 in HEX). Very geeky, made my inner nerd smile:)
Minimum number of drives is 20, due to cooling requirements. With the initial release only spinning NL-SAS disks are supported: 4.0TB, 8.0TB, 10TB and 10TB self encrypting drive (SED).
Future Ontap releases might also support combo shelves with SSD + NL-SAS drives. Maximum four shelves per SAS stack.
Disk drives are split between five 12-disk trays. Drives can be replaced invidually without downtime, a welcome change when compared to previous generation dense shelf DS4486, where drives had to be replaced in pairs, which in turn required specialized raid / checksum scheme. Due to this gimmicky nature I never was a huge DS4486 fan.
I am curious to see if there will be a DS460C based FAS26xx, this would require some tuning to Advanced Drive Partition (ADP) feature. Currently ADP v2 supports only up to 24 drives with spinning disk, supporting 60 drives would require some additional coding. While increasing number of drives beyond 36 or 48 drives with ADP would offer diminishing capacity returns (due to multiple RAID groups required), it still would be a welcome option. It would be more flexible, offering various usable capacity options with just one shelf when combined with 20/30/40/50/60 drive packs.
Or will there be just a DS212C based FAS2620, much like old FAS2520 or FAS2020 with 12 internal disk? And perhaps a DS460C based FAS2600 series model, maybe FAS2660? Given that NetApp is trimming down number of controller models, getting both is unlikely, one can always hope 🙂
DS460C Visio Shapes
New DPTPB front view shapes for DS460C, original shelf shapes by NetApp / VSDFX
Picture: DS460C shelf DPTPB shapes (front view)
- All based on a single Visio shape, disk configuration can be changed from “Shape Data” window
- Few ready made variants with different disk configs
- Combo DS460C shelves are not available yet, but might be in the future, so I added few examples just in case
- Like with other shelves there is no checking of disc configuration, you can select what ever combination you desire, even more than 60 disks / shelf
- Check what is supported in HWU and/or available in configurator
- these tend to change over time
- too much effort required in coding and updating checks within Visio shapes
New rear view shapes for DS460C based SAS stacks (max four shelves / stack).
Picture: Three DS460C shelf SAS stack DPTPB shape (rear view)
- Quad-path shelf to shelf SAS cabling (blue & green cables)
- can toggle off Quad-path HA cabling by right-clicking the first shelf of the stack
Picture: Right-Click menu for a two shelf DS460C SAS stack DPTPB shape
- Few new SAS cable shapes as the shelf-to-shelf cabling required different routing than with DS4246/DS4243
- Included in Cables stencil
- Normally not required if using ready-made SAS stacks
- Only used in building ready-made SAS stacks
Also some DS460C SAS stack shapes for MetroCluster. According to HWU DS460C is NOT supported with Metrocluster. This might change in future, so I made the shapes just in case.
Picture: 2-Node / four shelf DS460C Metrocluster SAS stack DPTPB shape
Picture: 4-Node / eight shelf DS460C Metrocluster SAS stack DPTPB shape
Quad Path SAS cabling
Earlier on I experimented with Visio Layers to include both dual-path and quad-path cabling in one visio shape. The first experiment worked fine with Visio drawings, but not with PDF exported drawings.
With the help from visguy.com forum I learned that I had to toggle “print” property of layer to make them appear/disappear with PDF exports.
With the current (and future) versions of SAS stack stencils for DS212C/DS224C/DS460C all SAS stack shapes now contain both dual-path and quad-path cabling. You can toggle quad-path cabling visibility by right-clicking any first shelf of a SAS stack. Since layers are bound to a visio page, toggling visibility will turn on/off quad-path cabling for all the SAS stack shapes per page.
Picture: Quad-Path Cabled AFF A300 
- Dark blue & Dark green for Node1 SAS cables
- Light blue & Light green for Node2 SAS cables
- Blue for dual-path HA cables
- Green for Quad-path HA cables
NetApp AFF A200
The same HW as FAS2650, based on the same chassis as DS224C. Instead of IOM12 modules there are full-blown FAS controllers.
Picture: AFF A200 DPTPB Visio shape (front view)
- AFF series has different front bezel, so a separate front view shape was required.
Picture: AFF A200 DPTPB Visio shape (rear view)
AFF A200 rear view shape is based on FAS2650 shape, since there is no visible difference.
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