Upgrade your ONTAP Data Management software now
It takes only two steps to generate your NetApp ONTAP upgrade plans.
Why should you upgrade?
Running a release that continues to be supported by NetApp is a best practice in IT risk mitigation. By continually updating NetApp® ONTAP® software, you will minimize your IT disruptions, strengthen business continuity, and further reduce TCO. After reaching the end of engineering support (EOES) milestone, ONTAP will either be under limited support Limited support: NetApp will provide only technical support, root cause analysis, documentation, and software available online. or self-service support. Self-service support: Applies to the period when NetApp does not provide support for a version of a product, but related documentation is still available on the NetApp Support site. When the self-service support period expires, the software will be considered obsolete.
NetApp active IQ digital advisor
Use NetApp Active IQ® Digital Advisor to generate your step-by-step upgrade plans and enable complete visibility into your environment. See the minimum and latest ONTAP recommendation, summary of end-of-support dates, and summary of nodes without latest firmware.
Explore the benefits
With your upgrade, you can access these key ONTAP capabilities.
Build a hybrid cloud architecture with unified data management
Easily move your data within or between storage clusters, or to the cloud—wherever it is most useful. ONTAP is the foundation for a data fabric that gives you flexibility, choice, and control across your storage environment.
Automatically tier data to the cloud to reduce TCO and free up space on your NetApp AFF system
Deliver high performance to your applications and reduce storage costs by automatically tiering cold data from the performance tier to a private or public cloud.
Increase performance and reduce latency with new optimizations for ONTAP
ONTAP 9 delivers the high throughput and low latency that enterprise applications require, while providing comprehensive data services.
Scale capacity with your growing business requirements — up to as much as 176PB
You can start small and grow with your business by using high-capacity SSDs or HDDs to scale your storage environment. Storage systems that run ONTAP can handle SAN and NAS workloads that range from a few terabytes up to 176PB.
Deliver business continuity on your choice of network (FC or IP) with up to 700km between data centers
NetApp MetroCluster™ technology delivers business continuity by synchronously mirroring between locations for continuous data availability. A MetroCluster storage array, using FC or IP connectivity, can be deployed at a single site, across a metropolitan area, or in different cities.
Protect data at rest and in motion with volume encryption
With the NetApp Volume Encryption feature that is built in to ONTAP, you can easily and efficiently protect your at-rest data by encrypting any volume on a NetApp AFF or FAS system. No special encrypting disks are required. In-flight encryption for backup and replication protects your data in transit.
NetApp managed services
Let us do the work for you. NetApp Managed Services help optimize performance and efficiency in your hybrid cloud and on-premises environments. With NetApp experts managing the infrastructure by using our proven methodology and best practices, your IT staff is free to focus on enabling the IT transformation required to move the business forward.
FAQ
Find answers to commonly asked questions.
Although we cannot guarantee that all upgrades can be completed without downtime, ONTAP upgrades are usually nondisruptive. For clusters that are single node — that is, not high availability — some downtime can be expected.
If you have a current support contract, you have access to the NetApp Interoperability Matrix (IMT). In addition, if you want to contract with NetApp Professional Services for help with upgrades, we have experts ready to assist with any prechecks or dependencies specific to your environment.
Yes. Refer to the Upgrade and Revert/Downgrade Guide for details on which ONTAP versions you can be revert to (or upgrade to) depending on their current release in production.
Expect upgrades to take 3 to 5 hours per node. For complex environments, it’s best to have a documented upgrade plan that specifies what version each cluster is running, the target ONTAP version desired, and how the upgrades will be staged.
