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What are Unified Target Adapter (UTA2)/CNA Ports and how to configure them?

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Applies to

  • FAS Systems
  • AFF Systems
  • ONTAP

Answer

  • Unified Target Adapter (UTA2) ports are converged network adapters (CNA) that can be configured as either 10-Gb Ethernet and FCoE or Fibre Channel (FC) ports.
  • Use command ucadmin show to check current port configuration.
  • Command system node hardware unified-connect modify  used to change the mode of the port , see more details bellow.

Additional Information

  • The architecture is based on dual port ASIC design and are available NetApp controllers, see Hardware Universe for more details
    • There are two ports on each ASIC that make up the port pairs of a given UTA2 device and are described below, based upon the platform:
      • FAS255x
      • FAS2650 / AFF A200
      • FAS27xx / AFF A220
        • e0c/e0d and e0e/e0f
      • FAS8020
        • e0c/0c and e0d/0d
      • FAS8040, FAS8060, & FAS8080
        • e0e/0e and e0f/0f
        • e0g/0g and e0h/0h
      • FAS8200 / AFF A300
        • e0e/0e and e0f/0f
        • e0g/0g and e0h/0h
      • FAS9000 / AFF A700
        • e1a/1a and e1b/1b
        • e1c/1c and e1d/1d
          • This is for a Quad-port X91143A module installed in Slot 1.  
          • For modules installed in other slots, the ports will be eXa/eXb and eXc/eXd accordingly for each respective slot.)
          • X1143A-R6  2-Port UTA2,10GbE,16Gb FC BareCage SFP+ add on adapter card.
            • Port 0/Port1
  • UTA2 ports can be configured as 16Gb FC or 10GbE (CNA)
    •  Both ports on a given ASIC must be set to same configuration.
    •  Changing one UTA2 port configuration will change the second port of the pair to the same configuration automatically.

When ordering any of the UTA2 equipped systems, it will be required to specify the configuration for the UTA2 ports. This will then allow the correct SFP+ for each respective port to be added to the order accordingly.

If the 10GbE configuration is selected and copper connections are required, the correct Cisco Twinax copper cables will need to be explicitly ordered for the respective ports. For cable part numbers, see the NetApp Hardware Universe for the respective system.

For the listed systems, manufacturing will set all UTA2 ports to the configuration based on the order as submitted and install the correct SFP+'s into the ports accordingly for non-copper configurations.

When ordering the X1143A-R6 option, the correct SFP+'s will need to be explicitly added to the order based upon the required configuration (FC or 10GbE). The ports are left in the default FC target configuration when the card is manufactured and will need to be manually configured at installation time.

  • FC Configuration Specific Details
    •  UTA2 ports will autorange between 4/8/16Gb FC speeds depending upon the back end connected switch configuration.
    •  Ports can be set to either an initiator or a target and can be set for each port explicitly in each port pair; i.e. one port can be an initiator and the other a target.
  • 10GbE Configuration Specific Details
    •  UTA2 ports will not autorange below 10GbE speed.
    •  Supported protocols are FCoE, iSCSI, NFS, and CIFS.
    •  Ports can only be targets with FCoE and iSCSI.

Notes:

 

Configuring the UTA2 Ports

1. To reconfigure a port pair, the ports need to be taken offline first:

cluster::> network fcp adapter modify -node <NODE_NAME> -adapter <UTA2_Port> -status-admin down

2. Then their configuration set to the required mode:

cluster::> system node hardware unified-connect modify -node <NODE_NAME> -adapter <UTA2_Port> -mode <MODE> -type <TYPE>

3. The respective system will then need to be rebooted in order for the port configurations to become effective and the ports brought back on line with:

cluster::> network fcp adapter modify -node <NODE_NAME> -adapter <UTA2_Port> -status-admin up


Notes:

  • <UTA2_PORT> should be specified as 0c, 0d, etc.
  • <MODE> should be either fc (FC 4/8/16Gb) or cna (10GbE)
  • <TYPE> is only required for FC configuration and will be initiator, target, or fcvi as required

To check the UTA ports configuration:

cluster::> ucadmin show

                       Current  Current    Pending  Pending    Admin
Node          Adapter  Mode     Type       Mode     Type       Status
------------  -------  -------  ---------  -------  ---------  -----------
siteA-01      0e       cna      target     -        -          online
siteA-01      0f       cna      target     -        -          online
siteA-01      0g       cna      target     -        -          online
siteA-01      0h       cna      target     -        -          online
siteA-01      1a       fc       fcvi       -        -          online
siteA-01      1b       fc       fcvi       -        -          online
siteA-01      3a       fc       initiator  -        -          online
siteA-01      3b       fc       initiator  -        -          online

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