What is a 'system power cycle' and how to use it?

Applies to

• FAS/AFF
• SP/BMC
• ONTAP 9
• Data ONTAP 7-Mode

Answer

What is a system power cycle?

• A system power cycle is a way to reboot the controller from the SP/BMC which will initiate a dirty shutdown of the node
• After the power cycle is performed, run the system console command to watch the system boot up
• Make sure console session logging is on for capture of the boot

When to perform a 'system power cycle'?

• This is not the most appropriate way to reboot the controller and is a last resort to try to recover an unresponsive node remotely without physical intervention

How to perform a 'system power cycle'?

1. Access the SP/BMC by following either:
   1. Access the SP/BMC from an administration host
   2. Access the SP/BMC from the system console
2. Run the system power cycle command:

SP node-name> system power cycle
This will cause a dirty shutdown of your appliance. Continue? [y/n]

• If system power cycle is not responding, try:
  • system power off 
  • wait 90 seconds
  • system power on

3. Verify how the system boots up by running the 'system console' command:

SP node-name> system console
Type Ctrl-D to exit.
.................
Destage is completed successfully
Powering off from the backup power source¦BIOS Version: 11.4
Portions Copyright (C) 2014-2018 NetApp, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Initializing System Memory ...
Loading Device Drivers ...
Configuring Devices ...
CPU = 1 Processor(s) Detected.
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU D-1557 @ 1.50GHz (CPU 0)
CPUID: 0x00050664. Cores per Processor = 12
32768 MB System RAM Installed.
SATA (AHCI) Device: ATP SATA III mSATA AF120GSMHI-NT2
Boot Loader version 6.0.5
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Broadcom Corporation.
Portions Copyright (C) 2002-2018 NetApp, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Starting AUTOBOOT press Ctrl-C to abort...
Loading X86_64/freebsd/image2/kernel:0x200000/15724968 0x10ff1a8/13884328 Entry at 0xffffffff802dc4b0
Loading X86_64/freebsd/image2/platform.ko:0x1e3d000/4076848 0x2220530/586840
Starting program at 0xffffffff802dc4b0
NetApp Data ONTAP 9.5P2
IPsec: Initialized Security Association Processing.
Copyright (C) 1992-2019 NetApp.
All rights reserved.
*******************************
*                             *
* Press Ctrl-C for Boot Menu. *
*                             *
*******************************

4. Monitor the boot processes for HW errors or panics

Additional Information

N/A