Is Your Environment Ready? Make Sure with NetApp HCI Pre-Install Validation Tool in Active IQ Config Advisor
Sandy MacDonnell
A couple of weekends ago my family decided to go camping. We packed up the car with the cooler, the tent, chairs, stove, food. It was stuffed to the brim. We drove up into the mountains and after much deliberation we found the perfect spot. We unpacked and set up the tent, eager to get everything ready before dark. That’s when we realized that we hadn’t packed our sleeping bags. We couldn’t believe it. In spite of all that careful preparation and planning, we had forgotten an essential item. We debated turning around and going home, but decided we had enough layers of clothing to stay warm and enjoy the rest of the weekend.
If only I had a tool that made sure I had packed everything before I left home. Preparation is everything, and that also goes for making sure your infrastructure is prepared for the high-performance compute and storage infrastructure that is NetApp® HCI.
NetApp HCI Pre-Install Validation Tool
Introducing the NetApp HCI Pre-Install Validation Tool in Active IQ® Config Advisor. The Active IQ Config Advisor validation tool, available today on the NetApp Support site, is a valuable resource in determining the readiness of the customer’s network as part of the overall process of installing NetApp HCI.This tool is a separate, downloadable executable that can be run in the security of the customer’s own network environment. No reconfiguration of the environment is done, and no information is sent externally to NetApp or any partners. It is simply a tool that is used to collect network information and to assess readiness for a NetApp HCI installation.
Config Advisor validates:
- vCenter Server compatibility with the NetApp Deployment Engine
- Cisco and Mellanox Switch validation checks for properly configured VLANs and enabled jumbo frames
- IP address availability
- And more…
To get started, you complete a simple form:
Config Advisor then runs validations, automating many of the manual checks that would otherwise be required.
| | What’s validated? |
| vCenter | vCenter Version Compatibility |
| FQDN Configuration | |
| Customer’s Network | NTP Server |
| DNS Server | |
| IP Address Availability and Gateway on Management Network | |
| Switch Configuration (Mellanox and Cisco) | Spanning Tree Edge Ports |
| Jumbo Frames | |
| Port speed | |
| VLANs for Management, vMotion, and iSCSI |
The report produced includes validation results and the switch configuration:
With this addition of automated validation, it’s easier than ever to install NetApp HCI. Download the Active IQ Config Advisor validation tool today from the NetApp Support site.
Sandy MacDonnell
Sandy is a Product Marketing Manager at NetApp. She fell in love with high tech living in the Silicon Valley. After a stint in NetApp’s legal department, and a brief time in Taiwan, she found her way back home to Colorado for an MBA. When she’s not in the office Sandy is in the kitchen experimenting with ingredients she’s discovered on her latest travels, running up the closest mountain or planning her next adventure.
