Data ONTAP automatically handles most of the extra steps required to manage disks in multi-disk carriers. However, there are some extra management and configuration requirements that you must understand before incorporating multi-disk carrier disk shelves in your storage architecture.
When using storage from multi-disk carrier disk shelves such as the DS4486, you must familiarize yourself with the guidelines and requirements governing the following topics:
- The process that Data ONTAP uses to avoid impacting any RAID groups when a multi-disk carrier needs to be removed
- When it is safe to remove a multi-disk carrier after a disk failure
- The minimum required number of spares for multi-disk carrier disks
- Multi-disk carrier disk shelf configuration
- Aggregate configuration requirements when using multi-disk carrier disk shelves
- Guidelines and best practices for using disks from a multi-disk carrier disk shelf in an aggregate