AFF A400 HA pair deployment: which LIF type is required for management traffic?

AFF A400 HA pair deployment: which LIF type is required for management traffic?

• A. Data
• B. Node-mgmt
• C. Cluster
• D. Interconnect

Answer: (B)

In NetApp ONTAP, management traffic uses dedicated LIFs that are tied to the node itself. For an AFF A400 HA pair, the appropriate path for admin access (CLI, System Manager, REST, etc.) is the node-mgmt LIF on each node. This ensures you can reach the specific node directly for management tasks, and if a failover occurs, you still have a working management path to the surviving node via its own node-mgmt LIF. Data LIFs are reserved for serving data I/O to volumes, while interconnect LIFs carry the cluster’s internal communication (heartbeat and similar traffic). A cluster-mgmt LIF exists for cluster-wide management tasks, but for node-level management access in an HA pair, the node-mgmt LIF is the correct and standard choice.

In NetApp ONTAP, management traffic uses dedicated LIFs that are tied to the node itself. For an AFF A400 HA pair, the appropriate path for admin access (CLI, System Manager, REST, etc.) is the node-mgmt LIF on each node. This ensures you can reach the specific node directly for management tasks, and if a failover occurs, you still have a working management path to the surviving node via its own node-mgmt LIF.

Data LIFs are reserved for serving data I/O to volumes, while interconnect LIFs carry the cluster’s internal communication (heartbeat and similar traffic). A cluster-mgmt LIF exists for cluster-wide management tasks, but for node-level management access in an HA pair, the node-mgmt LIF is the correct and standard choice.