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# Swap nodes

Network-attached storage is a file-level storage architecture that makes stored data more accessible to networked devices.

## About this task

A node is the hosting platform for running PowerMax File Replication in a dockerized container. Each node hosts Base Linux OS, Docker services, and other necessary software to connect each PowerMax File Replication container to the platform. There is 1 node running per Front end director .

A primary node is one of the File cluster nodes on which the NAS Server currently runs.

A backup node is one of the PowerMax File cluster nodes, on which the NAS server is backed up for fault tolerance purposes. This means that the NAS server is moved to this node during any failover event.

As a result of the swap operation, the current Primary Node becomes the Backup Node and the current Backup Node becomes the Primary Node.

See Understanding PowerMax File for storage systems for an overview of PowerMax File.

## Steps

1. Select a storage system that supports PowerMax File.
2. Select Storage > File.
3. Select the NAS SERVERS tab.
4. Select the NODES tab.
5. Click Swap Nodes to swap the primary and backup nodes.
6. Click Acknowledge to acknowledge the impact of the operation.
   It is recommended to perform the operation when data I/O is low.
7. Click OK.

## Results

As a result of this action the NAS Server is automatically moved to its new Primary Node, provided that the Primary Node value can not be equal to the NAS Server Backup Node - in this case, the request is rejected. For seamless movement of the File Interfaces, user needs to select the devices on newly provided node corresponding to every interface.