What is the maximum number of nodes supported for clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 serving only NAS protocols?

1 node describes a standalone system, not a cluster; clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 requires a minimum of 2 nodes and supports far more for NAS-only use.

2 nodes is the minimum HA pair configuration for clustered Data ONTAP but is far below the 24-node maximum supported for NAS-only clusters.

4 nodes is well below the documented NAS-only maximum of 24 nodes for clustered Data ONTAP 8.2.

6 nodes is well below the documented NAS-only maximum of 24 nodes for clustered Data ONTAP 8.2.

16 nodes is the maximum for mixed SAN/NAS configurations in some ONTAP versions, but the NAS-only maximum for clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 is 24 nodes.

In clustered Data ONTAP 8.2, a NAS-only cluster serving NFS and/or CIFS can scale up to 24 nodes, enabling large horizontal expansion of NAS capacity and throughput. This higher node ceiling is specific to all-NAS configurations because NAS protocol serving has different architectural and interconnect constraints than SAN protocol serving. Mixed SAN/NAS clusters are limited to fewer nodes, making the 24-node limit an important NAS-specific scalability specification to know.