NetApp ONTAP

This article briefly describes the NetApp All Flash FAS disk array, namely the AFF8040 model. It discusses the main principles of function (without a detailed description of the technology), the necessary terms and possible configuration. It also describes common operations such as disk creation (LUN/Volume) and its assignment to a server, upsizing, and deletion.

Let's take a brief look at how to perform an ONTAP upgrade on a NetApp All Flash FAS (AFF) disk array, specifically model AFF8040. The process is simple, is done together for all components, and is failover free (as long as we have proper redundant networking). Finally, we mention the separate option to upgrade the firmware of the disks.

The NetApp array can log severity Alert events to tell us that hardware errors have been observed on a particular port on a particular node. There is not much detail here. The number of errors is said to be high, at least 1 in 1000 packets, but the real value is missing. There is also no specification of the error, it could be CRC, alignment, length or dropped frames errors. We will list how to find out more information and the possible causes of the problems.

The ONTAP operating system resides on NetApp AFF (All Flash FAS) and FAS (Fabric-Attached Storage) storage arrays. In this article, we will look at the physical and logical components that it uses to operate Storage. We will describe the network architecture, i.e., how clients communicate with the array. Then the physical and logical components that make up the storage architecture, how the data is stored. A major benefit of the ONTAP system is the Storage Efficiency features. We are able to store much more data (thanks to deduplication and others) on a certain physical space. Finally, we discuss the important area of how to make sense of the information displayed about the space occupied and available and the space saved due to efficiency.

Managing NetApp disk arrays running ONTAP can be done using the ONTAP System Manager web interface, but many more options are available using the ONTAP CLI command line. The commands allow us to configure and view everything in detail. In this article, we will look at commonly used commands and the implementation of some specific tasks.

EMS (Event Management System) collects events generated by the ONTAP system. It contains a large amount of traffic information about system states. It is important to be alerted immediately to system problems so that we can react quickly. We'll take a look at the options for viewing events and setting up to send selected EMS events (Notifications) to email. We will specifically describe setting up notifications for running out of space in aggregates and volumes (capacity monitoring).

NetApp ONTAP supports a combination of file, block, and object protocols. We can operate object storage with access using the S3 API. Within an ONTAP cluster, we can configure and manage an S3 (Simple Storage Service) Object Storage Server that works with data as S3 objects. Management is traditionally possible using ONTAP System Manager or ONTAP CLI.

Storage Snapshots are an effective solution for (short-term) retention of older versions of data. In a NetApp ONTAP environment, we can schedule the automatic creation of Volume Snapshots and the retention of a defined number of their versions. Using NetApp FlexClone technology, a Snapshot can be used to create a writable clone of the volume, which can be used for testing, development, or data recovery.