Preface

Introduction

This guide describes how to configure, operate, and manage Network Appliance^TM filers that run Data ONTAP^TM 5.3 software. It covers all filer models.

Audience

This guide is for system administrators who are familiar with operating systems that run on the filer's clients, such as UNIX, Windows 95, and Windows NT. It also assumes that you are familiar with how the NFS, CIFS, and HTTP protocols are used for file sharing or transfers. This guide doesn't cover basic system or network administration topics, such as IP addressing, routing, and network topology; it emphasizes the characteristics of the Network Appliance filer.

Terminology and conventions

When the term "filer" is used, the information applies to all Network Appliance filer models.

You can enter filer commands on either the system console or from any client computer that can access the filer through telnet.

In examples that illustrate commands executed on a UNIX workstation, this guide uses the command syntax of SunOS 4.1.x. The command syntax and output might differ, depending on your version of UNIX.

This guide uses the term "type" to mean pressing one or more keys on the keyboard. It uses the term "enter" to mean pressing one or more keys and then pressing the Enter key.

Keyboard conventions

When describing key combinations, this guide uses the hyphen
(-) to separate individual keys. For example, "Ctrl-D" means pressing the "Control" and "D" keys simultaneously. Also, this guide uses the term "Enter" to refer to the key that generates a carriage return, although the key is named "Return" on some keyboards.

Typographic conventions

The following table describes typographic conventions used in this guide.


Convention	Type of information
Italic type	Words or characters that require special attention. File names. Placeholders for information you must supply. For example, if the guide says to enter the `arp -d` hostname command, you enter the characters "arp -d" followed by the actual name of the host. Man page names. Book titles in cross-references.
`Monospaced` font	Command and daemon names. Information displayed on the system console or other computer monitors. The contents of files.
`Bold monospaced` font	Words or characters you type. What you type is always shown in lowercase letters, unless you must type it in uppercase letters.

Special messages

This guide contains special messages that are described as follows:

Note: A note contains important information that helps you install or operate the system efficiently.

Caution: A caution contains instructions that you must follow to avoid damage to the equipment, a system crash, or loss of data.

WARNING: A warning contains instructions that you must follow to avoid personal injury.

Part No. 210-02334
File: preface.htm
Last updated: 02/24/99 12:15:44