Understanding NetApp storage appliances

What NetApp storage appliances are

NetApp storage appliances are storage systems, referred to as filers, that serve and protect data using protocols for both SAN and NAS networks. For information about filer product families, see http://www.netapp.com/products/.

In an FC SAN network, filers are targets that have storage target devices, which are referred to as LUNs (Logical Unit Numbers). With Data ONTAP, you configure the filer's storage by creating LUNs that can be accessed by hosts, which are the initiators.

What Data ONTAP is

Data ONTAP is the operating system for all NetApp filers. It provides a complete set of storage management tools through its command-line interface and through the FilerView® interface and DataFabric^TM Manager interface.

Data ONTAP supports a multiprotocol environment. You can configure a filer as a target device in a SAN network using the SCSI protocol over FCP (using the fcp service) or in an iSCSI network using the SCSI protocol over TCP/IP (using the iscsi service) to communicate with one or more hosts. You can also configure a filer as a storage device in a NAS network using NFS, CIFS, DAFS, HTTP, or FTP.

Ways to administer a filer

You can administer a filer by using the following methods:

Command line
FilerView
DataFabric Manager. You must purchase the DataFabric Manager license to use this product. For more information about DataFabric Manager, see the DataFabric Manager Information Library at http://now.corp.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/DFM_win/dfm_index.shtml.

Command-line administration

You can issue Data ONTAP commands at the filer's console or you can open a Telnet or Remote Shell (rsh) session from a host. An Ethernet network interface card (NIC) is preinstalled in the filer, and NetApp highly recommends you use this to connect to a TCP/IP network to perform the following tasks:

Manage storage appliances with administration hosts through Telnet or rsh sessions
Access FilerView
Manage Fibre Channel switches
Provide support for the SnapDrive^TM feature in a Windows environment

There are two levels of administration at the command level, admin and advanced. The admin level is identified by the filer_name> prompt, and the advanced level is identified by the filer_name*> prompt. You set the level with the priv set command.

Online command-line information aids

When using the command line, you can get command-line syntax help from the command line by entering the name of the command followed by help or ?. You can also access online manual (man) pages by entering the man na_command_name command. For example, if you want to read the man page about the lun command, you would enter the following command: man na_lun.

For more information about filer administration, see the Data ONTAP 6.5 System Administration Storage Management Guide.

FilerView administration

As an alternative to entering commands at the command line or using scripts or configuration files, you can use FilerView to perform many common tasks. FilerView is the graphical management interface for managing a filer from a Web browser or for viewing information about the filer, its storage units (such as volumes), LUNs, and adapters, and statistics about the storage units and FCP or iSCSI and network traffic. FilerView is easy to use, and you can access online Help by clicking the ? button at the topic and field levels. Help information explains Data ONTAP features and how to use them.

Launching FilerView

To launch FilerView, complete the following steps.

Step	Action
1	Open a browser on your host.
2	Enter the name of the filer, followed by /na_admin/ as the location for the URL. Example If you have a filer named toaster, enter the following URL in the browser: http://toaster/na_admin. Result The Network Appliance Online administrative window appears.
3	Click FilerView. Result If the filer is password protected, you are prompted for a user name and password. Otherwise, FilerView is launched, and a screen appears with a list of topics in the left panel and the system status in the main panel.
4	Click any of the topics in the left panel to expand navigational links.