Note This topic describes changes in this release that are specific to FilerView. For general changes in this release of Data ONTAP, see the Data ONTAP Release Notes on the NetApp NOW site.
FilerView changes since the previous release of Data ONTAP include the following:
Support for Aggregate Overcommitment
Aggregate overcommitment provides flexibility to the storage provider. Using aggregate overcommitment, you can appear to provide more storage than is actually available from a given aggregate. This could be useful if you are asked to provide greater amounts of storage than you know will be used immediately. Alternatively, if you have several volumes that sometimes need to grow temporarily, the volumes can dynamically share the available space with each other.
To use aggregate overcommitment, you create flexible volumes with a space guarantee of none or file. With a space guarantee of none or file, the volume size is not limited by the aggregate size. In fact, each volume could, if required, be larger than the containing aggregate.
Using the FilerView Volume Storage Wizard, you can now modify the space guarantee for a volume and modify the total volume size to overcommit the containing aggregate.
See the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide for more information about aggregate overcommitment.
FilerView changes introduced in Data ONTAP 7.0 included the following:
Prior to Data ONTAP 7.0, the physical and logical layers were fused into a single administrative unit: the volume. Changes in data storage architecture now enable you to manage physical resources and logical data structures separately.
The new administrative unit for managing the physical layer is the aggregate, a container possessing a self-contained RAID configuration, plex structure, and set of assigned disks. The new administrative unit for managing the logical layer is the flexible volume, a logical file system that exists within a separate, physically defined aggregate structure of disks and RAID groups. A single aggregate can contain multiple flexible volumes.
In support of this new data storage architecture, features for managing the physical storage of volumes have been moved to the new Aggregates menu of the FilerView interface, including the following:
Configure RAID
Manage Plexes
These features were part of the Volumes menu in previous releases.
Volumes that represent both the physical and logical layers are referred to as traditional volumes. For backward compatibility, volumes created prior to Data ONTAP 7.0 are displayed as traditional volumes in FilerView. You can manage the physical layer of traditional volumes in the Aggregates menu and the logical layer in the Volumes menu.
See the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide for more information about aggregates, flexible volumes, and traditional volumes.
Managing Initiator Security
The new Manage Initiator Security page enables you to specify which security method to use when an initiator attempts to access the filer. You can select one of the following methods:
none–There will be no authentication for the initiator.
deny–The initiator will be denied access.
CHAP–The initiator will have to authenticate successfully using Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) to access the filer. If you select CHAP authentication, you must specify a user name and password for inbound and, optionally, outbound connections.
To manage initiator security in FilerView, go to LUNs > iSCSI > Initiator Security.
Configuring iSNS
The new iSNS Configuration page allows you to specify the IP address of the Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) server and to enable or disable iSNS on this filer. iSNS makes it easier to discover, manage, and configure iSCSI and Fibre Channel devices on your TCP/IP network. Instead of manually configuring lists of authorized initiators and targets on each node, you can provide the information dynamically by using an iSNS server. An iSNS server lets initiators automatically identify and connect to authorized storage targets and helps them adapt to changes in membership and availability.
To configure iSNS in FilerView, go to LUNs > iSCSI > iSNS.