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On-premises ONTAP clusters

Manage clusters that were discovered with a Connector

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If you discovered an on-premises ONTAP cluster using a Connector, you can create volumes from the Standard view, use System Manager from the Advanced view, and enable BlueXP data services.

On the Canvas, the working environment icon for a cluster that you discovered with a Connector should look similar to the following:

A screenshot of the working environment icon that appears on the Canvas

If a working environment was discovered directly, the working environment icon includes the word "Direct."

Create FlexVol volumes from the Standard view

After you discover your on-prem ONTAP cluster from BlueXP using a Connector, you can open the working environment to provision and manage FlexVol volumes.

Create volumes

BlueXP enables you to create NFS or CIFS volumes on existing aggregates. You can't create new aggregates on an on-prem ONTAP cluster from the BlueXP Standard view. You need to use the Advanced view to create aggregates.

A BlueXP feature called "templates" enables you to create volumes that are optimized for the workload requirements for certain applications; such as databases or streaming services. If your organization has created volume templates that you should use, follow these steps.

Steps

  1. From the navigation menu, select Storage > Canvas.

  2. On the Canvas page, select the on-prem ONTAP cluster on which you want to provision volumes.

  3. Select Volumes > Add Volume.

  4. Follow the steps in the wizard to create the volume.

    1. Details, Protection, & Tags: Enter details about the volume like its name and size, choose a Snapshot policy, and specify volume tags, if desired.

      Some of the fields on this page are self-explanatory. The following list describes fields for which you might need guidance:

      Field Description

      Size

      The maximum size that you can enter largely depends on whether you enable thin provisioning, which enables you to create a volume that is bigger than the physical storage currently available to it.

      Snapshot Policy

      A Snapshot copy policy specifies the frequency and number of automatically created NetApp Snapshot copies. A NetApp Snapshot copy is a point-in-time file system image that has no performance impact and requires minimal storage. You can choose the default policy or none. You might choose none for transient data: for example, tempdb for Microsoft SQL Server.

    2. Protocol: Choose the protocol for the volume (NFS, CIFS, or iSCSI) and then set the access control or permissions for the volume.

      If you choose CIFS and a server isn't set up yet, then BlueXP prompts you to set up a CIFS server using either Active Directory or a workgroup.

      The following list describes fields for which you might need guidance:

      Field Description

      Access Control

      An NFS export policy defines the clients in the subnet that can access the volume. By default, BlueXP enters a value that provides access to all instances in the subnet.

      Permissions and Users/Groups

      These fields enable you to control the level of access to an SMB share for users and groups (also called access control lists or ACLs). You can specify local or domain Windows users or groups, or UNIX users or groups. If you specify a domain Windows user name, you must include the user's domain using the format domain\username.

    3. Usage Profile: Choose whether to enable or disable storage efficiency features on the volume in order to reduce the total amount of storage that you need.

    4. Review: Review details about the volume and then select Add.

Create volumes from templates

If your organization has created on-premises ONTAP volume templates so you can deploy volumes that are optimized for the workload requirements for certain applications, follow the steps in this section.

The template should make your job easier because certain volume parameters will already be defined in the template, such as disk type, size, protocol, snapshot policy, and more. When a parameter is already predefined, you can just skip to the next volume parameter.

Note You can only create NFS or CIFS volumes when using templates.
Steps

  1. On the Canvas page, select the on-prem ONTAP cluster on which you want to provision volumes.

  2. Select An icon with three dots. > Add Volume From Template.

    A screenshot showing how to add a new volume from a template.

  3. In the Select Template page, select the template that you want to use to create the volume and select Next.

    A screenshot of the available application templates.

    The Define Parameters page is displayed.

    A screenshot showing a blank template that you need to fill in to create a volume.

    Note: You can select the checkbox Show read-only parameters to show all the fields that have been locked by the template if you want to see the values for those parameters. By default these predefined fields are hidden and only the fields you need to complete are shown.

  4. In the Context area, the Working Environment is filled in with the name of the working environment you started with. You need to select the Storage VM and Aggregate where the volume will be created.

  5. Add values for all of the parameters that are not hard-coded from the template.

    Learn about the parameters that you need to create the volume.

  6. Select Run Template after you have defined all the parameters needed for this volume.

Result

BlueXP provisions the volume and displays a page so that you can see the progress.

A screenshot showing the progress of creating your new volume from the template.

Then the new volume is added to the working environment.

Additionally, if any secondary action is implemented in the template, for example, enabling BlueXP backup and recovery on the volume, that action is also performed.

What's next?

If you provisioned a CIFS share, give users or groups permissions to the files and folders and verify that those users can access the share and create a file.

Create FlexGroup volumes

You can use the BlueXP API to create FlexGroup volumes. A FlexGroup volume is a scale-out volume that provides high performance along with automatic load distribution.

Administer ONTAP using the Advanced View (System Manager)

If you need to perform advanced management of an on-premises ONTAP cluster, you can do so using ONTAP System Manager, which is a management interface that's provided with an ONTAP system. We have included the System Manager interface directly inside BlueXP so that you don't need to leave BlueXP for advanced management.

This Advanced View is available as a Preview. We plan to refine this experience and add enhancements in upcoming releases. Please send us feedback by using the in-product chat.

Features

The Advanced View in BlueXP gives you access to additional management features:

  • Advanced storage management

    Manage consistency groups, shares, qtrees, quotas, and Storage VMs.

  • Networking management

    Manage IPspaces, network interfaces, portsets, and ethernet ports.

  • Events and jobs

    View event logs, system alerts, jobs, and audit logs.

  • Advanced data protection

    Protect storage VMs, LUNs, and consistency groups.

  • Host management

    Set up SAN initiator groups and NFS clients.

Supported configurations

Advanced management through System Manager is supported with on-premises ONTAP clusters running 9.10.0 or later.

System Manager integration is not supported in GovCloud regions or in regions that have no outbound internet access.

Limitations

A few System Manager features are not supported with on-premises ONTAP clusters when using the Advanced View in BlueXP.

Review the list of limitations.

Use the Advanced View

Open an on-premises ONTAP working environment and select the Advanced View option.

Steps

  1. On the Canvas page, select the on-prem ONTAP cluster on which you want to provision volumes.

  2. In the top-right, select Switch to Advanced View.

    A screenshot of an on-prem ONTAP working environment that shows the Switch to Advanced View option.

  3. If the confirmation message appears, read through it and select Close.

  4. Use System Manager to manage ONTAP.

  5. If needed, select Switch to Standard View to return to standard management through BlueXP.

    A screenshot of an on-prem ONTAP working environment that shows the Switch to Standard View option.

Get help with System Manager

If you need help using System Manager with ONTAP, you can refer to ONTAP documentation for step-by-step instructions. Here are a few links that might help:

Enable BlueXP services

Enable BlueXP data services on your working environments to replicate data, back up data, tier data, and more.

Replicate data

Replicate data between Cloud Volumes ONTAP systems, Amazon FSx for ONTAP file systems, and ONTAP clusters. Choose a one-time data replication, which can help you move data to and from the cloud, or a recurring schedule, which can help with disaster recovery or long-term data retention.

Replication documentation

Back up data

Back up data from your on-premises ONTAP system to low-cost object storage in the cloud.

Backup and recovery documentation

Scan, map, and classify your data

Scan your corporate on-premises clusters to map and classify data, and to identify private information. This can help reduce your security and compliance risk, decrease storage costs, and assist with your data migration projects.

Classification documentation

Tier data to the cloud

Extend your data center to the cloud by automatically tiering inactive data from ONTAP clusters to object storage.

Tiering documentation

Maintain health, uptime, and performance

Implement suggested remediations to ONTAP clusters before an outage or failure occurs.

Operational resiliency documentation

Identify clusters with low capacity

Identify clusters that are showing low capacity, review clusters for current and forecasted capacity, and more.

Economic efficiency documentation