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NetApp Console local deployment

Use the NetApp Console assistant in NetApp Console local deployment

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Use the NetApp Console assistant in NetApp Console local deployment to manage storage and get answers with natural language. Describe what you need in plain language, and NetApp Console local deployment acts on it within your storage policies and role-based access.

Note This documentation regarding connecting an LLM to the Console assistant to enable AI features is provided as a technology preview. With this preview offering, NetApp reserves the right to modify offering details, contents, and timeline before General Availability.

The assistant's actions are limited by your assigned role-based access. Learn about access roles.

See what you can do with the Console assistant

Identify storage conditions and supported actions through one conversational interface so you can decide when guidance or intervention is needed. Ask a question or describe a task, and it returns an answer, analysis, or proposed action. The assistant provides these capabilities:

  • Provision storage Describe a workload in plain language. The assistant recommends a storage class and placement, then creates the volume or LUN after you confirm details. For example, ask it to create a CIFS volume with a specific capacity. The assistant identifies the cluster and storage virtual machine (SVM), fills in required parameters, and provisions storage.

  • Analyze metrics Ask about supported capacity, performance, and storage metrics for resources in your permitted scope. The assistant returns read-only analysis based on the available fleet state.

  • Search and get guidance Ask questions about your storage environment, find Console local deployment features, and get contextual answers from NetApp documentation and current fleet state.

  • Investigate alerts Ask the assistant to look into an active alert. It analyzes the issue and suggests a fix or, with your confirmation, performs a remediation action.

  • Manage ONTAP systems Request a supported ONTAP management operation in natural language. The assistant identifies missing system or SVM context, presents the proposed operation, and requires confirmation before a write operation.

The assistant sends requests only to the LLM endpoint configured by your administrator in Console local deployment. It requests confirmation before it performs storage-changing actions, and all actions respect role-based access controls assigned to your account.

Confirm that you can use the Console assistant

  • An Organization admin or Super admin must enable the Console assistant by connecting a large language model (LLM) to Console local deployment. If you do not see the Console assistant button on the dashboard, ask your administrator to enable it. Learn how to connect your LLM and enable the NetApp Console assistant.

  • Make sure you have the role-based access controls required for the actions you want the assistant to perform.

Ask the Console assistant a question or request an action

Request supported storage work conversationally so you can evaluate proposed changes before they affect your infrastructure.

Steps

  1. From the NetApp Console local deployment dashboard, select the Console assistant button.

  2. Select an access mode:

    • Select Read only to ask questions and get guidance without making changes.

    • Select Read/write to allow the assistant to act on your storage infrastructure.

  3. Enter a prompt that describes your question or task, and then select Send.

    For example: Create a 10GiB volume for home directories named home, and share it with Everyone set to FULL_CONTROL.

  4. Review the assistant's response:

    • For a question, the assistant returns an answer that you can act on.

    • For an action, the assistant shows the suggested action, asks for missing details such as permission level, and then asks for confirmation before it proceeds.

  5. Confirm the action. For asynchronous operations, such as volume creation, the assistant creates a job to complete the request.

  6. To check on a request, ask the assistant. For example, enter Let me know when the job completes, and the assistant returns the current status.

Use a prompt from the prompt library

Explore the prompt library to find a suitable starting point for questions about storage management and fleet conditions.

Steps

  1. Open the Console assistant.

  2. Open the prompt library from the button in the assistant header.

  3. Select a prompt from the library, review it, and submit the request.

  4. Follow the assistant's response. Depending on the request, the assistant might return information, ask for more details, or request confirmation before it performs an action.

Use the assistant for metrics and analytics

Investigate capacity and performance conditions within your permitted scope without changing your storage environment. Ask a read-only question that identifies the resource, scope, metric, and time period you want to understand. The assistant returns an analysis of the supported metrics and does not change your storage.

Use the Console assistant for natural-language questions and high-level analysis across the resources in your permitted scope. Use Workload Analyzer when you need detailed, time-based analysis of one volume, including latency, throughput, resource utilization, capacity, events, and forecasts.

Use the assistant for ONTAP management

Manage supported ONTAP operations through reviewed assistant proposals so infrastructure changes remain deliberate and permission-controlled.

Learn about supported Console assistant operations.