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NetApp Data Classification

Metadata collected from data sources in NetApp Data Classification

Contributors netapp-ahibbard
PDFs

NetApp Data Classification collects metadata while scanning your data sources and systems. Most metadata is available, but some attributes aren't available for all protocols.

Metadata CIFS NFS

Time stamps

Creation time

Available

Not available (Unsupported in Linux)

Last accessed time

Available

Available

Last modified time

Available

Available

Permissions

Open permissions

If "EVERYONE" group has access to the file, it is considered "Open to organization"

If "Others" has access to the file, it is considered "Open to organization"

Users/group access

Users and group information is taken from LDAP

Not available (NFS users are usually managed locally on the server, therefore, the same individual can have a different UID in each server)
Note

  • Data Classification does not extract the "last accessed time" from the database data sources.

  • Older versions of the Windows OS (for example, Windows 7 and Windows 8) disable the collection of the "last accessed time" attribute by default because it can impact system performance. When this attribute is not collected, Data Classification analytics that are based on "last accessed time" will be impacted. You can enable the collection of the last accessed time on these older Windows systems if needed.

Last accessed time

When Data Classification extracts data from file shares, the operating system deems it an access event updates the "last accessed time" accordingly. After scanning, Data Classification attempts to revert the last accessed time to the original timestamp. If Data Classification doesn't have write attributes permissions in CIFS or write permissions in NFS, the system can't revert the last accessed time to the original timestamp.

By default, Data Classification doesn't scan files when it doesn't have the write permissions to restore the original timestamp. If your data can tolerate the last accessed time not being reset to the original timestamp, enable the Scan without write permissions in the system configuration page.

A screenshot showing the switch you can use to have Data Classification scan your files even if it does not have the correct permissions to revert the last accessed time to the original timestamp.

This functionality is applicable to on-premises ONTAP systems, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP management, and third-party file shares.

Note ONTAP volumes configured with SnapLock have read-only permissions and also can't revert the last accessed time to the original timestamp.