REST API reference
Networking overview
Suggest changes
PDFs
Overview
The ONTAP networking APIs enable reporting on networking information, such as IPspaces, interfaces, routes, ports, service policies and broadcast domains. Some can also be used to manage networking.
IPspaces
IPspaces enable you to configure a single ONTAP cluster so that it can be accessed by clients from more than one administratively separate network domain, even if those clients are using the same IP address subnet range. This allows for separation of client traffic for privacy and security.
An IPspace defines a distinct IP address space in which storage virtual machines (SVMs) reside. Ports and IP addresses defined for an IPspace are applicable only within that IPspace. A distinct routing table is maintained for each SVM within an IPspace, so that no cross-SVM or cross-IPspace traffic routing occurs.
Ethernet
Broadcast Domains
A broadcast domain is a set of ports which would all receive a broadcast packet that is sent from any of the ports.
By accurately representing the physical network with an ONTAP broadcast domain, ONTAP ensures that IP interfaces are able to migrate to appropriate ports in case of failure. ONTAP also ensures that characteristics, such as MTU, stay matched across all ports of the broadcast domain.
A broadcast domain resides in an IPspace, and can be used by cluster-scoped or SVM-scoped IP interfaces in that IPspace. The scope of the broadcast domain's uniqueness is the IPspace it is in. You must create as many broadcast domains in an IPspace as there are IP subnets with interfaces in that IPspace.
Ports are mapped to an IPspace by assigning the port's broadcast domain.
Ports
A port is a physical or virtual Ethernet network device. Physical ports may be combined into Link Aggregation Groups (LAGs, or ifgrps), or divided into Virtual LANs (VLANs).
The GET and PATCH APIs are available for all port types. The POST and DELETE APIs are available for "lag" and "vlan" port types.
A given port can host zero or more IP interfaces.
A port exists in a broadcast domain and all ports within the same broadcast domain must have layer 2 network connectivity to one another. If a port within a broadcast domain goes down, any IP interfaces hosted by that port can fail over to other ports in the same broadcast domain.
Fibre Channel
Interfaces
Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces are the logical endpoints for Fibre Channel network connections to an SVM. A Fibre Channel interface provides Fibre Channel access to storage within the interface's SVM using either Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) or Non-Volatile Memory Express over Fibre Channel (NVMe over FC).
The Fibre Channel interface REST API allows you to create, delete, update and discover Fibre Channel interfaces and obtain status information for Fibre Channel interfaces.
A Fibre Channel interface is created on a Fibre Channel port that is located on a cluster node. The Fibre Channel port must be specified to identify the location of the interface for a POST or PATCH that relocates an interface. You can identify the port by either supplying the node and port names or the port UUID.
Ports
Fibre Channel ports are the physical ports of Fibre Channel adapters on ONTAP cluster nodes that can be connected to Fibre Channel networks to provide Fibre Channel network connectivity. A Fibre Channel port defines the location of a Fibre Channel interface within the ONTAP cluster.
The Fibre Channel port REST API allows you to discover Fibre Channel ports, obtain status information for Fibre Channel ports, and configure Fibre Channel port properties.
Learn More
-
Fibre Channel Logins found in both the SAN and NVMe sections. Fibre Channel logins represent connections formed by Fibre Channel initiators that have successfully logged in to ONTAP.
IP
Interfaces
An interface (also referred to as a LIF in ONTAP documentation) represents a network access point to a node in a cluster. In other words, an interface is essentially an IPv4 or IPv6 address with associated attributes.
IP interfaces are configured on ports to send and receive communications over the network. The port that will host the interface can either be explicitly specified using node and/or port fields or implicitly specified using a broadcast domain.
The IPspace of the interface is required for cluster-scoped interfaces. The SVM owning the interface is required for SVM-scoped interfaces. These interfaces are in the SVM's IPspace.
The service policy of an interface defines what network services are provided by the interface.
Routes
Routes indicate which IPv4 or IPv6 gateway to use to communicate with hosts that are not on the local subnet. Typically, an IP interface (or LIF) can only use a gateway if it has the same address family and is in the LIF's subnet.
It is important that every gateway address belongs to a physical or virtual router that has connectivity to the specified destination network.
SVM-scoped routes can only be used by IP interfaces of the specified SVM. Likewise, cluster-scoped routes can only be used by cluster-scoped IP interfaces in the specified IPspace.
Service Policies
Service policies are named groupings that define what services are supported by an IP interface. These include both built-in service policies (for example: default-data-files or default-management) and custom service policies.
Service policies are scoped to either an SVM or IPspace.