What's new for ONTAP Select

09/02/2025 Contributors

PDFs

Learn about the new features and enhancements in supported versions of ONTAP Select.

ONTAP Select 9.17.1

ONTAP Select 9.17.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Software RAID support for locally attached NVMe disks on KVM hosts

ONTAP Select 9.17.1 introduces software RAID support for ONTAP Select locally attached NVMe disks on a Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor host.

To use software RAID for locally attached NVMe disks, you need to configure PCI passthrough (DirectPath IO) when you are preparing the KVM host. This provides direct access for the KVM host to the locally attached NVMe disks, which is required for the following tasks:

Configuring the KVM host to use NVMe drives
Using software RAID after you deploy the cluster

Learn about the software RAID configuration services for local attached storage.

Support for cluster expansion and contraction on KVM hosts

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, the cluster expansion and contraction feature is supported for both Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) and ESXi hypervisor hosts. For ONTAP Select 9.16.1 and 9.15.1, cluster expansion and contraction is only supported for ESXi hypervisor hosts.

You can use the cluster expansion and contraction feature on an existing ONTAP Select cluster to increase the size from a six-node to an eight-node cluster or decrease the size from an eight-node to a six-node cluster.

Learn about cluster expansion and contraction and the supported KVM and ESXi hypervisor versions.

Enhanced support for cluster expansion and contraction on ESXi hosts

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, cluster expansion and contraction is supported for between six-node and twelve-node clusters on ESXi hosts:

You can increase the cluster size for an existing ESXi cluster in the following increments:

From six nodes to eight, ten, or twelve nodes
From eight nodes to ten or twelve nodes
From ten to twelve nodes

You can decrease the cluster size for an existing ESXi cluster in the following increments:

From twelve nodes to ten, eight, or six nodes
From ten nodes to eight or six nodes
From eight to six nodes

Learn about cluster expansion and contraction and the supported KVM and ESXi hypervisor versions.

Support for ONTAP features

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, the following licensed ONTAP features are supported with ONTAP Select:

SnapLock Select

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, new deployments will have SnapLock Select licensed automatically. For upgrades from ONTAP Select 9.16.1 and earlier, you'll need to download the SnapLock Select license from the NetApp Support Site and apply it manually.
SnapMirror cloud

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, SnapMirror cloud is supported with ONTAP Select. SnapMirror cloud is a licensed ONTAP feature that is enabled by default when you deploy an ONTAP Select 9.17.1 cluster or upgrade an existing ONTAP Select cluster to version 9.17.1.

Learn about SnapMirror cloud backups to object storage.

Support for vSAN ESA on multi-node clusters

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, support for vSAN Express Storage Architecture (ESA) is extended to deploy multi-node clusters. This enhancement enables you to deploy vSAN ESA configurations.

vSAN ESA is an ESX specific configuration and is a new architecture for VMware vSAN introduced in vSphere 8. vSAN ESA is designed to offer enhanced efficiency, scalability, and performance, particularly when using NVMe-based TLC flash devices.

ONTAP Select Deploy and ONTAP Select for ESX support the configuration of an ONTAP Select single-node and multi-node cluster, using either a vSAN or an external array type of datastore for its storage pool.

To perform content library operations, you'll need access to additional permission levels. This is required for vSAN ESA deployments if you are working with restricted roles.

Learn about accessing permission levels for content library operations.

Updated NDA driver support

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, the FreeBSD NDA (NVMe Direct Access) device driver replaces the NVD (NVMe express disk driver). The FreeBSD driver provides support for direct access devices by implementing the NVMe command protocol. When you deploy an ONTAP Select 9.17.1 cluster or upgrade an existing ONTAP Select cluster to version 9.17.1, the FreeBSD driver is started by default when you configure the NVMe devices.

For ONTAP Select 9.16.1 and earlier, the NVD continues to provide support for NVMe devices in your ONTAP Select deployment.

Updated KVM hypervisor support

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.17.1, KVM hypervisor is supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.6 and Rocky Linux 9.6.

ONTAP Select 9.16.1

ONTAP Select 9.16.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Updated NetApp License File support: Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.16.1, the NetApp License File (NLF) support is updated. The new NLF format includes licenses for the ARP, ONTAP S3, and S3 SnapMirror features. Learn more.

For a new ONTAP Select 9.16.1 Deploy, the new NLF format is automatically applied. When you upgrade an existing ONTAP Select Deploy to 9.16.1, the new NLF format is not applied. To get the ARP, ONTAP S3, and S3 SnapMirror feature licenses, you must download the updated NLF after you upgrade. If you revert to ONTAP Select 9.15.1 or earlier, you must reinstall the feature licenses that you had before the upgrade.
Support for Autonomous Ransomware Protection: ONTAP Select 9.16.1 introduces support for Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP). ONTAP Select 9.16.1 only supports manual updates for ARP, automatic updates are not supported. The ARP feature license is included in the NLF for ONTAP Select 9.16.1. Learn more.
Enhanced VMware ESXi support: ONTAP Select 9.16.1 includes support for VMware ESXi 8.0 U3.
Updated KVM hypervisor support: Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.16.1, KVM hypervisor is supported on RHEL 9.5 and Rocky Linux 9.5.

ONTAP Select 9.15.1

ONTAP Select 9.15.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Updated KVM hypervisor support

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.15.1, Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor is supported on RHEL 9.4 and Rocky Linux 9.4.

Support for cluster expansion and contraction

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.15.1, cluster expansion and contraction is supported.

Cluster expansion from six-node to eight-node clusters

You can increase the cluster size from a six-node cluster to an eight-node cluster with the cluster expansion feature. Cluster expansions from one, two, or four-node clusters to six or eight-node clusters are not currently supported. Learn more.
Cluster contraction eight-node to six-node clusters

You can decrease the cluster size from an eight-node cluster to six-node cluster with the cluster contraction feature. Cluster contractions from six or eight-node clusters to one, two, or four-node clusters are not currently supported. Learn more.

Support for cluster expansion and contraction is limited to ESX clusters only.

ONTAP Select 9.14.1

ONTAP Select 9.14.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Support for KVM hypervisor: Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.14.1, support for KVM hypervisor has been reinstated. Previously, support for deploying a new cluster on a KVM hypervisor was removed in ONTAP Select 9.10.1 and support for managing existing KVM clusters and hosts, except to take offline or delete, was removed in ONTAP Select 9.11.1.
Deploy VMware vCenter plug-in is no longer supported: Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.14.1, the Deploy VMware vCenter plug-in is no longer supported.
Updated ONTAP Select Deploy support: If you are running a version of ONTAP Select Deploy 9.14.1 lower than 9.14.1P2, you should upgrade to ONTAP Select Deploy 9.14.1P2 as soon as possible. For more information, see the ONTAP Select 9.14.1 Release Notes.
Enhanced VMware ESXi support: ONTAP Select 9.14.1 includes support for VMware ESXi 8.0 U2.

ONTAP Select 9.13.1

ONTAP Select 9.13.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Support for NVMe over TCP: When you upgrade to ONTAP Select 9.13.1, you must have the new license to support NVMe over TCP. This license is automatically included when you deploy ONTAP Select for the first time from version 9.13.1.
Updated VMware ESXi support: Beginning with ONTAP 9.13.1, VMware ESXi 8.0.1 GA (build 20513097) is supported with hardware version 4 and later.
Updated ONTAP Select Deploy support: As of April 2024, ONTAP Select Deploy 9.13.1 is no longer available on the NetApp Support Site. If you are running ONTAP Select Deploy 9.13.1, you should upgrade to ONTAP Select Deploy 9.14.1P2 as soon as possible. For more information, see the ONTAP Select 9.14.1 Release Notes.

ONTAP Select 9.12.1

ONTAP Select 9.12.1 benefits from most of the new developments in the current release of the core ONTAP product. It does not include any new features or improvements specific to ONTAP Select.

As of April 2024, ONTAP Select Deploy 9.12.1 is no longer available on the NetApp Support Site. If you are running ONTAP Select Deploy 9.12.1, you should upgrade to ONTAP Select Deploy 9.14.1P2 as soon as possible. For more information, see the ONTAP Select 9.14.1 Release Notes.

ONTAP Select 9.11.1

ONTAP Select 9.11.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Enhanced VMware ESXi support

ONTAP Select 9.11.1 includes support for VMware ESXi 7.0 U3C.

Support for VMware NSX-T

ONTAP Select 9.10.1 and later releases have been qualified for VMware NSX-T version 3.1.2. There are no functional issues or deficiencies when using NSX-T with an ONTAP Select single-node cluster deployed with an OVA file and the ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility. However, when using NSX-T with an ONTAP Select multi-node cluster, you should note the following limitation for ONTAP Select 9.11.1:

Network connectivity checker

The network connectivity checker available through the Deploy CLI fails when it is run against an NSX-T based network.

KVM hypervisor is no longer supported

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.10.1, you can no longer deploy a new cluster on the KVM hypervisor.
Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.11.1, all manageability functionality is no longer available for existing KVM clusters and hosts, except for the take offline and delete functions.

NetApp strongly recommends that customers plan and execute a full data migration from ONTAP Select for KVM to any other ONTAP platform, including ONTAP Select for ESXi. For more information, see the EOA Notice

ONTAP Select 9.10.1

ONTAP Select 9.10.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Support for VMware NSX-T

ONTAP Select 9.10.1 has been qualified for VMware NSX-T version 3.1.2. There are no functional issues or deficiencies when using NSX-T with an ONTAP Select single-node cluster deployed with an OVA file and the ONTAP Select Deploy administration utility. However, when using NSX-T with an ONTAP Select multi-node cluster, you should note the following requirements and limitations:

Cluster MTU

You must manually adjust the cluster MTU size to 8800 before deploying the cluster to account for the additional overhead. The VMware guidance is to allow for a 200-byte buffer when using NSX-T.
Network 4x10Gb configuration

For ONTAP Select deployments on a VMware ESXi host configured with four NICs, the Deploy utility will prompt you to follow the best practice of splitting internal traffic across two different port groups and external traffic across two different port groups. However, when using an overlay network this configuration does not work and you should disregard the recommendation. In this case, you should instead use only one internal port group and one external port group.
Network connectivity checker

The network connectivity checker available through the Deploy CLI fails when it is run against an NSX-T based network.

KVM hypervisor is no longer supported

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.10.1 you can no longer deploy a new cluster on the KVM hypervisor. However, if you upgrade a cluster from a previous release to 9.10.1 you can still use the Deploy utility to administer the cluster.

ONTAP Select 9.9.1

ONTAP Select 9.9.1 includes several new features and improvements.

Processor family support

Beginning with ONTAP Select 9.9.1, only CPU models from Intel Xeon Sandy Bridge or later are supported for ONTAP Select.

Updated VMware ESXi support

Support for VMware ESXi has been enhanced with ONTAP Select 9.9.1. The following releases are now supported:

ESXi 7.0 U2
ESXi 7.0 U1

ONTAP Select 9.8

There are several new and changed features included in ONTAP Select 9.8.

High speed interface

The high speed interface feature enhances network connectivity by providing an option for both 25G (25GbE) and 40G (40GbE). To achieve the best performance when using these higher speeds, you should follow the best practices regarding port mapping configurations as described in the ONTAP Select documentation.