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Create SVMs

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-aherbin netapp-thomi netapp-barbe netapp-dbagwell
PDFs

You must create an SVM to serve data to clients.

Before you begin

  • You must be a cluster administrator to perform this task.

  • You must know which security style the SVM root volume will have.

    If you plan to implement a Hyper-V or SQL Server over SMB solution on this SVM, you should use NTFS security style for the root volume. Volumes that contain Hyper-V files or SQL database files must be set to NTFS security at the time they are created. By setting the root volume security style to NTFS, you ensure that you do not inadvertently create UNIX or mixed security-style data volumes.

  • Beginning in ONTAP 9.13.1, you can set a maximum capacity for a storage VM. You can also configure alerts when the SVM approaches a threshold capacity level. For more information, see Manage SVM capacity.

System Manager

You can use System Manager to create a storage VM.

Steps

  1. Select Storage VMs.

  2. Click Add icon to create a storage VM.

  3. Name the storage VM.

  4. Select the access protocol:

    • SMB/CIFS, NFS

    • iSCSI

    • FC

    • NVMe

      1. If you select Enable SMB/CIFS, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Administrator Name

Specify the administrator user name for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Password

Specify the administrator password for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Server Name

Specify the server name for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Active Directory Domain

Specify the active directory domain to provide user authentication for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Organizational Unit

Specify the organizational unit within the Active Directory domain associated with the SMB/CIFS server. "CN=Computers" is the default value, which can be modified.

Encrypts data while accessing the shares in the storage VM

Select this check box to encrypt data using SMB 3.0 to prevent unauthorized file access on the shares in the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Domains

Add, remove, or reorder the domains listed for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Name Servers

Add, remove, or reorder the name servers for the SMB/CIFS storage VM.

Default Language

Specifies the default language-encoding setting for the storage VM and its volumes. Use the CLI to change the settings for individual volumes within a storage VM.

Network Interface

For each network interface you configure for the storage VM, select an existing subnet (if at least one exists) or specify Without a subnet and complete the IP Address and Subnet Mask fields.
If useful, select the Use the same subnet mask and gateway for all of the following interfaces check box.
You can allow the system to automatically select the home port, or manually select the one you want to use from the list.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. If you select Enable NFS, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Allow NFS client access check box

Select this check box when all volumes created on the NFS storage VM should use the root volume path "/" to mount and traverse. Add rules to the export policy "default" to allow uninterrupted mount traversal.

Rules

Click Add icon to create rules.

  • Client Specification: Specify the host names, IP addresses, netgroups, or domains.

  • Access Protocols: Select a combination of the following options:

    • SMB/CIFS

    • FlexCache

    • NFS

      • NFSv3

      • NFSv4

  • Access Details: For each type of user, specify the level of access, either read-only, read/writer, or superuser. User types include:

    • All

    • All (as anonymous user)

    • UNIX

    • Kerberos 5

    • Kerberos 5i

    • Kerberos 5p

    • NTLM

Save the rule.

Default Language

Specifies the default language-encoding setting for the storage VM and its volumes. Use the CLI to change the settings for individual volumes within a storage VM.

Network Interface

For each network interface you configure for the storage VM, select an existing subnet (if at least one exists) or specify Without a subnet and complete the IP Address and Subnet Mask fields.
If useful, select the Use the same subnet mask and gateway for all of the following interfaces check box.
You can allow the system to automatically select the home port, or manually select the one you want to use from the list.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. If you select Enable iSCSI, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Network Interface

For each network interface you configure for the storage VM, select an existing subnet (if at least one exists) or specify Without a subnet and complete the IP Address and Subnet Mask fields.
If useful, select the Use the same subnet mask and gateway for all of the following interfaces check box.
You can allow the system to automatically select the home port, or manually select the one you want to use from the list.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. If you select Enable FC, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Configure FC Ports

Select the network interfaces on the nodes you want to include in the storage VM. Two network interfaces per node are recommended.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. If you select Enable NVMe/FC, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Configure FC Ports

Select the network interfaces on the nodes you want to include in the storage VM. Two network interfaces per node are recommended.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. If you select Enable NVMe/TCP, complete the following configuration:

Field or check box

Description

Network Interface

For each network interface you configure for the storage VM, select an existing subnet (if at least one exists) or specify Without a subnet and complete the IP Address and Subnet Mask fields.
If useful, select the Use the same subnet mask and gateway for all of the following interfaces check box.
You can allow the system to automatically select the home port, or manually select the one you want to use from the list.

Manage administrator account

Select this check box if you want to manage the storage VM administrator account. When selected, specify the user name, password, confirm the password, and indicate if you want to add a network interface for storage VM management.

  1. Save your changes.

CLI

Use the ONTAP CLI to create a subnet.

Steps

  1. Determine which aggregates are candidates for containing the SVM root volume.

    storage aggregate show -has-mroot false

    You must choose an aggregate that has at least 1 GB of free space to contain the root volume. If you intend to configure NAS auditing on the SVM, you must have a minimum of 3 GB of extra free space on the root aggregate, with the extra space being used to create the auditing staging volume when auditing is enabled.

    Note If NAS auditing is already enabled on an existing SVM, the aggregate's staging volume is created immediately after aggregate creation is successfully completed.

  2. Record the name of the aggregate on which you want to create the SVM root volume.

  3. If you plan on specifying a language when you create the SVM and do not know the value to use, identify and record the value of the language you want to specify:

    vserver create -language ?

  4. If you plan on specifying a Snapshot policy when you create the SVM and do not know the name of the policy, list the available policies and identify and record the name of the Snapshot policy you want to use:

    volume snapshot policy show -vserver vserver_name

  5. If you plan on specifying a quota policy when you create the SVM and do not know the name of the policy, list the available policies and identify and record the name of the quota policy you want to use:

    volume quota policy show -vserver vserver_name

  6. Create an SVM:

    vserver create -vserver vserver_name -aggregate aggregate_name ‑rootvolume root_volume_name -rootvolume-security-style {unix|ntfs|mixed} [-ipspace IPspace_name] [-language <language>] [-snapshot-policy snapshot_policy_name] [-quota-policy quota_policy_name] [-comment comment]

    vserver create -vserver vs1 -aggregate aggr3 -rootvolume vs1_root ‑rootvolume-security-style ntfs -ipspace ipspace1 -language en_US.UTF-8

    [Job 72] Job succeeded: Vserver creation completed

  7. Verify that the SVM configuration is correct.

    vserver show -vserver vs1

    Vserver: vs1
Vserver Type: data
Vserver Subtype: default
Vserver UUID: 11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111
Root Volume: vs1_root
Aggregate: aggr3
NIS Domain: -
Root Volume Security Style: ntfs
LDAP Client: -
Default Volume Language Code: en_US.UTF-8
Snapshot Policy: default
Comment:
Quota Policy: default
List of Aggregates Assigned: -
Limit on Maximum Number of Volumes allowed: unlimited
Vserver Admin State: running
Vserver Operational State: running
Vserver Operational State Stopped Reason: -
Allowed Protocols: nfs, cifs, ndmp
Disallowed Protocols: fcp, iscsi
QoS Policy Group: -
Config Lock: false
IPspace Name: ipspace1
Is Vserver Protected: false

    In this example, the command creates the SVM named "vs1" in IPspace "ipspace1". The root volume is named "vs1_root" and is created on aggr3 with NTFS security style.

Note Beginning in ONTAP 9.13.1, you can set an adaptive QoS policy group template, applying a throughput floor and ceiling limit to volumes in the SVM. You can only apply this policy after you create the SVM. To learn more about this process, see Set an adaptive policy group template.