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Configure name mappings overview

Contributors netapp-aherbin
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ONTAP uses name mapping to map CIFS identities to UNIX identities, Kerberos identities to UNIX identities, and UNIX identities to CIFS identities. It needs this information to obtain user credentials and provide proper file access regardless of whether they are connecting from an NFS client or a CIFS client.

There are two exceptions where you do not have to use name mapping:

  • You configure a pure UNIX environment and do not plan to use CIFS access or NTFS security style on volumes.

  • You configure the default user to be used instead.

    In this scenario, name mapping is not required because instead of mapping every individual client credential all client credentials are mapped to the same default user.

Note that you can use name mapping only for users, not for groups.

However, you can map a group of individual users to a specific user. For example, you can map all AD users that start or end with the word SALES to a specific UNIX user and to the user's UID.