Network Management Guide
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- Deciding whether to use the Network Management Guide
This guide describes basic storage network administration. It shows you how to configure physical and virtual network ports (VLANs and interface groups), how to create LIFs using IPv4 and IPv6, how to manage routing and host-resolution services in clusters, how to use load balancing to optimize network traffic, and how to monitor a cluster using SNMP. - Networking components of a cluster
You should familiarize yourself with the networking components of a cluster before setting up the cluster. Configuring the physical networking components of a cluster into logical components provides the flexibility and multi-tenancy functionality in ONTAP. - Workflow: NAS path failover
If you are already familiar with basic networking concepts, you may be able to save time setting up your network by reviewing thishands on
workflow for NAS path failover configuration. - Configuring network ports (cluster administrators only)
Ports are either physical ports (NICs) or virtualized ports, such as interface groups or VLANs. - Configuring IPspaces (cluster administrators only)
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. - Configuring broadcast domains (cluster administrators only)
Broadcast domains enable you to group network ports that belong to the same layer 2 network. The ports in the group can then be used by a storage virtual machine (SVM) for data or management traffic. - Configuring failover groups and policies for LIFs
LIF failover refers to the automatic migration of a LIF to a different network port in response to a link failure on the LIF's current port. This is a key component to providing high availability for the connections to SVMs. Configuring LIF failover involves creating a failover group, modifying the LIF to use the failover group, and specifying a failover policy. - Configuring subnets (cluster administrators only)
Subnets enable you to allocate specific blocks, or pools, of IP addresses for your ONTAP network configuration. This enables you to create LIFs more easily when using the network interface create command, by specifying a subnet name instead of having to specify IP address and network mask values. - Configuring LIFs (cluster administrators only)
A LIF represents a network access point to a node in the cluster. You can configure LIFs on ports over which the cluster sends and receives communications over the network. - Configuring host-name resolution
ONTAP must be able to translate host names to numerical IP addresses in order to provide access to clients and to access services. You must configure storage virtual machines (SVMs) to use local or external name services to resolve host information. ONTAP supports configuring an external DNS server or configuring the local hosts file for host name resolution. - Balancing network loads to optimize user traffic (cluster administrators only)
You can configure your cluster to serve client requests from appropriately loaded LIFs. This results in a more balanced utilization of LIFs and ports, which in turn allows for better performance of the cluster. - Configuring network security using Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
ONTAP is compliant in the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 for all SSL connections. You can turn on and off SSL FIPS mode, set SSL protocols globally, and turn off any weak ciphers such as RC4 within ONTAP. - Configuring IPv6 addresses
IPv6 increases the IP address size from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits. This larger address space provides expanded routing and addressing capabilities. You can create LIFs with IPv6 addresses. - Configuring QoS marking (cluster administrators only)
Network Quality of Service (QoS) marking helps you to prioritize different traffic types based on the network conditions to effectively utilize the network resources. You can set the differentiated services code point (DSCP) value of the outgoing IP packets for the supported traffic types per IPspace. - Configuring firewall service and policies for LIFs
Setting up a firewall enhances the security of the cluster and helps prevent unauthorized access to the storage system. By default, the firewall service allows remote systems access to a specific set of default services for data, management, and intercluster LIFs. - Managing routing in an SVM
The routing table for an SVM determines the network path the SVM uses to communicate with a destination. It’s important to understand how routing tables work so that you can prevent network problems before they occur. - Managing SNMP on the cluster (cluster administrators only)
You can configure SNMP to monitor SVMs in your cluster to avoid issues before they occur, and to respond to issues if they do occur. Managing SNMP involves configuring SNMP users and configuring SNMP traphost destinations (management workstations) for all SNMP events. SNMP is disabled by default on data LIFs. - ONTAP port usage on a storage system
A number of well-known ports are reserved for ONTAP communications with specific services. Port conflicts will occur if a port value in your storage network environment is the same as on ONTAP port. - Viewing network information
You can view information related to ports, LIFs, routes, failover rules, failover groups, firewall rules, DNS, NIS, and connections. This information can be useful in situations such as reconfiguring networking settings, or when troubleshooting the cluster. - Contacting Support
You can contact Support to obtain help for your issue. - Notices
Lenovo may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in all countries. Consult your local Lenovo representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.
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