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Appendix: Supported NFS versions and clients

Before you can use NFS in your network, you need to know which NFS versions and clients ONTAP supports.

ONTAP supports the following major and minor NFS protocol versions:

  • NFSv3

  • NFSv4.0

  • NFSv4.1

  • NFSv4.2

  • pNFS

For the latest information about which NFS clients ONTAP supports, see the Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC).

Lenovo Storage Interoperation Center (LSIC)

  • NFSv4.0 functionality supported by ONTAP
    ONTAP supports all the mandatory functionality in NFSv4.0 except the SPKM3 and LIPKEY security mechanisms.
  • Limitations of ONTAP support for NFSv4
    You should be aware of several limitations of ONTAP support for NFSv4.
  • ONTAP support for NFSv4.1
    Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, nconnect functionality is available by default when NFSv4.1 is enabled.
  • ONTAP support for NFSv4.2
    Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, the NFSv4.2 protocol is supported to allow access for NFSv4.2 clients.
  • ONTAP support for parallel NFS
    ONTAP supports parallel NFS (pNFS). The pNFS protocol offers performance improvements by giving clients direct access to the data of a set of files distributed across multiple nodes of a cluster. It helps clients locate the optimal path to a volume.
  • Use of hard mounts
    When troubleshooting mounting problems, you need to be sure that you are using the correct mount type. NFS supports two mount types: soft mounts and hard mounts. You should use only hard mounts for reliability reasons.