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Storage Manager enhancements

You should become familiar with the features that have been added or changed in this release of Storage Manager.

Features and enhancements added in ONTAP 9.5​

  • Volume encryption

    You can now enable volume encryption while editing a FlexVol volume or a FlexGroup volume. Also, this feature is enhanced to support the Rekey option to change the data encryption key of the volume.

  • Cluster update

    Beginning with Storage Manager 9.5, you can update a cluster in MetroCluster configurations. You must perform each operation on both the clusters except for updating the cluster.

  • Volume replication policies

    Two new policies, StrictSync and Sync, are added in Storage Manager 9.5. You can use these to policies to provide zero RPO replication with and without primary IO restriction during replication failures. You can also enable volume protection using the protection tab.

  • Cloud Registration

    You can use Storage Manager to register the ONTAP cluster with Lenovo Data Availability Services to save data in the cloud.

  • SVM DR

    Storage virtual machine (SVM) disaster recovery (DR) provides disaster recovery capability at the SVM level by enabling the recovery of the data that is present in the constituent volumes of the SVM and the recovery of the SVM configuration. You can use Storage Manager to create and manage mirror relationships and mirror and vault relationships between SVMs.

  • L2/L3 applications displayed

    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, Storage Manager lists L2/L3 applications on the Applications page under different host names. Clicking on the host name opens a new window in the L2 Cockpit interface. For each application, Storage Manager also lists IOPs and latency measurements.

  • Virtual IP support

    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, Storage Manager displays information about Virtual IP (VIP) LIFs; however, you cannot create, delete, or manage VIP LIFs from Storage Manager.

  • NVMe subsystems licensing requirement

    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, NVMe is licensed. Storage Manager supports the licensing requirement.

  • Support for NVMeoF subsystems

    Storage Manager supports the use of an NVMe over Fabric (NVMeoF) subsystem, which is a separate kernel object that resides in the FreeBSD kernel. NVMeoF is a specification-defined extension to NVMe that enables NVMe-based communication over connections other than PCIe. This interface allows for external storage enclosures to be connected to a server, either directly or through a switch, while still using NVMe as the fundamental communication mechanism. An NVMeoF subsystem interfaces with SAN components, WAFL, and RAS components.

  • NVMe multipath support

    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, at least one LIF must be configured for each node in an HA pair using the NVMe protocol. You can also define two LIFs for a node. When you upgrade to ONTAP 9.5, you must ensure that a minimum of one LIF is defined for each node in an HA pair using the NVMe protocol.

  • FlexGroup eligible aggregates

    When you create a FlexGroup, aggregates are selected by default according to best practices. For All-Flash Optimized storage systems, thin provisioning is enabled by default, and for other storage systems, thick provisioning is enabled by default. You can override the best practices defaults and select your choices from a list of eligible FabricPool aggregates.

  • Public SSL Certificate authentication

    Starting with Storage Manager 9.5, you can view a public SSL certificate associated with an SVM. You can view the certificate details, the serial number, the start date, and the expiration date. You can also copy the certificate to the clipboard, and email the certificate details. Additionally, when you add the vsadmin user account to an SVM, a login method is automatically included that uses HTTP as the application and is authenticated with a certificate.

  • Qtrees appearing as directories on a FlexVol

    If a FlexVol contains both qtrees and volumes, the qtrees appear as directories.

  • FlexCache volumes

    FlexCache volumes are displayed in Storage Manager as a FlexGroup. The parent volume details are shown in the 360 page.

  • Deprecation of infinite volumes

    Starting with ONTAP 9.5, infinite volumes are deprecated and no longer supported.

Features and enhancements added in ONTAP 9.4​

  • NVMe protocol

    The NVM Express (NVMe) protocol is now supported by ONTAP and can be configured in Storage Manager. NVMe is an alternative protocol for block access, similar to the existing iSCSi or FC protocols.

  • Aggregate recommender

    You can create an aggregate based on storage recommendations. Storage Manager analyzes the configuration of your storage system and provides storage recommendations such as the number of aggregates that will be created, the available nodes, and the available spare disks.

  • FabricPool-enabled aggregates enhancements

    FabricPool-enabled aggregates have been enhanced to support the following features and functionalities:

    • New UI navigation for the cloud tier menu

    • New Auto caching policy

    • Support for inactive (cold) data

    • Support for object store certificate for StorageGRID external capacity tier

    • Support for Microsoft Azure Blob storage external capacity tier

    • More information in the capacity tab of the cluster dashboard

    • Support ONTAP Select

    • Support for viewing external capacity tier, other than

      StorageGRID , Amazon AWS S3, and Microsoft Azure Blob storage, created using the command-line interface (CLI).

  • FlexGroup volumes enhancements

    FlexGroup volumes include the following enhancements and new features:

    • Support for advanced options such as volume encryption, storage efficiency, and QoS.

    • Protect volumes

    • More information in the protection tab of the cluster dashboard

  • Support for configuring Snapshot copies

    You can configure Snapshot copies by setting a schedule to an existing Snapshot policy. Beginning with ONTAP 9.4, you can have fewer than 1024 Snapshot copies of a FlexVol volume.

  • Storage efficiency enhancements

    The percentage of logical space used and the status of logical space reporting is now displayed in the Storage Manager Volumes window.

  • Removed partial support for infinite volumes

    You cannot create infinite volumes and protect infinite volumes by using Storage Manager .

  • Support for SMB Multichannel

    You can enable SMB protocol to establish multiple channels between a SMB3.0 session and transport connections, specifically for higher performance and fault tolerance and resiliency.