Data ONTAP is the operating system that runs the NetApp appliance.

Its a
FreeBSD-based operating system that is capable of supporting both block and file
based storage, multiple protocols, as well as many high-end applications like
Advanced Single-Instance Storage (Deduplication) capabilities, high-availability,
zero overhead RAID-DP as well as non-disruptive upgrade capabilities. The Data
ONTAP operating system can be managed via the CLI or by System Manager. It
implements WAFL file system when used for file storage. WAFL refers to Write Anywhere
File Layout. The WAFL software is unique because when a write is performed, its
done by using the next free block on the disk. It supports IEEE 802.3ad link. This
standard allows multiple network interfaces to be combined into one interface
group.
Data ONTAP comes in two types. 7-Mode and the Cluster
Mode .The 7- mode Was built to extend the capabilities from the 7 series platform
to a 64bit system. Data ONTAP 8.0 and higher supports 64bit architectures and
aggregate capabilities. This allows the storage system to support larger size
aggregates. The advantage of choosing Data ONTAP is that it supports Multi
protocol environment and it also features integrated RAID technology and contains
built in data protection using snap shot technology. The key features of DATA ONTAP
software are Raid DP technology, Multi store software, its storage efficiency,
snapshot technology, Thin provisioning, Flex Vol volumes, Flex Clone, Deduplication.
Using Data ONTAP, it is easy to add disks and shelves to increase the storage
capacity.
Fibre channel(FC),ATA,SATA,SAS,SSD are the 5 types of disks types
DATA ONTAP support. All Data ONTAP disks are organized into RAID groups. RAID
groups provide parity protection against data loss. Each RAID group consists of data
disks, a parity disk (RAID 4), and a double-parity disk (RAID-DP). A double-parity
RAID group must have at least three disks: one or more data disks, a parity disk,
and a double-parity disk. You can add disks to your RAID groups to increase usable
disk space; however, you cannot remove disks to reduce disk space. If a data disk
failure occurs in a RAID group, Data ONTAP will replace the failed disk with a spare
disk. Data ONTAP will automatically use parity data to reconstruct the failed disk's
data on the replacement disk. Meanwhile, Data ONTAP continues to serve data to
clients by reconstructing data from the parity disk while the new data disk is under
construction. If a parity or double-parity disk failure occurs in a RAID group, Data
ONTAP will replace the failed disk with a sparse disk and reconstruct parity for the
new disk.

Data ONTAP creates Snapshot copies automatically using either a default schedule or a
modified schedule to meet your needs. Part of managing disk space is removing
Snapshot copies. Administrators can allow .Data ONTAP to automatically remove
Snapshot copies by specifying a maximum number to retain. Data ONTAP can

simultaneously support both network-attached storage, or NAS, and a storage area

network, or SAN.
Data access: Data ONTAP provides an infrastructure to manage files and user
accounts. This infrastructure includes the mapping of read and write permissions across
the following protocols: NFS, CIFS, HTTP and FTP.
Data ONTAP resolves host name by accessing the /etc/hosts file on the storage
system.
If the host name is not found, Data ONTAP will search using a Network Information
Service, or NIS, if available. If the host name is not found using NIS, Data ONTAP will
search using a Domain Name System, or DNS, if configured.Data ONTAP defaults to
the search order specified in the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. Data ONTAP connects with
networks through physical interfaces, or links.
Volumes: Data ONTAP supports different types of volumes, traditional, Flexible volumes and
FlexCache volumes. Data ONTAP also has a root volume, which is a special volume dedicated
to the operating system. Data ONTAP has the ability to route packets, but only its own. It does
this using a couple of different methods. Data ONTAP implements compression in two

different ways, inline or post process scheduled.

Data ONTAP has a built-in call home feature referred to as
AutoSupport.AutoSupport is an alerting and data collection mechanism that
sends messages back to NetApp when potential storage system problems
are detected. AutoSupport works in the background and is transparent to the
end-user. In addition, weekly messages are automatically sent from your
storage system to the NetApp support team. Another Data ONTAP feature
that helps administrators monitor their system is the Event Management
System, or EMS. The output for the EMS goes both to the console and to the
syslog. The EMS collects event data from various parts of the Data ONTAP
kernel and provides a set of filtering and event forwarding mechanisms.
"What happens if a disk fails and there are no spares?
Does Data ONTAP have any safeguards for this situation?" Bob has the
answer for you:
"Yes-degraded mode."

When a disk is reconstructing, Data ONTAP will calculate any lost data using
parity and
serve it to the client. The client will not experience any loss in service while a
spare is
being reconstructed.
Degraded mode occurs when there is either a single disk failure in a RAID 4
group, or a
double disk failure in a RAID-DP group, and there are no spares available.
Your storage
system will operate in this mode for 24 hours by default. Data ONTAP will
continue to
serve data using parity, but it is running at a risk. To reduce the risk, Data
ONTAP will
shut down the system after 24 hours.
Disk scrubbing: Another Data ONTAP system maintenance feature is disk
scrubbing. Disk scrubbing checks the blocks of all disks for media errors and
parity consistency. If
an error is found, the disk will correct the error using parity. Disk scrubbing is
initiated in
two ways: automatically or manually.
Roll over each Disk Scrub Type for more information.
By default, the automatic option is on and disk scrubbing will start at 1:00
a.m.
Sunday morning and end six hours later at 7:00 a.m.
You can initiate a manual scrub at any time from the CLI.
Deduplication works by removing the duplicate data blocks in the WAFL
(Write
Anywhere File Layout) file system. Data ONTAP creates checksums, or
fingerprints, for each data block as it is being

written. It also creates a change log file to track all blocks changed or
written in the volume.