topic Re: Inquiry Regarding NetApp ONTAP Configuration Maximums for Kubernetes/OpenShift Environments in General Discussion

Inquiry Regarding NetApp ONTAP Configuration Maximums for Kubernetes/OpenShift Environments

lab8010 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 04:14:55 GMT

Hi Team,

I am inquiring about the configuration maximums for NetApp ONTAP storage, specifically in the context of Kubernetes and OpenShift environments.

My focus is on the following limits:

The maximum number of NFS shares that can be created on an ONTAP system.
The maximum number of Block Volumes (e.g., iSCSI/FC LUNs) that can be created on an ONTAP system.
The maximum supported size of a single Block Volume on an ONTAP system.

The background for these questions is to understand the physical storage constraints that apply to Kubernetes/OpenShift users. When users request storage space via a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC), the request (including the desired Persistent Volume (PV) size) is passed from the container platform layer to ONTAP through Trident, NetApp's CSI Driver.

While Kubernetes/OpenShift does not impose inherent limits on the count or size of PVCs/PVs, the underlying hardware storage system's limitations will ultimately govern these maximums. Therefore, I need to know the specific configuration maximums of ONTAP to inform our planning and deployment.

Thank you for your assistance.

Re: Inquiry Regarding NetApp ONTAP Configuration Maximums for Kubernetes/OpenShift Environments

chamfer — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 22:45:01 GMT

Hello @lab8010 ,

The limitations that you seek are best found within the NetApp Hardware Universe site https://hwu.netapp.com/ as there are differences between ONTAP hardware platforms and software versions.

Here are some FAQ's about NetApp HWU:

Who can use the Hardware Universe site?

Access to Hardware Universe is provided to NetApp employees, as well as partners and customers who have registered with the NetApp Support Site to obtain full system access. Note that Support Site guests are not given HWU access.

I can’t find a brand new product I just heard about, why doesn’t it appear in HWU?

With some exceptions, new hardware products generally appear in HWU once they are available for quoting. New software releases generally appear once they are published on the NetApp Support Site.

We wish you all the best and I hope that this is of assistance to you.

Re: Inquiry Regarding NetApp ONTAP Configuration Maximums for Kubernetes/OpenShift Environments

elementx — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:52:45 GMT

> While Kubernetes/OpenShift does not impose inherent limits on the count or size of PVCs/PVs, the underlying hardware storage system's limitations will ultimately govern these maximums.

That's not quite correct. There may be other limitations. There are limits (tested, practical, or other) to Trident, and there may be other.

Anyway, for Trident:

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/trident-2506/trident-docker/stor-config.html#scaling-options (v25.06)

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/trident/trident-docker/stor-config.html#scaling-options (current, but this link may become broken)

For ONTAP:

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap/release-notes/defaults-limits.html