topic Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True in ONTAP Rest API Discussions

FileInfo & return_metadata=True

richard_payne — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:45:06 GMT

Hello,

I'm trying to use the Rest API to get user/group information for a qtree. According to the docs for FileInfo:

"The metadata and detailed information about a single directory or file can be retrieved by setting the return_metadata query property to true"

and here's the snippet of code provided:

with HostConnection("<mgmt-ip>", username="admin", password="password", verify=False):
    resource = FileInfo("cb6b1b39-8d21-11e9-b926-05056aca658", path="d1/d2/d3/f1")
    resource.get(return_metadata=True)
    print(resource)

Now if I run that using a real volume UUID and path, I get:

netapp_ontap.error.NetAppRestError: Caused by HTTPError('400 Client Error: Bad Request for url: https://abc123-mgmt:443/api/storage/volumes/60c2a6c2-25f2-11eb-87c4-000c29e6051b/files/test_1?return_metadata=True'): Unexpected argument "return_metadata".

and sure enough, if I try and put that URL into a browser (after passing in credentials):

message

"Unexpected argument \"return_metadata\"."

So am I doing something wrong, are the docs wrong?

thx,

--rdp

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

RobertBlackhart — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:06:39 GMT

What version of ONTAP are you running? This does seem to work for me on 9.7:

>>> from netapp_ontap import HostConnection >>> from netapp_ontap.resources import FileInfo >>> with HostConnection("<mgmt_ip>", "<username>", "<password>", verify=False): 2 resource = FileInfo('b8e7dae7-242d-11eb-9046-005056bbcad1', path="file1") 3 resource.get(return_metadata=True) >>> resource FileInfo({'type': 'file', 'changed_time': '2020-11-16T16:32:26-05:00', 'hard_links_count': 1, 'is_vm_aligned': False, 'accessed_time': '2020-11-16T16:32:26-05:00', 'owner_id': 0, 'fill_enabled': False, 'overwrite_enabled': False, 'size': 15, 'is_snapshot': False, 'path': 'file1', 'unique_bytes': 0, 'creation_time': '2020-11-16T16:32:26-05:00', 'inode_number': 96, 'modified_time': '2020-11-16T16:32:26-05:00', 'unix_permissions': 644, 'inode_generation': 42865720, 'group_id': 0, 'is_junction': False, 'bytes_used': 0}) >>>

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

richard_payne — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:25:12 GMT

I am running:

NetApp Release 9.7: Thu Jan 09 11:10:19 UTC 2020

However, that's a simulator. I just tried running against physical hardware (9.7P8) and that appears to work. So for some reason the SIM 9.7 isn't really 9.7, or this requires a particular P release?

thx,

--rdp

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

RobertBlackhart — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 23:06:19 GMT

I took a look, I think it requires at least 9.7P6 which might explain the difference for you if your simulator is on something earlier than that.

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

richard_payne — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 14:34:22 GMT

Thanks, that was it. I updated the SIM to 9.7P8 this morning and now the call is working.

--rdp

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

richard_payne — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 16:48:53 GMT

I may have jumped the gun on the solved part. If I pull up the URL via the management interface of the cluster with the API call then I get the file information (in this case the metadata of the qtree itself). However, when I do the same from python I just get the "_links" section back. I've stripped the test case back to this (based on your code and the docs):

#!/usr/bin/python3
from netapp_ontap import HostConnection
from netapp_ontap.resources import FileInfo

with HostConnection("<ip_addr>", "<user>", "<password>", verify=False😞
 resource = FileInfo("60c2a6c2-25f2-11eb-87c4-000c29e6051b", path="rdp_test_1")
 resource.get(return_metadata=True)
 print (resource)

but what I'm getting back is just:

FileInfo({'_links': {'self': {'href': '/api/storage/volumes/60c2a6c2-25f2-11eb-87c4-000c29e6051b/files/rdp_test_1?return_metadata=True'}}})

Again, if I paste that URL into the browser on the managment interface (same username/password) it works fine. Tested on both the SIM and a real physical cluster.

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

RobertBlackhart — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 17:00:13 GMT

What version of the netapp_ontap library do you have installed? If you update it to the latest, does it change the output? You might want to try the latest rc release: https://pypi.org/project/netapp-ontap/#history. I tried both 9.7.3 and 9.8.0rc1 and in the 9.7.3 version I get the same output as you. With the 9.8.0rc1 version, I get all the fields.

Even if your cluster is running 9.7, you can use the 9.8 version of the library and everything will still work since it's backwards compatible.

Re: FileInfo & return_metadata=True

richard_payne — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 17:58:55 GMT

Thanks, that did it. With the 9.8rc1 version I'm getting the FileInfo data back as expected.

Thanks (again).

--rdp