Clustered ONTAP CLI "path" inconsistencies

bobshouseofcards — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:20:49 GMT

Hey gang -

Looking for a comments to see whether there is a point to pushing NetApp for a CLI change in Clustered ONTAP.

My personal preference is to use the CLI for most things - GUI tools like SystemManager is nice to have for some quick lookups, but for serious work I find it to be too limiting (not all options exposed) and too slow (too much refresh). Similarly the work I do doesn't always lend itself to WFA setups - mostly because either the shops are too small or the staff is too small to merit a full WFA build.

With that as background - the gripe - the CLI is inconsistent.

Examples:

Ever notice how when a volume path is needed, there are like 3 or 4 different ways to specify the path, and particular commands need it a specific way? LUN paths start with "/vol" and require you to specify the vserver in a separate option. Snapmirror paths can be specified in one shot as vserver:volume. Namespace paths require vserver on a separate option and paths start with "/" - no "/vol", which affects shares, but qtree paths need the "/vol" at the front.

Seriously - can't we get "path" entries to use just one standard? Are we still that tied to the 7-mode way of doing things that we are stuck with the idiosyncracies of the past?

Couldn't a LUN path be specified as vserver:volume/lun? A qtree as vserver:volume/qtree? Namespace might be a bit more tricky to address with that the "/" can be arbitrarily assigned, but surely it too could be more unified.

Thoughts?

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Clustered ONTAP CLI "path" inconsistencies