Windows SMB migration to Netapp and DFS

Kiko — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:43:19 GMT

I am involved in a migration project and in the part of Windows files to Netapp I have some doubts about how to reproduce the current share structure in Netapp.

The Windows file infrastructure is based on DFS where multiple shares are served from different mount points from different Windows servers.

Users access the root of the shares with the domain name \\domain.net and depending on the permissions and location they can see their shared resources.

I understand that in the Netapp cockpit you cannot define \\domain.net as home for users. It's right?

On the other hand, I have never tested if it is viable to have more than one SVM serving CIFS and create a single common mount point for all.

Depending on the user permissions, they would access their shares of their corresponding SVM.

At best it may be a meaningless idea. But I had it in mind as possible to resemble DFS and in the future more granular migrations by SVM or maintenance that does not affect the entire file system.

Thanks in advance.

Re: Windows SMB migration to Netapp and DFS

elementx — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 04:21:29 GMT

> I understand that in the Netapp cockpit you cannot define \\domain.net as home for users. It's right?

I don't think you'd do that on ONTAP. \\some.thing is a DFS Namespace property. it's not an SMB share. The NetApp KB and this community have a few answered DFS-related questions. It's also explained in the ONTAP documentation.

topic Windows SMB migration to Netapp and DFS in Network and Storage Protocols

Windows SMB migration to Netapp and DFS

Re: Windows SMB migration to Netapp and DFS