Active IQ Unified Manager Discussions

Feedback on NetApp System Manager 2.0R1

amritad
27,389 Views

Hi,

Our team is very interested in the questions posted on System Manager functionality and your experience with System Manager.  Thanks for taking the time to share. Please  keep the questions and feedback on your experience working with System Manager coming.

Regards

The System Manager Team

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

amritad
24,801 Views

Thanks for the feedback.

For the performance issue we have incorporated some fixes in 2.1. Please do try it out and let us know.

Regards

Amrita

View solution in original post

106 REPLIES 106

statefund
6,519 Views

Thanks for the suggestions. All of those were already implemented previously. I found the problem though. Something so simple too.. Looks like the issue was I needed to add http://127.0.0.1 to my trusted sites.

Problem solved.

amritad
6,519 Views

Good to know ☺

Thanks for letting us know the problem is resolved.

Regards

Amrita

From: c-xdl-communities

Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 12:04 AM

To: Das, Amrita

Subject: - Re: Feedback on NetApp System Manager 2.0R1

<https://communities.netapp.com/index.jspa>

Re: Feedback on NetApp System Manager 2.0R1

created by statefund<https://communities.netapp.com/people/statefund> in OnCommand System Manager - View the full discussion<https://communities.netapp.com/message/71862#71862>

Thanks for the suggestions. All of those were already implemented previously. I found the problem though. Something so simple too.. Looks like the issue was I needed to add http://127.0.0.1 to my trusted sites.

Problem solved.

Reply to this message by replying to this email -or- go to the message on NetApp Community<https://communities.netapp.com/message/71862#71862>

Start a new discussion in OnCommand System Manager by email<mailto:discussions-community-products_and_solutions-storage_management_software-oncommand_system_manager@netappcommunity.hosted.jivesoftware.com> or at NetApp Community<https://communities.netapp.com/choose-container.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=3163>

amritad
6,519 Views

Hi

So even if you wait for some time the screen does not load at all?

Regards

Amrita

From: c-xdl-communities

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 10:56 PM

To: Das, Amrita

Subject: - Re: Feedback on NetApp System Manager 2.0R1

<https://communities.netapp.com/index.jspa>

Re: Feedback on NetApp System Manager 2.0R1

created by statefund<https://communities.netapp.com/people/statefund> in OnCommand System Manager - View the full discussion<https://communities.netapp.com/message/71860#71860>

Hello there. Quick question and I apologize if this is the wrong thread.

Installed Systems Manager 2.0 on a Windows 2008 R2 (64bit) system and when I connect to it via IE8 all I receive is a blue background page. It never fully loads. I installed Firefox 9 on the same server and it works just fine. I would assume the issue is related to IE8 then. Any pointers or clues to why IE8 is not working correctly when trying to load Systems Manager? Keep in mind this server was recently built and has no problem that I am aware of.

https://communities.netapp.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/2-71860-14387/450-454/1-16-201211-25-30AM.jpg <https://communities.netapp.com/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-71860-14387/1-16-201211-25-30AM.jpg>

Reply to this message by replying to this email -or- go to the message on NetApp Community<https://communities.netapp.com/message/71860#71860>

Start a new discussion in OnCommand System Manager by email<mailto:discussions-community-products_and_solutions-storage_management_software-oncommand_system_manager@netappcommunity.hosted.jivesoftware.com> or at NetApp Community<https://communities.netapp.com/choose-container.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=3163>

mital_shah
6,312 Views

When I'm trying to check the Snapmirror entries, it shows "Loading Snapmirror relationship data..." for quite a while and then an error pop windows appears with the text: Connection timed out

Full error text:

==ERROR==

com.netapp.nwf.client.communication.ResponseException

==TIME==

2012-02-02 16:35:13,527

==MESSAGE==

Connection timed out

==DETAILS==

No details are available.

==CORRECTIVE ACTION==

No suggested corrective action is available.

==LOCATION==

Location is not specified.

==BROWSER INFO==

App Name: Netscape

App Version: 5.0 (Windows)

App Codename: Mozilla

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

Platform: Win32

Cookie Enabled: true

stevecotes
6,367 Views

I have been very frustrated by every System Manager release since 1.1.

All the web interfaces have been extremely slow, and often cluttered, buggy and lacking in functionality.

Although FilerView has bugs, at least it is fairly quick and lets me perform common tasks.

If moving to 8.1 forces me to use "OnCommand System Manager", it is looking like I'll also be forced to usually open SSH sessions to our controllers.

This will add complexity rather than simplify the management of our arrays.

Two of the most glaring problems with 2.0R1 are:

No command line. There are many times when I want to quickly run an rdfile or options command to check on or update a configuration. Being able to hit "Use Command Line" from FilerView lets me easily run the command and move on without launching an SSH session.

Incomplete support of SnapMirror. If I need to temporarily change the routing on a defined SnapMirror relationship, it is not uncommon for me to change the source interface. In FilerView this is an easy task to complete, in Systems Manager it cannot be done.

There are a few areas where the new System Manager is better, like exposing the increments and maximum settings for autogrow on a volume. But for every improvement, it feels like there are two tasks made harder or functionality taken away.

steve

rene_langevin
6,367 Views

Hi!

I don't know if this issue was already reported.

System Manager 2.0r1 doesn't save my username and password even if the option Enable password caching is enable and in the Enter credential I've checked the box for Save my credentials.

I've tried clearing the cache, use a user other than root, running SM in IE9 or Firefox 10, I've also deleted all systems and recreated them severals times.

I have the same problem with all my filer (FAS270, FAS3040, N5300 and N6240).

Thanks!

René

karthikv
6,367 Views

Can you please try on one of the supported and tested versions of browsers ?

IE7 or IE8

Firefox 3.0/3.5/3/6

We are not facing this issue at our end. We might need some extra information/support bundle depending on whether it is working/not working on the above configuration.

Thanks,

Karthik

txskibum2000
7,044 Views

Having the same problem here...  https://communities.netapp.com/message/76091#76091 Yes, I am using IE 8.

abuchmann
5,717 Views

Does the (saved) password contain a %-sign?

If i save my password, which beginns with a %-sign, I'm unable to use the System Manager 2.0R1 on the next start... I have to clear the configuration data (which includes the credentials) to start the SM again.

karthikv
5,717 Views

SM has issues while storing passwords if it contains '%'. We are working on the fix for the issue.

-Karthik

BOARDADMIN
6,367 Views

My biggest problem has been with inconsistent refreshes and sort orders.

When I click on a volume to show a graph, it looks like it's refreshing data and then shows the graph.  However, this is stale data, since the refresh didn't actually pull new data.  I've been burned a few times by this.  There should be an automatic way of either refreshing on a recurring basis or automatically grabbing the data when a new item is selected.

When I sort a long list (LUNs, voumes, snapshots, etc) by any of the columns, it may or may not actually put them in that order.  It also seems to have issues bringing me to either the top of the list alphabetically (if sorted that way), or leaving it on the highlighted volume while sorting the rest - both should be normal GUI design practice by this time.  Instead, I'll see a random start point at the top of the list and the scroll bar indicating that I'm at the top, but this often isn't the case.   I find myself having to sort, refresh, scroll up and down, and refreshing one more time to make sure the list I see is accurate. 

On that note, how about giving us the option for a secondary sort (or defaulting to the last selected sort as the secondary)?  I would often like to sort alphabetically by aggregate and then volume or volume and then lun name or by aggregate and free space, and this is impossible with this software.  Instead, the secondary sort seems to change each time, so my list may be in different order each time I refresh.

I've been running SM2 on various FF versions from 3-10 on Linux and Windows machines since it was released.  It doesn't seem to make a difference which versions/platforms I use; the behaviour is the same.  On that note, the last "supported" release of Firefox 6 was released over 6 months ago.  When the system automatically updates to a newer version, we can't just revert back with security holes and all just to support this application.  Depending on Java and Flash by making SM a web app is nice for supporting other platforms, but it slows down response time for everyone.  I find myself using SM 1.1 still because of the bugs and speed issues in 2.0 and R1 (and yes, I've tried the hosts change.  It's not super-slow, but it's not nearly as fast as 1.1 was).

karthikv
6,367 Views

Thanks for the feedback. We will look into it.

To help us improve application performance better can you please give us more details about your environment

- Numer of NetApp controllers managed

- Approximate object counts that are managed using SM

  - # of Aggregates

  - # of Volumes

  - # of Qtrees

  - # of Shares and Exports, etc

Thanks,

Karthik

BOARDADMIN
7,044 Views

Hi Karthik,

We have 2 clusters for a total of 4 controllers managed in SM.

In our primary cluster, we have the following:

Head 1: 2 aggregates, 26 volumes, 112 LUNs, 0 qtrees, 3 shares, 25 exports, and 90 disks

Head 2: 3 aggregates, 40 volumes, 0 LUNs, 19 qtrees, 17 shares, 31 exports, and 110 disks

In our secondary cluster, the items are significantly smaller on one head, and non-existent currently on the other.

I've noticed that performance in IE (9) is significantly improved - the delay in loading information after a click is down from around a second to almost as fast as the MMC.  Unfortunately, that doesn't work for our Linux-based admins. 

karthikv
7,044 Views

Thanks for the info.

Surprisingly our performance results are better on Firefox ( both Windows and Linux) vs IE.

Regards,

Karthik

CCOLEMAN_
7,044 Views

Just to add to Karthikv's browser feedback, Chrome seems to work like a charm as well.

I have not run into any issues.

The biggest help improvement is when you add the hostnames of the filers in your windows host file, this is like night and day.

carstensejer
7,044 Views

System Manager is getting better and better 

Love the vfiler and SnapMirror support

Just have a few suggestions:

- When disabling ISCSI on all interfaces, no interfaces are shown next time System Manager R1D1 is started. Only way to enable ISCSI interfaces again is via CLI.

- Ipspaces would be nice to create from System Manager. Its possible to select when creating a vfiler, but has to be created via CLI.

- Use default OS browser instead of setting path to browser

- SnapVault support?

aborzenkov
7,044 Views

Regarding time/date configuration

  1. On Data ONTAP 8.1RC2 it offers RDate and SNTP as timed protocol. Both are wrong, 8.1 (may be even 8.0 already) supports NTP as the only time sync protocol.
  2. There is no way to separately set time zone without re-setting curent time. So even if time was correct before entering dialogue, it will inevitably be skewed, because it is reset to the value when dialogue had been started.
  3. Oh ... and when you change timezone, time remains unchanged. It means, when you apply it, time is set to completely wrong value. E.g. initially after installation timezone is GMT. You have 17:00 GMT. You change timezone to something else, say GMT+4. Time remains the same. After applying time is set to 17:00 GMT+4, i.e. 13:00 GMT. Effectively time was reset by 4 hours. And please understand that not all users actually know their time zone shift; they just select timezone based on location.

karthikv
7,044 Views

(1) and (3) are bugs - Will open tickets to track them

Just to clarify on (3) - You are referring to the behavior when data and time is set to Manual right?

If NTP ( SNTP used as an alias for NTP in the current case) is used, the time automatically changes appropriately as soon as timezone is changed.

I need some more information regarding (2). I am not sure I get it completely

What do you mean by 'time will inevitably be skewed, because it is reset to the value when dialog had been started' ?

Regards,

Karthik

aborzenkov
7,044 Views

Yes, I refer to manual case.

Re 2. User opens dialogue, selects timezone then gets distracted e.g. by phone call. 5 minutes later user presses Apply. Time is now set to the value when dialogue has been opened. Which is 5 minutes in the past. Even if user is not distracted, time is still reset to some value in the past.

karthikv
7,044 Views

Got it..thanks for clarifying.

colsen
7,044 Views

Hello,

We have opened up a few cases on SysMgr 2.0R1, but I'll share some of the details here: 

Performing any changes to a vFiler (adding a new volume, etc) has the same effect to the vfiler as if you utilized the "configure" option in FilerView (i.e. it overwrites /etc/hosts, exports, etc).  It creates the .bak, but if you're not aware it's going to do it, and you make multiple changes you just lost your backup.  Changes to vfiler0 have the same result.

We've run into several of the strange snapshot behaviors identified above by other posters (mostly related to display of retention policy).

We had an issue whereby when we created a new VLAN via the GUI (adding it to an existing VIF) and the resulting entry in the RC file isn't pretty.  The netmask that we specify after editing the new VLAN doesn't get written to the RC nor does the "partner" attribute.  Everything is fine until you perform a takeover/giveback and the controller reboots after which the VLAN interface took on a class-A (255.0.0.0) mask for the interface and the partner obviously never takes over.  We haven't tried to replicate this recently (since it's a little too scary to experiment with) but the TSE we opened the issue with sleuthed out what happened based on the controller events and the state of the RC.

That said, we love System Manager for cleaning up snapshots (nice GUI for making sure you're getting rid of the one you want).  It has some nice graphics for volume/space utilization as well as dedupe benefits.  Being able to sort our volumes by % utilized is a quick way of seeing who's going to hit the wall next.

The "Home" tab is also somewhat random.  We have four sets of controllers (two v3170s and two v3240s) and the Home screen lists us as running four different versions of Data ONTap (8.0.2P4, 8.0.2P3, 8.0.2P1 and finally 8.0.2).  This isn't a big problem per se, but it leaves me wondering about how well it's talking to the filers.

Overall, the product is "getting there", but we primarily use it as a read-only tool (with the exception of the aforementioned snapshot cleanup).  Every time we'd create or manage something we'd have to go back to the CLI and verify what System Manager did (just in case) so we've mostly been sticking with the old-reliable...

Regards,

Chris

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