OnTAP 9.9.1 Issues

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

I'm aware of the following post which outlines many user's woes with the OnTAP 9.8 GUI (including my own). Now that many of us are on 9.9.1, I'm starting a thread to summarize what issues remain on this version. Hopefully this can 'go up the chain' to encourage further restoration of functionality that was stripped out of 9.8 and above.

https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Simplifying-ONTAP-User-Experience/m-p/163639 

Please chime in if you've had the same or additional issues. Also, if someone is aware, please let us know if any of these issues are resolved in 9.10.1. For the record, I really like the new GUI as a whole and find the new features useful, but the loss of very basic and critical functionality at the same time takes away from the enjoyment to say the least.

• Efficiency Details – cannot view compression and deduplication job status and statistics on a per volume basis.
• Event Log – you only get the full text of an event when you point to it, in a tool-tip format. Expanding it doesn’t give you the full text either. It is critical to be able to select/copy/paste events so they can be sent word for word to NetApp Support and searched on Google.
• SnapMirror Policy Choice – unlike before, you can’t select a snapmirror policy. We use network compression on all of our jobs so we have a single custom policy we use for every job. This means that for the first time in 10 years since we started using NetApp, I won’t be able to create SnapMirror jobs in the GUI because we need to use a different policy.
• Aggregate Percent Full – restore the % full column in the Aggregate (i.e. “Tier”) list. For that matter, restore the columnar Aggregate list! It was so easy for 10+ years to just glance and know % full for each aggregate, and now you have to eyeball it and guess. I use this stat frequently. I can get it from ActiveIQ Unified Manager but would like to have it here also. To me this is very basic. It’s a storage product and you want to know the % of storage used!
• Volume Percent Full – at least the Volume list can add a Percent Full column back, but you have to do it every time. There’s no way to save a view. Would request either restoring the column permanently or at least allowing us to save a view. I use the % full column frequently. Again, this is as basic as it gets for a storage product!
• Volume Resize Autosize Amount – previously, going back 10+ years, when you resize a volume the autosize amount automatically adjusts to 20% of the new volume size. In the new GUI, the autosize amount doesn’t change. You have to pull out the Calculator and manually recalculate it. Considering we have autosize turned on for EVERY VOLUME, this is a major pain point considering the fact that resizing is the most common task we perform on a weekly basis.

[Drew_C]

Thank you for starting a healthy conversation for us, @TMADOCTHOMAS. I'll ensure the right teams are aware of this thread.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Thank you @Drew_C !

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

I am adding one item to the list. Just discovered that you can't manage subnets anymore in 9.9.1's GUI. So I am adding:

• Subnets - restore the ability to manage subnets in the GUI.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

And another:

• Junction Paths - restore the ability to manage junction paths in the GUI.

[pedro_rocha]

Yes, definitely!

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Another:

• Scrolling - scrolling down long lists of objects (volumes, LUNs, etc.) can sometimes result in the list turning into grey boxes. The list then automatically refreshes and you scroll back to the same spot, which automatically turns the list into grey boxes again.

[pedro_rocha]

Same here.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Just stumbled across another pretty major one. I must confess I don't understand why NetApp would remove the ability to choose from the available efficiency policies!!

• Efficiency Policies - when editing a volume to change the efficiency policy, you don't see the list of policies available at the cluster level. The only choices are Default and None. Previously, all cluster and SVM level policies were shown as options. We have always configured our policies at the cluster level and used them across SVMs, so this is another case of having to go to the command prompt.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Does anyone know how to show efficiency statistics at the command prompt? Specifically, I want to see the same thing that previously appeared in the GUI - the amount of TB/GB saved from deduplication, compression, and total, on a per-volume basis. "Last operation size" seems to just tell me what was saved in the last operation, and "logical data size" only tells me what the current logical data size is, now how much in total is currently saved by efficiency jobs.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Disregard my last question, I stumbled across the answer. "Space Saved by Storage Efficiency" is in the volume show command, as well as breakdown by type of efficiency.

MAN this new GUI is a HUGE series of continual pain points that have been unnecessarily introduced.

[mcgue]

Viewing efficiency at the volume level only presents a small subset of the efficiency picture. Here is a KB that gives some direction on how to view efficiency in current releases including System Manager: https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/ONTAP_OS/How_to_view_ONTAP_storage_efficiency_savings_using_various_methods

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Thank you @mcgue ! Good to have this for completeness. The ratios aren't particularly helpful to me, so the only one of these that is helpful is AIUM. I had forgotten I can add columns / filter in AIUM to get the closest equivalent to what we had in the pre-9.7 System Manager GUI.

I sincerely hope that NetApp is paying attention to our constant frustrations with the new 9.8+ interface. As noted above, the new features are actually pretty great but I can truly say I am notably and significantly less productive with this interface due to the extra work required to do very basic things.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Adding another item to the list.

• Portsets - restore the ability to configure a portset in System Manager.

Yet another example of dropped productivity. I've never configured portsets at the command line so now I have to look that up, troubleshoot it, and rewrite our documentation.

[pedro_rocha]

Same here.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Actually, just found out that portsets are back in 9.10.1 so at least we are moving in the right direction. Really disappointed that I've heard virtually nothing about the rest, and they are the more common tasks.

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Wow. Just wow. This is probably the absolute worst one I've found. How much more basic can you get than the ability to create a volume? When I use the GUI, the SVM drop-down list doesn't include my two most used SVMs which host iSCSI LUNs! How is that even possible??

I can't believe I'm about to write this, but here we go.

• Creating Volumes in an SVM Hosting iSCSI LUNs - restore the ability to create volumes in an SVM hosting iSCSI LUNs in System Manager.

[pedro_rocha]

It's hard to believe. I even had to go to LOD to check.

It's true. Apparently System Manager is forcing GUI users to create only LUNs on SAN SVMs.

Even 9.11.1 is the same way.

[mcgue]

When creating NAS volumes you select the Volume link, while creating SAN LUNs you select the LUN link.  When creating a LUN it will create the underlying volume at the same time.  

[mcgue]

Here's a link with some more information: Volume creation fails when using ONTAP System Manager - NetApp Knowledge Base

[TMADOCTHOMAS]

Wow @pedro_rocha , that is unbelievable and terrible news. I would have expected NetApp to have corrected this swiftly.

@mcgue thank you for this information. As a point of feedback, I am astonished that NetApp would revert the GUI in this way from a very intuitive and easy tool to an extremely difficult and non-intuitive tool. Who would ever expect that a volume would automatically be created by creating a LUN?

On top of that, I just tried the LUN creation wizard in the GUI just to see how it works. It is awful for numerous reasons:

• The volume and LUN are created with the same size, leaving no space in the volume for snapshots!
• No option to change autosize / autodelete options until after the fact. I strongly dislike the default options.
• The phrase "Name Prefix" makes no sense. Should just be "Name".
• Under initiator group, why isn't there an option to create a new initiator group that isn't part of an existing initiator group? That's what I would need over half of the time, and it's not an option!
• The Enable SnapMirror functionality is awful. You have to choose the "Asynchronous and Synchronous policies could not be retrieved" "policy" to even see that you have the option of choosing the correct destination cluster and SVM. Significantly worse is that the drop-down protection policy list doesn't include custom policies!! We use a custom policy for EVERY SnapMirror job, making this wizard useless.

BOTTOM LINE: for the first time in over 10 years of using NetApp, I will not be able to use the GUI to create volumes or LUNs anymore until this is fixed. This is true in numerous areas actually. I'm having to expend tons of time rewriting our internal documentation to train fellow admins on how to work their way through the command line because the GUI has been converted from an extremely useful tool to a nearly useless tool. I really hate saying that but it is accurate. I really hope NetApp is listening, but based on 9.11.1 being the same in this area I'm less hopeful.