There's multiple ways to manage the system(s).
As previously mentioned, you have the Netapp System Manager MMC plugin, this is a good start for those with a windows background, but is far from being a full featured managment console. I would estimate it does about 50% of everything we need to do.
Second is "Filer View" which is the web based management console for the FAS systems. You can access this directly by using the following url:
https://NAME_or_IP_of_FAS/servlets/netapp.fv.servlets.FilerView (assumes you have ssl enabled, if not try http:// instead). I feel filer view provides about 80% functionality to administration tasks.
You can use windows computer manager --> system tools --> shared folders to manage CIFS shares. This tool is installed on every windows machine. In XP just right click "My Computer", select manage, then right click on "Computer Managment Local" and point it at the filer or vFiler you wish to manage. You can also use this tool to manage local users and groups to a degree.
Last but not least is the command line interface. CLI gives you 100% functionality. You can access this through the serial console port, OR by telnet, or by SSH to the FAS system.
Also notable is that most FAS systems are clustered, meaning it's 2 systems. You have to manage each separately. I've read that newer versions of Ontap change intorduce a "unified" something something, but none of our systems have been upgraded to that yet. So, "typicaly", to manage a single Netapp cluster, you will need to manage the two cluster nodes separately using a combination of the 3 methods posted above. I typically will have 2 browsers (filer view) and two putty (ssh) sessions open at any given time while managing our v3140 system.
We use the multistore product for vFilers, and it seems neither GUI option is able to change its context to that of a vFiler, hence we are forced to use command line alot more than what might be considered "normal".
Hope this helps, have a nice day!
Richard
