Lessons of a Datacenter Administrator
In the last post we looked at some settings that apply to the cluster. This time, let’s look at how to administer nodes.
In this post we will cover using the NetApp PowerShell Toolkit to manage these aspects of nodes:
Using the NetApp PowerShell Toolkit (NPTK) can sometimes be a daunting task. Fortunately, it is pretty intuitive on how to configure most aspects of your storage system. Let’s start by looking at some of the cluster level configuration items that can be managed using the NTPK.
In this post we will cover:
The NetApp PowerShell Toolkit (NPTK) is a great way to get started administering your NetApp resources, both 7-mode and clustered Data ONTAP (cDOT), in a more efficient and scalable manner.
The download (version 3.2 at the time of this writing) is available from the NetApp Communities in the Microsoft Cloud and Virtualization board.
From the download page are two links to some great resources: the Getting Started presentation, and Making the Most of the NetApp PowerShell Toolkit. Both of these are excellent reads if you want some starting hints.
Get-Help cmdlet, but there’s a hidden treasure: Show-NcHelp.This cmdlet will generate an HTML version of the cmdlet help and open your default browser to display it.
From here you can dig through the cmdlets and view all of the information you want to know about them quickly and easily.
Now that you have the toolkit and have installed it, it’s time to use it. Let’s look at a couple of basic tasks.
Note: I will be using the cDOT cmdlets, however nearly all of the commands have an equivalent available for 7-mode.
Connecting to a controller
Connecting to your cluster is extremely easy. You can specify the cluster management IP address, or any of the node management IPs as well. If you do not provide credentials as a part of the command invocation, it will prompt for them.
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# connect to the cluster management LIF Connect-NcController $controllerNameOrIp -Credential (Get-Credential) |
Getting Information
Now that we’re connected to the cluster, let’s take a look at some of the information that can be gathered:
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# show cluster information Get-NcCluster # show node information Get-NcNode # show the number of disks assigned to each controller Get-NcDisk | %{ $_.DiskOwnershipInfo.HomeNodeName } | Group-Object # show a summary of disk status Get-NcDisk | %{ $_.DiskRaidInfo.ContainerType } | Group-Object # show failed disks Get-NcDisk | ?{ $_.DiskRaidInfo.ContainerType -eq "broken" } # show root aggregates Get-NcAggr | ?{ $_.AggrRaidAttributes.HasLocalRoot -eq $true } # show volumes which are not SVM root volumes Get-NcVol | ?{ $_.VolumeStateAttributes.IsVserverRoot -eq $false } |
There are a number of “PowerShell Toolkit 101” posts that introduce some of the possibilities. Be sure to read through these other posts:
This doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the NetApp PowerShell Toolkit. Anything that can be done from the command line can be done using the toolkit. If you’re interested in seeing specific examples, need help, or just have questions, please let me know in the comments!
I’ve had the pleasure of spending the last several days talking to the development team here at NetApp about the DataONTAP PowerShell Toolkit. As a result we’ve all learned alot, one of the more interesting features they brought to my attention was the credential management solution included with the toolkit. I found this very compelling, you see embedding credentials within a script is as old as scripting itself. There was a time not too long ago when it was considered taboo. However with PowerShell came access to the .net Security.Cryptography encryption/decryption methods. Scripters have unknowingly been accessing said methods indirectly whenever they would use the credential management funcions that Hal amd BSonPosh wrote long ago.
Which brings me to the DataONTAP toolkit. The Development team has steped it up a notch and included a full credential management solution with the latest version of the toolkit. The way it works is first you need to save logon information by using the Add-NaCredential cmdlet to save the credentials for a given NetApp controller onto the local machine. Then the next time you run the Connect-NaController cmdlet the credentials you previously saved will be used. So how do we use this new feature, and why do you care?
Within the PowerShell community there has been a lingering debate over modules and providers. Initially everyone seemed compelled to do both. Personally, I’ve never been very impressed by third party providers. Mainly because they always felt like a gimmick. They forced the file system analog, and the results where not very good. They were buggy, slow, and didn’ t support the standard provider hooks. This lead to many vendors never bothering, and focused instead on cmdlets. I myself had come to the conclusion that providers where something for the PowerShell team, and third party ISV should just leave them alone. Fortunately the provider in version 1.3 of the DataONTAP PowerShell toolkit has broken the mold and renewed my faith in providers!