You may have been accustomed to handling your organization’s file systems solely through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or Amazon FSx API. However, Amazon’s recent enhancement in their offering known as the FSx for ONTAP adds another feather to its cap—enhancing the management functionalities of your file systems through the ONTAP CLI. This guide aims to provide an elaborative understanding of how these features could be handy in your day-to-day administrative tasks.
Through the ONTAP CLI, Amazon is nullifying limitations once allied with administrative tasks. Previously, managing file systems was a shared responsibility, with a single user within an organization. Tracking each file system’s unique administrative actions was convoluted. But with the power to create additional file system users, you can assign a user for each administrator—making it easier to audit actions that each user performs.
In this article, we’ll delve into:
- An overview of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and its functionalities
- The vast possibilities with ONTAP CLI
- How to create additional file system users and feature benefits
- Delving into streamlining administrative procedures via audit actions.
Introduction to Amazon FSx¶
Amazon FSx provides you fully-managed third-party file systems, offering you feature rich, highly reliable and scalable file storage. It ingeniously integrates with several AWS services, providing an extensive set of features and capabilities. Now with the newest capacity to manage file systems using the ONTAP CLI added, it’s more powerful than ever.
How does NetApp ONTAP come to the Picture?¶
NetApp’s ONTAP is an industry-renowned proprietary data management software. Now, Amazon integrates NetApp ONTAP files systems to provide customers the convenience of multiple access methods— NFS, SMB, and iSCSI— and the usual storage efficiencies such as deduplication, thin provisioning and compression. This amalgamation means that you can run your enterprise applications on AWS with flexible storage scalability, high-performance and durability.
The Power of ONTAP CLI¶
With ONTAP CLI, it’s possible to perform data management and storage operations more seamlessly. Routine tasks such as capacity monitoring or else, now don’t require the use of the web-based interface. Instead, system administrators can use the CLI to write scripts and execute commands for repetitive tasks, saving both time, and making it efficient.
Creating Additional File System Users¶
Setting up new users for FSx for ONTAP via CLI boosts organization efficiency. It gives complete control within the organization—avoiding the shared responsibilities and providing transparency and clarity on the administrative actions of each user.
An administrator of the AWS account with the correct IAM permissions can create, delete, and manage FSx for ONTAP file system users. This way, you can help separate the duties and reduce the risk of unauthorized or erroneous changes.
Now rather than a single user, each individual in an administrative capacity can have their own account. The resulting control given to each individual admin means it’s more effective and easier to audit actions that each user performs.
Setting up a new FSx user through the command line interface typically involves following basic steps:
- Confirm your IAM permissions.
- Submit the
create-file-system-usersrequest syntax. - Review the successful creation of the new FSx user.
Streamlining Administrative Procedures via Audit Actions¶
With creating different users, the issue of tracking administrative actions is simpler as well. The audit actions will provide the history of commands, enabling you to see who made what changes and when those changes occurred. This functionality contributes to maintaining a high level of governance and control over your organization’s AWS resources.
Tracking audit actions will improve accountability by showing specifically who was responsible for each action. It will help you pinpoint issues or inefficiencies more accurately, making your troubleshooting steps far more effective.
Conclusion¶
Integration of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and CLI helps you achieve seamless data management tasks. The ability to create multiple file system users and streamlining administrative actions have made it easier than ever to manage your organization’s file system and admin actions more efficiently. It’s the best time to leverage this capability to simplify your administrative work and enhance your enterprise productivity.