This page provides an overview of the features and functionality of Google Cloud NetApp Volumes.
Network-attached storage
NetApp Volumes shares file systems, or volumes, to network-attached storage (NAS) clients. NAS clients are usually virtual machines (VMs) that run on Windows or Linux operating systems using the industry-standard Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols.
Client-server model
Both NFS and SMB use a client-server model in which a client sends requests to a server to act on the file system. The server performs operations such as creating or deleting files or folders, modifying files, and browsing and reading files.
File systems are embedded in volumes which can be shared by many clients. Typically, Windows, Linux, and UNIX operating systems include built-in SMB and NFS client software.
Access permissions
All file system objects must have an owner, but you can grant other users and groups access permissions for objects.
For NFS, ownership specifies user IDs and group IDs, which use standard UNIX-style user and group permissions. NFSv4.1 can use user IDs and group IDs or security principals. When you use NFSv4.1 with Kerberos, the usage of Kerberos principals replaces user ID access, which authenticates user identities. In addition to standard UNIX permissions, NFSv4.1 also offers NFSv4.1 access control lists as an alternative method to manage access.
For SMB, Windows security identifiers specify ownership and use NTFS-style access control lists to manage access to objects.
Block storage
The block storage lets you provision block level storage using the iSCSI protocol. With block storage, you can run workloads that require direct disk access, such as databases, while the users still benefit from a fully managed experience. The integration of block storage with iSCSI protocol increases deployment flexibility, expanding the range of applications you can host on Google Cloud.
NetApp Volumes presents block devices to hosts over a TCP/IP network using the industry standard iSCSI protocol. iSCSI allows VMs running both Windows and Linux to access NetApp Volumes as locally attached disks, despite the physical storage being remote.
Initiator-target model
iSCSI uses an initiator-target model. The client, known as the iSCSI initiator, sends SCSI commands over IP networks to the storage system, which acts as the iSCSI target. The target receives these commands and performs block level operations such as reading and writing data, formatting disks, and managing partitions.
NetApp Volumes are presented as iSCSI Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) to initiators as block devices. Each LUN appears to the client as a raw disk, allowing the operating system to create and manage its own file systems, such as NTFS, ext4, or XFS. Most Windows and Linux operating systems have built-in iSCSI initiator software, simplifying connection to iSCSI targets.
For more information about how to create and manage host groups, see About host groups.
Storage pools
Storage pools act as containers for volumes. All volumes in a storage pool share the following information:
Location
Service level
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network
Active Directory policy
LDAP use for NFS volumes, if applicable
Customer-managed encryption key (CMEK) policy
Zonal or regional pool availability
Auto-tiering capability
The capacity of the pool can be split up and assigned to volumes within the pool. Storage pools are a billable component of NetApp Volumes. Billing is based on the location, service level, and capacity allocated to a pool independent of consumption at the volume level.
Storage pools also provide performance capabilities to volumes:
Volumes in storage pools for the Standard, Premium, and Extreme service levels provide 16, 64, and 128 MiBps of throughput, respectively, per TiB of provisioned volume capacity.
Volumes in storage pools for the Flex File default performance service level share the pool's performance, which is 16 MiBps per TiB of provisioned pool capacity.
Volumes in storage pools for the Flex Unified or Flex File custom performance service levels share the pool's performance. You can configure the pool performance independently of the capacity.
Volumes
A volume is a file system container in a storage pool that stores application, database, and user data.
You can create a volume's capacity using the available capacity in the storage pool and you can define and resize the capacity without disruption to any processes.
Storage pool settings apply to the volumes contained within them automatically.
Snapshots and snapshot-based data management
NetApp Volumes helps you manage your data usage using snapshot capabilities. This lets you take snapshots of your data in seconds without requiring additional storage space.
NetApp Volumes snapshots aren't a separate physical copy of your data. Instead, NetApp Volumes snapshots capture only the data that's been changed since the last snapshot. Note that when you overwrite all of your data, snapshots can consume significant volume capacity.
Volume replication
You can protect your data through cross-location volume replication, which asynchronously replicates a source volume in one location to a destination volume in a different location. This capability lets you use the other volume for critical application activity in case of a location-wide outage or disaster.
Volume replication moves only used data blocks during the initial transfer. During subsequent incremental transfers, only changed blocks transfer. Charges incur only for bytes transferred, which optimizes transfer times and lowers costs.
Backups
A backup is a copy of a volume stored independently from the volume in a backup vault. If a volume is unavailable or deleted, you can use backups to restore your data to a new volume. NetApp Volumes supports manual and scheduled volume backups.
The first backup of a volume contains all the volume's data. Subsequent backups capture only incremental changes which allows for fast incremental-forever backups and reduces the required capacity inside the backup vault.
Active Directory integration
File sharing protocols like SMB (CIFS), NFSv3 with extended groups, and NFSv4.1, rely on external directory services to provide user identity information using security principals. NetApp Volumes relies on Active Directory for directory services. Active Directory provides services like LDAP servers for looking up the following objects:
Users
Groups
Machine accounts
DNS servers (for hostname resolution)
Kerberos servers (for authentication purposes)
Data encryption
NetApp Volumes always encrypts your data at rest using volume-specific keys.
With customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK), volume-specific keys are wrapped using your keys stored in Cloud Key Management Service. This feature gives you greater control over the encryption keys you use and adds an additional layer of security by storing the keys on a system or in a location different from the data. NetApp Volumes supports Cloud Key Management Service capabilities such as hardware security modules, Encryption Key Management, and the full key management lifecycle of generate, use, rotate, and destroy.
Auto-tiering
Users who have large amounts of inactive data can reduce their overall storage cost by using auto-tiering. Auto-tiering moves inactive data to a cheaper storage tier. This process is transparent for NFS and SMB clients, and the users have full visibility and accessibility to the data. Accessing cold data is slower than accessing hot data. For more information, see Manage auto-tiering.
Volume migration
The volume migration feature lets you migrate ONTAP-based Flex volumes to NetApp Volumes using a SnapMirror-based migration. SnapMirror uses baseline and asynchronous incremental transfers to minimize the downtime required during transition of your workloads to NetApp Volumes.
This feature is intended for time-limited migrations. For ongoing replications between ONTAP systems and NetApp Volumes, see External replication.
External replication
External replication lets you set up volume replications between ONTAP-based source systems and NetApp Volumes using SnapMirror. SnapMirror uses baseline and asynchronous incremental transfers to keep source and destination volumes in sync. Like volume replication, external replications can be stopped, resumed, and their replication direction reversed. This functionality lets you use NetApp Volumes as disaster recovery targets for on-premise ONTAP systems.
FlexCache
ONTAP FlexCache is a NetApp technology, which optimizes data access by creating writable, sparse, and persistent copies of volumes in remote locations, bringing data closer to users. This significantly improves performance for read-intensive workloads by reducing latency and increasing throughput. FlexCache also simplifies data management in hybrid cloud environments, enabling data caching in the cloud without requiring a complete data migration.
Additionally, NetApp Volumes supports the creation of cache volumes from origin volumes hosted on ONTAP-based source systems.
NetApp Volumes integration with NetApp Console
NetApp Volumes is integrated with the NetApp Console agent. This integration is intended to simplify your storage management, offering you a unified platform that simplifies the handling of all your Cloud Storage requirements. For more information about the NetApp Console agent, see NetApp Console.
What's next
Read about service levels of Google Cloud NetApp Volumes.