NetApp ONTAP CLI Commands with Examples

This page collects the ONTAP CLI commands NetApp storage admins use every week, with a plain-English line and a working example for each. The syntax follows the ONTAP 9 command reference for release 9.18.1, and nearly everything also works on 9.10 and later.

Check the badge before you press Enter. Read only commands only look. Changes config commands change the setup but don’t destroy data. Danger commands can delete data or cut clients off, so check twice and follow your change process.

Want to practise without a real cluster? Our NetApp ONTAP Storage Administration course comes with a practice shell that runs most of these commands on your laptop.

Try it yourself: the NetApp ONTAP tab in the Command Builder fills in these commands with your own SVM, volume, LIF and host values: 46 tasks, each with the System Manager menu path too.

On this page: Before you start · Cluster and nodes · High availability · Disks, shelves and aggregates (local tiers) · Storage VMs (SVMs) · Network · FlexVol volumes and qtrees · SAN · NAS · Storage efficiency · Snapshots and FlexClone · Peering and SnapMirror · Performance, QoS and FabricPool · Monitoring, AutoSupport and users · recipes · 7-Mode commands

Before you start: how the ONTAP CLI works

You reach the clustershell with SSH to the cluster management IP, for example ssh admin@192.168.56.100. The prompt shows the cluster name, like saat-cluster::>. Commands are grouped in a tree: a directory such as volume or network interface, then a verb such as show, create, modify or delete, then parameters that start with a hyphen.

You don’t have to type it all. Any unique short form works (vol sh runs volume show), the Tab key completes, and ? lists what can come next.

Cluster and nodes

High availability: takeover and giveback

Disks, shelves and aggregates (local tiers)

Storage VMs (SVMs)

Older documents call an SVM a vserver, and the commands still use that word.

Network: ports, LIFs and routes

FlexVol volumes and qtrees

SAN: LUNs, igroups, iSCSI, FC and NVMe

NAS: NFS exports and SMB shares

Storage efficiency

Snapshots and FlexClone

Peering and SnapMirror

Performance, QoS and FabricPool

Monitoring, AutoSupport and users

Three everyday recipes

1. Give Linux clients an NFS share

Turn on NFS, make a policy for the client subnet, create the volume with a junction path, and test access before anyone mounts.

vserver nfs create -vserver svm1 -v3 enabled -v4.1 enabled
vserver export-policy rule create -vserver svm1 -policyname default -clientmatch 192.168.56.0/24 -rorule sys -rwrule never -superuser none
vserver export-policy create -vserver svm1 -policyname linux_hosts
vserver export-policy rule create -vserver svm1 -policyname linux_hosts -clientmatch 192.168.56.0/24 -rorule sys -rwrule sys -superuser none
volume create -vserver svm1 -volume vol_app -aggregate aggr1_01 -size 100g -junction-path /vol_app -policy linux_hosts
vserver export-policy check-access -vserver svm1 -volume vol_app -client-ip 192.168.56.21 -authentication-method sys -protocol nfs3 -access-type read-write

On the client: mount -t nfs -o vers=4.1 192.168.56.130:/vol_app /mnt/app. The rule on the default policy lets clients read the SVM root, which they need to reach the junction.

2. A two-minute health check

cluster show
storage failover show
storage aggregate show
network interface show -is-home false
snapmirror show -fields state,healthy,lag-time
event log show -severity <=ERROR

Every node healthy, takeover possible on both partners, no aggregate near full, no LIF away from home, mirrors healthy with a normal lag, and no new errors. If anything looks wrong, start there.

3. Before you delete a volume

volume show -vserver svm1 -volume vol_old -fields junction-path,used,type
snapmirror list-destinations -source-path svm1:vol_old
network connections active show -vserver svm1
volume snapshot create -vserver svm1 -volume vol_old -snapshot final_before_delete
volume unmount -vserver svm1 -volume vol_old
volume offline -vserver svm1 -volume vol_old
volume delete -vserver svm1 -volume vol_old

Check what uses it, keep it offline for an agreed time if you can, and get the owner’s OK in writing. A deleted volume stays in the recovery queue for 12 hours by default, which is a safety net, not a plan.

Commands people look for that don’t exist

Many blogs still show 7-Mode commands. 7-Mode ended with Data ONTAP 8.2, so on a current cluster use the right-hand column.

Common questions

Is it vserver or SVM? Both mean the same thing. System Manager and the docs say SVM (storage VM); the CLI kept the older word, so commands use vserver and -vserver.

How do I see more than 10 columns of a table? Use -fields with the columns you want, or -instance for everything. rows 0 stops the output pausing.

Can I script these commands? Yes. Many teams run them over SSH from a jump host, but for real automation use the ONTAP REST API or Ansible’s netapp.ontap collection, which return structured data.

Where are the System Manager menu paths? Every task in the Command Builder ONTAP tab shows the GUI path next to the CLI commands.

Further reading: ONTAP CLI commands

NetApp’s official ONTAP command reference lists every command and parameter for each release, and the ONTAP 9 documentation explains the tasks behind them. To practise every command on this page step by step, take our NetApp ONTAP Storage Administration course.