If you run: “options nfs” you can see list of tunables related to NFS present in Ontap (I used Ontap 7.3.2), you’ll notice that NFS v4 is off by default
netapp> options nfs
nfs.acache.persistence.enabled on
nfs.assist.queue.limit 40
nfs.export.allow_provisional_access on
nfs.export.auto-update on
nfs.export.exportfs_comment_on_delete on
nfs.export.harvest.timeout 1800
nfs.export.neg.timeout 3600
nfs.export.pos.timeout 36000
nfs.export.resolve.timeout 6
nfs.hide_snapshot off
nfs.ipv6.enable off
nfs.kerberos.enable off
nfs.locking.check_domain on
nfs.max_num_aux_groups 32
nfs.mount_rootonly on
nfs.mountd.trace off
nfs.netgroup.strict off
nfs.notify.carryover on
nfs.ntacl_display_permissive_perms off
nfs.per_client_stats.enable off
nfs.require_valid_mapped_uid off
nfs.response.trace off
nfs.response.trigger 60
nfs.tcp.enable on
nfs.thin_prov.ejuke off
nfs.udp.enable on
nfs.udp.xfersize 32768
nfs.v2.df_2gb_lim off
nfs.v3.enable on
nfs.v4.acl.enable off
nfs.v4.enable off
nfs.v4.id.domain mydomain.com
nfs.v4.read_delegation off
nfs.v4.setattr_acl_preserve off
nfs.v4.write_delegation off
nfs.webnfs.enable off
nfs.webnfs.rootdir XXX
nfs.webnfs.rootdir.set off
To enable NFS v4 run:
netapp> options nfs.v4.enable on
netapp> options nfs
nfs.acache.persistence.enabled on
nfs.assist.queue.limit 40
nfs.export.allow_provisional_access on
nfs.export.auto-update on
nfs.export.exportfs_comment_on_delete on
nfs.export.harvest.timeout 1800
nfs.export.neg.timeout 3600
nfs.export.pos.timeout 36000
nfs.export.resolve.timeout 6
nfs.hide_snapshot off
nfs.ipv6.enable off
nfs.kerberos.enable off
nfs.locking.check_domain on
nfs.max_num_aux_groups 32
nfs.mount_rootonly on
nfs.mountd.trace off
nfs.netgroup.strict off
nfs.notify.carryover on
nfs.ntacl_display_permissive_perms off
nfs.per_client_stats.enable off
nfs.require_valid_mapped_uid off
nfs.response.trace off
nfs.response.trigger 60
nfs.tcp.enable on
nfs.thin_prov.ejuke off
nfs.udp.enable on
nfs.udp.xfersize 32768
nfs.v2.df_2gb_lim off
nfs.v3.enable on
nfs.v4.acl.enable off
nfs.v4.enable on
nfs.v4.id.domain mydomain.com
nfs.v4.read_delegation off
nfs.v4.setattr_acl_preserve off
nfs.v4.write_delegation off
nfs.webnfs.enable off
nfs.webnfs.rootdir XXX
nfs.webnfs.rootdir.set off
While you are at it, it is useful to enable stats to be collected on per client basis:
netapp> options nfs.per_client_stats.enable on
netapp> options nfs
nfs.acache.persistence.enabled on
nfs.assist.queue.limit 40
nfs.export.allow_provisional_access on
nfs.export.auto-update on
nfs.export.exportfs_comment_on_delete on
nfs.export.harvest.timeout 1800
nfs.export.neg.timeout 3600
nfs.export.pos.timeout 36000
nfs.export.resolve.timeout 6
nfs.hide_snapshot off
nfs.ipv6.enable off
nfs.kerberos.enable off
nfs.locking.check_domain on
nfs.max_num_aux_groups 32
nfs.mount_rootonly on
nfs.mountd.trace off
nfs.netgroup.strict off
nfs.notify.carryover on
nfs.ntacl_display_permissive_perms off
nfs.per_client_stats.enable on
nfs.require_valid_mapped_uid off
nfs.response.trace off
nfs.response.trigger 60
nfs.tcp.enable on
nfs.thin_prov.ejuke off
nfs.udp.enable on
nfs.udp.xfersize 32768
nfs.v2.df_2gb_lim off
nfs.v3.enable on
nfs.v4.acl.enable off
nfs.v4.enable on
nfs.v4.id.domain mydomain.com
nfs.v4.read_delegation off
nfs.v4.setattr_acl_preserve off
nfs.v4.write_delegation off
nfs.webnfs.enable off
nfs.webnfs.rootdir XXX
nfs.webnfs.rootdir.set off
As you can see there are many NFS tunables on in Ontap, so you may experiment with them to get better performance, out of whcich nfs.v4.read_delegation and nfs.v4.write delegation may be interesting to help with the performance. Also don’t forget to mount shares on your client with appropriate mount options to use NFS v4:
Solaris:
# mount -o vers=4 192.168.1.200:/vol/myvol /mnt/myvol
Linux:
# mount -t nfs4 192.168.1.200:/vol/myvol /mnt/myvol
Some interesting articles on tuning network parameters for faster transfers can be found here http://www.psc.edu/networking/projects/tcptune/ and here http://fasterdata.es.net/TCP-tuning//tcp-wan-perf.pdf. Good overview on NFS and list of client mount options can be found here http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/nfs.htm
