As part of my home Test lab I have an older pc running linux that hosts several copies of netapps filersim v7.3.6 - this is purely for functional and svenario style testing as the filersim is very slow and doesn't provide much disk space.

At this point, people familiar with the filersim will probably ask why I dont use the latest version, the vmware image of 8.x or 8.1 and there are a couple if reasons:

Firstly, i like having the filersim on a different physical piece of kit, it much more emulates a real environment where the filer sits separately from the VMWare environment its serving.

Secondly, 8.1 does away with filer view so to manage the filers means either command line or fire up another VM with system manager on it. Now, I do have a VM with System Manager but yet again its another application, another set of configuration to provide nothing useful except the latest OnTap version which is fine for when I have a need to test something against that version but most of the time I just need basic Net App storage to test out tool functionality.

Over the years of using it I have streamlined a process to give me as much disk space as possible and a fairly rapid deployment.

The process i use is as follows:

1. Copy the iso file to /tmp

2. Create a mount point with mkdir /mnt/iso

3. Mount it with mount -t -o loop /tmp/[iso name] /mnt/iso

4. Cd /mnt/iso

5. Run the setup wizard
./setup.sh
Install to /filer[number]
Cd /filer[number]
Vi ./setup.sh

6. You can have a max of 56 disks per install.
A cluster counts as one install so 28 disks each.
change maxdisks from 28 to 56 if you only want a single filer (and you can have several single filers on the same hardware allowing for snapmirror/snapvault tests with the extra disk space).

Change default disk type from a (100mb) to f (1000mb)
Save


Configuration parameters in setup.sh - click for a better image

7. Launch the filer via ./runsim.sh
Give it an ip address
Go to a web page and enter [filerip]/api
fill out the wizard go to [filerip]/na_admin

8. Logon and create a new aggregate.

9. Go to secure admin ->ssh -> generate keys -> enable ssh

10. Launch putty and ssh to filer
At the cli:

_Vol create vol0_copy aggr1 5g _
_Vol copy start vol0 vol0_copy _
_Vol options vol0_copy root _

There will be some warnings about mailboxes, ignore them.

type in halt at the cli.

11. Putty to the linux box
Cd /filer[number]/,disks
Remove the two or three 100mb disks
Rm ,reservations
Cd /filer[number]
./setup.sh

Allow setup to create as many disks as it needs to reach 56 but don't go over 56.

12. Launch the filer via ./runsim.sh
Add new disks to aggregate
Rename vol0_copy to vol0 and shrink it. 300mb should be more than enough

And that's how you get max disk space out of the ontap 7.3.x simulator- This is roughly what you'll have:


Resulting Aggregate view - click for a better image

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