The application aware data management feature provides a way to set up, manage, and monitor storage at the level of individual applications. This feature incorporates relevant ONTAP best practices to optimally provision applications, with balanced placement of storage objects based on desired performance service levels and available system resources.

The application aware data management feature includes a set of application templates, with each template consisting of a set of parameters that collectively describe the configuration of an application. These parameters, which are often preset with default values, define the characteristics that an application administrator could specify for provisioning storage on an ONTAP system, such as database sizes, service levels, protocol access elements such as LIFs as well as local protection criteria and remote protection criteria. Based on the specified parameters, ONTAP configures storage entities such as LUNs and volumes with appropriate sizes and service levels for the application.

You can perform the following tasks for your applications: