Beginning with ONTAP 9.7, the non-volatile memory express (NVMe) protocol is available for SAN environments. FC-NVMe uses the same physical setup and zoning practice as traditional FC networks but allows for greater bandwidth, increased IOPs and reduced latency than FC-SCSI.

NVMe support and limitations vary based on your version of ONTAP, your platform and your configuration.

Configuration

You can set up your NVMe configuration with single nodes or HA pairs using a single fabric or multifabric.
You should configure one management LIF for every SVM supporting SAN.
The use of heterogeneous FC switch fabrics is not supported, except in the case of embedded blade switches.
Cascade, partial mesh, full mesh, core-edge, and director fabrics are all industry-standard methods of connecting FC switches to a fabric, and all are supported.

A fabric can consist of one or multiple switches, and the storage controllers can be connected to multiple switches.

Features

The following NVMe features are supported based on your version of ONTAP.

Beginning with ONTAP…	NVMe supports
9.12.1	4-node MetroCluster IP configurations on NVMe/FC. MetroCluster configurations are not supported for NVMe prior to 9.12.1. MetroCluster configurations are not supported on NVMe/TCP.
9.10.1	Resizing a namespace
9.9.1	Namespaces and LUNs coexistence on the same volume.
9.8	Protocol co-existence SCSI, NAS and NVMe protocols can exist on the same storage virtual machine (SVM). Prior to ONTAP 9.8, NVMe can be the only protocol on the SVM.
prior to 9.7	512 byte blocks and 4096 byte blocks for namespaces 4096 is the default value. 512 should only be used if the host operating system does not support 4096 byte blocks. Volume move with mapped namespaces Multipath HA pair failover/giveback.

Protocols

The following NVMe protocols are supported.

Protocol	Beginning with ONTAP…	Allowed by…
TCP	ONTAP 9.10.1	Default
FCP	ONTAP 9.7	Default

Protocol

Beginning with ONTAP…

Allowed by…

TCP

ONTAP 9.10.1

Default

FCP

ONTAP 9.7

Default

Beginning with ONTAP 9.8, you can configure SCSI, NAS and NVMe protocols on the same storage virtual machine (SVM). In ONTAP 9.7 and earlier, NVMe can be the only protocol on the SVM.

Platforms and nodes per cluster

NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP protocols are supported as follows.

NVME/FC is supported on the platforms listed below with 32GB FC HBAs.

Beginning with ONTAP…	Platforms	Max nodes per cluster
9.12.1	ETERNUS HX ETERNUS AX All SAN Array (ASA) platforms	12
9.9.1	ETERNUS AX ASA	4
9.7	ETERNUS AX series only	4

Namespaces

When working with NVMe namespaces, you should be aware of the following:

If you lose data in a LUN, it cannot be restored from a namespace, or vice versa.
The space guarantee for namespaces is the same as the space guarantee of the containing volume.
Namespaces do not support the following:
- Renaming
  
  You cannot rename a namespace.
- Inter-volume move
- Inter-volume copy
- Copy on Demand

Additional limitations

The following ONTAP features are not supported by NVMe configurations:

Sync
Virtual Storage Console