ONTAP 9 Manuals ( CA08871-402 )

A reparse point is an NTFS file system object that can be optionally stored on volumes along with a file. Reparse points provide SMB clients the ability to receive enhanced or extended file system services when working with NTFS style volumes. Reparse points consist of standard tags that identify the type of reparse point, and the content of the reparse point that can be retrieved by SMB clients for further processing by the client. Of the object types available for extended file system functionality, ONTAP implements support for NTFS symbolic links and directory junction points using reparse point tags. SMB clients that cannot understand the contents of a reparse point simply ignore it and don’t provide the extended file system service that the reparse point might enable.

Directory junction points are locations within a file system directory structure that can refer to alternate locations where files are stored, either on a different path (symbolic links) or a separate storage device (widelinks). ONTAP SMB servers expose directory junction points to Windows clients as reparse points, allowing capable clients to obtain reparse point contents from ONTAP when a directory junction point is traversed. They can thereby navigate and connect to different paths or storage devices as though they were part of the same file system.

The -is-use-junctions-as-reparse-points-enabled option is enabled by default in ONTAP 9. Not all SMB clients support widelinks, so the option to enable the information is configurable on a per-protocol version basis, allowing administrators to accommodate both supported and non-supported SMB clients. In ONTAP 9.7 and later releases, you must enable the option -widelink-as-reparse-point-versions for each client protocol that accesses the share using widelinks; the default is SMB1. In earlier releases, only widelinks accessed using the default SMB1 were reported, and systems using SMB2 or SMB3 were unable to access the widelinks.