CDOT Tip #10: CDOT 8.3.1 Features

8.3.1 has a big payload for a minor release and will be out early fall. Here are the Top 10 you care about!

1. AFF Performance improvements: Reads are 600-900us faster over 8.3.1 from re-engineering the IO path for SSD’s.  
2. All Flash FAS Configuration
1. Inline compression always-on by default, with same performance as 8.3 without compression
2. Zero block detection and dedupe by default
3. SVM DR (Storage Virtual Machine Disaster Recovery)
1. This replicates an entire vserver from one cluster to another, including exports, IPs, etc, allow for easy failover to DR site.  Think SnapMirror for vservers!
2. Automated change management, automated setup and provisioning. 
3. Retains CIFS shares, NFS exports, permissions, names, data, network config, certificates, QOS policies, and much more.
4. Additional CDOT MetroCluster configurations, including AFF, FlashPool, and 200km stretch
5. Cluster Peering Enhancements: This enables CDOT to snapmirror or SVM DR to multiple other clusters in multiple IPspaces.
6. Encryption for Cloud ONTAP, a CDOT virtual instance available in AWS or Azure.
7. Foreign LUN Import enhancement: reduces downtime required to migrate LUNs onto NetApp by mirroring dataset and redirecting traffic.
8. Upgrades to built-in system manager, including AFF-specific changes, enabling ONTAP upgrades from the GUI, and easier network config.
9. Usability enhancements:
1. Enhancements for audit log management
2. Support of LDAP and NIS user authentication for cluster access 
3. Support for the banner and Message of the Day (MOTD)
4. New FlashPool caching policies
5. Automated Workload Analyzer (AWA) volume-level reporting to predict the impact of larger FlashPool/FlashCache.
10. Protocol enhancements:
1. Support for dynamic DNS
2. Support for Windows NFSv3 clients
3. Support for SMB encryption for data transfers over SMB
4. Support for configuring a guest UNIX user
5. Support for mapping the administrators group to root
6. Enhancements to SQL Server and Hyper-V over SMB solutions

Read more at 8.3.1 release notes: https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_get_file/ECMP12456155