How routing in Data ONTAP works

You can have Data ONTAP route its own outbound packets to network interfaces. Although your
storage system can have multiple network interfaces, it does not function as a router. However, it can
route its outbound packets.
Data ONTAP uses two routing mechanisms:
Fast path Data ONTAP uses this mechanism to route NFS packets over UDP and to route all
TCP traffic. By default, fast path is enabled on the storage system.
Routing
table
To route IP traffic that does not use fast path, Data ONTAP uses the information
available in the local routing table. The routing table contains the routes that have
been established and are currently in use, as well as the default route specification.

How fast path works

Fast path is an alternative routing mechanism to the routing table. In fast path, the responses to
incoming network traffic are sent back by using the same interface as the incoming traffic. By
avoiding the routing table lookup, fast path provides a quick access to data.
If fast path is enabled on an interface group and a physical interface in that group receives an
incoming request, the same physical interface might not send a response to the request. Instead, any
other physical interface in an interface group can send the response.
How fast path works with NFS/UDP
NFS/UDP traffic uses fast path only when sending a reply to a request. The reply packet is sent out
on the same network interface that received the request packet.
For example, a storage system named toaster uses the toaster-e1 interface to send reply packets in
response to NFS/UDP requests received on the toaster-e1 interface.
Fast path is used only in NFS/UDP. However, fast path is not used in other UDP-based NFS services
such as portmapper, mountd, and nlm.

ow fast path works with TCP

In a TCP connection, fast path is disabled on the third retransmission and the consecutive
retransmissions of the same data packet. If Data ONTAP initiates a connection, Data ONTAP can use
fast path on every TCP packet transmitted, except the first SYN packet. The network interface that is
used to transmit a packet is the same interface that received the last packet.
50 | Network Management Guide
Fast path not compatible with asymmetric routing
In a symmetric network, the destination MAC address of the response packet is that of the router that
forwarded the incoming packet. However, in asymmetric networks, the router that forwards packets
to your storage system is not the router that forwards packets