How you edit configuration files

Data ONTAP does not include an editor. You cannot edit files by using the system console or by establishing a Telnet session to the storage system. You must use an editor from an NFS client or a CIFS client to edit storage system configuration files.

Data ONTAP requires that the following configuration files be terminated with a carriage return. When you edit these files, be sure to insert a carriage return after the last entry:

/etc/passwd
/etc/group
/etc/netgroup
/etc/shadow

Attention: When you configure Data ONTAP, it creates some files that you should not edit. The following configuration files should not be edited:

cifsconfig.cfg
cifssec.cfg
lclgroups.cfg
filesid.cfg
sysconfigtab
registry.*

The following table provides the hard limits for some of the configuration files in the /etc directory.

File name	Limits
/etc/exports	Maximum entry size of 4,096 characters. Maximum number of entries are 10,240.
/etc/group	Maximum line size of 256 characters. No file size limit.
/etc/hosts	Maximum line size is 1,022 characters. Maximum number of aliases is 34. No file size limit.
/etc/netgroup	Maximum entry size of 4,096 characters. Maximum netgroup nesting limit is 1,000. No file size limit.
/etc/passwd	Maximum line size of 256 characters. No file size limit.
/etc/resolv.conf	Maximum line size is 256. Maximum number of name servers is 3. Maximum domain name length is 256. Maximum search domains limit is 6. Total number of characters for all search domains is limited to 256. No file size limit.

Enabling an NFS client to edit configuration files
For an NFS client to edit configuration files, the client must be authorized to access the root file system.
Editing configuration files from a CIFS client
You can use a CIFS client to access the storage system’s C$ share and select a file to edit.

Parent topic: The configuration files