What is the purpose of a disk shelf in NetApp hardware?

• A. Disk shelves hold drives; they expand the number of disks that can be used by the controller.
• B. Disk shelves store system licenses.
• C. Disk shelves provide network connectivity.
• D. Disk shelves manage export policies.

Answer: (A)

Disk shelves are physical enclosures that hold multiple drives and attach to the NetApp controller to increase how many disks the system can use. They provide hot-swappable bays, along with power and cooling, and connect through the shelf backplane to the controller, letting you expand capacity and I/O without swapping out the controller. Licenses, network connectivity, and export policy management are handled by the software and network interfaces on the controller, not by the shelf itself. So the primary purpose is to expand disk capacity by housing additional drives for the array.