What is the purpose of an initiator group (igroups) in NetApp ONTAP?

• A. To group host initiators for mapping LUNs to hosts.
• B. To manage export policies for NFS.
• C. To configure disk shelf settings.
• D. To define SMB shares.

Answer: (A)

The idea behind an initiator group is to group the host initiators that will access those LUNs. In NetApp ONTAP, a LUN is presented to storage clients by mapping it to an initiator group, which contains the initiator identifiers (IQNs for iSCSI or WWPNs for Fibre Channel). By organizing hosts into an igroup, you define who is allowed to see and access the LUNs in that group, providing a simple way to apply access control (LUN masking) and manage multi-host access. If a host’s initiator isn’t in the group, it won’t access the mapped LUNs; adding or removing initiators from the group changes who can access those LUNs. The other options correspond to NFS export policies, hardware shelf settings, or SMB shares, which are unrelated to how LUN access is controlled.