Google Cloud NetApp Volumes MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (GCNV) resources through AI assistants such as Gemini CLI, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible clients.

Supported Resources

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher

• A Google Cloud project with the NetApp Volumes API enabled

• Google Cloud authentication credentials (see Authentication)

Quick Start

Run the published package directly (no local build required):

npx gcnv-mcp-server@latest --transport stdio

Or install via the Gemini CLI extension workflow:

# 1. Authenticate
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login

# 2. Install the extension
gemini extension install <repository-url>

# 3. Verify
gemini mcp list

Gemini automatically starts the MCP server when a linked extension needs it. No manual npm start is required for normal usage.

Authentication

The server uses Google Cloud credentials to authenticate API requests. Configure one of the following before invoking any tool:

• Application Default Credentials (recommended)

gcloud auth application-default login

• Service account key file

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=/path/to/key.json

Transport Modes

The server supports stdio (default) and HTTP/SSE transports.

Stdio (default)

Used automatically by Gemini CLI and other stdio-based MCP clients.

npm start                          # default stdio
npm run start:stdio                # explicit

HTTP/SSE

For web-based MCP clients or remote access.

npm run start:http                 # port 3000
npm start -- -t http -p 8080       # custom port

HTTP endpoint: http://localhost:<port>/message

Tool Reference

Storage Pool Tools

Service level guidance:

• FLEX -- Smaller minimums, broader region availability, independent performance scaling. Minimum: 1024 GiB (FILE/UNIFIED) or 6144 GiB (UNIFIED large capacity).

• STANDARD / PREMIUM / EXTREME -- Classic tiers with fixed performance-to-capacity ratio. Minimum: 2048 GiB.

• serviceLevel is accepted case-insensitively (e.g. flex or FLEX).

• FLEX pools in a region-level location require both zone and replicaZone; zone-level locations satisfy this automatically.

• storagePoolType accepts FILE or UNIFIED; UNIFIED is only available for FLEX.

• scaleType: only set to SCALE_TYPE_SCALEOUT when creating a large capacity FLEX UNIFIED pool. Omit for all other pools (defaults to SCALE_TYPE_DEFAULT).

Volume Tools

iSCSI notes: Protocols must be ["ISCSI"] only (no mixing). Requires hostGroup or hostGroups. Optional blockDevice object with identifier, osType (LINUX / WINDOWS / ESXI), and sizeGib.

Large capacity volumes: Some workloads require larger volumes and higher throughput, which can be achieved by using the large capacity volume option for these service levels. Large capacity volumes provide six storage endpoints (IP addresses) to load-balance client traffic to the volume and deliver higher performance.

• FLEX Unified: Large capacity volumes can be sized between 4.8 TiB and 2.48 PiB, or up to 20 PiB with auto-tiering, in increments of 1 GiB, and deliver throughput performance of up to 22 GiBps. The FLEX storage pool must be created with scaleType: SCALE_TYPE_SCALEOUT; non-scale-out FLEX pools cannot host large capacity volumes. When largeCapacityConstituentCount is explicitly set, the minimum drops to 2.4 TiB (2,400 GiB) — FLEX Unified only. When largeCapacityConstituentCount is omitted, the 4.8 TiB (4,916 GiB) floor applies.

• Premium and Extreme: Large capacity volumes can be sized between 15 TiB and 3 PiB in increments of 1 GiB, and deliver throughput performance of up to 30 GiBps.

A large capacity volume is internally composed of several constituent volumes (FlexVols) distributed across the pool's storage aggregates. On gcnv_volume_create you can optionally pass largeCapacityConstituentCount to control how many constituents the volume is built from:

• Minimum: 2.

• Default (when omitted): chosen by the backend based on the active deployment layout.

• The constituent count must be chosen at create time and cannot be changed later.

SMB attributes: When protocols includes SMB, gcnv_volume_create accepts optional SMB feature flags that map to the smbSettings field on the volume:

• smbEncryptData: true → ENCRYPT_DATA (require SMB encryption in flight)

• smbHideShare: true → NON_BROWSABLE (hide the share from browse lists)

• smbAccessBasedEnumeration: true → ACCESS_BASED_ENUMERATION (ABE) — controls the visibility of files and folders based on the permissions assigned to the user

• smbContinuouslyAvailable: true → CONTINUOUSLY_AVAILABLE (CA share for SQL Server / FSLogix; choice is permanent on the volume)

• smbSettings: ["OPLOCKS", ...] — additional API enum values; merged with the booleans above. Do not pass SMB_SETTINGS_UNSPECIFIED; BROWSABLE and NON_BROWSABLE (or BROWSABLE together with smbHideShare) are rejected. NON_BROWSABLE and CONTINUOUSLY_AVAILABLE together (or smbHideShare with smbContinuouslyAvailable) are also rejected — CA shares must be browsable.

These flags require protocols to include SMB. CONTINUOUSLY_AVAILABLE is not supported on FLEX storage pools — the request is rejected before reaching the API. Use STANDARD, PREMIUM, or EXTREME for CA shares.

Snapshot Tools

Backup Vault Tools

Backup Tools

Backup Policy Tools

Replication Tools

Replication is supported between specific region pairs (Standard/Premium/Extreme) or within the same region group (Flex). See the replication guide.

Active Directory Tools

KMS Config Tools

Quota Rule Tools

Host Group Tools

Operation Tools

Architecture

src/
  index.ts                          # Entry point (stdio + HTTP/SSE transports)
  logger.ts                         # Structured logging (pino)
  registry/
    register-tools.ts               # Tool registration
  tools/
    *-tools.ts                      # Tool definitions (Zod schemas)
    handlers/
      *-handler.ts                  # Tool implementations
  types/
    tool.ts                         # Shared TypeScript interfaces
  utils/
    netapp-client-factory.ts        # NetApp client factory with caching

Development

Build and test

npm install
npm run build          # lint + format + compile
npm test               # run all tests
npm run test:coverage  # with coverage report

Dev mode

npm run dev            # stdio via tsx
npm run dev:http       # HTTP via tsx

Adding a new tool

1. Define the tool schema in src/tools/<resource>-tools.ts

2. Implement the handler in src/tools/handlers/<resource>-handler.ts

3. Register the tool in src/registry/register-tools.ts

Pre-commit hook

npm run githooks:install   # enables lint + test on commit

Billing

Pricing is based on provisioned pool capacity, not consumed capacity. Some features (e.g. auto-tiering) add usage-based I/O charges. See the pricing page or use the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator for estimates.

License

Apache-2.0

Feedback

We'd love to hear from you. Share feedback, feature requests, or bug reports at ng-gcnv-mcp-feedback@netapp.com.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request.