No, it is not obligatory that the NetApp cluster is joined to a domain Domain X is under the administration of the end customer and you do not have direct access to it, but have administrative access ...No, it is not obligatory that the NetApp cluster is joined to a domain Domain X is under the administration of the end customer and you do not have direct access to it, but have administrative access to the Windows vms and manage them It is best practice to join the SVM to the domain This would allow the Windows VMs to authenticate against the domain when accessing the shares