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

Resource	Operations
Storage Pools	create, get, list, update, delete, validate directory service
Volumes	create, get, list, update, delete
Snapshots	create, get, list, update, delete, revert
Backup Vaults	create, get, list, update, delete
Backups	create, get, list, update, delete, restore, restore files
Backup Policies	create, get, list, update, delete
Replications	create, get, list, update, delete, stop, resume, reverse direction, sync, establish peering
Active Directory	create, get, list, update, delete
KMS Configs	create, get, list, update, delete, verify, encrypt volumes
Quota Rules	create, get, list, update, delete
Host Groups	create, get, list, update, delete
Operations	get, list, cancel

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

Option	Description	Default
--transport, -t	stdio or http	stdio
--port, -p	HTTP listen port	3000

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

Tool Reference

Storage Pool Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_storage_pool_create	Create a storage pool (FLEX / STANDARD / PREMIUM / EXTREME)
gcnv_storage_pool_get	Get storage pool details
gcnv_storage_pool_list	List storage pools (supports pagination and filtering)
gcnv_storage_pool_update	Update pool capacity, description, labels, QoS, or type
gcnv_storage_pool_delete	Delete a storage pool
gcnv_storage_pool_validate_directory_service	Validate attached directory service

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

Tool	Description
gcnv_volume_create	Create a volume (NFS, SMB, or iSCSI)
gcnv_volume_get	Get volume details including mount points
gcnv_volume_list	List volumes with pagination and filtering
gcnv_volume_update	Update capacity, description, labels, export policy, tiering, backup config
gcnv_volume_delete	Delete a volume

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

Tool	Description
gcnv_snapshot_create	Create a snapshot of a volume
gcnv_snapshot_get	Get snapshot details
gcnv_snapshot_list	List snapshots for a volume
gcnv_snapshot_update	Update snapshot description or labels
gcnv_snapshot_delete	Delete a snapshot
gcnv_snapshot_revert	Revert a volume to a snapshot

Backup Vault Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_backup_vault_create	Create a backup vault (with optional retention policy)
gcnv_backup_vault_get	Get backup vault details
gcnv_backup_vault_list	List backup vaults
gcnv_backup_vault_update	Update description, labels, or retention policy
gcnv_backup_vault_delete	Delete a backup vault

Backup Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_backup_create	Create a backup from a volume or snapshot
gcnv_backup_get	Get backup details
gcnv_backup_list	List backups in a vault
gcnv_backup_update	Update backup description or labels
gcnv_backup_delete	Delete a backup
gcnv_backup_restore	Restore a backup to a volume
gcnv_backup_restore_files	Restore specific files from a backup

Backup Policy Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_backup_policy_create	Create a backup policy with daily/weekly/monthly limits
gcnv_backup_policy_get	Get backup policy details
gcnv_backup_policy_list	List backup policies
gcnv_backup_policy_update	Update backup policy settings
gcnv_backup_policy_delete	Delete a backup policy

Replication Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_replication_create	Create a volume replication
gcnv_replication_get	Get replication details
gcnv_replication_list	List replications
gcnv_replication_update	Update replication settings
gcnv_replication_delete	Delete a replication
gcnv_replication_stop	Stop an active replication
gcnv_replication_resume	Resume a stopped replication
gcnv_replication_reverse_direction	Reverse replication direction
gcnv_replication_sync	Trigger an on-demand replication sync
gcnv_replication_establish_peering	Establish peering for cross-region replication

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

Active Directory Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_active_directory_create	Create an Active Directory configuration
gcnv_active_directory_get	Get Active Directory details
gcnv_active_directory_list	List Active Directory configurations
gcnv_active_directory_update	Update Active Directory settings
gcnv_active_directory_delete	Delete an Active Directory configuration

KMS Config Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_kms_config_create	Create a KMS configuration
gcnv_kms_config_get	Get KMS config details
gcnv_kms_config_list	List KMS configurations
gcnv_kms_config_update	Update KMS config settings
gcnv_kms_config_delete	Delete a KMS configuration
gcnv_kms_config_verify	Verify a KMS configuration
gcnv_kms_config_encrypt_volumes	Encrypt volumes with a KMS config

Quota Rule Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_quota_rule_create	Create a quota rule for a volume
gcnv_quota_rule_get	Get quota rule details
gcnv_quota_rule_list	List quota rules
gcnv_quota_rule_update	Update a quota rule
gcnv_quota_rule_delete	Delete a quota rule

Host Group Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_host_group_create	Create a host group (iSCSI initiator group)
gcnv_host_group_get	Get host group details
gcnv_host_group_list	List host groups
gcnv_host_group_update	Update a host group
gcnv_host_group_delete	Delete a host group

Operation Tools

Tool	Description
gcnv_operation_get	Get details of a long-running operation
gcnv_operation_list	List operations with filtering and pagination
gcnv_operation_cancel	Cancel an in-progress operation

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.