The NetApp Manageability SDK (formerly Manage ONTAP SDK) delivers enterprise readiness by enabling seamless integration of NetApp solutions with the customer solution. You can achieve this by using the Data ONTAP APIs for security management, license management, backup and recovery, data replication, data archiving, and so on (see the figure below).

Which interface should you use?
Version Matrix lists the supported Data ONTAP API for each version of Data ONTAP, and the associated NetApp Manageability SDK, along with the Windows RPC compatibility.
7-Mode API documentation is used to access and manage NetApp storage systems. These are a proprietary set of APIs that includes APIs for security management, license management, backup and recovery, data replication, data archiving, and so on.
C-Mode API documentation is used to access and manage NetApp storage systems that exist in a cluster.
Vserver-API documentation is used to access Vservers and the Vserver-owned objects, such as volumes and protocol services.
Sample Codes can be used to retrieve information about various NetApp storage system features, such as qtrees, quotas, volumes, LUNs, Snapshot copies, SnapMirror, and so on.
Utility Sample Codes are used to demonstrate the use of operating system API calls.