Thanks for taking time and responding, but I dont think I made myself clear on my question. I am not looking for the differecences between node scope or svm. I am trying to understand why Commvault recommends "data port(for example, e0A, or e0B), instead of using the management port (for example, e0M)." and NetApp recommends "Ensure that the firewall policy is enabled for NDMP on the intercluster, cluster-management (cluster-mgmt), and node-management (node-mgmt) LIFs" NetApp and Commvault reference link above.