How can I modify storage data tiering policies for my FSx for ONTAP volume using the NetApp ONTAP CLI?

Short description

You determine how your storage tiers are used by configuring each of your volume’s data tiering policies. You select the data tiering policy when you create a volume. You can modify the policy at any time using the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), the Amazon FSx API, the Amazon FSx console. Or, you can change the policy in the NetApp ONTAP CLI and API.

To modify the data tiering policy on your volume, you must meet the following prerequisites:

• The FSx for ONTAP file system is created.
• You can SSH to the file system.

For more information on available data tiering policies, see Volume data tiering.

Resolution

Connect to the FSx for ONTAP management IP through SSH

1.    Open the Amazon FSx console.

2.    Select your FSx for ONTAP file system, then select the Administration tab.

3.    Make a note of the Management endpoint IP address. You use this IP address to connect to the cluster. For a graphic illustrating where to find the management endpoint IP address, see the following:

• Managing file systems with the NetApp ONTAP CLI
• Managing SVMs using the NetApp ONTAP CLI

4.    SSH into the FSx for ONTAP cluster's management endpoint using Windows PowerShell or a Linux shell on your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance.

Note: You can reach the endpoints only from within the VPC or through an AWS Transit Gateway peered network. For more information, see Accessing data from within AWS.

ssh fsxadmin@management_IP

Example:

$ ssh fsxadmin@198.19.255.189
Password:

Last login time: 5/10/2022 08:37:30
FsxIdabcdef01234567892::>

For information on using SSH in PowerShell, see PowerShell remoting over SSH.

5.    Set the privilege level in the NetApp ONTAP CLI using the set command. Changes to privilege level settings apply only to the current session. These changes aren't persistent across sessions.

FsxIdabcdef01234567892::> set -privilege advanced

Warning: These advanced commands are potentially dangerous; use them only when directed to do so by NetApp personnel.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y

6.    Use the following command to modify the storage data tiering policies. In the following example command, replace svm_name and volume_name with the correct values for your use case.

volume modify -vserver svm_name -volume volume_name
-tiering-policy <auto|snapshot-only|all|none>

Example

FsxIdabcdef01234567892::*> volume modify -volume vol1 -vserver fsx -tiering-policy auto
Volume modify successful on volume vol1 of Vserver fsx.

Specify a minimum cooling period for auto-tiering and snapshot-only tiering policies

You can modify the tiering minimum cooling period for volumes that use the snapshot-only or auto-tiering policy. To do this, use the volume modify command with the -tiering-minimum-cooling-days optional parameter in the advanced privilege level. Specify a value between 2 and 183 for the tiering minimum cooling days. For more information, see Manage storage tiering by modifying a volume's tiering policy or tiering minimum cooling period on the NetApp website.

The following example shows the volume modify command with the -tiering-minimum-cooling-days set to 4.

FsxIdabcdef01234567892::*> volume modify -volume vol1 -vserver fsx -tiering-policy auto -tiering-minimum-cooling-days 4
  
  Volume modify successful on volume vol1 of Vserver fsx.

Note: If advanced privilege isn't set, then the following error message appears when modifying the tiering policy:

FsxIdabcdef01234567892::> volume modify -volume vol1 -vserver fsx -tiering-policy auto -tiering-minimum-cooling-days 4

Error: invalid argument "-tiering-minimum-cooling-days"

Tiering thresholds

FSx for ONTAP’s tiering functionality maintains certain thresholds that trigger when tiering starts and stops. These thresholds are relative to the used capacity of your primary storage tier.

Note: It's a best practice not to exceed 80% storage capacity utilization of your primary storage tier. To be sure that tiering functions correctly and that there's room for new data, maintain a storage capacity that's 80% or lower. If you're consistently above 80% storage capacity utilization of your primary storage tier, then update your file system's SSD storage capacity.

The following guidelines outline how tiering is handled in different utilization scenarios:

• Less than or equal to 50% primary storage tier utilization: Only volumes with the All tiering policy has data tiered to capacity pool storage. Auto and snapshot-only policies don't tier data because tiering is unnecessary when the primary storage tier is underutilized.
• Great than 50% primary storage tier utilization: Auto and snapshot-only tiering policies tier data based on the tiering minimum cooling days setting. The default tiering minimum cooling days is 31.
• Greater than or equal to 90% primary storage tier utilization: Cold data from the capacity pool tier is no longer moved into the primary storage tier for auto and snapshot-only policies when read. Keeping data in the capacity pool tier preserves space in the primary storage tier.
• Greater than or equal to 98% primary storage tier utilization: All tiering functionality stops when the primary storage tier is at or over 98% utilization.

---

Related information

Tiering policies