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

Short description

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

• You already created The FSx for ONTAP file system.
• You can connect to the file system through SSH.

Resolution

Connect to the FSx for ONTAP management endpoint IP address through SSH

1.    Open the Amazon FSx console.

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

3.    Note the Management endpoint IP address. You use this IP address to connect to the cluster. To find the management endpoint IP address, see Managing file systems with the NetApp ONTAP CLI and Managing SVMs using the NetApp ONTAP CLI.

4.     Use a Windows or Linux PowerShell on your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance to connect to the cluster's management endpoint through SSH.

Note: You can reach the endpoints only from within the virtual private cloud (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 how to use SSH in PowerShell, see PowerShell remoting over SSH on the Microsoft website.

5.    Run the set command to set the privilege level in the NetApp ONTAP CLI. Changes to the privilege level 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.    Run the following command to modify the storage data tiering policies. Replace svm_name and volume_name with your SVM and volume names.

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

For volumes that use the snapshot-only or auto-tiering policy, run the volume modify command with the -tiering-minimum-cooling-days optional parameter. Make sure that you set the privilege level to advanced. 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.

Important: If you don't set the privilege to advanced, then you receive an error when you try to change 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"`

If -tiering-minimum-cooling-days is between 2 and 183 and you don't set the privilege level to advanced, then you see the error message invalid argument "-tiering-minimum-cooling-days. Because the changes to privilege-level settings apply only to the current session, you must set the privilege level for every new session.

Don't exceed your storage capacity

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. Maintain a storage capacity that's 80% or lower so that the tiering correctly functions and there's room for new data. 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 explain 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 have data that's tiered to capacity pool storage. Auto-tiering and snapshot-only policies don't tier data because tiering isn't necessary when the primary storage tier is underutilized.
• Great than 50% primary storage tier utilization: Auto-tiering and snapshot-only policies tier data based on the tiering minimum cooling days setting. The default number of tiering minimum cooling days is 31.
• Greater than or equal to 90% primary storage tier utilization: When read, cold data from the capacity pool tier is no longer moved into the primary storage tier for auto-tiering and snapshot-only policies. Keep data in the capacity pool tier to preserve 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

Set volume tiering policy on the NetApp website.