Updating SSD storage capacity and IOPS - FSx for ONTAP
Considerations when updating storage and IOPSWhen to increase SSD storageHow to update SSD storage capacity and provisioned IOPSMonitoring storage capacity and IOPS updatesIncreasing storage capacity dynamically

Updating SSD storage capacity and IOPS

When you need additional storage for the active portion of your data set, you can increase the solid state drive (SSD) storage capacity of your Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system. Use the Amazon FSx console, Amazon FSx API, or AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to increase the SSD storage capacity.

When you increase the SSD storage capacity of your Amazon FSx file system, the new capacity is typically available for use within minutes. You are billed for the new SSD storage capacity after it becomes available to you. For more information about pricing, see Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP Pricing.

After you increase your storage capacity, Amazon FSx runs a storage-optimization process in the background to rebalance your data. For most file systems, storage optimization takes a few hours, with minimal noticeable impact to your workload performance.

You can track the progress of the storage-optimization process at any time by using the Amazon FSx console, CLI, and API. For more information, see Monitoring storage capacity and IOPS updates.

Considerations when updating storage and IOPS

Here are a few important items to consider when modifying SSD storage capacity and provisioned IOPS:

  • Storage capacity increase only – You can only increase the amount of SSD storage capacity for a file system; you can't decrease the storage capacity.

  • Storage capacity minimum increase – Each SSD storage capacity increase must be a minimum of 10 percent of the file system's current SSD storage capacity, up to the maximum allowed value of 196,608 gibibytes (GiB).

  • Time between increases – You can't make additional SSD storage capacity increases on a file system until 6 hours after the last increase was requested, or until the storage-optimization process has finished, whichever time is longer.

  • Provisioned IOPS modes – For a provisioned IOPS change, you must specify one of the two IOPS modes:

    • Automatic mode – Amazon FSx automatically scales your SSD IOPS to maintain 3 provisioned SSD IOPS per GiB of SSD storage capacity, up to 160,000 SSD IOPS per file system.

      Note

      For more information about the maximum number of SSD IOPS that you can provision for your FSx for ONTAP file system, see Impact of throughput capacity on performance.

    • User-provisioned mode – You specify the number of SSD IOPS, which must be greater than or equal to 3 IOPS per GiB of SSD storage capacity. If you choose to provision a higher level of IOPS, you pay for the average IOPS provisioned above your included rate for the month, measured in IOPS-months.

For more information about pricing, see Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP Pricing.

When to increase a file system's SSD storage capacity

If you're running out of available SSD tier storage, we recommend that you increase the storage capacity of your file system. Running out of storage indicates that your SSD tier is undersized for the active portion of your data set.

To monitor the amount of free storage that's available on the file system, use the file system-level StorageCapacity and StorageUsed Amazon CloudWatch metrics. You can create a CloudWatch alarm on a metric and be notified when it drops below a specific threshold. For more information, see Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch.

Note

We recommend that you don't exceed 80% SSD storage capacity utilization to ensure that data tiering functions properly, and that there is capacity available for additional data.

For more information about how a file system's SSD storage is used and how much SSD storage is reserved for file metadata and operating software, see Choosing the amount of SSD storage capacity.

How to update SSD storage capacity and provisioned IOPS

You can modify the amount of SSD-based storage for a file system and modify the amount of provisioned SSD IOPS by using the Amazon FSx console, the AWS CLI, and the API.

  1. Open the Amazon FSx console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose File systems. In the File systems list, select the FSx for ONTAP file system that you want to update SSD storage capacity and SSD IOPS for.

  3. Choose Actions > Update storage capacity. Or, in the Summary section, choose Update next to the file system's SSD storage capacity value.

    The Update SSD storage capacity and IOPS dialog box appears.

    Console image showing the Update SSD storage capacity and IOPS dialog box.

  4. To increase SSD storage capacity, choose Modify storage capacity.

  5. For Input type, choose one of the following:

    • To enter the new SSD storage capacity as a percentage change from the current value, choose Percentage.

    • To enter the new value in GiB, choose Absolute.

  6. Depending on the input type, enter a value for Desired % increase.

    • For Percentage, enter the percentage increase value. This value must be at least 10 percent greater than the current value.

    • For Absolute, enter the new value in GiB, up to the maximum allowed value of 196,608 GiB.

  7. For Provisioned SSD IOPS, you have two options to modify the number of provisioned SSD IOPS for your file system:

    • If you want Amazon FSx to automatically scale your SSD IOPS to maintain 3 provisioned SSD IOPS per GiB of SSD storage capacity (up to a maximum of 160,000), choose Automatic.

    • If you want to specify the number of SSD IOPS, choose User-provisioned. Enter an absolute number of IOPS that's at least three times the amount of GiB of your SSD storage tier, and less than or equal to 160,000.

    Note

    For more information about the maximum number of SSD IOPS that you can provision for your FSx for ONTAP file system, see Impact of throughput capacity on performance.

  8. Choose Update.

To update the SSD storage capacity and provisioned IOPS for an FSx for ONTAP file system, use the AWS CLI command update-file-system. Set the following parameters:

  • Set --file-system-id to the ID of the file system that you are updating.

  • To increase your SSD storage capacity, set --storage-capacity to a value that's at least 10 percent greater than the current value.

  • To modify your provisioned SSD IOPS, use the --ontap-configuration DiskIopsConfiguration property. This property has two parameters, Iops and Mode:

    • If you want to specify the number of provisioned IOPS, use Iops=number_of_IOPS (up to a maximum of 160,000) and Mode=USER_PROVISIONED. The IOPS value must be greater than or equal to three times the requested SSD storage capacity. If you're not increasing the storage capacity, the IOPs value must be greater than or equal to three times the current SSD storage capacity.

    • If you want Amazon FSx to automatically increase your SSD IOPS, use Mode=AUTOMATIC and don't use the Iops parameter. Amazon FSx will automatically maintain 3 provisioned SSD IOPS per GiB of your SSD storage capacity (up to a maximum of 160,000).

    Note

    For more information about the maximum number of SSD IOPS that you can provision for your FSx for ONTAP file system, see Impact of throughput capacity on performance.

The following example requests an increase of 2000 GiB to the file system's SSD storage capacity. It also requests 7000 provisioned SSD IOPS.

aws fsx update-file-system \
    --file-system-id fs-0123456789abcdef0 \
    --storage-capacity 2000 \
    --ontap-configuration 'DiskIopsConfiguration={Iops=7000,Mode=USER_PROVISIONED}'

To monitor the progress of the update, use the describe-file-systems AWS CLI command. Look for the AdministrativeActions section in the output.

For more information, see AdministrativeAction in the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP API Reference.

Monitoring storage capacity and IOPS updates

You can monitor the progress of an SSD storage capacity and IOPS update by using the Amazon FSx console, the API, or the AWS CLI.

Monitoring updates in the console

In the Updates tab on the File system details page for your FSx for ONTAP file system, you can view the 10 most recent updates for each update type.

A recent updates list for a file system as it appears in the Console.

For SSD storage capacity and IOPS updates, you can view the following information:

Update type

Supported types are Storage capacity, Mode, and IOPS. The Mode and IOPS values are listed for all storage capacity and IOPS scaling requests.

Target value

The value that you specified to update the file system's SSD storage capacity or IOPS to.

Status

The current status of the update. The possible values are as follows:

  • Pending – Amazon FSx received the update request, but hasn't started processing it.

  • In progress – Amazon FSx is processing the update request.

  • Updated; Optimizing – Amazon FSx increased the file system's SSD storage capacity. The storage-optimization process is now rebalancing your data in the background.

  • Completed – The update finished successfully.

  • Failed – The update request failed. Choose the question mark (?) to see details.

Progress %

Displays the progress of the storage-optimization process as the percentage complete.

Request time

The time that Amazon FSx received the update action request.

Monitoring increases with the AWS CLI and API

You can view and monitor file system SSD storage capacity increase requests by using the describe-file-systems AWS CLI command and the DescribeFileSystems API operation. The AdministrativeActions array lists the 10 most recent update actions for each administrative action type. When you increase a file system's SSD storage capacity, two AdministrativeActions actions are generated: a FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE and a STORAGE_OPTIMIZATION action.

The following example shows an excerpt of the response of a describe-file-systems CLI command. The file system has a pending administrative action to increase the SSD storage capacity to 2000 GiB and the provisioned SSD IOPS to 7000.

"AdministrativeActions": [
    {
        "AdministrativeActionType": "FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE",
        "RequestTime": 1586797629.095,
        "Status": "PENDING",
        "TargetFileSystemValues": {
            "StorageCapacity": 2000,
            "OntapConfiguration": {
                "DiskIopsConfiguration": {
                    "Mode": "USER_PROVISIONED",
                    "Iops": 7000
                }
             }
        }
    },
    {
        "AdministrativeActionType": "STORAGE_OPTIMIZATION",
        "RequestTime": 1586797629.095,
        "Status": "PENDING"
    }
]

Amazon FSx processes the FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE action first, adding the new larger storage disks to the file system. When the new storage is available to the file system, the FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE status changes to UPDATED_OPTIMIZING. The storage capacity shows the new larger value, and Amazon FSx begins processing the STORAGE_OPTIMIZATION administrative action. This behavior is shown in the following excerpt of the response of a describe-file-systems CLI command.

The ProgressPercent property displays the progress of the storage-optimization process. After the storage-optimization process has completed successfully, the status of the FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE action changes to COMPLETED, and the STORAGE_OPTIMIZATION action no longer appears.

"AdministrativeActions": [
    {
        "AdministrativeActionType": "FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE",
        "RequestTime": 1586799169.445,
        "Status": "UPDATED_OPTIMIZING",
        "TargetFileSystemValues": {
            "StorageCapacity": 2000,
            "OntapConfiguration": {
                "DiskIopsConfiguration": {
                    "Mode": "USER_PROVISIONED",
                    "Iops": 7000
                }
            }
        }
    },
    {
        "AdministrativeActionType": "STORAGE_OPTIMIZATION",
        "ProgressPercent": 41,
        "RequestTime": 1586799169.445,
        "Status": "IN_PROGRESS"
    }
]

If the storage capacity or IOPS update request fails, the status of the FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE action changes to FAILED, as shown in the following example. The FailureDetails property provides information about the failure.

"AdministrativeActions": [
    {
        "AdministrativeActionType": "FILE_SYSTEM_UPDATE",
        "RequestTime": 1586373915.697,
        "Status": "FAILED",
        "TargetFileSystemValues": {
            "StorageCapacity": 2000,
            "OntapConfiguration": {
                "DiskIopsConfiguration": {
                    "Mode": "USER_PROVISIONED",
                    "Iops": 7000
                }
            }
        },
        "FailureDetails": {
            "Message": "failure-message"
        }
    }
]

Increasing SSD storage capacity dynamically

You can use the following solution to dynamically increase the SSD storage capacity of an FSx for ONTAP file system when the amount of used SSD storage capacity exceeds a threshold that you specify. This AWS CloudFormation template automatically deploys all of the components that are required to define the storage capacity threshold, the Amazon CloudWatch alarm based on this threshold, and the AWS Lambda function that increases the file system’s storage capacity.

The solution automatically deploys all of the components needed, and uses the following parameters:

  • Your FSx for ONTAP file system ID.

  • The used SSD storage capacity threshold (numerical value). This is the percentage at which the CloudWatch alarm will be triggered.

  • The percentage by which to increase the storage capacity (%).

  • The email address used to receive scaling notifications.

Architecture overview

Deploying this solution builds the following resources in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture diagram of the solution to automatically increase the storage capacity of an FSx for ONTAP file system.

The diagram illustrates the following steps:

  1. The AWS CloudFormation template deploys a CloudWatch alarm, an AWS Lambda function, an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) queue, and all required AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles. The IAM role gives the Lambda function permission to invoke the Amazon FSx API operations.

  2. CloudWatch triggers an alarm when the file system’s used storage capacity exceeds the specified threshold, and sends a message to the Amazon SNS queue. An alarm is triggered only when the file system’s used capacity exceeds the threshold continuously for a 5-minute period.

  3. The solution then triggers the Lambda function that is subscribed to this Amazon SNS topic.

  4. The Lambda function calculates the new file system storage capacity based on the specified percent increase value and sets the new file system storage capacity.

  5. The original CloudWatch alarm state and results of the Lambda function operations are sent to the Amazon SNS queue.

To receive notifications about the actions that are performed as a response to the CloudWatch alarm, you must confirm the Amazon SNS topic subscription by following the link provided in the Subscription Confirmation email.

AWS CloudFormation template

This solution uses AWS CloudFormation to automate deploying the components that are used to automatically increase the storage capacity of an FSx for ONTAP file system. To use this solution, download the FSxOntapDynamicStorageScaling AWS CloudFormation template.

The template uses the Parameters described as follows. Review the template parameters and their default values, and modify them for the needs of your file system.

FileSystemId

No default value. The ID of the file system for which you want to automatically increase the storage capacity.

LowFreeDataStorageCapacityThreshold

No default value. Specifies the used storage capacity threshold at which to trigger an alarm and automatically increase the file system's storage capacity, specified in percentage (%) of the file system's current storage capacity. The file system is considered to have low free storage capacity when the used storage exceeds this threshold.

EmailAddress

No default value. Specifies the email address to use for the SNS subscription and receives the storage capacity threshold alerts.

PercentIncrease

Default is 20%. Specifies the amount by which to increase the storage capacity, expressed as a percentage of the current storage capacity.

Note

Storage scaling is attempted once every time the CloudWatch alarm enters the ALARM state. If your SSD storage capacity utilization remains above the threshold after a storage scaling operation is attempted, the storage scaling operation isn't attempted again.

MaxFSxSizeinGiB

Default is 196608. Specifies the maximum supported storage capacity for the SSD storage.

Automated deployment with AWS CloudFormation

The following procedure configures and deploys an AWS CloudFormation stack to automatically increase the storage capacity of an FSx for ONTAP file system. It takes a few minutes to deploy. For more information about creating a CloudFormation stack, see Creating a stack on the AWS CloudFormation console in the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.

Note

Implementing this solution incurs billing for the associated AWS services. For more information, see the pricing details pages for those services.

Before you start, you must have the ID of the Amazon FSx file system that's running in the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) in your AWS account. For more information about creating Amazon FSx resources, see Getting started with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

To launch the automatic storage capacity increase solution stack

  1. Download the FSxOntapDynamicStorageScaling AWS CloudFormation template.

    Note

    Amazon FSx is currently only available in specific AWS Regions. You must launch this solution in an AWS Region where Amazon FSx is available. For more information, see Amazon FSx endpoints and quotas in the AWS General Reference.

  2. From the AWS CloudFormation console, choose Create stack > With new resources.

  3. Choose Template is ready. In the Specify template section, choose Upload a template file and upload the template that you downloaded.

  4. In Specify stack details, enter the values for your automatic storage capacity increase solution.

    The values entered for the Specify stack details page for the CloudFormation template

  5. Enter a Stack name.

  6. For Parameters, review the parameters for the template and modify them to meet the needs of your file system. Then choose Next.

    Note

    To receive email notifications when scaling is attempted by this CloudFormation template, confirm the SNS subscription email that you receive after deploying the template.

  7. Enter the Options settings that you want for your custom solution, and then choose Next.

  8. For Review, review and confirm the solution settings. You must select the check box acknowledging that the template creates IAM resources.

  9. Choose Create to deploy the stack.

You can view the status of the stack in the AWS CloudFormation console in the Status column. You should see a status of CREATE_COMPLETE in a few minutes.

Updating the stack

After the stack is created, you can update it by using the same template and providing new values for the parameters. For more information, see Updating stacks directly in the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.