File system storage capacity and IOPS - FSx for ONTAP
Scaling SSD storage and IOPS
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File system storage capacity and IOPS

When you create an FSx for ONTAP file system, you specify the storage capacity of the SSD tier. For scale-out file systems, the storage capacity that you specify is spread evenly among the storage pools of each high-availability (HA) pair; these storage pools are called aggregates.

For each GiB of SSD storage that you provision, Amazon FSx automatically provisions 3 SSD input/output operations per second (IOPS) for the file system, up to a maximum of 160,000 SSD IOPS per file system. For scale-out file systems, your SSD IOPS are spread evenly across each of your file system's aggregates. You have the option to specify a level of provisioned SSD IOPS above the automatic 3 SSD IOPS per GiB. 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.

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Updating file system SSD storage and IOPS

When you need additional storage for the active portion of your data set, you can increase the SSD storage capacity of your Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system. Use the Amazon FSx console, Amazon FSx API, or Amazon Command Line Interface (Amazon CLI) to increase the SSD storage capacity. For more information, see Modifying SSD storage capacity and provisioned IOPS.

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 re-balance 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

Here are a few important items to consider when modifying a file system's 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 SSD storage capacity for your file system's configuration.

  • (Scale-out only) Storage capacity spread – The new storage capacity or SSD IOPS that you select for your file system is spread evenly across each of your file system's aggregates.

  • Time between increases – After modifying SSD storage capacity, provisioned IOPS, or throughput capacity on a file system, you must wait at least six hours before modifying any of these configurations on the same file system again. This is sometimes referred to as a cooldown period.

  • 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 the maximum SSD IOPS for your file system configuration.

      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 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, throughput scaling, and other maintenance activities function properly, and that there is capacity available for additional data. For scale-out file systems, this recommendation applies to both the average utilization across all of your file system's aggregates and to each individual aggregate.

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 right amount of file system SSD storage.