Managing storage type - Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
How to update storage type
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Managing storage type

FSx for Windows File Server offers solid state drive (SSD) and magnetic hard disk drive (HDD) storage types. SSD storage is designed for the highest-performance and most latency-sensitive workloads, including databases, media processing workloads, and data analytics applications. HDD storage is designed for a broad spectrum of workloads—including home directories, user and departmental file shares, and content management systems.

You can change your file system storage type from HDD to SSD using the Amazon FSx console or Amazon FSx API. You can't change your file system storage type from SSD to HDD. Keep in mind that you can't update your file system configuration again until 6 hours after the last update was requested, or until the storage optimization process is complete—whichever time is longer. Storage optimization can take between a few hours and a few days to complete. To minimize this time, we recommend updating your storage type when there is minimal traffic on your file system.

You can also change your file system storage type from HDD to SSD by restoring an available backup to create a new file system and selecting a new storage type. For more information, see Restoring backups.

How to update storage type

You can update a file system's storage type using the Amazon FSx console, the Amazon CLI, or the Amazon FSx API.

  1. Open the Amazon FSx console at https://console.amazonaws.cn/fsx/.

  2. Navigate to File systems and choose the Windows file system that you want to update the storage type for.

  3. Under Actions, choose Update storage type. Or, in the Summary panel, select the Update button next to HDD. The Update storage type window appears.

    Console screenshot showing the Update storage type panel.

  4. For Desired storage type, choose SSD. Choose Update to initiate the storage type update.

  5. You can monitor the update progress on the File systems detail page, on the Updates tab.

To update storage type for an FSx for Windows File Server file system, use the Amazon CLI command update-file-system. Set the following parameters:

  • --file-system-id to the ID of the file system that you want to update.

  • --storage-type to SSD. You can't switch from SSD storage type to HDD storage type.

You can monitor the progress of the update by using the Amazon CLI command describe-file-systems. Look for the administrative-actions in the output.

For more information, see AdministrativeAction.

Monitoring storage type updates

You can monitor the progress of a storage type update using the Amazon FSx console, the API, or the Amazon CLI.

Monitoring updates in the console

On the Updates tab in the File system details window, you can view the 10 most recent updates for each update type.

Console screen shot showing recent updates list.

For storage type updates, you can view the following information.

Update type

Possible value is Storage type.

Target value

SSD

Status

The current status of the update. For storage type updates, the possible values are as follows:

  • Pending – Amazon FSx received the update request, but has not started processing it.

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

  • Updated optimizing – The SSD storage performance is available for your workload's write operations. Your update will enter an Updated optimizing state, which typically lasts a few hours, during which your workload's read operations will have performance levels between HDD and SSD. Once your update action is complete, your new SSD performance is available for both reads and writes.

  • Completed – The storage type update completed successfully.

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

Progress %

Displays the progress of the storage optimization process by the percentage that's complete.

Request time

The time that Amazon FSx received the update action request.

Monitoring updates with the Amazon CLI and API

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