Editing aggregate settings
You can use the Edit Aggregate dialog box to change the aggregate name, RAID type, RAID group size, and to add capacity disks and cache disks to the aggregate. You can also convert the aggregate to a Flash Pool aggregate.
Before you begin
• You must have sufficient spare disks to add additional disks to an aggregate.
About this task
• You can add SSD disks to an aggregate to convert it to a Flash Pool aggregate.
• You cannot edit a Flash Pool aggregate that has mixed RAID types for storage systems running Data ONTAP 8.2 or later.
Steps
1. From the home page, double-click the appropriate storage system.
2. Expand either the Cluster or the Nodes hierarchy in the left navigation pane.
3. In the navigation pane, click Storage > Aggregates.
4. Select the aggregate that you want to edit and click Edit.
5. In the Edit Aggregate dialog box, perform the appropriate steps:
If you want to... Do this...
Increase the storage
Specify the number of disks to add and click Save and Close.
The spare disks from the default disk group are added to all the RAID groups of the aggregate.
If you want to... Do this...
Specify which disks to use when increasing storage
a. Click Advanced, and select a disk group from the Advanced Disk Selection window.
The minimum hot spare rule is applied to the disk group that has the largest disk size. The disk count displayed in the Advanced Disk Selection window does not include the hot spare.
b. Specify the RAID group to which you want to add the disks.
You can add disks to all RAID groups or a specific RAID group, or create a new RAID group and add the disks.
• For HDDs, you cannot add disks to all RAID groups if all the parity disks of the aggregate are not equal in size (within a ten percent tolerance range). You should create a new RAID group to add the disks, or specify an existing RAID group.
• If you select a disk group with a disk size that is smaller than the selected RAID group parity disk's size, a warning message indicating a suboptimal
configuration is displayed.
You must select a disk group with a disk size that is the same as the size of the selected RAID group parity disk to create an optimal aggregate.
• If you select a disk group with a disk size that is larger than the selected RAID group parity disk's size, a warning message indicating a downsized
configuration is displayed.
You must select a disk group with a disk size that is the same as the size of the selected RAID group parity disk to create an optimal aggregate.
c. Specify the number of disks to add.
d. Click Save and Close.
6. In the Edit Aggregate dialog box, perform the following steps if you want to modify the RAID type or RAID group size:
a. Click Change.
b. In the RAID Details window, specify the required details.
c. Click Save and Close.
Result
The selected aggregate is updated with the new information. The updated information is also displayed in the Details tab of the Aggregates window.
Related references
Aggregates window on page 46
Converting an aggregate to a Flash Pool aggregate
You can convert a non-root aggregate that is composed of HDDs to a Flash Pool aggregate by adding one or more RAID groups composed of SSDs. The SSD tier functions as a high-performance cache
to the working data set, increasing the performance of the aggregate without using SSDs for the entire aggregate.
Before you begin
• All nodes in the cluster must be running Data ONTAP 8.1.1 or later.
Note: If the cluster is in a mixed-version state and some of the nodes are running Data ONTAP 8.1, you can use the command-line interface to create a Flash Pool aggregate.
• You must have identified a valid 64-bit non-root aggregate composed of HDDs to convert it to a Flash Pool aggregate.
• The aggregate must not contain any array LUNs.
• The aggregate must not provision storage to an Infinite Volume.
• You must have determined the SSDs you plan to add, and these SSDs must be owned by the node on which you are creating the Flash Pool aggregate.
About this task
You should be aware of platform-specific and workload-specific best practices for Flash Pool aggregate SSD tier size and configuration. For more information, see Technical Report 4070:
NetApp Flash Pool Design and Implementation Guide.
Steps
1. From the home page, double-click the appropriate storage system.
2. Expand either the Cluster or the Nodes hierarchy in the left navigation pane.
3. In the navigation pane, click Storage > Aggregates.
4. Select the aggregate that you want to convert to a Flash Pool aggregate and click Edit.
5. Select the option for enabling Flash Pool aggregate.
6. Specify the cache disk size and the number of SSDs that you want to add to create a Flash Pool aggregate.
The default value is the minimum number of cache disks that is required to create a RAID group.
The default number of cache disks is 3 for RAID-DP and 2 for RAID4.
7. Click Save and Close.
8. Verify the changes you made to the selected aggregate in the Details tab in the Aggregates window.
Related information
TR 4070: NetApp Flash Pool Design and Implementation Guide
Moving FlexVol volumes
You can nondisruptively move a FlexVol volume to a different aggregate or a node for capacity utilization and improved performance.
Before you begin
If you are moving a data protection volume, data protection mirror relationships must be initialized before you can move one of the volume.
About this task
When you move a volume that is hosted on a Flash Pool aggregate, only the data stored in the HDD tier is moved to the destination aggregate. The cache data associated with the volume is not moved to the destination aggregate. Therefore, some performance degradation might occur after the volume move.
If the aggregate contains Infinite Volume constituents, the wizard does not display the constituents because you cannot use System Manager to move constituents of an Infinite Volume.
Steps
1. From the home page, double-click the appropriate storage system.
2. Expand either the Cluster or the Nodes hierarchy in the left navigation pane.
3. In the navigation pane, click Storage > Aggregates.
4. Select the aggregate that contains the volume and click Volume Move.
5. Type or select information as prompted by the wizard.
6. Confirm the details and click Finish to complete the wizard.
Upgrading to a 64-bit aggregate
For storage systems running Data ONTAP 8.1 and later, System Manager enables you to upgrade an existing 32-bit aggregate to a 64-bit aggregate by adding disks to increase their size beyond 16 TB.
Before you begin
If you want to add disks to the aggregate, you must have completed the following requirements:
• All the existing disks in the aggregate must be of the same size.
• You must have sufficient homogeneous spare disks of the same size as the existing disks in the aggregate.
Steps
1. From the home page, double-click the appropriate storage system.
2. Expand either the Cluster or the Nodes hierarchy in the left navigation pane.
3. In the navigation pane, click Storage > Aggregates.
4. Select the 32-bit aggregate whose size you want to increase and click Edit.
5. Add the disks and click Save and Close.
Related references
Aggregates window on page 46