Storage limits in AWS
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Cloud Volumes ONTAP has storage configuration limits to provide reliable operations. For best performance, do not configure your system at the maximum values.
Maximum system capacity by license
The maximum system capacity for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP system is determined by its license. The maximum system capacity includes disk-based storage plus object storage used for data tiering.
NetApp doesn't support exceeding the system capacity limit. If you reach the licensed capacity limit, BlueXP displays an action required message and no longer allows you to add additional disks.
For some configurations, disk limits prevent you from reaching the capacity limit by using disks alone. In those cases, you can reach the capacity limit by tiering inactive data to object storage. Refer to capacity and disk limits below for more details.
| License | Maximum system capacity (disks + object storage) |
|---|---|
Freemium |
500 GiB |
PAYGO Explore |
2 TiB (data tiering is not supported with Explore) |
PAYGO Standard |
10 TiB |
PAYGO Premium |
368 TiB |
Node-based license |
2 PiB (requires multiple licenses) |
Capacity-based license |
2 PiB |
The capacity limit is for the entire HA pair. It is not per node. For example, if you use the Premium license, you can have up to 368 TiB of capacity between both nodes.
No, it doesn't. Data in an AWS HA pair is synchronously mirrored between the nodes so that the data is available in the event of failure. For example, if you purchase an 8 TiB disk on node A, BlueXP also allocates an 8 TiB disk on node B that is used for mirrored data. While 16 TiB of capacity was provisioned, only 8 TiB counts against the license limit.
Disk and tiering limits by EC2 instance
Cloud Volumes ONTAP uses EBS volumes as disks, with a maximum disk size of 16 TiB. The sections below show disk and tiering limits by EC2 instance family because many EC2 instance types have different disk limits. Disk limits are also different between single node systems and HA pairs.
Note the following:
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The disk limits below are specific to disks that contain user data. The limits do not include the boot disk and root disk.
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You can purchase multiple node-based licenses for a Cloud Volumes ONTAP BYOL single node or HA pair system to allocate more than 368 TiB of capacity, up to the maximum tested and supported system capacity limit of 2 PiB. Be aware that disk limits can prevent you from reaching the capacity limit by using disks alone. You can go beyond the disk limit by tiering inactive data to object storage. Learn how to add additional system licenses to Cloud Volumes ONTAP. Though Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports up to the maximum tested and supported system capacity of 2 PiB, crossing the 2 PiB limit results in an unsupported system configuration.
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AWS Secret Cloud and Top Secret Cloud regions support purchases of multiple node-based licenses starting with Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.12.1.
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Single node with a Premium license
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with disks alone | Max system capacity with disks and data tiering |
|---|---|---|---|
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
21 1 |
336 TiB |
368 TiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
19 2 |
304 TiB |
368 TiB |
-
21 data disks is the limit for new deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. If you upgrade a system that was created with version 9.7 or earlier, then the system continues to support 22 disks. One less data disk is supported on new systems that use these instance types because of the addition of a core disk starting with the 9.8 release.
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
Single node with node-based licensing
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with one license | Max system capacity with multiple licenses | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Disks alone |
Disks + data tiering |
Disks alone |
Disks + data tiering |
||
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
21 1 |
336 TiB |
368 TiB |
336 TiB |
2 PiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
19 2 |
304 TiB |
368 TiB |
304 TiB |
2 PiB |
-
21 data disks is the limit for new deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. If you upgrade a system that was created with version 9.7 or earlier, then the system continues to support 22 disks. One less data disk is supported on new systems that use these instance types because of the addition of a core disk starting with the 9.8 release.
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
Single node with capacity-based licensing
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with disks alone | Max system capacity with disks and data tiering |
|---|---|---|---|
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
21 |
336 TiB |
2 PiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
19 1 |
304 TiB |
2 PiB |
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
HA pairs with a Premium license
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with disks alone | Max system capacity with disks and data tiering |
|---|---|---|---|
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
18 1 |
288 TiB |
368 TiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
16 2 |
256 TiB |
368 TiB |
-
18 data disks is the limit for new deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. If you upgrade a system that was created with version 9.7 or earlier, then the system continues to support 19 disks. One less data disk is supported on new systems that use these instance types because of the addition of a core disk starting with the 9.8 release.
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
HA pairs with node-based licensing
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with one license | Max system capacity with multiple licenses | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Disks alone |
Disks + data tiering |
Disks alone |
Disks + data tiering |
||
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
18 1 |
288 TiB |
368 TiB |
288 TiB |
2 PiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
16 2 |
256 TiB |
368 TiB |
256 TiB |
2 PiB |
-
18 data disks is the limit for new deployments of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. If you upgrade a system that was created with version 9.7 or earlier, then the system continues to support 19 disks. One less data disk is supported on new systems that use these instance types because of the addition of a core disk starting with the 9.8 release.
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
HA pairs with capacity-based licensing
| Instance | Max disks per node | Max system capacity with disks alone | Max system capacity with disks and data tiering |
|---|---|---|---|
c5, m5, and r5 instances |
18 |
288 TiB |
2 PiB |
m5dn.24xlarge |
16 1 |
256 TiB |
2 PiB |
-
This instance type has more local NVMe disks than other instance types, which means a smaller number of data disks are supported.
Aggregate limits
Cloud Volumes ONTAP uses AWS volumes as disks and groups them into aggregates. Aggregates provide storage to volumes.
| Parameter | Limit |
|---|---|
Maximum number of aggregates |
Single node: Same as the disk limit |
Maximum aggregate size |
96 TiB of raw capacity 2 |
Disks per aggregate |
1-6 3 |
Maximum number of RAID groups per aggregate |
1 |
Notes:
-
It's not possible to create 18 aggregates on both nodes in an HA pair because doing so would exceed the data disk limit.
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The aggregate capacity limit is based on the disks that comprise the aggregate. The limit does not include object storage used for data tiering.
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All disks in an aggregate must be the same size.
Storage VM limits
Some configurations enable you to create additional storage VMs (SVMs) for Cloud Volumes ONTAP.
| License type | Storage VM limit |
|---|---|
Freemium |
24 storage VMs total 1,2 |
Capacity-based PAYGO or BYOL 3 |
24 storage VMs total 1,2 |
Node-based PAYGO |
|
Node-based BYOL 4 |
24 storage VMs total 1,2 |
-
The limit can be lower, depending on the EC2 instance type that you use. The limits per instance are listed in the section below.
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These 24 storage VMs can serve data or be configured for disaster recovery (DR).
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For capacity-based licensing, there are no extra licensing costs for additional storage VMs, but there is a 4 TiB minimum capacity charge per storage VM. For example, if you create two storage VMs and each has 2 TiB of provisioned capacity, you'll be charged a total of 8 TiB.
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For node-based BYOL, an add-on license is required for each additional data-serving storage VM beyond the first storage VM that comes with Cloud Volumes ONTAP by default. Contact your account team to obtain a storage VM add-on license.
Storage VMs that you configure for disaster recovery (DR) don't require an add-on license (they are free of charge), but they do count against the storage VM limit. For example, if you have 12 data-serving storage VMs and 12 storage VMs configured for disaster recovery, then you've reached the limit and can't create any additional storage VMs.
Storage VM limit by EC2 instance type
When you create an additional storage VM, you need to allocate private IP addresses to port e0a. The table below identifies the maximum number of private IPs per interface, as well as the number of IP addresses that are available on port e0a after Cloud Volumes ONTAP has been deployed. The number of available IP addresses directly affects the maximum number of storage VMs for that configuration.
The instances listed below are for the c5, m5, and r5 instance families.
| Configuration | Instance type | Max private IPs per interface | IPs remaining after deployment 1 | Max storage VMs without a mgmt LIF 2,3 | Max storage VMs with a mgmt LIF 2,3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Single node |
*.xlarge |
15 |
9 |
10 |
5 |
*.2xlarge |
15 |
9 |
10 |
5 |
|
*.4xlarge |
30 |
24 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.8xlarge |
30 |
24 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.9xlarge |
30 |
24 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.12xlarge |
30 |
24 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.16xlarge |
50 |
44 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.18xlarge |
50 |
44 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.24xlarge |
50 |
44 |
24 |
12 |
|
HA pair in single AZ |
*.xlarge |
15 |
10 |
11 |
5 |
*.2xlarge |
15 |
10 |
11 |
5 |
|
*.4xlarge |
30 |
25 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.8xlarge |
30 |
25 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.9xlarge |
30 |
25 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.12xlarge |
30 |
25 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.16xlarge |
50 |
45 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.18xlarge |
50 |
45 |
24 |
12 |
|
*.24xlarge |
50 |
44 |
24 |
12 |
|
HA pair in multi AZs |
*.xlarge |
15 |
12 |
13 |
13 |
*.2xlarge |
15 |
12 |
13 |
13 |
|
*.4xlarge |
30 |
27 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.8xlarge |
30 |
27 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.9xlarge |
30 |
27 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.12xlarge |
30 |
27 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.16xlarge |
50 |
47 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.18xlarge |
50 |
47 |
24 |
24 |
|
*.24xlarge |
50 |
44 |
24 |
12 |
-
This number indicates how many remaining private IP addresses are available on port e0a after Cloud Volumes ONTAP is deployed and set up. For example, a *.2xlarge system supports a maximum of 15 IP addresses per network interface. When an HA pair is deployed in a single AZ, 5 private IP addresses are allocated to port e0a. As a result, an HA pair that uses a *.2xlarge instance type has 10 private IP addresses remaining for additional storage VMs.
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The number listed in these columns includes the initial storage VM that BlueXP creates by default. For example, if 24 is listed in this column, it means that you can create 23 additional storage VMs for a total of 24.
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A management LIF for the storage VM is optional. A management LIF provides a connection to management tools like SnapCenter.
Because it requires a private IP address, it will limit the number of additional storage VMs that you can create. The only exception is an HA pair in multiple AZs. In that case, the IP address for the management LIF is a floating IP address so it doesn't count against the private IP limit.
File and volume limits
| Logical storage | Parameter | Limit |
|---|---|---|
Files |
Maximum size |
16 TiB |
Maximum per volume |
Volume size dependent, up to 2 billion |
|
FlexClone volumes |
Hierarchical clone depth 1 |
499 |
FlexVol volumes |
Maximum per node |
500 |
Minimum size |
20 MB |
|
Maximum size |
100 TiB |
|
Qtrees |
Maximum per FlexVol volume |
4,995 |
Snapshot copies |
Maximum per FlexVol volume |
1,023 |
-
Hierarchical clone depth is the maximum depth of a nested hierarchy of FlexClone volumes that can be created from a single FlexVol volume.
iSCSI storage limits
| iSCSI storage | Parameter | Limit |
|---|---|---|
LUNs |
Maximum per node |
1,024 |
Maximum number of LUN maps |
1,024 |
|
Maximum size |
16 TiB |
|
Maximum per volume |
512 |
|
igroups |
Maximum per node |
256 |
Initiators |
Maximum per node |
512 |
Maximum per igroup |
128 |
|
iSCSI sessions |
Maximum per node |
1,024 |
LIFs |
Maximum per port |
32 |
Maximum per portset |
32 |
|
Portsets |
Maximum per node |
256 |