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Storage limits

Contributors netapp-bcammett

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 this limit.

In Azure, disk limits prevent you from reaching the 368 TiB capacity limit by using disks alone. In those cases, you can reach the 368 TiB capacity limit by tiering inactive data to object storage. Refer to capacity and disk limits by Azure VM size for more details.

License Maximum system capacity (disks + object storage)

Explore

2 TiB (data tiering is not supported with Explore)

Standard

10 TiB

Premium

368 TiB

BYOL

368 TiB per license

For HA, is the license capacity limit per node or for the entire HA pair?

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.

For an HA system in AWS, does mirrored data count against the capacity limit?

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, Cloud Manager 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.

Aggregate and disk limits for Cloud Volumes ONTAP in AWS

In Cloud Volumes ONTAP 9.4, all EC2 instance types can reach the 368 TiB capacity limit using EBS storage alone, or by using EBS storage and tiering to S3 (both single node and HA).

Physical storage Parameter Limit

Aggregates and disks

Maximum number of aggregates

34 for single-node configurations
18 per node in an HA configuration 1

Maximum aggregate size

96 TiB of raw capacity 2

Disks per aggregate

1-6 3

Maximum disk size

16 TiB

Maximum number of data disks across all aggregates 4

34 for single-node configurations
31 per node in an HA configuration

RAID groups

Maximum per aggregate

1

Notes:

  1. It is not possible to create 18 aggregates on both nodes in an HA pair because doing so would exceed the data disk limit.

  2. The aggregate capacity limit is based on the disks that comprise the aggregate. The limit does not include object storage used for data tiering.

  3. All disks in an aggregate must be the same size.

  4. The data disk limit is specific to disks that contain user data. The boot disk and root disk for each node are not included in this limit.

Aggregate and disk limits for Cloud Volumes ONTAP in Azure

Physical storage Parameter Limit

Aggregates and disks

Maximum number of aggregates

Same as the disk limit

Maximum aggregate size

200 TiB of raw capacity 1

Disks per aggregate

1-12 2

Maximum disk size

32 TiB

Maximum number of data disks across all aggregates 3

Depends on VM size. See below.

RAID groups

Maximum per aggregate

1

Notes:

  1. The aggregate capacity limit is based on the disks that comprise the aggregate. The limit does not include object storage used for data tiering.

  2. All disks in an aggregate must be the same size.

  3. The data disk limit is specific to disks that contain user data. The boot disk and root disk for each node are not included in this limit.

Capacity and disk limits by Azure VM size

In Azure, single node systems can use Standard HDD Managed Disks, Standard SSD Managed Disks, and Premium SSD Managed Disks, with up to 32 TiB per disk. The number of supported disks varies by VM size.

The tables below show the maximum system capacity by VM size with disks alone, and with disks and cold data tiering to object storage.

Disk limits are shown by VM size for Premium and BYOL licenses only because disk limits can’t be reached with Explore or Standard licenses due to system capacity limits.

Single node with a Premium license

VM size Max disks per node Max system capacity with disks alone Max system capacity with disks and data tiering

DS3_v2

15

368 TiB

Tiering not supported

DS4_v2

31

368 TiB

368 TiB

DS5_v2

63

368 TiB

368 TiB

DS13_v2

31

368 TiB

368 TiB

DS14_v2

63

368 TiB

368 TiB

Single node with one or more BYOL licenses

Note For some VM types, you'll need several BYOL licenses to reach the max system capacity listed below. For example, you'd need 6 BYOL licenses to reach 2 PiB with DS5_v2.
VM size 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

DS3_v2

15

368 TiB

Tiering not supported

480 TiB

Tiering not supported

DS4_v2

31

368 TiB

368 TiB

896 TiB

368 TiB x each license

DS5_v2

63

368 TiB

368 TiB

896 TiB

368 TiB x each license

DS13_v2

31

368 TiB

368 TiB

896 TiB

368 TiB x each license

DS14_v2

63

368 TiB

368 TiB

896 TiB

368 TiB x each license

Logical storage limits

Logical storage Parameter Limit

Storage virtual machines (SVMs)

Maximum number for Cloud Volumes ONTAP
(HA pair or single node)

One data-serving SVM and one destination SVM used for disaster recovery. You can activate the destination SVM for data access if there’s an outage on the source SVM. 1

The one data-serving SVM spans the entire Cloud Volumes ONTAP system (HA pair or single node).

Files

Maximum size

16 TiB

Maximum per volume

Volume size dependent, up to 2 billion

FlexClone volumes

Hierarchical clone depth 2

499

FlexVol volumes

Maximum per node

500

Minimum size

20 MB

Maximum size

AWS: Dependent on the size of the aggregate 3
Azure: 100 TiB

Qtrees

Maximum per FlexVol volume

4,995

Snapshot copies

Maximum per FlexVol volume

1,023

Notes:

  1. Cloud Manager does not provide any setup or orchestration support for SVM disaster recovery. It also does not support storage-related tasks on an additional SVM. You must use System Manager or the CLI for SVM disaster recovery.

  2. Hierarchical clone depth is the maximum depth of a nested hierarchy of FlexClone volumes that can be created from a single FlexVol volume.

  3. Less than 100 TiB is supported because aggregates for this configuration are limited to 96 TiB of raw capacity.

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