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Cloud Manager 3.8
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Managing data tiering from your clusters

Contributors netapp-bcammett
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Now that you've set up data tiering from your ONTAP clusters, you can tier data from additional volumes, change a volume's tiering policy, and more.

Tiering data from additional volumes

Set up data tiering for additional volumes at any time—​for example, after creating a new volume.

Steps

  1. At the top of Cloud Manager, click Tiering.

  2. From the Cluster Dashboard, click Tier Volumes for the cluster.

  3. For each volume, click the A screenshot of the edit icon that appears at the end of each row in the table for tiering volumes icon, select a tiering policy, optionally adjust the cooling days, and click Apply.

    Learn more about volume tiering policies.

    A screenshot that shows volumes selected in the Select Source Volumes page.

    Tip You don't need to configure the object storage because it was already configured when you initially set up tiering for the cluster. ONTAP will tier inactive data from these volumes to the same object store.

  4. When you're done, click Close.

Changing a volume's tiering policy

Changing the tiering policy for a volume changes how ONTAP tiers cold data to object storage. The change starts from the moment that you change the policy—​it changes only the subsequent tiering behavior for the volume.

Steps

  1. At the top of Cloud Manager, click Tiering.

  2. From the Cluster Dashboard, click Tier Volumes for the cluster.

  3. Click the A screenshot of the edit icon that appears at the end of each row in the table for tiering volumes icon, select a tiering policy, optionally adjust the cooling days, and click Apply.

    Learn more about volume tiering policies.

Managing tiering settings on aggregates

Each aggregate has two settings that you can adjust: the tiering fullness threshold and whether inactive data reporting is enabled.

Tiering fullness threshold

Setting the threshold to a lower number reduces the amount of data required to be stored on the performance tier before tiering takes place. This might be useful for large aggregates that contain little active data.

Setting the threshold to a higher number increases the amount of data required to be stored on the performance tier before tiering takes place. This might be useful for solutions designed to tier only when aggregates are near maximum capacity.

Inactive data reporting

Inactive data reporting (IDR) uses a 31-day cooling period to determine which data is considered inactive. The amount of cold data that is tiered is dependent on the tiering policies set on volumes. This amount might be different than the amount of cold data detected by IDR using a 31-day cooling period.

Tip It's best to keep IDR enabled because it helps to identify your inactive data and savings opportunities. IDR must remain enabled if data tiering was enabled on an aggregate.
Steps

  1. At the top of Cloud Manager, click Tiering.

  2. From the Cloud Tiering page, click the menu icon for a cluster and select Manage Aggregates.

    A screenshot of the Cluster Dashboard that shows a cluster and the action menu expanded.

  3. On the Manage Aggregates page, click the A screenshot of the edit icon that appears at the end of each row in the table for managing aggregates icon for an aggregate in the table.

  4. Modify the fullness threshold and choose whether to enable or disable inactive data reporting.

    A screenshot that shows a slider to modify the tiering fullness threshold and a button to enable or disable inactive data reporting.

  5. Click Apply.

Reviewing tiering info for a cluster

You might want to see how much data is in the cloud tier and how much data is on disks. Or, you might want to see the amount of hot and cold data on the cluster's disks. Cloud Tiering provides this information for each cluster.

Steps

  1. At the top of Cloud Manager, click Tiering.

  2. From the Cluster Dashboard, click More info for a cluster.

    A screenshot that shows the More info button, which is available on the Cluster Dashboard for each cluster.

  3. Review details about the cluster.

    Here's an example:

    A screenshot that shows the cluster report, which details total used capacity, cluster used capacity, cluster information, and object storage information.

Fixing operational health

Failures can happen. When they do, Cloud Tiering displays a "Failed" operational health status on the Cluster Dashboard. The health reflects the status of the ONTAP system and Cloud Manager.

Steps

  1. Identify any clusters that have an operational health of "Failed."

    A screenshot that shows a Failed tiering health status for a cluster.

  2. Hover over the A screenshot of the i icon that shows the failure reason icon to see the failure reason.

  3. Correct the issue:

    1. Verify that the ONTAP cluster is operational and that it has an inbound and outbound connection to your object storage provider.

    2. Verify that Cloud Manager has outbound connections to the Cloud Tiering service, to the object store, and to the ONTAP clusters that it discovers.