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Add capacity to an ONTAP local tier

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You can add disks to an local tier so that it can provide more storage to its associated volumes.

Note Prior to ONTAP 9.7, System Manager uses the term aggregate to describe a local tier. Regardless of your ONTAP version, the ONTAP CLI uses the term aggregate. To learn more about local tiers, see Disks and local tiers.
System Manager (ONTAP 9.8 and later)
Note Beginning with ONTAP 9.12.1, you can use System Manager to view the committed capacity of a local tier to determine if additional capacity is required for the local tier. See Monitor capacity in System Manager.
Steps

  1. Select Storage > Tiers.

  2. Select Menu options icon next to the name of the local tier to which you want to add capacity.

  3. Select Add Capacity.

    Note If there are no spare disks that you can add, then the Add Capacity option is not shown, and you cannot increase the capacity of the local tier.

  4. Perform the following steps, based on the version of ONTAP that is installed:

    If this version of ONTAP is installed…​

    Perform these steps…​

    ONTAP 9.8, 9.9, or 9.10.1

    1. If the node contains multiple storage tiers, then select the number of disks you want to add to the local tier. Otherwise, if the node contains only a single storage tier, the added capacity is estimated automatically.

    2. Select Add.

    Beginning with ONTAP 9.11.1

    1. Select the disk type and number of disks.

    2. If you want to add disks to a new RAID group, check the check box. The RAID allocation is displayed.

    3. Select Save.

  5. (Optional) The process takes some time to complete. If you want to run the process in the background, select Run in Background.

  6. After the process completes, you can view the increased capacity amount in the local tier information at Storage > Tiers.

System Manager (ONTAP 9.7 and earlier)
Steps

  1. (For ONTAP 9.7 only) Select (Return to classic version).

  2. Select Hardware and Diagnostics > Aggregates.

  3. Select the local tier to which you want to add capacity disks, and then select Actions > Add Capacity.

    Note You should add disks that are of the same size as the other disks in the local tier.

  4. (For ONTAP 9.7 only) Select Switch to the new experience.

  5. Select Storage > Tiers to verify the size of the new local tier.

CLI
Before you begin

You must know what the RAID group size is for the local tier you are adding the storage to.

About this task

This procedure for adding partitioned disks to a local tier is similar to the procedure for adding unpartitioned disks.

When you expand a local tier, you should be aware of whether you are adding partition or unpartitioned disks to the local tier. When you add unpartitioned drives to an existing local tier, the size of the existing RAID groups is inherited by the new RAID group, which can affect the number of parity disks required. If an unpartitioned disk is added to a RAID group composed of partitioned disks, the new disk is partitioned, leaving an unused spare partition.

When you provision partitions, you must ensure that you do not leave the node without a drive with both partitions as spare. If you do, and the node experiences a controller disruption, valuable information about the problem (the core file) might not be available to provide to the technical support.

Steps

  1. Show the available spare storage on the system that owns the local tier:

    storage aggregate show-spare-disks -original-owner node_name

    You can use the -is-disk-shared parameter to show only partitioned drives or only unpartitioned drives.

    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate show-spare-disks -original-owner cl1-s2 -is-disk-shared true

Original Owner: cl1-s2
 Pool0
  Shared HDD Spares
                                                            Local    Local
                                                             Data     Root Physical
 Disk                        Type     RPM Checksum         Usable   Usable     Size Status
 --------------------------- ----- ------ -------------- -------- -------- -------- --------
 1.0.1                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB  73.89GB  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.2                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB       0B  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.3                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB       0B  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.4                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB       0B  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.8                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB       0B  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.9                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB       0B  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.10                      BSAS    7200 block                0B  73.89GB  828.0GB zeroed
2 entries were displayed.

  2. Show the current RAID groups for the local tier:

    storage aggregate show-status <aggr_name>
    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate show-status -aggregate data_1

Owner Node: cl1-s2
 Aggregate: data_1 (online, raid_dp) (block checksums)
  Plex: /data_1/plex0 (online, normal, active, pool0)
   RAID Group /data_1/plex0/rg0 (normal, block checksums)
                                              Usable Physical
     Position Disk        Pool Type     RPM     Size     Size Status
     -------- ----------- ---- ----- ------ -------- -------- ----------
     shared   1.0.10        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.5         0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.6         0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.11        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.0         0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
5 entries were displayed.

  3. Simulate adding the storage to the aggregate:

    storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate <aggr_name> -diskcount <number_of_disks_or_partitions> -simulate true

    You can see the result of the storage addition without actually provisioning any storage. If any warnings are displayed from the simulated command, you can adjust the command and repeat the simulation.

    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate aggr_test -diskcount 5 -simulate true

Disks would be added to aggregate "aggr_test" on node "cl1-s2" in the
following manner:

First Plex

  RAID Group rg0, 5 disks (block checksum, raid_dp)
                                                      Usable Physical
    Position   Disk                      Type           Size     Size
    ---------- ------------------------- ---------- -------- --------
    shared     1.11.4                    SSD         415.8GB  415.8GB
    shared     1.11.18                   SSD         415.8GB  415.8GB
    shared     1.11.19                   SSD         415.8GB  415.8GB
    shared     1.11.20                   SSD         415.8GB  415.8GB
    shared     1.11.21                   SSD         415.8GB  415.8GB

Aggregate capacity available for volume use would be increased by 1.83TB.

  4. Add the storage to the aggregate:

    storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate <aggr_name> -raidgroup new -diskcount <number_of_disks_or_partitions>

    When creating a Flash Pool local tier, if you are adding disks with a different checksum than the local tier, or if you are adding disks to a mixed checksum local tier, you must use the -checksumstyle parameter.

    If you are adding disks to a Flash Pool local tier, you must use the -disktype parameter to specify the disk type.

    You can use the -disksize parameter to specify a size of the disks to add. Only disks with approximately the specified size are selected for addition to the local tier.

    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate add-disks -aggregate data_1 -raidgroup new -diskcount 5

  5. Verify that the storage was added successfully:

    storage aggregate show-status -aggregate <aggr_name>
    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate show-status -aggregate data_1

Owner Node: cl1-s2
 Aggregate: data_1 (online, raid_dp) (block checksums)
  Plex: /data_1/plex0 (online, normal, active, pool0)
   RAID Group /data_1/plex0/rg0 (normal, block checksums)
                                                              Usable Physical
     Position Disk                        Pool Type     RPM     Size     Size Status
     -------- --------------------------- ---- ----- ------ -------- -------- ----------
     shared   1.0.10                       0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.5                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.6                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.11                       0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.0                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.2                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.3                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.4                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.8                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
     shared   1.0.9                        0   BSAS    7200  753.8GB  828.0GB (normal)
10 entries were displayed.

  6. Verify that the node still has at least one drive with both the root partition and the data partition as spare:

    storage aggregate show-spare-disks -original-owner <node_name>
    cl1-s2::> storage aggregate show-spare-disks -original-owner cl1-s2 -is-disk-shared true

Original Owner: cl1-s2
 Pool0
  Shared HDD Spares
                                                            Local    Local
                                                             Data     Root Physical
 Disk                        Type     RPM Checksum         Usable   Usable     Size Status
 --------------------------- ----- ------ -------------- -------- -------- -------- --------
 1.0.1                       BSAS    7200 block           753.8GB  73.89GB  828.0GB zeroed
 1.0.10                      BSAS    7200 block                0B  73.89GB  828.0GB zeroed
2 entries were displayed.