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Decide which method to use to create local tiers (aggregates)

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Although ONTAP provides best-practice recommendations for adding local tiers automatically (creating aggregates with auto-provisioning), you must determine whether the recommended configurations are supported in your environment. If they are not, you must make decisions about RAID policy and disk configuration and then create the local tiers manually.

When a local tier is created automatically, ONTAP analyzes available spare disks in the cluster and generates a recommendation about how spare disks should be used to add local tiers according to best practices. ONTAP displays the recommended configurations. You can accept the recommendations or add the local tiers manually.

Before you can accept ONTAP recommendations

If any of the following disk conditions are present, they must be addressed before accepting the recommendations from ONTAP:

  • Missing disks

  • Fluctuation in spare disk numbers

  • Unassigned disks

  • Non-zeroed spares

  • Disks undergoing maintenance testing

The storage aggregate auto-provision man page contains more information about these requirements.

When you must use the manual method

In many cases, the recommended layout of the local tier will be optimal for your environment. However, if your cluster is running ONTAP 9.1 or earlier, or your environment includes the following configurations, you must create the local tier using the manual method.

Note Beginning with ONTAP 9.11.1, you can manually add local tiers with System Manager.

  • Aggregates using third-party array LUNs

  • Virtual disks with Cloud Volumes ONTAP or ONTAP Select

  • MetroCluster system

  • SyncMirror

  • MSATA disks

  • FlashPool tiers (aggregates)

  • Multiple disk types or sizes are connected to the node

Select the method to create local tiers (aggregates)

Choose which method you want to use:

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