Enable automatic capacity and inode management for a file system

11/03/2025 Contributors

Enabling automatic capacity and inode management lets NetApp Workload Factory automatically add incremental storage or inodes to an FSx for ONTAP file system as capacity needs change over time. Additionally, enabling this feature removes the need to monitor capacity and inodes manually.

About this task

A scan of the FSx for ONTAP file system occurs every 30 minutes to determine whether incremental storage needs to be added and to check for available volume inodes, the maximum number of files and folders in a volume, so that their count increases according to the configured automatic capacity management thresholds.

Only one account can manage this feature.

The maximum amount of SSD storage capacity for all FSx for ONTAP file systems is 524,288 GiB. To request a quota increase, refer to Quotas in AWS FSx for NetApp ONTAP documentation.

Enable automatic capacity management

Enable automatic capacity management to automatically add incremental storage up to the maximum size limit for an FSx for ONTAP file system.

Before you begin

Consider the following before you begin:

You must grant credentials with the view, planning, and analysis permission policy in Workload Factory to complete this task.
To make sure volume inodes increase along with storage capacity, you must associate a link. Learn how to associate an existing link or to create and associate a new link. After the link associates, return to this operation.
You shouldn't enable this feature during data migration because AWS imposes a minimum six-hour cool down period between SSD capacity increases. This restriction might delay adjustments, so plan accordingly.

Steps

Log in using one of the console experiences.
In the Storage tile, select Go to Storage.
From the Storage menu, select FSx for ONTAP.
From FSx for ONTAP, select the actions menu of the file system to enable automatic capacity management for.
Select Manage.
Under Information, select the pencil icon next to Automatic capacity management. The pencil icon appears next to the drop down arrow when the mouse hovers over the Automatic capacity management row.
In the Automatic capacity management dialog, provide the following:
1. Credentials: Select credentials with Automate permissions from the dropdown menu.
2. Select the enable button to Enable automatic capacity management.
  
  Alternatively, disable the feature. If you need to increase file system capacity, you must first disable automatic capacity management.
3. Warning threshold: Set the warning threshold lower than the threshold increase to trigger a notification from the Workload Factory notification service. The default is 70%.
  
  The warning threshold setting is available only if you enabled the Workload Factory notification service.
4. Threshold increase: Enter the maximum percentage increase for the FSx for ONTAP file system. The default is 80%.
  
  This is the threshold at which Workload Factory triggers a job to increase the capacity. For example, if the file system reaches 80% of capacity, then Workload Factory will increase capacity.
5. Incremental increase: Enter the percentage to increase capacity incrementally. The default is 10%.
  
  This is the percentage we increase capacity each time the threshold is reached. For example, if the file system is 80% full and the incremental increase is set to 10%, then Workload Factory increases the capacity by 10%.
Select Apply.

Result

A file system scan occurs every 30 minutes to determine if the file system needs additional capacity.

Enable automatic inode management

Enable automatic inode management to make sure that the file capacity per volume scales up by increasing the number of inodes (files) up to the allowable limit.

Terraform users: Terraform has a limitation that requires that all operations are completed within Terraform. Inode management isn't supported in Terraform, but you can enable automatic inode management in the Workload Factory console.