You can perform the following cache volume management operations from within the Workload Factory console:

Manage cache volumes

You can enable automatic inode management without the need to enable automatic capacity management.

Enable automatic inode management

Threshold warnings are available for both capacity and inode usage. You can set these thresholds to when enabling automatic capacity or inode management. To use this setting, you'll need to configure notifications using the NetApp Workload Factory notification service.

You can decrease the size of NFS and SMB/CIFS volumes in NetApp Workload Factory. This feature allows for better management of storage resources by enabling you to reduce the size of volumes that are no longer needed at their current capacity.

Decrease the capacity of a volume

Workload Factory has enhanced the "misconfigured" resource state to include an explanation of the actual issue for the resource.

Workload factory analyzes your FSx for ONTAP file systems for the following configurations:

Workload Factory provides more clarity about the permissions it requires for specific actions and granularity for selecting only the permissions you need. When you add credentials, you'll have three permissions options to choose from instead of the previous permissions model which was read-only and read/write. The new permissions model breaks up the permission policies as follows:

When adding credentials, you can select one or more of these permission policies based on the level of access you want to provide to Workload Factory.

Workload Factory permissions reference

You can create a cyber vault using FSx for ONTAP as a source or target in the cyber vault architecture. Cyber vaults provide a secure and isolated environment for storing critical data, protecting it from ransomware and other cyber threats.

Set up a cyber vault with FSx for ONTAP

The new dashboard is streamlined and better organized to provide a clearer overview of your database resources and the key functionalities of Workload Factory on one screen; one card highlights database resources, one card provides information about the well-architected score and analysis, one card displays error analysis, two cards display monthly cost and potential savings, and one card displays information on sandboxes.

The well-architected analysis includes the following assessments and fixes for Oracle configurations:

Implement well-architected database configurations in Workload Factory

Workload Factory for Databases updated the permissions policies to provide more clarity into what it requires for specific actions and granularity for selecting only the permissions you need. When you add credentials, you'll have three permissions options to choose from instead of the previous permissions model which was read-only and read/write. The new permissions model breaks up the permissions policies as follows:

When adding credentials, you can select one or more of these permission policies based on the level of access you want to provide to Workload Factory for Databases.

Workload Factory permissions reference

A new Well-architected dashboard screen has been added to the Databases menu. From this screen, you can get an aggregated view of the configuration status of your entire database estate.

From the Workload Factory console, you can select to edit protection for a protected resource and then you'll be redirected to Backup and Recovery in the NetApp Console where you can modify the protection policy or schedule.

Edit protection for database deployments

You can filter and view Microsoft SQL Server error logs by infrastructure-oriented tags when using the error analysis feature in Workload Factory. This enhancement helps you quickly triage, troubleshoot, and resolve issues.

Analyze error logs with tag filtering

When you deploy an FSx for ONTAP file system to be used as external NFS datastores for Amazon Elastic VMware Service, you can now select the EVS environment where the datastores will be connected. This auto-populates several fields in the deployment wizard to simplify the deployment process.

Deploy the recommended FSx for ONTAP file system

VMware workloads provides more clarity about the permissions it requires for specific actions and granularity for selecting only the permissions you need. When you add credentials, you'll have two permissions options to choose from instead of the previous permissions model which was read-only and read/write. The new permissions model breaks up the permission policies as follows:

When adding credentials, you can select one or more of these permission policies based on the level of access you want to provide to VMware workloads.

Workload Factory permissions reference

This release of NetApp Workload Factory for VMware features several improvements to the migration advisor experience:

In this release, we have made significant updates to permission policies for Storage, Database, and VMware workloads to enhance security and user control. You can customize your permission settings more granularly, adding or dismissing permissions as you see fit.

Permissions reference for Workload Factory

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification for automatic inode management for Storage.

Notifications for NetApp Workload Factory

Automatic capacity and inode management for Storage can be set up with a warning threshold that triggers a notification from the Workload Factory notification service. To use this feature, you must enable the Workload Factory notification service first.

Configure notifications for NetApp Workload Factory

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

From the instance screen in the Databases inventory, the options to fix, postpone, and dismiss a configuration issue are available for single or multiple instances for Microsoft SQL Server or for single or multiple databases for Oracle.

Workload Factory can analyze your EBS performance usage and then suggest the best and most cost-efficient FSx for ONTAP configuration so that you can save more by switching to FSx for ONTAP.

Explore savings for detected storage environments in the Workload Factory console

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

Ask Me, Workload Factory's AI assistant, is integrated with the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Using MCP, Ask Me securely interfaces with external environments and queries API tools to deliver responses tailored to your specific storage environment.

Workload Factory can analyze your EBS performance usage and then suggest the best and most cost-efficient FSx for ONTAP configuration so that you can save more by switching to FSx for ONTAP.

Explore savings for detected storage environments in the Workload Factory console

You can quickly navigate to an FSx for ONTAP file system resource screen by selecting the file system name, now a hyperlink, from the FSx for ONTAP inventory.

If you have cache relationships between FSx for ONTAP file system and another type of ONTAP storage (on-premises system, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, and FSx for ONTAP), you can discover and view them from the Workload Factory console. This allows you to better understand data flows, optimize cache utilization, and improve efficiency across distributed environments.

Discover and view cache relationships in the Workload Factory console

Workload factory now analyzes your FSx for ONTAP file systems for the following configuration:

Volume file capacity utilization threshold: checks whether the file capacity thresholds are set to 80% or lower. This helps you avoid running out of space on your file systems.

View the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification for well-architected configuration issues on a weekly basis.

Notification types and messages in the Workload Factory setup and administration documentation

With this feature, you can configure privileged delete access for immutable files in your FSx for ONTAP file systems. This allows you to protect critical data from accidental or malicious deletion while still enabling authorized users to override the lock and delete these files as needed. Enabling privileged delete is available during volume creation or for existing volumes.

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

The VMware workloads planning center enables you to view and manage your VM inventory and migration plans from one place. You can upload and save multiple VM inventories from different environments, and start planning a migration to AWS EC2 or Amazon Elastic VMware service for any of them. You can also create and save AWS EC2 or EVS migration plans.

Explore the VMware workloads planning center

BlueXP Workload Factory for VMware now enables you to use the Amazon Elastic VMware Service migration advisor to rapidly migrate your on-premises VMware workloads to Amazon Elastic VMware Service. After you create a migration plan using the migration advisor, it is automatically saved in the list of migration plans in the planning center.

Create a deployment plan for Amazon EVS using the migration advisor

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

Using the Workload Factory API, you can now add a data source from a generic NFSv3, NFSv4, or SMB share to a NetApp Connector for Amazon Q Business. This enables you to include files that are stored on volumes hosted by filesystems other than Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

Create a NetApp Connector for Amazon Q Business

Add data sources to a connector

You can now configure advanced chat settings that are applicable to the chat model for the knowledge base such as the response length, temperature, reasoning settings, and more. Some of these settings, such as recency and modification time settings, advanced retrieval settings, and system prompt are available only using the Workload Factory API.

Create a GenAI knowledge base

If your chosen embedding, chat, or reranking model has inference settings, you can now select an inference type. This enables you to better tune the chatbot performance and resource requirements to your needs.

Create a GenAI knowledge base

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification for well-architected issues for Storage.

Notifications for NetApp Workload Factory

BlueXP has been renamed and redesigned to better reflect the role it has in managing your data infrastructure. As a result, BlueXP workload factory has been renamed to NetApp Workload Factory.

Workload factory has enhanced the data reported for your FSx for ONTAP file systems. The downloadable report from the FSx for ONTAP inventory page includes the following new columns:

Workload factory has made several enhancements to view volume snapshot details and manage volume snapshots. These enhancements make it easier for you to understand the status of your snapshots and protect your data.

Additional items appear in Volume details under the Protection tab:

The new snapshot management screen is accessible from a volume; it provides information about the snapshot policy for the volume and includes a table with all volume snapshots. The table displays the following snapshot details: creation time, size, expiry time, immutable snapshot protection, and labels. From the management screen, you can change the snapshot policy for the volume, create a snapshot manually, and edit, access, restore, and delete snapshots.

Workload factory supports decreasing the solid-state drive (SSD) capacity of your second-generation file systems. With elastic file system capacity, you can dynamically adjust the capacity of your file systems to match the needs of your workloads.

Adjust file system capacity

The workload factory notification service includes success and failure notifications for automatic capacity management for Storage.

Notifications for BlueXP workload factory

The BlueXP workload factory notification service includes the notification for automatic capacity management for Storage.

Notifications for BlueXP workload factory

The Agentic AI-powered error log analyzer is a new feature that leverages advanced machine learning algorithms to automatically detect and analyze errors in log files. This tool aims to streamline the troubleshooting process by providing developers with actionable insights and recommendations based on the patterns it identifies in the logs.

Learn more about the Agentic AI-powered error log analyzer

Workload factory includes support for Oracle databases. In the workload factory console, you can view your Oracle databases from the inventory, register databases to use advanced features in workload factory, and analyze Oracle databases for alignment with best practices using the well-architected feature. The well-architected analysis determines whether the storage configurations for Oracle databases are optimized. You can use this information to make informed decisions about your database deployments and ensure they are running efficiently.

Implement well-architected database configurations in workload factory

Workload factory supports Microsoft SQL Server deployments on second-generation FSx for ONTAP file systems. This enhancement allows you to leverage the latest features and performance improvements available in the second-generation file systems while managing your SQL Server workloads.

Authenticating Microsoft SQL Server instances with Windows credentials is embedded in the workflow to prepare Microsoft SQL Server hosts for protection with BlueXP backup and recovery. This used to be a prerequisite step to complete manually. Instead, you'll be prompted to share Windows credentials with administrative access if you haven't registered the hosts in workload factory using Windows credentials.

Learn how to protect Microsoft SQL Server workloads via the workload factory console.

The well-architected analysis assesses and fixes Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) misalignment across endpoints for Microsoft SQL Server on FSx for ONTAP storage. Aligning MTU settings helps to optimize network performance and reduce latency for SQL Server workloads.

Implement well-architected database configurations in workload factory