The EVS TCO calculator now supports AWS i7i.metal-24xl EC2 instances as cluster hosts. Compared to i4i.metal configurations, these instances lower the EVS starting cost by about 33% for compute and 25% for vSAN storage.

The calculator automatically compares both instance types and selects the most cost-efficient option. A new comparison section shows EVS host configurations side by side, making it easier to find the best setup for your needs.

Calculate estimated savings for EVS

Volumes Explorer gives you a simple, searchable view of all your volumes in NetApp Workload Factory. Quickly see which volumes serve block or file workloads. View each volume's logical size, physical used capacity, and whether it uses storage efficiency features (compression, deduplication, and compaction). Filter and sort by name, status (available/failed), latency, size, used capacity, and protection features.

Email notifications for replication delays now include more details about the affected relationship. The notification helps you quickly identify the affected relationship and look into it in the Workload Factory console.

Enable notifications for replication delays

Workload Factory supports block device creation from a volume snapshot.

Create a block device from a volume snapshot in Workload Factory

Workload Factory now identifies and tags volumes and block devices by their primary workload or application. You can assign predefined workload tags such as Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle Database, or create custom tags for your applications. Tags can be applied to individual resources or inherited by connected storage resources. This helps you align storage configurations with workload requirements, understand incident impact, and troubleshoot more effectively.

Create AI-powered dashboards that match your workloads and priorities so you can easily see how your operations are performing. Instead of relying on fixed views, custom dashboards let you focus on the information that matters most.

Just describe what you want to track in plain language, and the AI will create a dashboard based on your request. For example, you can track disaster recovery status, capacity and costs across regions, storage protection compliance, and other operational metrics.

Custom dashboards are read-only, so they cannot change your storage or workload settings. Anyone in your Workload Factory account can view and manage these dashboards, making it easy for teams to share insights and stay aligned.

Learn more about custom dashboards

The GenAI workload has been removed from the Workload Factory console.

The latency analysis panel now includes a Detailed latency analysis page with synchronized performance graphs:

All graphs use the same timeline and automatically show the correct metrics based on whether the event is a read or write.

You can adjust the view and correlate latency spikes with changes in IOPS and throughput. Breach markers and hover details help you see when thresholds were exceeded and review key metrics for the detected breach.

Learn how to analyze latency trends with multiple graphs.

You can now choose how often to receive email notifications for latency breaches:

If multiple latency issues occur on the same file system in one day, you'll receive only one email.

After sending a latency alert for a file system, Workload Factory waits 24 hours before sending another alert for that file system.

Daily notifications are enabled by default to reduce email volume while still alerting you to latency issues. You can change your notification preference when setting up latency monitoring or editing threshold settings.

Learn how to configure latency monitoring.

NetApp Workload Factory for Databases lets you customize savings for Oracle hosts on Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). You can adjust several fields like the snapshot frequency, the number of cloned copies, and volume details to see how they affect your savings.

Explore savings for Oracle hosts on EBS

NetApp Workload Factory for Databases now allows you to select multiple security groups when deploying Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL hosts. This gives you greater flexibility when configuring network security for your database workloads.

NetApp Workload Factory supports AWS GovCloud (US) accounts. Using a GovCloud account, you can deploy and manage database workloads in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

NetApp Workload Factory supports AWS GovCloud (US) accounts. Using a GovCloud account, you can deploy and manage storage workloads in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

You can configure latency thresholds on a per-volume basis to monitor performance and receive alerts when latency values exceed your defined limits. Workload Factory monitors both read and write latency and generates alerts when either threshold is exceeded.

Set volume latency thresholds in NetApp Workload Factory

With NetApp Workload Factory, you can track replication delays for your FSx for ONTAP file systems that are configured with remote replication. Replication delays indicate the time delay between when data is written to the source file system and when it is replicated to the destination file system. Tracking replication delays helps you monitor the health of your replication setup and identify potential issues that could impact data consistency and recovery point objectives (RPOs).

Track replication delays in NetApp Workload Factory

Workload Factory identifies the hosts that consume storage and the types of workloads that are associated with host activity. Workload definitions are AI-generated based on AWS tags and metadata. You can view host details and workload definitions from the file system, volume, and block device resource screens in Workload Factory.

We display all file system and storage VM endpoints directly in the Overview tab for a file system. Direct endpoint visibility within the Workload Factory console makes it easier to monitor network access, endpoints, and failover status without using the CLI or CloudShell. To display LIF details including roles, endpoints, nodes, IP addresses, and status, you'll need to associate a link with the file system.

Learn how to associate a link with your file system in NetApp Workload Factory.

New optional page-level filters are available to improve the results for cost analysis for your resources across all AWS accounts. You can select multiple regions and use file system allocation tag key and key values to filter the cost analysis results and get resource-specific cost details for your FSx for ONTAP file systems and volumes.

Use filters for cost analysis in NetApp Workload Factory

During data replication setup, you can now schedule replication initialization for your FSx for ONTAP file systems. The options are to initialize the replication relationship immediately or at a specified time. Replication initialization is the process of creating a baseline for replication by copying data from the source file system to the destination file system. Scheduling replication initialization allows you to automate this process and ensure that your replication setup is up to date without manual intervention.

Replicate data in NetApp Workload Factory

After analysis, you can download an Excel report of the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems for your records or to share with your teams.

View the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems in NetApp Workload Factory

Workload Factory now supports viewing and analyzing latency events for FSx for ONTAP volumes. You can view latency events without a link connection, making it easier to monitor performance issues. To analyze latency events and receive AI-powered insights and recommendations, you must connect to the file system using a link. Analysis provides current latency values, thresholds, QoS response analysis, and remediation guidance.

Analyze FSx for ONTAP events in NetApp Workload Factory

You can now configure latency thresholds on a per-volume basis to monitor performance and receive alerts when read or write latency exceeds your defined limits. Latency monitoring helps you proactively identify performance issues before they impact your workloads.

Set volume latency thresholds in NetApp Workload Factory

NetApp Workload Factory supports AWS GovCloud (US) accounts. Using a GovCloud account, you can deploy and manage storage workloads in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

NetApp Workload Factory supports AWS GovCloud (US) accounts. Using a GovCloud account, you can deploy and manage GenAI workloads in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification for replication delay.

Configure Workload Factory notifications

You can now create AWS GovCloud (US) accounts in Workload Factory. This account type uses only AWS US GovCloud endpoints and regions for setup and operations. Credentials and secrets remain in GovCloud. GovCloud (US) regions are supported.

Create an AWS GovCloud (US) account in Workload Factory

Workload Factory now offers SSD capacity increase management modes to match your operational preferences:

The current mode and its parameters are shown at the top of the SSD usage graph on the file system details page. You can switch modes at any time based on your operational needs.

Learn about SSD management modes.

You can now adjust SSD capacity increase management parameters across multiple file systems from the Overview dashboard. Select one or more clusters in the Clusters table and edit the Threshold (10-90%), Lookback (1-200 hours), and Ahead (1-200 hours) values in bulk.

The edit dialog automatically populates based on your selection: if all selected file systems share the same parameter values, those values are shown; otherwise, default values are used. This helps you apply consistent capacity settings across your environment.

Learn how to bulk edit parameters.

The SSD usage graph now shows decision points indicating when capacity recommendations were generated or automated actions were taken.

Decision points can occur every 30 minutes and are displayed individually or consolidated depending on the selected time range.

Learn about capacity decision points.

The Clusters table on the Overview dashboard now includes an Associated link column that shows whether an FSx for ONTAP link is configured for each file system. Connection status is validated daily, helping you identify file systems that need link configuration or may have connectivity issues.

View the Overview dashboard.

NetApp Workload Factory supports AWS GovCloud (US) accounts. Using a GovCloud account, you can deploy and manage storage workloads in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

Workload Factory offers clones for your block devices so that you can provision writable and efficient copies of your data quickly while controlling capacity, access, and lifecycle.

Manage block storage in NetApp Workload Factory

The block device table now includes a column that shows tags of the EC2 hosts which are consuming each block device. This helps you identify which host uses each block device during troubleshooting or audits.

To create tags on each block device, deploy an EC2 instance using our provided user script.

EC2 user data script to assign tags to block devices

Learn about SSD capacity trends directly from the overview for your FSx for ONTAP file systems. The new card for capacity management shows usage trends from the previous month. This analysis compares actual and allocated capacity, making it easy to assess resource use.

Manage capacity automatically in NetApp Workload Factory

After analysis, you can download a PDF report of the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems for your records or to share with your teams.

View the well-architected status of your FSx for ONTAP file systems in NetApp Workload Factory

The well-architected analysis includes the following new configurations for Oracle:

Implement well-architected database configurations in Workload Factory

Workload Factory automatically analyzes the cost of EBS storage used for Oracle databases and then suggests the best and most cost-efficient FSx for ONTAP configuration. You can select multiple EBS hosts to analyze and then compare the cost of running those hosts on EBS versus FSx for ONTAP.

Explore savings for detected EBS hosts

When you enable cross-region replication (CRR) for your database estate, the Database workload checks if the FSx for ONTAP file system has an associated link and replication setup. If needed, the Database workload redirects you to the FSx for ONTAP Storage workload replication wizard to handle the link prerequisites in the same way Storage does.

Implement well-architected database configurations in Workload Factory

You can now view LUNs mapped to Microsoft SQL Server databases in Workload Factory from the Inventory screen. This allows you to easily identify which LUNs are associated with which databases, making it easier to manage and optimize your storage resources.

You can now receive Workload Factory notifications via email without configuring an Amazon SNS topic. Enable email notifications to send notifications to any email addresses associated with the account.

You can configure email notifications from either the Workload Factory console or the NetApp Console. The NetApp Console also provides the option to configure NetApp Console notifications that appear under the bell icon.

If you configure notifications in NetApp Console, NetApp Console takes ownership of notification delivery. Notification settings in the Workload Factory console become read-only to prevent duplicate notifications.

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification for EDA latency that notifies you when the latency of an EDA operation exceeds a certain threshold.

Configure Workload Factory notifications

The NetApp Workload Factory notification service includes the notification with a monthly cost summary for your account, showing spending trends, unusual changes, and the best savings opportunities for FSx for ONTAP file systems.

Configure Workload Factory notifications

You can now receive automatic notifications when latency events are detected on your FSx for ONTAP volumes. Configure email or Amazon SNS notifications in Workload Factory settings to receive real-time alerts when volumes breach your configured latency thresholds.

Notifications are sent on a file system basis and include details about all affected volumes, severity levels, threshold comparisons, and a direct link to the Latency page for investigation.

Learn how to configure latency notifications.

The latency analysis panel now includes a tabbed interface for comprehensive latency analysis:

The Over time tab displays raw CloudWatch latency data (read or write, depending on which alarm triggered) with warning and critical threshold lines, breach indicators, and detailed metrics for each violation.

This comprehensive visualization helps you identify patterns, understand whether latency issues are recurring or isolated, and make more informed decisions about remediation.

Learn how to analyze latency trends.