NetApp Workload Factory now supports Google Cloud VMware Engine. You can migrate your on-premises VMware workloads to Google Cloud VMware Engine using Google Cloud NetApp Volumes as external NFS datastores, optimizing cost and enabling more control over your VMware environment without needing to refactor or re-platform your applications.

The Google Cloud VMware Engine migration advisor provides:

Workload Factory now offers a one-time assessment to analyze the configurations of your database deployments whenever needed - new deployments, post-migration, troubleshooting, and more. You'll get recommendations to help you optimize your deployment configurations and comply with best practices. This is your opportunity to use the well-architected feature without fully committing to the setup process. You can assess your databases without storing credentials in Workload Factory, registering database resources, or setting up external connections.

Perform a one-time assessment of your database deployments

You can now discover and register Microsoft SQL Server instances with the Always On availability group (AOAG) deployment model and Oracle databases with the Data Guard deployment model in the Databases workload of NetApp Workload Factory. This enhancement allows for better management of SQL Server and Oracle resources within the Workload Factory console.

After registering your AOAG instances and Data Guard databases, you can take advantage of the various features in Workload Factory for Databases such as viewing resource details and analyzing error logs.

Workload Factory for Databases also supports the well-architected analysis for Microsoft SQL Server instances with the AOAG deployment model. You can analyze the configurations of your SQL Server instances in an availability group and receive recommendations to optimize your deployment configurations and comply with best practices. Register your AOAG instances to enable this feature.

Register resources in Workload Factory for Databases

The well-architected analysis includes Operating system patches for Oracle to check if you have the latest patches on the operating system and tell you how to install them.

Additionally, the well-architected analysis for Oracle notifies you when a configuration such as storage layout has dependencies on other configurations. The notification tells you which actions to optimize linked configurations so that all recommendations we provide are optimal.

Implement well-architected database configurations in Workload Factory

Workload Factory for Databases now analyzes and helps you plan for Oracle on-premises database migration to Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. You can use the savings calculator to estimate the cost of running your Oracle on-premises database environment in the cloud and review recommendations for migrating your on-premises database environment to the cloud.

Explore savings for on-premises database environments

We added a new Ask Me bookmark on every screen in Workload Factory console. This improvement makes it easier and faster for you to access Ask Me whenever you need help. Ask Me is our AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own workload environments, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations.

You can open Ask Me from any page by clicking the new bookmark. It launches Ask Me in a side panel without interrupting your current work and offers quick explanations and recommendations related to what you're currently doing.

Learn more about Ask Me

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

Workload Factory supports replicating on-premises ONTAP data to FSx for ONTAP and creating S3 access points for AWS Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services to accelerate AI/ML workflows.

Replicate on-premises data for AI & ML use cases

You can change the user and user type for an existing S3 access point attached to a volume. You can also enable or disable metadata for the access point.

Edit S3 access points in NetApp Workload Factory

If you're using block storage, you can view the block storage diagram to visualize how block devices connect to nodes and igroups. The diagram helps you understand and manage your block storage.

Manage block storage in NetApp Workload Factory

This update separates the feature into two distinct features: automatic capacity management and capacity notifications.

Automatic capacity management automatically adds or removes file system capacity to maintain optimal performance. New options include incremental and adaptive modes. In incremental mode, the system increases capacity by a fixed amount at thresholds; in adaptive mode, it uses historical data to predict and adjust capacity.

Capacity notifications alert you whenever a capacity adjustment occurs and when file systems reach set limits, so you can manage storage before issues arise.

Learn about automatic capacity management and capacity notifications in NetApp Workload Factory

We added a new Ask Me bookmark on every screen in Workload Factory console. This improvement makes it easier and faster for you to access Ask Me whenever you need help. Ask Me is our AI assistant. You can ask questions about your workload environments, get personalized insights, and review previous conversations.

You can open Ask Me from any page by clicking the new bookmark. It launches Ask Me in a side panel without interrupting your current work and offers quick explanations and recommendations related to what you're currently doing.

Learn more about Ask Me

We added a new Ask Me bookmark on every screen in Workload Factory console. This improvement makes it easier and faster for you to access Ask Me whenever you need help. Ask Me is our AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own workload environments, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations.

You can open Ask Me from any page by clicking the new bookmark. It launches Ask Me in a side panel without interrupting your current work and offers quick explanations and recommendations related to what you're currently doing.

Learn more about Ask Me

We added a new Ask Me bookmark on every screen in Workload Factory console. This improvement makes it easier and faster for you to access Ask Me whenever you need help. Ask Me is our AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own workload environments, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations.

You can open Ask Me from any page by clicking the new bookmark. It launches Ask me in a side panel without interrupting your current work and offers quick explanations and recommendations related to what you're currently doing.

Learn more about Ask Me

As an IT administrator managing dozens of FSx for ONTAP file systems, you can use the overview dashboard to answer common operational questions about cluster health, utilization, and volume placement.

The overview dashboard includes:

The previous main dashboard is now accessible in the Project tab. EDA tabs are now ordered: Overview, Latency , Project, CI/CD.

Learn more about the overview dashboard.

Latency analysis now includes automated basic analysis. When latency events are detected, the system automatically analyzes ONTAP QoS delay center metrics to identify the source of latency issues.

Basic analysis evaluates QoS policies, disk performance, network issues, and cluster configurations to provide immediate insights in the Details column of the latency events table.

Learn more about basic latency analysis.

We added a new Ask Me bookmark on every screen in Workload Factory console. This improvement makes it easier and faster for you to access Ask Me whenever you need help. Ask Me is our AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own workload environments, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations.

You can open Ask Me from any page by clicking the new bookmark. It launches Ask Me in a side panel without interrupting your current work and offers quick explanations and recommendations related to what you're currently doing.

Learn more about Ask Me

NetApp Workload Factory now supports migration for storage VMs. This feature allows migration of ONTAP storage system data and configurations from on-premises ONTAP systems or first-generation FSx for ONTAP file systems to second-generation FSx for ONTAP file systems. You can replicate storage VM data and configuration settings to move to the new file system with minimal downtime and disruption to users and applications.

To use this feature, create a replication relationship and select Migration as the use case. To complete the migration process, you must cut over the storage VM and its replicated volumes immediately to permanently migrate data and storage VM configuration settings to the target FSx for ONTAP file system.

The cost savings analysis for Microsoft SQL Server on-premises storage has been enhanced to provide a consolidated storage solution for several database hosts on one FSx for ONTAP file system. This consolidation optimizes storage costs by reducing the number of file systems required for multiple database hosts, leading to improved cost savings.

Explore savings for detected hosts on Microsoft SQL Server on-premises

The well-architected analysis includes four new sub assessments for the storage configuration analysis for Oracle: dNFS enablement, dNFS consistent IP resolution, dNFS configuration file, and dNFS nosharecache. These assessments relate to enabling and setting up Direct NFS (dNFS) for your Oracle environment, which bypasses the host NFS client and performs NFS file operations directly on an NFS server, improving I/O performance and decreasing the load on the host and the storage system because I/O is performed more efficiently.

Implement well-architected database configurations in Workload Factory

The NetApp Workload Factory home page includes a Focus tile where well-architected issues and FSx for ONTAP Emergency Management System (EMS) events appear for your workloads. From there, you can navigate to the Storage workload to view the well-architected status or the events of all FSx for ONTAP file systems in your storage environment.

Workload Factory supports replicating on-premises ONTAP data to the cloud for integration with AWS GenAI, ML, and analytics. You can replicate your on-premises data to an NFS or SMB/CIFS volume using an S3 access point.

Replicate on-premises data using an S3 access point

Several enhancements have been made to the S3 access point management capabilities in the Storage workload for NetApp Workload Factory. You can input network configuration details for your S3 access points and add S3 access point tags. Additional enhancements include the ability to view S3 bucket details and perform more actions for managing S3 access points.

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

Three new cards have been added to the Block devices tab in the Storage workload to provide quick insights into block device usage and protection status:

NetApp Workload Factory supports creating and managing initiator groups (igroups) for block storage in FSx for ONTAP file systems. Initiator groups connect block devices (LUNs) to the compute resources that are allowed to access them, providing a permission layer for block storage in SAN environments.

Workload Factory now provides automated well-architected analysis for your Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS) environments. Daily scans identify configuration misalignments and offer detailed remediation recommendations to help you maintain optimal operations, security, and cost efficiency.

Scans are performed using AWS APIs—no vSphere credentials or vCenter connectivity required. Results are available in the new Well-architected status tab within your EVS environment details.

This release includes insights for:

Implement well-architected configurations

NetApp Workload Factory includes the well-architected assessment for Elastic VMware Service (EVS) workloads, and adds new configurations for Storage and Database workloads.

New permissions have been added to the Storage workload for enhancements to managing S3 access points.

Permissions reference change log

You can now configure up to five custom filters on the EDA dashboard based on your AWS tags. Each custom filter includes a label name, AWS tag key, and a selection type (single or multi-selection).

Multi-selection allows you to select multiple values simultaneously, while single selection restricts you to one value at a time. Custom filters appear in the order you configure them, making it easy to organize your most frequently used filters.

If you don't configure custom filters, the default filters (file system, volume type, and time range) remain available so you can continue to view and interact with your dashboards.

Learn more about configuring custom filters.

The dashboard now offers two viewing modes: Total view and Volume view. The Total view displays aggregated metrics across all volumes, while the Volume view shows individual performance for the top 10 volumes over time.

In Volume view, interactive hover tooltips provide detailed information for each volume, including volume name, metrics, and time-specific values. When the same volumes appear across multiple components, consistent color coding makes it easier to track specific volumes across different metrics.

Learn more about viewing volume details.

Latency analysis enables you to monitor volume read and write latency across your FSx for ONTAP file systems. You can configure customizable warning and critical event thresholds to proactively identify performance bottlenecks before they impact your EDA workloads.

The latency events table displays all warning and critical events enabling you to monitor volume performance and identify volumes that require optimization.

This feature requires AWS credentials and is accessible from the Latency menu in the EDA dashboard.

Learn more about latency analysis.

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

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

The Workload Factory console home page embeds the Ask me AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own storage estate, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations. You can interact with Ask me to understand your workloads, troubleshoot issues, and learn more about Workload Factory — all without leaving the console.

Lambda links that are used to connect between your Workload Factory account and one or more FSx for ONTAP file systems to perform advanced ONTAP operations, now use the IAM user principal for resource-based policy permissions. This change provides better alignment with industry best practices for AWS resource access.

A new Analysis screen has been added to the Storage menu. From this screen, you can use the AI analyzer for FSx for ONTAP EMS events feature.

The following enhancements have been made for block devices.

The Workload Factory console home page embeds the Ask Me AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own storage estate, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations. You can interact with Ask Me to understand your workloads, troubleshoot issues, and learn more about Workload Factory — all without leaving the console.

The Workload Factory console home page embeds the Ask me AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own storage estate, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations. You can interact with Ask me to understand your workloads, troubleshoot issues, and learn more about Workload Factory — all without leaving the console.

The Workload Factory console home page embeds the Ask me AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own storage estate, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations. You can interact with Ask me to understand your workloads, troubleshoot issues, and learn more about Workload Factory — all without leaving the console.

Workload Factory for Builders is now Workload Factory for EDA. The name change reflects the focus on electronic design automation (EDA) workloads.

Workload Factory for EDA helps you optimize FSx for ONTAP across multiple file systems. You can optimize for performance and reduce operational costs by automating storage parameters, analyzing performance constraints, and get insights on EDA projects. Workload Factory for EDA is designed to integrate with your Infrastructure as Code (IaC) frameworks.

The Workload Factory console home page embeds the Ask me AI assistant, enabling you to ask questions about your own storage estate, get personalized insights directly from your environment, and refer to previous conversations. You can interact with Ask me to understand your workloads, troubleshoot issues, and learn more about Workload Factory — all without leaving the console.