Autotiering with WFA

Autotiering in NetApp is no longer unknown.  With FlashPool and FabricPool we have actual autotiering where hot blocks get moved to a faster medium (FlashPool) or cold blocks get moved to an S3 bucket (FabricPool).

But that's about it.  I'm not saying its not awesome, because it is.  I'm just saying, there can be more.

If you just think about it, NetApp already has a Cluster concept (Cdot) which allow different tiers (For example mixing an AFF with a FAS) and we already have the capability to move volumes between those tiers (vol move).

View Recording on Youtube

The only piece missing is automating it.

What do we need ?

1. Data : so we know if something is slow or fast, busy or not
2. Intelligence : something that can analyze if something needs to be moved
3. Action : a tool that actually moves the volume

The concept

We grab performance data from OCUM.  

We analyze the data and calculate 2 indicators (performance indicator : is a volume slow ?) and a busy indicator (is a volume doing something).  With those to indicators and some thresholds (limits) we can decide if a volume could use more performance or not.

If it does, we move the volume

Tools required

OCUM : to collect the data

WFA : to analyze and trigger the move

The pack

You can download the pack from my GitHub.  https://github.com/wfaguy/workflows/tree/master/Autotiering 

Stay tuned !