When I started this site back in October of 2014, it was mainly to drive traffic to my NetApp Insight sessions -and it worked.
(By the way… stay tuned for a blog on this year’s new Insight sessions by yours truly. Now with more lab!)
As I continued writing, my goal was to keep creating content – don’t be the guy who just shows up during conference season.
So far, so good.
But since I create so much content, it gets hard to find for new visitors to this site, The WordPress archives/table of contents is lacking. So, what I’ve done is create my own table of contents of the top 5 most visited posts.
You can also search on the site or click through the archives, if you choose. Or, subscribe to the RSS feed. If you have questions or want to see something changed or added to the site, follow me on Twitter @NFSDudeAbides or comment on one of the posts here!
Welcome to the Episode 224, part of the continuing series called “Behind the Scenes of the NetApp Tech ONTAP Podcast.”
This week on the podcast, FabricPool TME John Lantz (john.lantz@netapp.com) and PM Shriya Paramkusam (shriya@netapp.com) stop by to give us the latest information on what’s new for FabricPool in ONTAP 9.7, as well as the new S3 server available for public preview!
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Welcome to the Episode 223, part of the continuing series called “Behind the Scenes of the NetApp Tech ONTAP Podcast.”
This week on the podcast, Toby Creek joins us to discuss the new public offering of NetApp’s Hands on Labs. Now anyone can access labs at https://labondemand.netapp.com/!
Podcast Transcriptions
We also are piloting a new transcription service, so if you want a written copy of the episode, check it out here (just set expectations accordingly):
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Because EVERYONE LOVES END OF YEAR LISTS, I decided to make one of the top 5 most listened-to Tech ONTAP Podcast episodes of 2019. There’s no subjectivity here – just pure metrics. Because everyone also loves metrics…
For the year, the podcast hit 151,000 plays. May was our busiest month with 12,552. Usually, the most listened to episodes will be older episodes, since they have more time to accrue statistics.
#5. Episode 189 – ONTAP 9.6 Overview: May 2019
Each ONTAP release, we do an overview episode. The ONTAP 9.6 Overview episode hit 2,746 plays for the year.
#4. Episode 186: ONTAP Storage Efficiency Overview: April 2019
This episode hit 2,751 plays for the year, as we covered the basics of ONTAP storage efficiencies, as well as going a little deeper into how they work.
#3. Episode 181: ONTAP Networking Deep Dive and Tips: March 2019
In this episode, we brought networking expert Richard Scheffenegger in to discuss ONTAP networking and some best practices. This one had 2,785 plays.
#2. Episode 192: REST APIs in ONTAP 9.6: May 2019
One of the more antcipated ONTAP features in ONTAP 9.6 was REST API support, and the plays show it. This episode hit 2,846 plays.
#1: Episode 183: NetApp Kubernetes Services: March 2019
Our number 1 listened-to episode of 2019 was the NetApp Kubernetes Services episode, where we discuss NKS and when you’d want to use it. This one had 2,975 plays – just shy of 3,000.
Since the yearly listens will be skewed by older episodes, here’s the top episode per month of 2019 as well.
January 2019 (13.4K plays)
Episode 172: Scale-out Networking in ONTAP (1,658 plays)
February 2019 (13K plays):
Episode 177: Data Science (1,666 plays)
March 2019 (13K plays):
Episode 181: ONTAP Networking Deep Dive and Tips (1,821 plays)
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Welcome to the Episode 220, part of the continuing series called “Behind the Scenes of the NetApp Tech ONTAP Podcast.”
This week on the podcast, we invite Robert Graf (robert.graf@prolion.com) and Steve Arlin (steve.arlin@prolion.com) of ProLion to discuss ransomware solutions, detection and prevention with NetApp Security TME Matt Trudewind (@ntapmatt). Robert and Steve are so confident in ProLion, they give out their personal phone numbers! 😛
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Welcome to the Episode 219, part of the continuing series called “Behind the Scenes of the NetApp Tech ONTAP Podcast.”
This week on the podcast, we invite the NetApp FlexGroup Technical Director, Dan Tennant, and FlexGroup developer Jessica Peters, to talk to us about the ins and outs of converting a FlexVol to a FlexGroup in-place, with no copy and no outage!
I also cover the process in detail in this blog post:
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Welcome to the Episode 218, part of the continuing series called “Behind the Scenes of the NetApp Tech ONTAP Podcast.”
This week on the podcast, E-Series PM Younes Ben-Brahim and TME Todd Edwards join us to discuss the latest in E-Series, including the new BeeGFS platform offering.
Podcast Transcriptions
We also are piloting a new transcription service, so if you want a written copy of the episode, check it out here (just set expectations accordingly):
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
Just use the search field to look for words you want to read more about. (For example, search for “storage”)
Be sure to give us feedback on the transcription in the comments here or via podcast@netapp.com! If you have requests for other previous episode transcriptions, let me know!
Finding the Podcast
You can find this week’s episode here:
Also, if you don’t like using iTunes or SoundCloud, we just added the podcast to Stitcher.
UPDATED: Added 500 million file test to this to show that file count doesn’t matter. 🙂
NetApp announced ONTAP 9.7 at Insight 2019 in Las Vegas, which included a number of new features. But mainly, ONTAP 9.7 focuses on making storage management in ONTAP simpler.
One of the new features that will help make things easier is the new FlexGroup conversion feature, which allows in-place conversion of a FlexVol to a FlexGroup volume without the need to do a file copy.
Best of all, this conversion takes a matter of seconds without needing to remount clients!
I know it sounds too good to be true, but what would you rather do: spend days copying terabytes of data over the network, or run a single command that converts the volume in place without touching the data?
As you can imagine, a lot of people are pretty stoked about being able to convert volumes without copying data, so I wanted to write up something to point people to as the questions inevitably start rolling in. This blog will cover how it works and what caveats there are. The blog will be a bit long, but I wanted to cover all the bases. Look for this information to be included in TR-4571 soon, as well as a new FlexGroup conversion podcast in the coming weeks.
Why would I want to convert a volume to a FlexGroup?
FlexGroup volumes offer a few advantages over FlexVol volume, such as:
Ability to expand beyond 100TB and 2 billion files in a single volume
Ability to scale out capacity or performance non-disruptively
Multi-threaded performance for high ingest workloads
Simplification of volume management and deployment
For example, perhaps you have a workload that is growing rapidly and you don’t want to have to migrate the data, but still want to provide more capacity. Or perhaps a workload’s performance just isn’t cutting it on a FlexVol, so you want to provide better performance handling with a FlexGroup. Converting can help here.
When would I not want to convert a FlexVol?
Converting a FlexVol to a FlexGroup might not always be the best option. If you have features you require in FlexVol that aren’t available in FlexGroup volumes, then you should hold off. For example, SVM-DR and cascading SnapMirrors aren’t supported in ONTAP 9.7, so if you need those, you should stay with FlexVols.
Also, if you have a FlexVol that’s already very large (80-100TB) and already very full (80-90%) then you might want to copy the data rather than convert, as the converted FlexGroup volume would then have a very large, very full member volume, which could create performance issues and doesn’t really fully resolve your capacity issues – particularly if that dataset contains files that grow over time.
For example, if you have a FlexVol that is 100TB in capacity and 90TB used, it would look like this:
If you were to convert this 90% full volume to a FlexGroup, then you’d have a 90% full member volume. Once you add new member volumes, they’d be 100TB each and 0% full, meaning they’d take on a majority of new workloads. The data would not rebalance and if the original files grew over time, you could still run out of space with nowhere to go (since 100TB is the maximum member volume size).
Things that would block a conversion
ONTAP will block conversion of a FlexVol for the following reasons:
The ONTAP version isn’t 9.7 on all nodes
ONTAP upgrade issues preventing conversion
A FlexVol volume was transitioned from 7-Mode using 7MTT
Something is enabled on the volume that isn’t supported with FlexGroups yet (SAN LUNs, Windows NFS, SMB1, part of a fan-out/cascade snapmirror, SVM-DR, Snapshot naming/autodelete, vmalign set, SnapLock, space SLO, logical space enforcement/reporting, etc.)
FlexClones are present (The volume being converted can’t be a parent nor a clone)
The volume is a FlexCache origin volume
Snapshots with snap-ids greater than 255
Storage efficiencies are enabled (can be re-enabled after)
The volume is a source of a snapmirror and the destination has not been converted yet
The volume is part of an active (not quiesced) snapmirror
Quotas enabled (must be disabled first, then re-enabled after)
To convert a FlexVol volume to a FlexGroup volume in ONTAP 9.7, you run a single, simple command in advanced privilege:
cluster::*> volume conversion start ?
-vserver <vserver name> *Vserver Name
[-volume] <volume name> *Volume Name
[ -check-only [true] ] *Validate the Conversion Only
[ -foreground [true] ] *Foreground Process (default: true)
When you run this command, it will take a single FlexVol and convert it into a FlexGroup volume with one member. You can even run a validation of the conversion before you do the real thing!
The process is 1:1, so you can’t currently convert multiple FlexVols into a single FlexGroup. Once the conversion is done, you will have a single member FlexGroup volume, which you can then add more member volumes of the same size to increase capacity and performance.
Other considerations/caveats
While the actual conversion process is simple, there are some considerations to think of before converting. Most of these considerations will go away in each ONTAP release as support is added for features, but it’s still prudent to call them out here.
Once the initial conversion is done, ONTAP will unmount the volume internally and remount it to get the new FlexGroup information into the appropriate places. Clients won’t have to remount/reconnect, but will see a disruption that last less than 1 minute while this takes place. Data doesn’t change at all – filehandles all stay the same.
FabricPool doesn’t need anything. It just works. No need to rehydrate data on-prem.
Snapshot copies will remain and available for clients to access data from, but you won’t be able to restore the volume using them via snaprestore commands. Those snapshots get marked as “pre-conversion.”
SnapMirrors will pick up where they left off without needing to rebaseline, provided the source and destination volumes have both been converted. But no snapmirror restores of the volume; just file retrieval from clients. Snapmirror destinations need to be converted first.
FlexClones will need to be deleted or split from the volume to be converted.
Storage efficiencies will need to be disabled during the conversion, but your space savings will be preserved after the convert
FlexCache instances with an origin volume being converted will need to be deleted.
Space guarantees can impact how large a FlexGroup volume can get if they’re set to volume guarantee. New member volumes will need to be the same size as the existing members, so you’d need adequate space to honor those.
Quotas are supported in FlexGroup volumes, but are done a bit differently than in FlexVol volumes. So, while the convert is being done, quotas have to be disabled (quota off) and then re-enabled later (quota on).
Also, conversion to FlexGroup volumes is a one way street after you expand it, so be sure you’re ready to make the jump. If anything goes wrong during the conversion process, there is a “rescue” method that support can help you use to get out of the pickle, so your data will be safe.
When you expand the FlexGroup to add new member volumes, they will be the same size as the converted member volume, so be sure there is adequate space available. Additionally, the existing data that resides in the original volume will remain in that member volume. Data does not re-distribute. Instead, the FlexGroup will favor newly added member volumes for new files.
Nervous about convert?
Well, ONTAP has features for that.
If you don’t feel comfortable about converting your production FlexVol to a FlexGroup right away, you have options.
First of all, remember that we have the ability to run a check on the convert command with -check-only true. That tells us what pre-requisites we might be missing.
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume flexvol -foreground true -check-only true
Error: command failed: Cannot convert volume "flexvol" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup. Correct the following issues and retry the command:
* The volume has Snapshot copies with IDs greater than 255. Use the (privilege: advanced) "volume snapshot show -vserver DEMO -volume flexvol -logical-snap-id >255 -fields logical-snap-id" command to list the Snapshot copies
with IDs greater than 255 then delete them using the "snapshot delete -vserver DEMO -volume flexvol" command.
* Quotas are enabled. Use the 'volume quota off -vserver DEMO -volume flexvol' command to disable quotas.
* Cannot convert because the source "flexvol" of a SnapMirror relationship is source to more than one SnapMirror relationship. Delete other Snapmirror relationships, and then try the conversion of the source "flexvol" volume.
* Only volumes with logical space reporting disabled can be converted. Use the 'volume modify -vserver DEMO -volume flexvol -is-space-reporting-logical false' command to disable logical space reporting.
Also, remember, ONTAP has the ability to create multiple storage virtual machines, which can be fenced off from network access. This can be used to test things, such as volume conversion. The only trick is getting a copy of that data over… but it’s really not that tricky.
Option 1: SnapMirror
You can create a SnapMirror of your “to be converted” volume to the same SVM or a new SVM. Then, break the mirror and delete the relationship. Now you have a sandbox copy of your volume, complete with snapshots, to test out conversion, expansion and performance.
Option 2: FlexClone/volume rehost
If you don’t have SnapMirror or want to try a method that is less taxing on your network, you can use a combination of FlexClone (instant copy of your volume backed by a snapshot) and volume rehost (instant move of the volume from one SVM to another). Keep in mind that FlexClones themselves can’t be rehosted, but you can split the clone and then rehost.
Essentially, the process is:
FlexClone create
FlexClone split
Volume rehost to new SVM (or convert on the existing SVM)
Profit!
Sample conversion
Before I converted a volume, I added around 300,000 files to help determine how long the process might take with a lot of files present.
cluster::*> df -i lotsafiles
Filesystem iused ifree %iused Mounted on Vserver
/vol/lotsafiles/ 330197 20920929 1% /lotsafiles DEMO
cluster::*> volume show lots*
Vserver Volume Aggregate State Type Size Available Used%
--------- ------------ ------------ ---------- ---- ---------- ---------- -----
DEMO lotsafiles aggr1_node1 online RW 10TB 7.33TB 0%
First, let’s try out the validation:
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume lotsafiles -foreground true -check-only true
Error: command failed: Cannot convert volume "lotsafiles" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup. Correct the following issues and retry the command:
* SMB1 is enabled on Vserver "DEMO". Use the 'vserver cifs options modify -smb1-enabled false -vserver DEMO' command to disable SMB1.
* The volume contains LUNs. Use the "lun delete -vserver DEMO -volume lotsafiles -lun *" command to remove the LUNs, or use the "lun move start" command to relocate the LUNs to other
FlexVols.
* NFSv3 MS-DOS client support is enabled on Vserver "DEMO". Use the "vserver nfs modify -vserver DEMO -v3-ms-dos-client disabled" command to disable NFSv3 MS-DOS client support on the
Vserver. Note that disabling this support will disable access for all NFSv3 MS-DOS clients connected to Vserver "DEMO".
As you can see, we have some blockers, such as SMB1 and the LUN I created (to intentionally break conversion). So, I clear them with the recommendations and run it again and see some of our caveats:
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume lotsafiles -foreground true -check-only true
Conversion of volume "lotsafiles" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup can proceed with the following warnings:
* After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
* Converting flexible volume "lotsafiles" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies from the volume to be set to "pre-conversion". Pre-conversion Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
Now, let’s convert. But, first, I’ll start a script that takes a while to complete, while also monitoring performance during the conversion using Active IQ Performance Manager.
The conversion of the volume took less than 1 minute, and the only disruption I saw was a slight drop in IOPS:
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume lotsafiles -foreground true
Warning: After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
Warning: Converting flexible volume "lotsafiles" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies from the volume to be set to "pre-conversion". Pre-conversion Snapshot
copies cannot be restored.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 23671] Job succeeded: success
Now, I can add more member volumes using “volume expand”:
cluster::*> volume expand -vserver DEMO -volume lotsafiles -aggr-list aggr1_node1,aggr1_node2 -aggr-list-multiplier 2
Warning: The following number of constituents of size 10TB will be added to FlexGroup "lotsafiles": 4. Expanding the FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies to be set to "partial".
Partial Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
Warning: FlexGroup "lotsafiles" is a converted flexible volume. If this volume is expanded, it will no longer be able to be converted back to being a flexible volume.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 23676] Job succeeded: Successful
But remember, the data doesn’t redistribute. The original member volume will keep the files in place:
Now, let’s take a look at a volume that is in a SnapMirror.
cluster::*> snapmirror show -destination-path data_dst -fields state
source-path destination-path state
----------- ---------------- ------------
DEMO:data DEMO:data_dst Snapmirrored
If I try to convert the source, I get an error:
cluster::*> vol conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume data -check-only true
Error: command failed: Cannot convert volume "data" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup. Correct the following issues and retry the command:
* Cannot convert source volume "data" because destination volume "data_dst" of the SnapMirror relationship with "data" as the source is not converted. First check if the source can be converted to a FlexGroup volume using "vol
conversion start -volume data -convert-to flexgroup -check-only true". If the conversion of the source can proceed then first convert the destination and then convert the source.
So, I’d need to convert the destination first. To do that, I need to quiesce the snapmirror:
cluster::*> vol conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume data_dst -check-only true
Error: command failed: Cannot convert volume "data_dst" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup. Correct the following issues and retry the command:
* The relationship was not quiesced. Quiesce SnapMirror relationship using "snapmirror quiesce -destination-path data_dst" and then try the conversion.
Here we go…
cluster::*> snapmirror quiesce -destination-path DEMO:data_dst
Operation succeeded: snapmirror quiesce for destination "DEMO:data_dst".
cluster::*> vol conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume data_dst -check-only true
Conversion of volume "data_dst" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup can proceed with the following warnings:
* After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
* Converting flexible volume "data_dst" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies from the volume to be set to "pre-conversion". Pre-conversion Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
When I convert the volume, it lets me know my next steps:
cluster::*> vol conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume data_dst
Warning: After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
Warning: Converting flexible volume "data_dst" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies from the volume to be set to "pre-conversion". Pre-conversion Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 23710] Job succeeded: SnapMirror destination volume "data_dst" has been successfully converted to a FlexGroup volume. You must now convert the relationship's source volume, "DEMO:data", to a FlexGroup. Then, re-establish the SnapMirror relationship using the "snapmirror resync" command.
Now I convert the source volume…
cluster::*> vol conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume data
Warning: After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
Warning: Converting flexible volume "data" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies from the volume to be set to "pre-conversion". Pre-conversion Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 23712] Job succeeded: success
And resync the mirror:
cluster::*> snapmirror resync -destination-path DEMO:data_dst
Operation is queued: snapmirror resync to destination "DEMO:data_dst".
cluster::*> snapmirror show -destination-path DEMO:data_dst -fields state
source-path destination-path state
----------- ---------------- ------------
DEMO:data DEMO:data_dst Snapmirrored
While that’s fine and all, the most important part of a snapmirror is the restore. So let’s see if I can access files from the destination volume’s snapshot.
First, I mount the source and destination and compare ls output:
# mount -o nfsvers=3 DEMO:/data_dst /dst
# mount -o nfsvers=3 DEMO:/data /data
# ls -lah /data
total 14G
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4.0K Nov 14 11:57 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 54 root root 4.0K Nov 15 10:08 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 cifslink
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4.0K Nov 16 2018 nas
-rwxrwxrwx 1 prof1 ProfGroup 0 Oct 3 14:32 newfile
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4.0K Nov 15 10:06 .snapshot
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Sep 14 2018 symlink -> /shared/unix/linkedfile
drwxrwxrwx 2 root bin 4.0K Jan 31 2019 test
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 unix
-rwxrwxrwx 1 newuser1 ProfGroup 0 Jan 14 2019 userfile
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:58 Windows2.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:37 Windows.iso
# ls -lah /dst
total 14G
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4.0K Nov 14 11:57 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 54 root root 4.0K Nov 15 10:08 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 cifslink
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Nov 15 2018 nas
-rwxrwxrwx 1 prof1 ProfGroup 0 Oct 3 14:32 newfile
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4.0K Nov 15 10:05 .snapshot
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Sep 14 2018 symlink -> /shared/unix/linkedfile
drwxrwxrwx 2 root bin 4.0K Jan 31 2019 test
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 unix
-rwxrwxrwx 1 newuser1 ProfGroup 0 Jan 14 2019 userfile
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:58 Windows2.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:37 Windows.iso
And if I ls to the snapshot in the destination volume…
# ls -lah /dst/.snapshot/snapmirror.7e3cc08e-d9b3-11e6-85e2-00a0986b1210_2163227795.2019-11-15_100555/
total 14G
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4.0K Nov 14 11:57 .
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4.0K Nov 15 10:05 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 cifslink
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Nov 15 2018 nas
-rwxrwxrwx 1 prof1 ProfGroup 0 Oct 3 14:32 newfile
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 Sep 14 2018 symlink -> /shared/unix/linkedfile
drwxrwxrwx 2 root bin 4.0K Jan 31 2019 test
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4.0K Sep 14 2018 unix
-rwxrwxrwx 1 newuser1 ProfGroup 0 Jan 14 2019 userfile
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:58 Windows2.iso
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6.7G Nov 14 11:37 Windows.iso
Everything is there!
Now, I expand the FlexGroup source to give us more capacity:
cluster::*> volume expand -vserver DEMO -volume data -aggr-list aggr1_node1,aggr1_node2 -aggr-list-multiplier
Warning: The following number of constituents of size 30TB will be added to FlexGroup "data": 4. Expanding the FlexGroup will cause the state of all Snapshot copies to be set to "partial". Partial Snapshot copies cannot be restored.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 23720] Job succeeded: Successful
If you notice, my source volume now has 5 member volumes. My destination volume… only has one:
No worries! Just update the mirror and ONTAP will fix it for you.
cluster::*> snapmirror update -destination-path DEMO:data_dst
Operation is queued: snapmirror update of destination "DEMO:data_dst".
The update will initially fail with the following:
Last Transfer Error: A SnapMirror transfer for the relationship with destination FlexGroup "DEMO:data_dst" was aborted because the source FlexGroup was expanded. A SnapMirror AutoExpand job with id "23727" was created to expand the destination FlexGroup and to trigger a SnapMirror transfer for the SnapMirror relationship. After the SnapMirror transfer is successful, the "healthy" field of the SnapMirror relationship will be set to "true". The job can be monitored using either the "job show -id 23727" or "job history show -id 23727" commands.
The job will expand the volume and then we can update again:
cluster::*> job show -id 23727
Owning
Job ID Name Vserver Node State
------ -------------------- ---------- -------------- ----------
23727 Snapmirror Expand cluster
node1
Success
Description: SnapMirror FG Expand data_dst
cluster::*> snapmirror show -destination-path DEMO:data_dst -fields state
source-path destination-path state
----------- ---------------- ------------
DEMO:data DEMO:data_dst Snapmirrored
Now both FlexGroup volumes have the same number of members:
So, there you have it… a quick and easy way to move from FlexVol volumes to FlexGroups!
Addendum: Does a High File Count Impact the Convert Process?
Short answer: No!
In a comment a few weeks ago, someone pointed out, rightly, that my 300k file volume wasn’t a *true* high file count. So I set out to create 500 million files and convert that volume. The hardest part was creating 500 million files, but I finally got there:
Since it took me so long to create that many files, I went ahead and created a FlexClone volume of it and split it, so I could keep the origin volume intact, because who doesn’t need 500 million files laying around?
Fun fact: That process *did* take a while – about 30 minutes:
cluster::*> vol clone split start -vserver DEMO -flexclone fvconvert -foreground true
Warning: Are you sure you want to split clone volume fvconvert in Vserver DEMO ? {y|n}: y
[Job 24230] 0% inodes processed.
cluster::*> job history show -id 24230 -fields starttime,endtime
node record vserver endtime starttime
------------------ ------- --------------- -------------- --------------
node1 2832338 cluster 12/09 10:27:08 12/09 09:58:16
After the clone split, I ran the check to see if we were good to go. I did have to run a “volume clone sharing-by-split undo” to get rid of shared FlexClone blocks which took a while, but after that:
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume fvconvert -foreground true -check-only true
Conversion of volume "fvconvert" in Vserver "DEMO" to a FlexGroup can proceed with the following warnings:
* After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
I went ahead and ran the same script I was running earlier to generate load and watched the statistics on the cluster to see if we hit any outage. Again, the convert took seconds (with 500 million files) and there was just a small blip.
cluster::*> volume conversion start -vserver DEMO -volume fvconvert -foreground true
Warning: After the volume is converted to a FlexGroup, it will not be possible to change it back to a flexible volume.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 24259] Job succeeded: success
Then, as the job was running I added new member volumes to the FlexGroup volume – again, no disruption.
cluster::*> volume expand -vserver DEMO -volume fvconvert -aggr-list aggr1_node1 -aggr-list-multiplier 3 -foreground true
Info: Unable to get information for Snapshot copies of volume "fvconvert" on Vserver "DEMO". Reason: No such snapshot.
Warning: The following number of constituents of size 40TB will be added to FlexGroup "fvconvert": 3.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 24261] Job succeeded: Successful
Then 4 more member volumes:
cluster::*> volume expand -vserver DEMO -volume fvconvert -aggr-list aggr1_node2 -aggr-list-multiplier 4
Info: Unable to get information for Snapshot copies of volume "fvconvert" on Vserver "DEMO". Reason: No such snapshot.
Warning: The following number of constituents of size 40TB will be added to FlexGroup "fvconvert": 4.
Do you want to continue? {y|n}: y
[Job 24264] Job succeeded: Successful
Plus, I started to see more IOPs for the workload, and the job itself took much less time overall than when I ran it on a FlexVol.
For a video of the capture, check it out here:
This was the job on the FlexVol:
# python file-create.py /fvconvert/files
Starting overall work: 2019-12-09 10:32:21.966337
End overall work: 2019-12-09 12:11:15.990707
total time: 5934.024611
This is how long it took on the FlexVol converted to a FlexGroup (with added member volumes):
# python file-create.py /fvconvert/files2
Starting overall work: 2019-12-10 11:02:28.621532
End overall work: 2019-12-10 12:22:48.523772
total time: 4819.95753193
And, for fun, I kicked it off again on the new FlexGroup. This time, I wanted to see how much faster the job ran, as well as how the files distributed on the more empty FlexVol members.
Remember, we started out with the newer member volumes all at less than 1% of files used (3.3 million of 2 billion possible files). The member volume that was converted from a FlexVol was using 25% of the total files (500 million of 2 billion).
After the job ran, we saw a ~3.2 million file count delta on the original member volume and a ~3.58 million file count delta on all the other members, which means we’re still balancing across all member volumes, but favoring the less full ones.
With the new FlexGroup, converted from a FlexVol, our job time dropped from 5900 seconds to 4656 seconds and we were able to push 2x the amount of IOPs:
# python file-create.py /fvconvert/files3
Starting overall work: 2019-12-10 13:14:26.816860
End overall work: 2019-12-10 14:32:03.565705
total time: 4656.76723099
As you can see, there’s an imbalance of files and data in these member volumes (way more in the original FlexVol), but performance still blows away the previous FlexVol performance because we are doing more efficient work across multiple nodes.
Thoughts on Industrial Computing. Or sometimes economics or music or trail runnning or carpentry. Employee of Datto. Proud New Englander and Schaghticoke. Site is my own.
