topic Best practice max number of drives in an aggregate? in ONTAP Discussions https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Best-practice-max-number-of-drives-in-an-aggregate/m-p/101338#M20537 <P>I have huge aggregates. Well, huge to me anyway. They have over 200 drives in them. In technical discussions with Netapp engineering I am&nbsp;getting mixed advice. Some say "Yes! Big aggregates are the way to go!" and others say , "Yes, big aggregates! But wait, the performance benefits of multiple spindles taper off drastically after about 54 drives" I have a one time opportunity to reconfigure my SAN and redo all of the aggregates. I have not found any written best practices that discuss the max spindle count, only the max size. Any assistance sorting&nbsp;this out would be greatly appreciated.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>Environment: cDOT 8.2 (going to 8.3) on 6240</P> Thu, 05 Jun 2025 04:57:22 GMT PaulLemmons 2025-06-05T04:57:22Z Best practice max number of drives in an aggregate? https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Best-practice-max-number-of-drives-in-an-aggregate/m-p/101338#M20537 <P>I have huge aggregates. Well, huge to me anyway. They have over 200 drives in them. In technical discussions with Netapp engineering I am&nbsp;getting mixed advice. Some say "Yes! Big aggregates are the way to go!" and others say , "Yes, big aggregates! But wait, the performance benefits of multiple spindles taper off drastically after about 54 drives" I have a one time opportunity to reconfigure my SAN and redo all of the aggregates. I have not found any written best practices that discuss the max spindle count, only the max size. Any assistance sorting&nbsp;this out would be greatly appreciated.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>Environment: cDOT 8.2 (going to 8.3) on 6240</P> Thu, 05 Jun 2025 04:57:22 GMT https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Best-practice-max-number-of-drives-in-an-aggregate/m-p/101338#M20537 PaulLemmons 2025-06-05T04:57:22Z Re: Best practice max number of drives in an aggregate? https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Best-practice-max-number-of-drives-in-an-aggregate/m-p/101641#M20590 <P>I would be interested in having further information about this topic ,&nbsp; aggregates and Flexvols</P> Tue, 10 Mar 2015 20:28:42 GMT https://community.netapp.com/t5/ONTAP-Discussions/Best-practice-max-number-of-drives-in-an-aggregate/m-p/101641#M20590 darrendu 2015-03-10T20:28:42Z