topic Re: Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications in AFF

Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications

MarcusSerrao — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 09:44:22 GMT

Good day. We have an AFF a220 and we are concern with hosting a VM on it via vSphere that has a Windows database application, PostgreSQL, that could potentially shorten the lifetime of the SAN. We realize that SSD drives have a limited number of writes however the SANs like the AFF models are optimized to mitigate the number of writes to disk required. At least from reading this article (Optimized Write Performance):

https://community.netapp.com/t5/Tech-ONTAP-Articles/All-Flash-FAS-A-Deep-Dive/ta-p/87211

1) Should we be concerned about hosting our database app VM on the SAN and wearing out our SAN disks sooner?

2) If so, do you have any recommendations for SAN configuration such as RAID mode that may lengthen the lifetime of the SSDs in the SAN to mitigate the increased number of writes?

thank you in advance!

Re: Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications

SpindleNinja — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 15:18:57 GMT

I wouldn't worry about it. check the SSD wear -

storage disk show -ssd-wear

Re: Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications

MarcusSerrao — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 18:27:48 GMT

Thank you so much!

Re: Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications

SpindleNinja — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 18:34:53 GMT

no problem. there are also EMS events that get generated when they are high.

e.g. -

shm.threshold.ratedLife

https://docs.netapp.com/us-en/ontap-ems-9121/shm-threshold-events.html#shm-threshold-mediumerrors7days

Re: Lifetime concern of AFF SANs (AFF a220) hosting VM with database applications

andris — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 16:57:46 GMT

Please review KB: https://kb.netapp.com/onprem/ontap/hardware/How_to_detect_and_manage_solid-state_drives_SSDs_approaching_the_end_of_their_rated_life_in_AFF_FAS_systems