NetApp® has just made that possible with BlueXP™ workload factory for AWS. Workload factory can automatically analyze your FSx for ONTAP deployment against the AWS Well-Architected Framework guidelines and best practices, detect misalignments, suggest fix recommendations, and with a single-click, address the areas that are misaligned.
In this post I’ll show how to use workload factory to align FSx for ONTAP with the AWS Well-Architected Framework’s recommended key concepts, design principles, and architectural best practices for storage.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Introducing Well-Architected workload factory capabilities
- The AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars
- Continuous management and optimization
- The Well-Architected dashboard
- Using Well-Architected storage management with workload factory
- Achieve a Well-Architected FSx for ONTAP storage solution with workload factory
Introducing Well-Architected workload factory capabilities
Implementing the AWS Well-Architected framework is fundamental for effectively deploying FSx for ONTAP file systems. As the creators of ONTAP®, NetApp knows ONTAP best. That made it easy to define FSx for ONTAP-specific best practices and recommendations for a well-architected FSx for ONTAP storage solution.
The AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars
Workload factory is the cornerstone in implementing the AWS Well-Architected Framework for FSx for ONTAP. It helps users to plan, configure, deploy, and operate FSx for ONTAP in the most efficient and optimized way according to standard best practices, aligning it with the following six pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework:
- Reliability: This pillar emphasizes maintaining consistent workload functionality despite potential disruptions.
- Security: Effective security involves a thorough analysis of threats and implementing mitigation plans that can protect your data, systems, and assets.
- Operational excellence: This principle helps organizations develop and operate workloads efficiently by continuously driving process improvements while meeting requirements and reducing costs, manual effort, and time to market.
- Cost Optimization: This principle aims to provide business value efficiently, costs should be minimized, visible, and adaptable to application needs.
- Sustainability: This principle centers on minimizing the environmental impact of your entire solution infrastructure.
- Performance efficiency: This principle focuses on utilizing resources efficiently to meet system requirements and maintain peak performance as demands evolve.
Learn more about How can the AWS Well-Architected Framework improve your storage layer? In our blog.
Continuous management and optimization
Continuous management and optimization are essential for maintaining a well-architected posture, a process that is significantly supported by workload factory. It routinely examines FSx for ONTAP configuration setups, performing a daily analysis to confirm that best practices are being adhered to and that potential problems can be addressed.
The Well-Architected dashboard
The well-architected status of file systems is displayed in a new workload factory console dashboard, with statuses classified as “issues,” “not analyzed,” or “well-architected.”
This dashboard also displays a well-architected score—a percentage of well-architected configurations—and groups configurations based on the AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars. The analysis covers key configurations, such as SSD capacity threshold, data tiering, scheduled local snapshots, FSx for ONTAP backups, and remote data replication. Workload factory helps implement these framework best practices and to keep a well-architected posture for storage deployments.
Using Well-Architected storage management with workload factory
Let’s take a look at how you can effectively manage FSx for ONTAP storage according to the AWS Well-Architected Framework using workload factory.
- Browse to storage->FSx for ONTAP-> Select the file system to view its well-architected status.
The well-architected status for that FSx for ONTAP system in the example below is listed as “Not Analyzed.” Click on the “Not Analyzed” button to select the system and begin its analysis.
2. You will now be on the Well-Architected status page for the selected system. Click “Analyze Now” to proceed.
3. You will get a message “Analysis successfully triggered. This may take several minutes” at the bottom of the screen.
4. Once the analysis is completed, you will get an overall well-architected score as per the findings, and scores on the various categories such as Reliability, Operational Excellence, and Cost Optimization.
5. The well-architected total score quantifies the overall status of storage and provides a summary of findings, classified as critical issues, warnings, and well-architected configurations detected during the analysis. Scroll down to see the list of issues that were detected.
To review the findings by category, you can apply filters. As an example, select “Reliability” from the Category drop-down menu and click “Accept” to continue.
6. You will now see a list of all the findings about specific storage configurations. Listed next to each configuration is the current status, the severity of the finding, the resource type, details about the resource type, and the “View and Fix” button.
Let’s take a closer look at some individual configuration finding examples.
Automatic capacity management: You’ll notice that workload factory determined that this configuration is not optimized, and the warning states that this is a security issue. To fix this, just click the “View and Fix” button.
A pop-out screen will now walk you through the fixes for automatic capacity management. You’ll need to determine the threshold increase and incremental increase. The default settings you see here will be automatically recommended based on best practices for storage headroom.
Click “Continue” to proceed.
You will now receive a status message at the bottom of the screen stating the changes have been made and the system is being adjusted. You can see the progress of the changes by clicking the Tracker link.
7. Once you have made a change to a field, you can run another analysis (clicking the “Analyze now” button) and receive an updated well-architected score.
As you can see below, after making the recommended changes to the automatic security management configuration, the score for our system has increased to 86%, indicating it is well-architected.
8. Storage efficiencies: NetApp offers proprietary storage efficiency features including thin provisioning, data compression, deduplication, and compaction. These features help reduce the SSD tier capacity and cost. If this option is not enabled, workload factory will flag this as not optimized, as shown here.
Clicking the “View and fix” button will open up the pop-out screen, which will introduce what the problem is and how to fix it.
Click “Continue” to proceed with the fix.
You’ll now be shown a list of all the volumes that have been impacted by the lack of storage efficiency features. You have two choices here:
- Select an individual volume and click the “Fix” button at the end of each volume’s listing to enable storage efficiencies.
- Select multiple list items and click “Bulk action: fix” at the top of the list to enable storage efficiencies on all the selected volumes.
9. Scheduled local snapshots: Local snapshots are point-in-time copies of volumes that can be used for quick backups and restores. If local snapshots are not configured, workload factory will flag this during the well-architected framework analysis.
10. Remote data replication: FSx for ONTAP offers the ability to replicate data across file systems within the same region or to another region. Data replication can be configured to support various use cases, including data migration, disaster recovery, backup, and more. If this configuration is applicable for the file system but is not enabled, the status will be flagged as “Not Optimized” and show the number of volumes that are not aligned.
11. SSD capacity threshold: To maintain optimal performance, it’s advisable to keep the SSD storage tier capacity below 80% utilization. Exceeding this limit might negatively affect the speed of data reads and writes within your capacity pool storage tier, and potentially reduce the overall throughput capacity of your file system. If this threshold is exceeded, the workload factory analysis will flag it as “Not Optimized.”
12. Next, let’s examine some recommendations for the Cost Optimization pillar. Use the Category drop-down menu to filter Cost optimization pillar findings. The results for several categories will be shown.
13. Optimize TCO by tiering cold data: Data tiering is used to reduce SSD storage tier utilization. If it’s not enabled, the workload factory analysis will flag this as a finding.
14. If you’ve decided to follow all of the recommended optimization suggestions, your score will be replaced with a message saying that your entire storage configuration is now Well-Architected.
To learn more visit the well-architected file system configurations documentation.
Achieve a Well-Architected FSx for ONTAP storage solution with workload factory
Adhering to best practices is essential for deploying and managing FSx for ONTAP. With the AWS Well-Architected Framework, your FSx for ONTAP is more efficient, reliable, secure, and cost-effective.
Workload factory serves as the operational foundation for implementing this framework. It regularly analyzes your FSx for ONTAP configuration, identifies misalignments with best practices, and displays the well-architected status on a dashboard. This analysis covers critical configurations such as SSD capacity thresholds, data tiering, scheduled local snapshots, backups, and remote data copies for disaster recovery. It provides proactive observability and actionable insights, ensuring your FSx for ONTAP file systems achieve peak performance, cost efficiency, and governance.
To learn more about the pillars and how FSx for ONTAP improves your storage management, read our How can the AWS Well-Architected Framework improve your storage layer? blog, watch our Optimize Your Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP with Well-Architected Insights webinar, or get started now.
