Policies help make data tiering easy
Data continues to grow at a fast pace, creating challenges for storage owners. The fact that roughly 80% of data is rarely accessed presents opportunities for optimization. NetApp can help you optimize storage costs while maintaining immediate access to active data.
NetApp® BlueXP™ tiering automates the movement of infrequently accessed information— i.e., ‘cold’ data—from on-premises ONTAP® clusters to object-based storage. This keeps active data on primary flash storage where it’s readily available, and moves cold data to more cost-effective object storage, lowering overall storage costs.
Tiering works automatically and transparently without changing applications or workflows. And unlike archiving solutions, data is always immediately available when needed. License management is centralized within the BlueXP Digital Wallet, adding a layer of convenience, and giving businesses greater control and visibility.
BlueXP tiering features predefined policies that are easy to implement and can be customized to address various operational requirements. Let's explore the four tiering policies and how they address different business needs.
Cold Snapshots
Many companies regularly take snapshots of their data for backup and recovery purposes. Over time, the number of snapshots accumulates, consuming significant storage space on the primary storage system. However, most of these snapshots are accessed only if there is a specific need for data recovery or historical analysis.
By applying the Cold Snapshots tiering policy, BlueXP identifies the infrequently accessed snapshots and automatically moves them to lower-cost storage. All other user data remains on the primary storage tier.
Cold User Data & Snapshots
The Cold User Data & Snapshots policy is ideal for enterprises that generate large volumes of user content alongside snapshots. Active data remains in primary storage, while less frequently accessed data and snapshots are tiered to object storage. Media companies with extensive archives of past projects can use this policy to move completed project files and associated snapshots to a cost-effective tier, reserving primary storage for ongoing work.
All User Data
For data that is not likely to be accessed again, such as completed project data, legacy reports, and historical records, the All User Data policy is a good fit. Note, however, that data tied to this policy should be read-only to prevent fragmentation and maintain storage efficiency. It is also worth noting that data will not be pulled back to the performance tier when read, which is the normal process. Research institutions with decades of completed studies and data can apply this policy to transfer these records to a lower cost tier, preserving the data while optimizing storage costs.
No Policy
This option is used when you want to stop tiering data. When you edit an existing tiering policy and change it to No Policy, any tiered data will remain on object storage, but no additional data will be tiered once it becomes cold. You do have the option to retrieve already-tiered data if desired.
Policy customizations
The default settings for each policy represent best practices, but they can be customized to meet your business and operational needs. For instance, by default data is tiered only after an aggregate has reached 50% of capacity. This percentage can be changed up or down in the advanced settings for each aggregate.
The other default setting that can be customized is cooling days, which specifies the number of days data is inactive before it is moved to object-based storage. It can be anything between 2 and 183 days. The default value for the cold snapshots policy is 2 days, and for cold user data and snapshots it’s 31 days. A shorter cooling period will let tiering move data that quickly becomes outdated, such as the data for temporary short-spanned projects, sooner than it normally would, enhancing efficiency and savings. Yet, most users stick with the default period to avoid premature tiering and potential extra retrieval costs.
Model your savings
Not sure which option to choose, or how impactful it will be? BlueXP tiering will show you just how much capacity will be freed up on a given cluster with each tiering policy.
Policies make it easy
BlueXP tiering policies provide a structured, automated approach to data tiering that simplifies administration and helps balance cost, performance, and compliance requirements. Make the most of your data storage infrastructure by intelligently managing data throughout its lifecycle.
- To learn more, visit BlueXP tiering for Cold Data Management | NetApp.
- Try the BlueXP guided demo.