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NetApp 8.3 | ADP Root Disk-Slice Poll

12/10/2014

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I recently posted a deep-dive on root disk-slicing on NetApp Clustered DataONTAP 8.3. And I've had some feedback, both from other partners and colleagues and also from customers. So I thought I would ask the populous en masse. 
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NetApp DataONTAP 8.3 | ADP Root Disk-Slice Deep-Dive

12/8/2014

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It's fair to say that NetApp's Clustered DataONTAP 8.3 is one of the biggest software releases in NetApp's lengthy history. So I want to spend some more time on one of its most key features: Advanced Drive Partitioning, or ADP. 

ADP is the ability to virtually "slice" or in Cisco's terms "abstract" the physical disk blocks in order to make them malleable in ways otherwise impossible without it. And there are two major implementation of this abstraction: root disk slices and FlashPool disk slices. Here, I just want to focus on root disk slices.

Root Disk Slices

With root disk slices, each partition is treated as a distinct virtual disk, and can have it's own RAID level, parity disks, and spare partitions. (Thanks to NetApp SEs and TMEs for providing some of these diagrams)
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NetApp cDOT 8.3 | Root Disk Slicing
Now, root disk slices are available only on certain configurations:
  1. Entry-level FAS platforms (2500, 2200 series)
  2. All-Flash FAS (AFF) platforms (8000, 6000, 3000 series)

While that might seem limiting (notice there is no support for hybrid platforms outside of entry-level systems), it is really based on the 90% use-case methodology. Ninety percent of the time customers who purchase 3000 series, 6000 series, or 8000 series FAS controllers are purchasing multiple shelves and have the room for dedicated root aggregates. And 90% of the time customers who purchase entry-level or AFF systems don't.  

Valid Config | 12-Disk Platforms

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FAS2500, FAS2200 | Active/Passive
To maximize capacity, ADP can be configured in an active/passive configuration that enables 72% of the usable space efficiency for data storage—nice! 
FAS2500, FAS2200 | Active/Active
To maximize performance, ADP can be configured to require minimal space and manage controller-specific data aggregates, resulting in an up to 50% usable space efficiency for data storage. 
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Valid Config | 24-Disk Platforms

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FAS2500, FAS2200 | Active/Active
ADP here is a typical config; and the resulting savings yield up to 83% storage efficiency! Awesome! 

Valid Config | All Platforms

The preceding is a few examples of valid configurations. There are actually a good number of different configurations that can be custom ordered; here's a full list of supported configurations for ADP root disk slices:

Platforms
2200, 2500 (Internal drives)
3200, 6200, 8000 (≥ 48 drives) 
Root Data Slice (HDD), Root Data Slice (AFF)
Root Data Slice (AFF)
Disk Shelf Configurations
All-Spinning (HDD)
All-Flash (SSD)
Hybrid (HDD + SDD)
12 x HDD, 24 x HDD
8 x SSD, 12 x SSD, 18 x SSD, 24 x SSD, 36 x SSD, 48 x SSD

8 x HDD & 4 x SSD, 20 x HDD & 4 x SSD
18 x HDD & 6 x SSD, 12 x HDD & 12 x SSD

About Root Partition Sizing

The root partition size is fixed and automatically set per controller. The actual amount will vary for the total of the root data partition between 430.9GiB (462.7GB) to 431.5GiB (463.3GB). The reason for this 0.13% fluctuation is due to the differing numbers of 4k blocks available with different spindle counts. Of course, the OCD in me wishes it was always just 450GB for a nice round number!

The way that root partition is parceled out is then based upon the number of disk drives with root partitions, calculating for the appropriate RAID level and hot spares as well. Here are the common disk configurations and their corresponding root disk sizes:
FAS2520 (12 Internal HDD)
FAS2552/4 (24 Internal HDD)
FAS2552/4 (20 Internal HDD)
FAS8000 AFF (24 SSD)
FAS8000 AFF (36 SSD)
FAS8000 AFF (48 SSD)
144GiB per root slice
54GiB per root slice
62GiB per root slice
54GiB per root slice
31GiB per root slice
22GiB per root slice
Let's look at three real-life examples just to solidify how ADP root disk slices are configured. 
Example 1: FAS2520 (12 x 3TB 7.2k)
Let's say I just purchased a FAS2520 for my backups using SnapVault. The usable space on a 3TB drive, in this case, is 2.18TB (but don't get me started on the TiB vs TB discussion). Here is how the root data partitioning would look in this case:
  • Root Slice: 144GiB per disk
  • Data Slice: 2335GiB per disk
  • Usable Size: 18.47TiB (active/passive config)
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Example 2: FAS8040 All-Flash (36 x 800GB SSD) 
Let's say I am just about to roll out a new Horizon 6 VDI deployment for 4,000 users on a FAS8040.  The usable space after formatting on a 800GB SSD drive, in this case, is 702.5GB (654.3GiB). Again, here's how the partitioning would look in this case:
  • Root Slice: 31GiB per disk
  • Data Slice: 745GiB per disk
  • Usable Size: 18.83TiB (active/active config)
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Example 3: FAS2552 (20 x 900GB, 4 x 400GB SSD)
Let's say I am just I am implementing a new co-located disaster recovery (DR) site at Peak10.  I run a 3250 in production and I am just replicating a few critical applications—a FAS2500 series to totally sufficient. The usable disk size is 837TiB for a 900GB 10k drive. Here's how the partitioning would look in this case:
  • Root Slice: 62GiB per disk
  • Data Slice: 775GiB per disk
  • Usable Size: 9.54TiB (active/active config)
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