Provisioning Options

Different options are available for volume provisioning type, LUN space
reservation and fractional reserve.
You can use thick, semi-thick or thin provisioning
You should pick the option which fits the technical and business
requirements of the workload.
Different configurations can be used for different workloads within the same
cluster.
 CLI Volume Settings
You can use the –space-slo field when creating the volume to set the
provisioning type, fractional reserve and snapshot settings
volume create -space-slo thick|semi-thick|none

Alternatively you can configure the settings manually

-space-guarantee volume|none
-fractional-reserve 0|100
-volume snapshot autodelete modify
Semi-Thick Provisioning
Semi-thick provisioning uses thick provisioned volumes, space reserved
LUNs, and a fractional reserve of 0%
It requires less upfront storage space to be provisioned than the fully thick
option which uses a fractional reserve of 100%
It is suitable where you can accept a ‘best-effort’ overwrite guarantee in
order to get some space savings
Semi-Thick ‘–space-slo semi-thick’
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 0%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first, commitment destroy
Volume autogrow: off
Primary space management: snap_delete
Snapshot reserve: 5%
Snapshot policy: Default (Configure)
*LUN space reservation: Enabled
Semi-Thick ‘–space-slo semi-thick’
Semi-thick Provisioning with Snapshot Autodelete allows easy monitoring of
space utilization by monitoring at the volume level.
Size the volumes to hold the LUNs and snapshots, plus some overhead.
If the volume starts to fill up, older Snapshot copies will be Autodeleted to
allow the LUNs to remain online.
Semi-Thick ‘–space-slo semi-thick’
You can optionally also enable volume Autogrow, with Autogrow being tried
first when the volume gets full.
This decreases the chance of snapshots having to be autodeleted.
Semi-Thick ‘–space-slo semi-thick’ (Cont.)
The aggregate can now be automatically used as a dynamically shared pool of
space because volume autogrow is enabled.
The volumes compete for the aggregate space available for Autogrow.
If the volume cannot grow, Snapshot Autodelete should keep the LUNs online.
You need to monitor the aggregate as well as the volumes now because of
Autogrow.
Semi-Thick: Fractional Reserve 0%
ONTAP provides a "best effort" write guarantee for volumes with fractional
reserve set to 0 when all of the following requirements are met:
As long as ONTAP can delete the snapshots fast enough to keep pace with
the space required for overwrites, the write operations continue to succeed.
Volume guarantee is set to volume
LUN space reservation is enabled
Volume Snapshot reserve is set to 0
…
Semi-Thick: Fractional Reserve 0% (Cont.)
Volume Snapshot copy automatic deletion is enabled with a commitment
level of destroy for all snapshots, and a trigger of volume
Deduplication is not in use
Compression is not in use
(Deduplication and compression require space for metadata)
All FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs are enabled for automatic deletion
ODX and FlexClone copy offload are not in use
FlexClone sub-files are not in use
Thick Provisioning: Fractional Reserve 100%
If your rate of change is very high, in rare cases even with the previous
requirements met the Snapshot copy automatic deletion could fall behind,
resulting in the volume running out of space.
If you cannot meet all of the requirements or you need to ensure that the
volume does not run out of space, set the volume's fractional reserve setting
to 100.
This requires more free space up front (recommended volume size is twice
the size of the LUN), but guarantees that overwrites on the LUN will succeed.
Thick Provisioning ‘–space-slo thick’
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 100%
Snapshot autodelete: Disabled. Can optionally enable.
Volume autogrow: Off. Monitor aggregate space utilization if enabled.
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 5% (Set to correct size)
Snapshot policy: Default (Configure)
*LUN space reservation: Enabled
Default Settings ‘–space-slo none’
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 100%
Snapshot autodelete: Disabled. Can optionally enable.
Volume autogrow: Off. Monitor aggregate space utilization if enabled.
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 5% (Set to correct size)
Snapshot policy: Default (Configure)
*LUN space reservation: Admin defined
CLI Defaults – Volume Create

If you create a volume using the CLI and don’t use -space-slo, it
will default to the same settings as –space-slo thick and
space-slo none
Thin Provisioning

Thin Provisioning is suitable if your priority is to optimize space utilization

by overprovisioning the physical space available to your LUNs.
The LUN or LUNs are not guaranteed space and you must monitor the
space utilization in the aggregate to ensure it does not get full (this
would cause the LUNs to go offline).
This is not a recommended option for mission critical workloads.
 Thin Provisioning Option 1
Thin Provisioned Volumes with Non-Space-Reserved LUNs
Volume space guarantee: none (thin provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 0%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: grow
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: Admin defined
Snapshot policy: Admin defined
LUN space reservation: Disabled
 Thin Provisioning Option 2
Thick Provisioned Volumes with Non-Space-Reserved LUNs
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 0%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: grow
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: Admin defined
Snapshot policy: Admin defined
LUN space reservation: Disabled
Thick Provisioned Volumes with Non-Space-Reserved LUNs

The LUNs will be allocated space on a first come first serve basis. They will
compete with each other and any other objects in the volume for space.
The volume is guaranteed its space in the aggregate. If the rest of the
aggregate becomes full it does not affect the volume as long as the volume
still has space.
The volume size defines or guarantees an amount of space that is available
only to LUNs and snapshots within that volume.
You need to monitor utilization at both the aggregate and volume level.
Thick Provisioned Volumes with Non-Space-Reserved LUNs

You can set a maximum size the volume can Autogrow to.
Snapshots can use space that is not needed by LUNs, and will be autodeleted
when needed.
System Manager GUI Configuration
Different settings are used for the fractional reserve, snapshots and
autogrow when you create a volume in the System Manager GUI than in the
CLI
You cannot configure semi-thick provisioning in the GUI (but you can create
the volume in the GUI and then change it to semi-thick in the CLI)
System Manager LUN Create Wizard Defaults
If you create a LUN and its volume using the System Manager wizard and select
‘Default’ or ‘Enable’ for the ‘Space Reserve’:
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 100%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: Off
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 0%
Snapshot policy: None
LUN space reservation: Enabled
Bold: Different than CLI –space-slo thick
System Manager LUN Create Wizard Defaults
If you create a LUN and its volume using the System Manager wizard and select
‘Disable’ for the ‘Space Reserve’:
Volume space guarantee: none (thin provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 0%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: grow_shrink
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 0%
Snapshot policy: None
LUN space reservation: Disabled
System Manager Volume Create Wizard Defaults
If you create a volume using the System Manager wizard and select ‘Default’
or ‘Thick Provisioned’ for the ‘Space Reserve’:
Volume space guarantee: volume (thick provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 100%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: Off
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 0%
Snapshot policy: None
Same settings as when using LUN Create Wizard.
System Manager Volume Create Wizard Defaults
If you create a volume using the System Manager wizard and select ‘Thin
Provisioned’ for the ‘Space Reserve’:
Volume space guarantee: none (thin provisioned)
Volume fractional reserve: 0%
Snapshot autodelete: Enabled, volume trigger, oldest first
Volume autogrow: Off
Primary space management: volume_grow
Snapshot reserve: 0%
Snapshot policy: None
Green: Different than LUN Create Wizard.
LUN Space Reservation Default
If you create a LUN using System Manager or the CLI, it will be space
reserved by default (it doesn’t matter whether it’s created in a thick or thin
provisioned volume)