What do I need to know when making changes to AQoS Policies during Burst Waiver Period?

Applies to

• NetApp Keystone
• ONTAP
• Adaptive Quality of Service (AQoS)

Answer

A Burst Waiver Period in NetApp Keystone is a temporary timeframe during which you can exceed your subscribed storage performance levels—known as burst usage—without incurring additional charges. This is especially relevant for volumes using Adaptive Quality of Service (AQoS), which dynamically adjusts IOPS based on volume size. During this period, any burst IOPS activity is not billed, allowing flexibility for short-term performance spikes. However, once the waiver ends, volumes must have appropriate AQoS policies reapplied to avoid being billed at the highest service tier.

1. Changes during Burst Waiver Period:

• During this period, volumes without AQoS policies are billed at the maximum subscribed service level, i.e. Extreme
  • So volumes not assigned to a specific AQoS policy will incur charges at the maximum service level available in the subscription
    • Understanding and addressing ONTAP Performance Issues with Adaptive QoS for NetApp Keystone Services

2. After Burst Waiver Period:

• Changes made to AQoS policies during the burst waiver period must be manually reapplied after this period ends to ensure volumes are billed correctly according to their assigned service levels, ensuring accurate billing and performance management
  • This can be done through ONTAP CLI or System Manager

3. Billing for Excess Usage:

• If volumes exceed the subscription limit (e.g., 100TB + 20TB extra), the excess is billed as burst at the highest service level
  • So any usage beyond the committed capacity will incur additional charges at the maximum service level
  • This is regardless of whether it is during the burst waiver period or not

4. Determining AQoS Policies:

• The AQoS policies and setting need to be Keystone compliant 
  • Examples: Settings of adaptive QoS policies
• Determine which AQoS policy to apply to each volume based on your performance requirements
  • Assign appropriate AQoS policies to effectively manage resources

Practical Steps:

1. Identify Volumes Without AQoS Policies:

• Review all volumes to check if they have assigned AQoS policies.
• Note down any volumes that are currently without AQoS policies.

2. Reapply AQoS Policies:

• Use ONTAP CLI or System Manager to manually reapply AQoS policies to the identified volumes
• Ensure that each volume is assigned a policy that matches its performance requirements
  • Keystone volume shown as non-compliant on ActiveIQ

• Steps from CLI: How to apply AQoS policy groups in ONTAP via CLI
• Steps from System Manager:

3. Navigate to "Storage > Volumes"
4. Select the volume you want to modify
5. Click "Edit".
6. Select: ASSIGN AQOS POLICY GROUP
7. Drop down and apply the required policy
8. Click Save 

3. Monitor Usage:

• Keep track of the usage to ensure it does not exceed the subscription limit
• If usage exceeds the limit, be aware that the excess will be billed at the highest service level 

Additional Information

• Understanding Adaptive QoS and Service Levels in NetApp Keystone
• Keystone Service Levels