How to enable NetApp inline deduplication on non AFF or hybrid systems

In one of my last posts I had described that the NetApp AFF A200 seen from a hardware perspective, nothing is as the FÁS 2650. One of the differences is that in the A200 AFF all efficiency mechanisms by default are active.

In FAS 2650 you are able to activate inline efficieny afterwards. That is my approach but for inexperienced users slightly “tricky”, so here:

Usually, we enable the efficiency mechanisms as follows:

NetAppCluster01: :> volume efficiency modify-vserver SVM FOR NFS01
-volume NFSDATASTORE01 - policy inline-only inline-dedupe true

In a normal FÁS 2650 we get the following message:

Error: command failed: failed to modify efficiency configuration for volume NFSDATASTORE01 "
of vServer "SVM-FOR-NFS01":
Inline deduplication is supported only for volumes that are either
owned by nodes that are all-Flash optimized personality
enabled or on hybrid unit.

Wait what? DerSchmitz told us crap? The sign says, that I need an all Flash FAS node or a hybrid aggregate!

I neither have an AFF nor a hybrid aggregate. I have a FÁS 2650 with SSD only. So no AFF but only one FAS with SSDs. Thats bad, really bad!

Send the order back cancel the deal?

No! Inline dedup can be used at any of NetApp ONTAP FAS. No matter whether you mounted SSD, SAS or SATA drives.

WARNING in advance! Inline dedup demands a lot from the heads of the controller and in particular by the plates. It is a bad idea to activate inline dedup for normal SAS Disks or even NL SAS Disks or Volumes that are on it. I strongly advise against activating inline dedup on SAS or NL-SAS aggregate based volumes! In case of doubt, that will pull you down the performance of the entire system

But let’s talk about how to enable inline dedup on a non-AFF or a hybrid genset.

First, we enter the diag mode:

NetAppCluster01: :> set - priv diag

Then we go into the focus of ClusterNodes (we have to do this for each node)

NetAppCluster01: * > system node run node NetappCluster01Node01
NetAppCluster01-01 >

We activate the diag mode:

NetAppCluster01-01 > priv set diag
NetAppCluster01-01 * >

And now there is Voodoo!

You now type:

options sis. idedup_allow_non_aff_hya on

and then get a message that the option is not known.

But if you then type a… 

sis options

You can see that there is suddenly the option set to ON

Now, you can enable your inline dedup for the volume:

NetAppCluster01: :> volume efficiency modify-vserver SVM FOR NFS01
-volume NFSDATASTORE01 - policy inline-only inline-dedupe true
Warning: The efficiency policy "inline-only" will disable
background operations efficiency with deduplication on the
volume. Use "-inline-compression true" or "-inline-dedupe true" 
to perform compression or deduplication on
the new data being added to the volume respectively.
Do you want to continue? {y | n}: y

Have fun playing. And again: “Inline Dedup on SAS or NL-SAS disks is foul” That has a reason why NetApp hides it that way and automatically unlocks only for All Flash FAS systems. If you have a FAS that only has SSDs, I do not have any pain with 😉

 

kind regards

DerSchmitz

Disclaimer: This post represents my personal observations and is not officially authorized by NetApp or others. misinterpretations or misunderstandings reserved.