Expanding File Share Capacity
With this feature, users of IBM Cloud® File Storage for Classic are able to expand the size of their File Storage for Classic in GB increments up to 12 TB immediately. You don't need to create a duplicate or manually migrate data to a larger volume. This feature is available in all data centers.
Billing for the volume is automatically updated to add the prorated difference of the new price to the current billing cycle. Then, the full new amount is billed in the next billing cycle.
The upgrade process is not instantaneous. You can expect to see the updated size in the console or through the API in a short while after you put in the modification request. Resizing does not cause any outage or loss of access to the storage, so you can continue your operations as normal while you wait.
Advantages of Expandable Storage
-
Cost management – You might know of a potential for growth of your data, but you need a smaller amount of storage to start. The ability to expand allows customers to save on the costs of storage at the start and then grow to accommodate their needs.
-
Growing Storage needs - Customers who experience rapid growth beyond need a way to quickly and easily increase the size of their storage to manage that growth.
Effects of expanding storage capacity on Replication
Expand action on the primary storage results in automatic resizing of the replica.
Limitations
Storage that was provisioned before the release of this feature, during April 2017 - 14 December 2017, can be increased to 10 times its original size and no more. Storage that was provisioned after 14 December 2017 can be increased to 12 TB.
Existing size limitations for File Storage for Classic that was provisioned with Endurance still apply (up to 4 TB for 10 IOPS tier and up to 12 TB for all other tiers).
You can't change the file share to a smaller size after you expand its capacity.
Resizing storage in the console
- Go to the IBM Cloud® console. From the menu, select Classic Infrastructure
. Click Storage > File Storage for Classic.
- Select the volume from the list and click the ellipsis
> Modify File Share.
- Enter the new storage size in GB.
- Review your selection and the new pricing. Click Modify.
- Your new storage allocation is available in a few minutes.
Unmount, then mount the modified volume, so the OS can recognize the extra storage space.
Resizing storage from the CLI
Before you begin, decide on the CLI client that you want to use.
- You can either install the IBM Cloud CLI and install the SL plug-in with
ibmcloud plugin install sl
. For more information, see Extending IBM Cloud CLI with plug-ins. - Or, you can install the SLCLI.
Resizing a file share from the IBMCLOUD CLI
You can increase the capacity of a volume by using the ibmcloud sl file volume-modify
command. The following example modifies a file share by specifying a new, bigger capacity.
ibmcloud sl file volume-modify 12345678 --new-size 1000
For more information about all of the parameters that are available for this command, see ibmcloud sl file volume-modify.
Resizing a file share from the SLCLI
To increase your storage capacity, you can use the following command in SLCLI.
$ slcli file volume-modify --help
Usage: slcli file volume-modify [OPTIONS] VOLUME_ID
Options:
-c, --new-size INTEGER New Size of file volume in GB. ***If no size
is given, the original size of volume is
used.***
Potential Sizes: [20, 40, 80, 100,
250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, 12000]
Minimum: [the original size of the volume]
-i, --new-iops INTEGER Performance Storage IOPS, between 100 and 6000
in multiples of 100 [only for performance
volumes] ***If no IOPS value is specified, the
original IOPS value of the volume will be
used.***
Requirements: [If original IOPS/GB
for the volume is less than 0.3, new IOPS/GB
must also be less than 0.3. If original
IOPS/GB for the volume is greater than or
equal to 0.3, new IOPS/GB for the volume must
also be greater than or equal to 0.3.]
-t, --new-tier [0.25|2|4|10] Endurance Storage Tier (IOPS per GB) [only for
endurance volumes] ***If no tier is specified,
the original tier of the volume will be
used.***
Requirements: [If original IOPS/GB
for the volume is 0.25, new IOPS/GB for the
volume must also be 0.25. If original IOPS/GB
for the volume is greater than 0.25, new
IOPS/GB for the volume must also be greater
than 0.25.]
-h, --help Show this message and exit.
Unmount, then mount the modified volume, so the OS can recognize the extra storage space.
Resizing storage with the API
You can increase your storage capacity by using an API call to the SOAP web service. The following sample API calls can be made from the scripting language of your choice.
For more information about the SLAPI, see the SLDN.
-
The following example shows how to increase capacity on a Performance storage volume.
XXXXXXXX
is the ID of the volume that you want to increase to2007
GBs.189433
,190233
, and190293
are IDs of pricing information that is associated with the capacity and IOPS value of this volume.<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://api.service.softlayer.com/soap/v3.1/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <SOAP-ENV:Header> <ns1:authenticate> </ns1:authenticate> </SOAP-ENV:Header> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:placeOrder> <orderData xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Container_Product_Order_Network_Storage_AsAService_Upgrade"> <volume xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Network_Storage"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">XXXXXXXX</id> </volume> <volumeSize xsi:type="xsd:int">2007</volumeSize> <packageId xsi:type="xsd:int">759</packageId> <prices SOAP-ENC:arrayType="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price[3]" xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array"> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">189433</id> </item> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">190233</id> </item> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">190293</id> </item> </prices> </orderData> </ns1:placeOrder> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
-
Increase capacity on an Endurance storage volume.
XXXXXXXX
is the ID of the volume that you want to increase to250
GBs.189433
,196033
, and196093
are IDs of pricing information that is associated with the capacity and IOPS value of this volume.<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <SOAP-ENV:Envelope xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:ns1="http://api.service.softlayer.com/soap/v3.1/" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:SOAP-ENC="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/" SOAP-ENV:encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"> <SOAP-ENV:Header> <ns1:authenticate> </ns1:authenticate> </SOAP-ENV:Header> <SOAP-ENV:Body> <ns1:placeOrder> <orderData xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Container_Product_Order_Network_Storage_AsAService_Upgrade"> <volume xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Network_Storage"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">XXXXXXXX</id> </volume> <packageId xsi:type="xsd:int">759</packageId> <volumeSize xsi:type="xsd:int">250</volumeSize> <prices SOAP-ENC:arrayType="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price[3]" xsi:type="SOAP-ENC:Array"> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">189433</id> </item> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">196033</id> </item> <item xsi:type="ns1:SoftLayer_Product_Item_Price"> <id xsi:type="xsd:int">196093</id> </item> </prices> </orderData> </ns1:placeOrder> </SOAP-ENV:Body> </SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
Unmount, then mount the modified volume, so the OS can recognize the extra storage space.
Resizing storage with Terraform
You can increase your storage capacity by using the ibm_storage_file
resource, and specifying a different number in the capacity argument. The following example increases the capacity of an Endurance volume to 40 GB.
resource "ibm_storage_file" "fs_endurance" {
type = "Endurance"
datacenter = "dal09"
capacity = 40
iops = 0.25
}
The following example increases the capacity of a Performance volume to 40 GB.
resource "ibm_storage_file" "fs_performance" {
type = "Performance"
datacenter = "dal09"
capacity = 40
iops = 100
}
For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_storage_file.
Unmount, then mount the modified volume, so the OS can recognize the extra storage space.
Expanding Storage over 12 TB
If you need to increase your Storage volume capacity beyond 12 TB, you can request to be added to the allowlist by submitting a support case. When the request is approved by the Offering Manager, you're going to be notified through the case process. You're also going to see the option to increase your storage up to 24 TB in the console.
The number of operations that can be performed on the storage is limited. This limit is 180k IOPS. So if you want to provision a volume with 10 IOPS, your maximum volume size is 18 TB. If you want to provision the maximum size of 24 TB, then the maximum rate of read and write operations to the volume is 4 IOPS per GB.