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 Infrastructure > 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 to 2007 GBs. 189433, 190233, and 190293 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 to 250 GBs. 189433, 196033, and 196093 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.