File System Analytics (FSA) was first introduced in ONTAP 9.8 to provide real-time visibility into file usage and storage capacity trends inside ONTAP FlexGroup or FlexVol volumes. This native capability eliminates the need for external tools and provides key insights into how your storage is utilized and whether there are opportunities to optimize the storage for your business needs.

With FSA, you have visibility at all levels of a volume’s file system hierarchy in NAS. For example, you can gain usage and capacity insights at the Storage VM (SVM), volume, directory, and file levels. You can use FSA to answer questions like:

What is filling up my storage, and are there any large files I can move to another storage location?
Which are my most active volumes, directories, and files? Is my storage performance optimized for the needs of my users?
How much data was added in the last month?
Who are my most active or least active storage users?
How much inactive or dormant data is on my primary storage? Can I move that data to a lower cost cold tier?
Will my planned quality-of-service changes negatively impact access to critical, frequently accessed files?

File System Analytics is integrated into ONTAP System Manager. Views within ONTAP System Manager provide:

Real-time visibility for effective data management and operation
Real-time data collection and aggregation
Subdirectory and file sizes and counts, together with associated performance profiles
File age histograms for modify and access histories

Screenshot of the File System Analytics in ONTAP System Manager

Supported volume types

File System Analytics is designed to provide visibility on volumes with active NAS data, with the exception of FlexCache caches and SnapMirror destination volumes.

File System Analytics feature availability

Each ONTAP release expands the scope of File System Analytics.

	ONTAP 9.15.1	ONTAP 9.14.1	ONTAP 9.13.1	ONTAP 9.12.1	ONTAP 9.11.1	ONTAP 9.10.1	ONTAP 9.9.1	ONTAP 9.8
Visualization in ONTAP System Manager	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Capacity analytics	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Inactive data information	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Support for volumes transitioned from Data ONTAP 7-Mode	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Ability to customize inactive period in ONTAP System Manager	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Volume-level Activity Tracking	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Download Activity Tracking data to CSV	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
SVM-level Activity Tracking	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Timeline	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Usage Analytics	✓	✓	✓	✓
Option to enable File System Analytics by default	✓	✓	✓
Initialization scan progress monitor	✓	✓

ONTAP 9.15.1

ONTAP 9.14.1

ONTAP 9.13.1

ONTAP 9.12.1

ONTAP 9.11.1

ONTAP 9.10.1

ONTAP 9.9.1

ONTAP 9.8

Visualization in ONTAP System Manager

✓

Capacity analytics

✓

Inactive data information

✓

Support for volumes transitioned from Data ONTAP 7-Mode

✓

Ability to customize inactive period in ONTAP System Manager

✓

Volume-level Activity Tracking

✓

Download Activity Tracking data to CSV

✓

SVM-level Activity Tracking

✓

Timeline

✓

Usage Analytics

✓

Option to enable File System Analytics by default

✓

Initialization scan progress monitor

✓