Active Tier at 90% with Retention Lock and a Capacity License Shortfall
A DD6300 has 24 TB of usable active-tier capacity and a 2 TB cloud-tier configuration. The installed capacity license covers 30 TB, but the physical active tier is 24 TB. The system is at 90% active-tier utilization, with 8 TB of retention-locked governance data on 12 MTrees and a 90-day retention requirement. The customer expects 5 TB of growth over the next six months and wants to avoid deleting backups. Cleaning is scheduled weekly but the last cleaning ran 10 days ago and reported little space reclaimed. The customer asks whether they can enable more cloud tier, add an expansion shelf, or simply use the 30 TB license already purchased. They also want to know whether deleting old snapshots will free space and whether retention-locked data can be deleted to recover capacity.
1. Interpret the capacity and licensing situation. Can the customer use the 30 TB license to exceed the 24 TB physical active tier?
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No. A capacity license entitles the system to a licensed usable capacity, but it does not create physical storage. The DD6300 has 24 TB usable active-tier capacity; the 30 TB license is an entitlement ceiling, not additional disk. The system cannot exceed the physical capacity of the installed shelves and drives. The license does matter if the customer adds an expansion shelf: the new usable capacity must be covered by the license, and a 30 TB license can cover up to 30 TB total usable active-tier capacity. If growth requires more than 30 TB, the license must be increased as well.
Check system show capacity, license show, and filesys show space to confirm usable, licensed, and consumed values. The 90% utilization is a real capacity warning, not a licensing artifact. The 2 TB cloud tier is separate and does not relieve active-tier pressure unless data is moved to it by policy and the cloud tier is properly licensed and configured.
2. Evaluate the options: add an expansion shelf, expand cloud tier, delete snapshots, delete retention-locked data, or change retention. Recommend a plan.
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Adding an expansion shelf is the most direct way to increase active-tier capacity, but it must be paired with a license that covers the new usable capacity and with site planning for power, cooling, and rack space. Expanding cloud tier can help if the data is eligible for cloud tier and the recall/retention requirements allow it; it does not free active-tier space until data is actually moved. Deleting snapshots may free some space, but snapshots often share blocks with the live file system, so the reclaimed amount may be small and should be measured, not assumed.
Retention-locked governance data cannot simply be deleted to recover capacity; the retention lock must expire or be handled under the governed policy, and deleting it may violate compliance. Changing retention for new data will not affect already locked data. The practical plan is: verify how much space is truly reclaimable, run or reschedule cleaning, move eligible data to cloud tier if licensed and policy-compliant, and add an expansion shelf plus the required license for the 5 TB growth. Do not rely on the unused license headroom as physical capacity.
3. What checks and commands would you use before and after the capacity change, and what risks should be communicated?
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Before the change, capture filesys show space, system show capacity, license show, mtree show, retention-lock status, and cleaning history. Confirm which MTrees are eligible for cloud tier and which are locked. Check replication and backup schedules so the expansion does not overlap with peak ingest. Verify the expansion shelf is supported for the DD6300, that the license covers the resulting usable capacity, and that power and cooling are sufficient.
After adding capacity, apply the license if needed, expand the file system using the supported procedure, and verify usable capacity and licensing match. Run cleaning, monitor capacity trends, and confirm retention-lock policies are still enforced. Communicate that adding shelves does not reduce existing retention obligations, that cloud tier movement is policy-driven and may incur recall latency, and that deleting snapshots or locked data is not a safe primary capacity strategy. Also note that a capacity license shortfall can block expansion even when physical shelves are installed.