Administrator Guide

Disk pool restrictions
CAUTION: If you downgrade the RAID controller module firmware version of a storage array that is configured with a
disk pool to a firmware version that does not support disk pools, the virtual disks are lost and the physical disks are
treated as unaffiliated with a disk pool.
• All physical disk media types in a disk pool must be the same. Solid State Disks (SSDs) are not supported.
• You cannot change the segment size of the virtual disks in a disk pool.
• You cannot export a disk pool from a storage array or import the disk pool to a different storage array.
• You cannot change the RAID level of a disk pool. MD Storage Manager automatically configures disk pools as RAID level 6.
• All physical disk types in a disk pool must be the same.
• You can protect your disk pool with Self Encrypting Disk (SED), but the physical disk attributes must match. For example, SED-
enabled physical disks cannot be mixed with SED-capable physical disks. You can mix SED-capable and non SED-capable physical
disks, but the encryption abilities of the SED physical disks cannot be used.
Creating a disk pool manually
You can use the unconfigured capacity in a storage array to create a disk pool.
NOTE: Ensure that you have created virtual disks before you create a disk pool.
To create a disk pool:
1. Select the Storage & Copy Services tab.
2. Select the unconfigured capacity node.
3. From the menu bar, select Storage > Disk Pool > Create. Alternatively, right-click unconfigured capacity in the object tree and
select Create Disk Pool.
The Create Disk Pool window is displayed.
4. Type a name for the disk pool in Disk pool name.
5. Select one of these options in Physical disk security:
• Only security-capable physical disks — To create a secure disk pool from security capable physical disks.
NOTE:
The Only security-capable physical disks option is available only when a security key is set up for the
storage array.
• Any available physical disks — To create a disk pool comprised of physical disks that may or may not be security capable or are
a mix of security levels.
NOTE:
You can mix Self Encrypting Disk (SED)-capable and non SED-capable physical disks. However, the
encryption abilities of the SED-capable physical disks cannot be used, as the physical disk attributes do not
match.
Based on the physical disk type and physical disk security type that you have selected, the Disk pool candidates table shows one
or more disk pool configurations.
6. Locate the Secure Enable? column in the Disk pool candidates table and select the disk pool that you want to secure.
NOTE:
You can click View Physical Disks to view the details of the physical disks that comprise the selected disk pool
configuration.
7. To send alert notifications when the usable capacity of the disk pool is reaching a specified percentage, perform the following steps:
a. Click View notification settings.
b. Select the check box corresponding to a critical warning notification.
You also can select the check box corresponding to an early warning notification. The early warning notification is available only
after you select the critical warning notification.
c. Select or type a value to specify a percentage of usable capacity.
When the configured (allocated) capacity in the disk pool reaches the specified percentage, an alert notification in the form of
emails and SNMP trap messages are sent to the destination addresses that are specified in the Configure Alerts dialog. For more
information about how to specify the destination addresses, see Configuring Alert Notifications.
8. Click Create.
86
Disk pools and disk pool virtual disks