HP StorageWorks XP Provisioning Manager User Guide (December 2005)

Using Provisioning Manager 37
3 Using Provisioning Manager
This chapter provides an overview of the main features of Provisioning Manager, with an emphasis on what
you can do with the product and how it contributes to improved efficiency.
• Managing Storage Pools (section
3-1 )
• Allocating and Unallocating Volumes (section
3-2 )
• Managing Hosts (section
3-3 )
• Creating, Expanding, and Deleting File Systems (section
3-4 )
• Creating and Deleting Device Files (section
3-5 )
• About Provisioning Plans (section
3-6 )
• Managing Transaction Logs (section 3-7 )
• Restrictions on Host Management (section
4-1 )
3-1 Managing Storage Pools
A storage pool is a collection of storage volumes (also called logical units or LUs). By organizing storage
volumes into categories, you can manage storage pools by administrator, application, usage, or other purpose.
This also allows you to manage storage logically by consolidating multiple storage subsystems consisting of
the same or different physical storage devices into a single logical storage area.
Figure 3-1 shows an example
of storage pool organization.
Figure 3-1 Organizing Storage Pools in Different Ways
3-1-1 Viewing Storage Pool Usage Status
You can display the allocation status (total capacity, allocated capacity, allocated ratio, and so on) of a storage
pool. Storage systems can be viewed from various perspectives as part of a provisioning plan. This enables
you to easily and efficiently manage massive storage volumes from a logical perspective, without having to be
aware of the physical boundaries or detailed hardware configuration of the storage subsystems.
Figure 3-2 is a conceptualization of storage pool management. In the figure, the terms allocated and
unallocated have the following meanings.
• Allocated: A state in which the relevant volume is assigned to a host (a path from the host to the storage
volume is set)
• Unallocated: A state in which the relevant volume is not assigned to a host (no path from the host to the
storage volume is set)
You can also view the allocation status of a storage pool in terms of the capacity base of each storage
subsystem, by using a provisioning plan to define filtering conditions. This enables you to easily and efficiently
monitor and perform the physical aspects of storage management, such as adding and removing storage
subsystems and disks.