Administrator Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide
- Contents
- Getting started
- New user setup
- Configure and provision a new storage system
- Using the PowerVault Manager interface
- System concepts
- About virtual and linear storage
- About disk groups
- About RAID levels
- About ADAPT
- About SSDs
- About SSD read cache
- About spares
- About pools
- About volumes and volume groups
- About volume cache options
- About thin provisioning
- About automated tiered storage
- About initiators, hosts, and host groups
- About volume mapping
- About operating with a single controller
- About snapshots
- About copying volumes
- About reconstruction
- About quick rebuild
- About performance statistics
- About firmware updates
- About managed logs
- About SupportAssist
- About CloudIQ
- About configuring DNS settings
- About replicating virtual volumes
- About the Full Disk Encryption feature
- About data protection with a single controller
- Working in the Home topic
- Guided setup
- Provisioning disk groups and pools
- Attaching hosts and volumes in the Host Setup wizard
- Overall system status
- Configuring system settings
- Managing scheduled tasks
- Working in the System topic
- Viewing system components
- Systems Settings panel
- Resetting host ports
- Rescanning disk channels
- Clearing disk metadata
- Updating firmware
- Changing FDE settings
- Configuring advanced settings
- Changing disk settings
- Changing system cache settings
- Configuring partner firmware update
- Configuring system utilities
- Using maintenance mode
- Restarting or shutting down controllers
- Working in the Hosts topic
- Working in the Pools topic
- Working in the Volumes topic
- Viewing volumes
- Creating a virtual volume
- Creating a linear volume
- Modifying a volume
- Copying a volume or snapshot
- Abort a volume copy
- Adding volumes to a volume group
- Removing volumes from a volume group
- Renaming a volume group
- Remove volume groups
- Rolling back a virtual volume
- Deleting volumes and snapshots
- Creating snapshots
- Resetting a snapshot
- Creating a replication set from the Volumes topic
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Volumes topic
- Manage replication schedules from the Volumes topic
- Working in the Mappings topic
- Working in the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Replication prerequisites
- Replication process
- Creating a virtual pool for replication
- Setting up snapshot space management in the context of replication
- Replication and empty allocated pages
- Disaster recovery
- Accessing the data while keeping the replication set intact
- Accessing the data from the backup system as if it were the primary system
- Disaster recovery procedures
- Viewing replications
- Querying a peer connection
- Creating a peer connection
- Modifying a peer connection
- Deleting a peer connection
- Creating a replication set from the Replications topic
- Modifying a replication set
- Deleting a replication set
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Replications topic
- Stopping a replication
- Suspending a replication
- Resuming a replication
- Manage replication schedules from the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Working in the Performance topic
- Working in the banner and footer
- Banner and footer overview
- Viewing system information
- Viewing certificate information
- Viewing connection information
- Viewing system date and time information
- Viewing user information
- Viewing health information
- Viewing event information
- Viewing capacity information
- Viewing host information
- Viewing tier information
- Viewing recent system activity
- Other management interfaces
- SNMP reference
- Using FTP and SFTP
- Using SMI-S
- Using SLP
- Administering a log-collection system
- Best practices
- System configuration limits
- Glossary of terms
4. Optional: Change the number of volumes to create. See the System configuration limits topic in the PowerVault Manager
help for the maximum number of volumes supported per pool.
5. Optional: Specify a volume tier affinity setting to automatically associate the volume data with a specific tier, moving all
volume data to that tier whenever possible. The default is No Affinity. For more information about the volume tier affinity
feature, see About automated tiered storage.
6. Optional: Select the pool in which to create the volume. The system load-balances volumes between the pools so the default
may be A or B, whichever contains fewer volumes.
7. Optional: To create another volume with different settings, click Add Row and then change the settings. To remove the row
that the cursor is in, click Remove Row.
8. Click OK.
If creating the volume will overcommit the pool capacity, the system prompts you to configure event notification to be
warned before the pool runs out of physical storage.
9. If the virtual volume exceeds the capacity:
a. Click OK to continue. Otherwise, click Cancel. If you clicked OK, the volumes are created and the volumes table is
updated.
b. To close the confirmation panel, click OK.
Creating a linear volume
You can add volumes to a linear pool through the Pools and Volumes topics. You can create an individual linear volume or
multiple copies of a linear volume with the same settings. In the latter case, the copies will have the same base name with a
numeric suffix (starting at 0001) to make each name unique.
To see more information about a volume, hover the cursor over the volume in the volumes table. Viewing volumes contains more
details about the Volume Information panel that appears.
Create linear volumes
Perform the following steps to create linear volumes:
1. Perform one of the following:
● In the Pools topic, select a linear pool in the pools table and Action > Create Volumes.
● In the Volumes topic, select Action > Create Linear Volumes.
The Create Linear Volumes panel opens.
2. Optional: If you started creating the volume through the Volumes topic, you can change the linear pool for the volume.
3. Optional: Change the number of copies to create by modifying the default of 1. See the System configuration limits topic in
the PowerVault Manager help for the maximum number of volumes per controller.
NOTE:
After selecting more than one copy, the next time that you place your cursor in another field, the Create Linear
Volumes panel will collapse, so that the snapshot options no longer appear.
4. Optional: Change the volume name. The default is pool-name_vn, where n starts at 0001. A volume name is case-sensitive
and can have a maximum of 32 bytes. It cannot already exist in the system or include the following: " * , . < > \
If the name is used by another volume, the name is automatically changed to be unique. For example, MyVolume would
change to MyVolume0001, or Volume2 would change to Volume3.
5. Change the volume size, including unit of measurement. You can use any of the following units: MiB, GiB, TiB, MB, GB,
TB. The maximum size depends on the unused capacity of the volume pool. See System configuration limits topic in the
PowerVault Manager help for the maximum volume size that the system supports.
Volume sizes are aligned to 4.2 MB (4 MiB) boundaries. When a volume is created or expanded, if the resulting size is
less than 4.2 MB, it will be increased to 4.2 MB. A value greater than 4.2 MB, it will be decreased to the nearest 4.2 MB
boundary.
NOTE:
Disk group space is allocated in 8 GiB memory chunks. There must be a minimum of 8 GiB remaining in the
disk group and you should expect disk group space to be consumed by multiples of 8 GiB regardless of the volume size
requested.
6. Click OK. The volumes are created, and the volumes table is updated.
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Working in the Volumes topic