Users Guide

On any volume in the tree panel, you can perform the following activities:
● In the Properties panel, click the Volume name to open the Windows Explorer dialog box.
● In the Smart Copy panel, click the underlined number in the Smart Copy Count field to view details about the Smart
Copies of the volume. In the tree panel, the selected Smart Copy is highlighted.
● In the PS Details panel, click the name of the PS Series group to launch its Group Manager GUI.
● In any panel, click the Help icon to display a tool tip describing the terms used in that panel.
About Thin-Provisioning Volumes in HIT/Microsoft
Thin-provisioning (also called volume rethinning) allocates space efficiently by locating space not used by files in a volume. With
a thin-provisioned volume, the group allocates space based on volume usage, enabling you to provision more space than
physically available.
Windows Server 2012 R2 or later includes built-in support for thin-provisioning. Windows Server operating systems inform the
PS Series group that space can be unreserved soon after a file is deleted. You must use thin-provisioning provided by HIT/
Microsoft when any of the following conditions apply:
● You disabled the operating system’s built-in thin provisioning support
● You updated from a pre-Windows Server 2012 R2 system
● You moved a thin-provisioned volume from a system running an earlier version of Windows
Thin-provisioning might be inappropriate for environments that require guaranteed space for a volume. In addition, you cannot
thin-provision a volume that has replication or synchronous replication (SyncRep) enabled. Before you thin-provision a volume,
see the Dell EqualLogic Group Manager Administrator’s Guide for more information.
When you thin-provision a volume using ASM/ME (or with command-line tools in HIT/Microsoft), ASM/ME creates a large
temporary file on the volume, which is deleted when thin-provisioning completes. You can adjust the amount of free space used
by this temporary file by:
● Reducing the percentage of space used for the temporary file when the volume use is heavy
● Increasing the percentage of space used for the temporary file on volumes with little I/O traffic, which thin-provisions much
space as possible
Schedule Smart Copy creation outside the thin-provisioning window. Otherwise, the Smart Copy will contain that large
temporary file.
The results of the thin-provisioning operation are not immediately visible in either the ASM/ME GUI or the Group Manager GUI.
Thin-provisioning a volume can take several minutes, depending on the size of the volume and how busy the group is. Refresh
the host in the ASM/ME GUI or refresh the Group Manager GUI to view the updated amount of free space for the volume.
Hyper-V VMs might pause during a thin-provisioning operation. The VM resumes normal operation after the thin-provisioning
operation completes. You might want to start or schedule the operation during less busy times.
Thin-Provision a Volume
Before you begin, make sure you understand the effect of thin-provisioning on operating systems and Smart Copy schedules.
See About Thin-Provisioning.
1. In the Volumes node, right-click a volume and select Rethin Volume.
The dialog box shows you the amount of space that can be reclaimed after the thin-provisioning (rethinning) operation.
2. Click Next.
3. In the Rethinning Parameters dialog box, optionally change the percentage of space to be used by the temporary file to
accomplish the thin-provisioning operation, and then click Finish.
The rethin operation is performed and a progress screen opens. The screen closes when the operation is complete.
NOTE:
If you lose power during a thin-provisioning operation, the temporary file created during the operation can
remain in the root directory of the volume being thin-provisioned. The temporary file has a file name in the form
eqt_*.tmp. Delete this file after the system restarts.
To set up a schedule for thin-provisioning, see Schedules for Thin-Provisioning.
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General ASM/ME Operations