Dell EMC PowerStore Configuring Volumes
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Contents Additional Resources.......................................................................................................................4 1 Volumes.......................................................................................................................................5 Volumes in PowerStore appliances..................................................................................................................................... 5 Thin provisioning...............................
Preface Additional Resources As part of an improvement effort, revisions of the software and hardware are periodically released. Some functions that are described in this document are not supported by all versions of the software or hardware currently in use. The product release notes provide the most up-to-date information about product features. Contact your technical support professional if a product does not function properly or does not function as described in this document.
1 Volumes A volume is a single unit that represents a specific quantity of storage. Each volume is associated with a name and network addressing authority (NAA) identifier. Volume storage resources provide hosts with access to general-purpose, block-level storage through networkbased iSCSI and Fibre Channel connections. With volume storage, you can manage partitions of block storage resources so that host systems can mount and use these resources.
Thin provisioning Storage provisioning is the process of allocating available drive capacity to meet the capacity, performance, and availability requirements of hosts and applications. In PowerStore, volumes and file systems are thin provisioned to optimize the use of available storage. Thin provisioning works as follows: • • When you create a volume or file system, the system allocates an initial quantity of storage to the storage resource.
Change volume properties Steps 1. Under Storage, select Volumes. 2. Click the name of the volume you want to change from the list of volumes. You can also click the check box next to the volume name, and then click Modify. The Properties slide-out panel appears, allowing you to change the volume name, description, or size. 3. On the Volumes page for the volume you chose, click Actions > Properties. The Properties slide-out panel appears, allowing you to change the volume name, description, or size.
Assign a protection policy A protection policy establishes snapshot and data replication rules for data protection. If the volume is a member of a volume group, the volume group policy protects that volume and cannot be changed at the volume level. Steps 1. Under Storage, select Volumes. 2. Click the check box next to the volume you want to change. 3. Select More Actions > Assign Protection Policy. 4. On the Assign Protection Policy slide-out panel, select a policy and click Apply.
2 Volume groups overview A volume group is a logical container for a group of volumes. A volume group provides a single point of management for multiple storage resources that work together as a unit. You can use volume groups to achieve the following: 1. More easily manage and monitor resources. 2. Maintain consistency across multiple volumes. For example, you can use volume groups to monitor metrics and manage data protection for development applications, user applications, and user storage resources.
Steps 1. Under Storage, select Volume Groups. 2. Click Create. 3. On the Create Volume Group slide-out panel, enter the name of the volume group. Optionally enter a description and choose a protection policy to apply to all volumes within the volume group. NOTE: If you apply a protection policy to the volume group, you cannot override the protection for individual volumes within the group.
• • • • Size: The size is the quantity of storage that is subscribed for the volume. After you create the volume, you can increase its size but not decrease it. PowerStore supports the creation of thin volumes up to 256 TB in size. Volume Protection Policy (Optional): Select a protection policy that contains snapshot and replication rules applicable for the volume. You can add a protection policy after creating the volume.
3 Hosts and host group configurations Host configurations are logical connections through which hosts or applications can access storage resources. Before a host can access storage, you must define a configuration for the host and associate it with a storage resource. You can pool individual hosts together into a host group. A host group is a collection of hosts that enables you to perform volume-related operations across all the hosts in the group.
3. On the Host Details page, enter a name for the host and select the operating system. 4. On the Host Protocol page, select either iSCSI or FC. Review the prerequisites for the host connections. 5. On the Host Initiators page, select an initiator from the autodiscovered initiators list or create your own. To add an initiator, click Add Initiators and enter the IQN identifier. 6. On the Summary page, review the host connection details, and click Add Host.
4 Data mobility for volumes and volume groups Migrate storage resources to another appliance About this task Use this feature to move volumes or volume groups to another appliance in the cluster without any disruption. Before removing or shutting down an appliance for service, use this feature to migrate storage resources to another appliance and prevent disruption. When you migrate a volume or volume group, all associated snapshots and thin clones also migrate with the storage resource.
5 Thin clones A thin clone is a read-write copy of a volume, volume group, or snapshot that shares blocks with the parent resource. Data available on the source at the moment of the thin clone creation is immediately available to the thin clone. The thin clone references the source snapshot for this data. However, data resulting from changes to the thin clone after its creation is stored on the thin clone. Changes to the thin clone do not affect the source snapshot.
Term Definition source snapshot must be in the same base volume, volume group, or storage container family. For example, suppose the following hierarchy of snapshots and thin clones exists for Volume 1: Figure 1.
The base volume family for Volume 1 includes all the snapshots and thin clones that are shown in the diagram. For Thin Clone 2: • • • The source snapshot is Snapshot 2. The family is Volume 1. The original parent is Snapshot 2. For Thin Clone 3: • • • The source snapshot is Snapshot 3. The family is Volume 1. The original parent is Snapshot 3. Now, if Thin Clone 3 is refreshed from Snapshot 1: • • • The source snapshot has changed from Snapshot 3 to Snapshot 1. The base resource is still Volume 1.
6 Performance policies A performance policy specifies I/O performance requirements for PowerStore storage resources. PowerStore provides three pre-defined performance policies: • • • High Medium (default) Low PowerStore has share-based QoS. Share-based QoS means when there is contention at system level, a volume with a high-performance policy services more IOPS than a volume with a medium-performance policy.
