Creating Dynamic Provisioning pools by selecting pool-VOLs manually

You can use Storage Navigator to create a Dynamic Provisioning pool with manually selected pool-VOLs.

Before you begin

The Storage Administrator (Provisioning) role is required to perform this task.

Procedure

  1. Click Storage Systems, and then expand the Storage Systems tree.

  2. Click Pools.

  3. Click Create Pools.

  4. From the Pool Type list, select Dynamic Provisioning.

  5. From the Multi-Tier Pool field, select Disable.

    You cannot select Enable if the storage system has only external volumes with the Cache Mode set to Disable.

  6. From the Pool Volume Selection field, select Manual.

  7. Follow the steps below to select pool-VOLs.

    1. From the Drive Type/RPM list, select a data drive type and RPM.

    2. From the RAID Level list, select RAID level.

      If you select External Storage from the Drive Type/RPM list, a hyphen (-) appears and you cannot select the RAID level.

    3. Click Select Pool VOLs.

      The Select Pool VOLs window appears.

    4. In the Available Pool Volumes table, select the pool-VOL row to be associated with a pool, and then click Add.

      You can select a value other than Middle from External LDEV Tier Rank and click Add to set another tier rank for an external volume.

      The selected pool-VOL is registered in the Selected Pool Volumes table. Up to 1,024 volumes can be added to a pool.

      If LDEVs in the parity group with accelerated compression enabled are used as pool volumes, these LDEVs can be assigned to only one pool. LDEVs in one parity group with accelerated compression enabled cannot be assigned to multiple pools as pool volumes. We recommend that LDEVs of the two types do not coexist in a single pool. One type of LDEV belongs to the accelerated compression-enabled parity group and another type of LDEV belongs to the accelerated compression-disabled parity group.

      Caution

      For details about adding LDEVs to parity groups with accelerated compression enabled, see Guidelines for pools when accelerated compression is enabled.

      Tip

      Perform the following steps if necessary:

      • Click Filter to open the menu, specify the filtering conditions, and click Apply.
      • Click Select All Pages to select all pool-VOLs in the table. To cancel the selection, click Select All Pages again.
      • Click Options to specify the volumes or the number of rows to be displayed.

    5. Click OK.

      The information in the Selected Pool Volumes table is applied to Total Selected Pool Volumes and Total Selected Capacity.

  8. In Assign Deduplication System Data Volume, select Yes or No.

    Note You cannot select Yes in the following cases:
    • Enable is selected for Data Direct Mapping.
    • The dedupe and compression license is not installed.
    • Enable is selected for Multi-Tier Pool.
    • Pool volumes are not selected.
    • The number of available LDEV IDs is not enough.
    • The number of available cache management devices is not enough.

  9. If you want to change the deduplication system data volume options, click Change Deduplication System Data Volume Options:

    1. To change LDEV Name, specify the prefix characters and the initial number for this LDEV.

    2. To change Initial LDEV ID, specify the number of LDKC, CU, LDEV, and Interval. To confirm used LDEV IDs, click View LDEV IDs to confirm the used LDEV IDs in the View LDEV IDs window.

    3. To change Initial SSID, specify the 4-digit SSID as a hexadecimal number (0004 to FFFE). To confirm used SSIDs, click View SSIDs to confirm the used SSIDs in the View SSIDs window.

    4. Click OK to save your changes and return to the Create Pools window.

  10. Enter the name in the Pool Name text box.

  11. Click Options.

  12. In the Initial Pool ID text box, type the number of the initial pool ID, from 0 to 127.

    When you specify a pool ID that was previously registered, the smallest available ID is displayed by default instead of the ID you specified. If a pool ID is unavailable, no number is displayed.

  13. In the Subscription Limit text box, enter an integer value from 0 to 65534 as the subscription rate (%) for the pool.

    If no number is entered, the subscription rate is set to unlimited.
    NoteBecause the setting of the Subscription Limit for a Thin Image pool is unlimited, you should set unlimited if the pool will contain Thin Image pairs and snapshot data.
    Caution

    If you are using a pool comprised of pool volumes assigned to accelerated compression-enabled parity groups, you can create a DP-VOL with a capacity larger than the pool capacity, and writing is assured even if the subscription limit is defined to 100% or less. In this case, the free area of the pool must be monitored.

    This is not a requirement for monitoring the free area of the pool, but if you want to specify the pool subscription limit, specify a value lower than the value calculated by the following formula: 

    100% × (Pool physical capacity ÷ Pool capacity)

  14. In the Warning Threshold text box, enter an integer value from 1 to 100 as the rate (%) for the pool. The default value is 70%.

  15. In the Depletion Threshold text box, enter an integer value from 1 to 100 as the rate (%) for the pool. The default value is 80%.

    Enter a value that is equal to or greater than the value of the Warning Threshold.

  16. In Suspend TI pairs when depletion threshold is exceeded, select Yes or No.

    This option enables you to stop the Thin Image pair split process and prioritize the writing process to DP-VOLs when the free capacity of a Dynamic Provisioning pool that contains Thin Image pairs and snapshot data is depleted. If you select Yes, SIM code 62Exxx is output when the pool used capacity exceeds the depletion threshold. After this SIM code is output, if you split a Thin Image pair in the depleted pool, the operation fails and the pair is suspended by error (PSUE).

  17. In Protect V-VOLs when I/O fails to Blocked Pool VOL, select Yes or No. If Yes is selected, when the pool-VOL is blocked, DP-VOL is protected from reading and writing requests. And at the same instant, the access attribute of the DP-VOL is changed to the Protect attribute.

    This option applies only to DP-VOLs. It does not apply to V-VOLs used by Thin Image pairs.

  18. In Protect V-VOLs when I/O fails to Full Pool, select Yes or No. If Yes is selected, when the pool usage reaches the full size, DP-VOL is protected from reading and writing requests. And at the same instant, the access attribute of the DP-VOL is changed to the Protect attribute.

    This option applies only to DP-VOLs. It does not apply to V-VOLs used by Thin Image pairs.

  19. Click Add.

    The created pool is added to the Selected Pools table. If invalid values are set, an error message appears.

    The Pool Type, Pool Volume Selection, and Pool Name must be set. If the required items are not entered or selected, you cannot click Add.

    If you select a row and click Detail, the Pool Properties window appears. If you select a row and click Remove, the message appears asking whether you want to remove the selected row or rows. If you want to remove the row, click OK.

  20. Click Next.

    The Create LDEVs window appears.

    If Subscription Limit of the created pool is set to 0%, the Create LDEVs window does not appear.

  21. Click Finish.

  22. Check the settings in the Confirmation window, and then enter the task name in Task Name.

    Select the pool radio button and then click Details. The Pool Properties window appears.

  23. Click Apply

    The tasks are registered. If the Go to tasks window for status check box is selected, the Tasks window appears.
Parent Topic
  • Creating pools

    When you create a pool, you select the pool volumes (pool-VOLs) for the pool (manually or automatically) and set options such as the subscription limit and the warning and depletion thresholds for the pool. You can also enable options such as V-VOL protection and data deduplication.