Creating Dynamic Tiering or active flash pools by selecting pool-VOLs manually

Before you begin

Procedure

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

2. Click Pools.

3. Click Create Pools.

4. In the Create Pools window, select Dynamic Provisioning from the Pool Type list.

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

6. If the pool is to be used by active flash, select the check box for Active Flash.

   Note

   To use active flash, pool volumes whose drive type is SSD must be installed in advance. If there are no pool volumes whose drive type is SSD, this check box cannot be selected.

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

8. Follow the steps below to select pool-VOLs:

   1. In the Drive Type/RPM list, make sure Mixable is selected.

   2. In the RAID Level list, make sure Mixable is selected.

   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.

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

      You can add volumes with the same Drive Type/RPM and different RAID Levels. For example, you can add a volume that has an SAS/15K Drive Type/RPM and a 5(3D+1P) RAID Level to the same pool with a volume that has an SAS/15K Drive Type/RPM and a 5(7D+1P) RAID Level.

      If LDEVs in the parity group with accelerated compression enabled are used as pool-VOLs, 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-VOLs. We recommend that LDEVs of the two types do not coexist in one 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.

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

      Perform the following steps if necessary:

      • Click Filter to open the menu, specify the filtering conditions, then 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.

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

10. Click Options.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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%.

14. 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.

15. Configure Dynamic Tiering with the following steps.

    From the Tier Management option, select Auto or Manual.

    1. The selection is usually Auto which allows performance monitoring and tier relocation to be performed automatically.

       If you select Manual, use the Command Control Interface or Device Manager - Storage Navigator to manually perform performance monitoring and tier relocation.

    2. From the Cycle Time option, select the cycle for performance monitoring and tier relocation.

       When you select 24 Hours (default value):

       Performance monitoring and tier relocation is performed once a day.

       In the Monitoring Period field, set the time to start and end performance monitoring. The default value is 00:00 to 23:59.

       Set one or more hours between the starting and ending times. If you specify a starting time that is later than the ending time, the performance monitoring continues until the ending time on the next day.

       You can view the information gathered by performance monitoring with Device Manager - Storage Navigator or the Command Control Interface.

       When you select 0.5 Hours, 1 Hour, 2 Hours, 4 Hours, 8 Hours:

       Performance monitoring is performed every hour that is selected, starting at 00:00.

       You cannot set a specific time to start performance monitoring.

    CautionWhen Auto is set, all the V-VOL pages may not be completely migrated in one cycle. In the next cycle, migration starts by updating information for the last processed V-VOL. At that point, the collection of performance monitoring information is switched to the current cycle.

16. From the Monitoring Mode option, select Period Mode or Continuous Mode.

    If you perform tier relocation in a specified cycle, Period Mode is selected by default. If you perform tier relocation weighted to the monitoring result of the past period, select Continuous Mode.

17. From the Relocation Speed option, select the page relocation speed to use when performing relocation.

    You can set the speed to: 1(Slowest), 2(Slower), 3(Standard), 4(Faster), and 5(Fastest). The default is 3(Standard). If you want to perform tier relocation at high speed, use the 5(Fastest) setting. If the speed specified is slower than 3(Standard), the data drive load is low when tier relocation is performed.

18. In the Buffer Space for New page assignment text box, enter an integer value from 0 to 50 as the percentage (%) for each tier.

    A default value depends on the data drive type of the pool-VOL in each tier. The default value of SSD is 0%. The default value of a type other than SSD is 8%.

19. In the Buffer Space for Tier relocation text box, enter an integer value from 2 to 40 as the percentage (%) to set for each tier.

    The default value is 2%.

20. Click Add.

    The created pool is added to the Selected Pools table. If invalid values are set, an error message appears. If Detail is clicked when you select a row, the Pool Property window appears

    The Pool Type, Multi-Tier Pool, Pool Volume Selection, and Pool Name must be set. If the required items are not registered, 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.

21. Click Next.

    The Create LDEVs window appears. For instructions, see Creating an LDEV.

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

    Click Finish. The Confirmation window appears.

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 Go to tasks window for status is selected, the Tasks window opens automatically.

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.