Troubleshooting Dynamic Provisioning

The following table provides troubleshooting information for Dynamic Provisioning.

If you are unable to solve a problem, or if you encounter a problem not listed, please contact customer support.

When an error occurs during operations, the error code and error message are displayed in the error message dialog box. For details about error messages, see Device Manager - Storage Navigator Messages.

Problems

Causes and solutions

Cannot create a DP-VOL.

Causes:

  • Usage of the pool has reached to 100%.
  • Something in the storage system is blocked.
  • The available capacity of DP-VOL is restricted due to the value of Subscription-Limit set for the pool.

Solutions:

Cannot add a pool-VOL.

Causes:

  • 1,024 pool-VOLs are already defined in the pool.
  • The pool-VOL does not fill the requirements for a pool-VOL.
  • Something in the storage system is blocked.

Solution:

A pool-VOL is blocked. SIM code 627xxx is reported.

Causes:

  • A failure occurred in data drives greater than the parity group redundancy. The redundancy of the parity group depends on the number of the blocked PDEVs (data drives). For example:
    • When the parity group configuration is 3D +1P and failures occur in two or more drives, the failures are considered to have occurred in data drives beyond the parity group redundancy.
    • When the parity group configuration is 6D+2P and failures occur in three or more drives, the failures are considered to have occurred in data drives beyond the parity group redundancy.

Solutions:

  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

A pool is blocked.

Solutions:

  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

A pool cannot be restored.

Causes:

  • Processing takes time, because something in the storage system is blocked.
  • Usage of the pool has reached to 100%.

Solutions:

A pool cannot be deleted.

Causes:

  • The pool usage is not 0.
  • External volumes are removed from the pool before you delete the pool.
  • DP-VOLs have not been deleted.

Solutions:

  • Confirm that the pool usage is 0 after the DP-VOLs are deleted, and that you can delete the pool.
  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

A failure occurs to the application for monitoring the volumes installed in a host.

Causes:

  • Free space of the pool is insufficient.
  • Some areas in the storage system are blocked.

Solutions:

  • Check the free space of the pool and increase the capacity of the pool. See Increasing pool capacity.
  • Perform the operation to reclaim zero pages in order to release pages in which zero data are stored. See About releasing pages in a DP-VOL.
  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

When the host computer tries to access the port, error occurs and the host cannot access the port.

Causes:

  • Free space of the pool is insufficient.
  • Some areas in the storage system are blocked.

Solutions:

  • Check the free space of the pool and increase the capacity of the pool. See Increasing pool capacity.
  • Perform the operation to reclaim zero pages in order to release pages in which zero data are stored. See About releasing pages in a DP-VOL.
  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

When you are operating Device Manager - Storage Navigator, a timeout occurs frequently.

Causes:

  • The load on the management client is too heavy, so that it cannot respond to the SVP.
  • The period of time until when time-out occurs is set too short.

Solutions:

  • Wait for a while, then try the operation again.

DP-VOL capacity cannot be increased.

See Troubleshooting provisioning while using Command Control Interface and identify the cause.

Solutions:

  • Retry the operation after 10 minutes or so.
  • Ask customer support to solve the problem.

Cannot reclaim zero pages in a DP-VOL.

Causes:

  • Zero pages in the DP-VOL cannot be reclaimed from Device Manager - Storage Navigator because the DP-VOL does not meet conditions for releasing pages in a DP-VOL.

Solutions:

The DP-VOL cannot be released if the process to reclaim zero pages in the DP-VOL is interrupted.

Causes:

  • Pages of the DP-VOL are not released because the process of reclaiming zero pages was interrupted.

Solutions:

Cannot release the Protect attribute of the DP-VOLs.

Causes:

  • The pool is full.
  • The pool-VOL is blocked.
  • The pool-VOL that is an external volume is blocked.

Solutions:

  • Add pool-VOLs to the pool to increase the free space in the pool. See Increasing pool capacity.
  • Perform the reclaiming zero pages operation to release pages in which zero data are stored. See Releasing pages in a DP-VOL.
  • Contact customer support to restore the pool-VOL.
  • If the blocked pool-VOL is an external volume, verify the status of the path blockade and the external storage system.
  • After performing above solutions, release the Protect attribute (Data Retention Utility) of the DP-VOL. For information about Data Retention Utility, see the Virtual Storage Platform G200, G400, G600, G800 Provisioning Guide.

SIM code 622xxx was issued.

Causes:

  • Usage of the pool has reached 100%.

Solutions:

The Protect attribute of Data Retention Utility can have been set to DP-VOLs. After performing above solutions, release the Protect attribute of the DP-VOLs.

SIM code 624000 was issued.

Causes:

  • The pools and DP-VOLs configuration, of which the size is more than the supported capacity, is created.

Solutions:

  • Remove pools that are not used.
  • Remove DP-VOLs that are not used.
  • Remove Thin Image pairs that are not used.
  • Shrink pools capacities.

Formatted pool capacity displayed in the View Pool Management Status window does not increase.

Causes:

  • Another pool is being formatted.
  • The pool usage level reaches up to the threshold.
  • The pool is blocked.
  • I/O loads to the storage system are high.
  • The cache memory is blocked.
  • Pool-VOLs are blocked.
  • Pool-VOLs that are external volumes are blocked.

Solutions:

  • Confirm the display again after waiting for a while.
  • Add pool-VOLs to the pool to increase the free space in the pool. See Increasing pool capacity.
  • Perform the operation to reclaim zero pages in order to release pages in which zero data are stored. See About releasing pages in a DP-VOL.
  • Confirm the display again after decreasing I/O loads of the storage system.
  • Contact customer support to restore the cache memory.
  • Contact customer support to restore the pool-VOL.
  • If the blocked pool-VOL is an external volume, confirm following:
    • Path blockage
    • Status of the storage system

The Assign Deduplication System Data Volume option is set to Yes when creating a pool, but the deduplication system data volume is not created.

Cause:

  • After creating a pool, errors occur when the deduplication system data volume is created, and then the processing aborts.

Solution:

  • Resolve the causes of the errors, and then assign a deduplication system data volume to the pool by using the Edit Pools window.

A Deduplication-Available pool cannot be deleted, and after the failed pool deletion, the Deduplication setting is changed to Not Available.

Cause:

  • After deleting a deduplication system data volume, errors occur when a pool is deleted, and then the processing aborts.

Solution:

  • Resolve the causes of the errors, and then delete the pool by using the Delete Pools window.

DP-VOLs whose capacity saving setting is Compression or Deduplication and Compression are created, but the capacity saving setting of the DP-VOLs is set to Disabled.

Cause:

  • After creating DP-VOLs, errors occur when the capacity saving setting changes to Compression or Deduplication and Compression, and then the processing aborts.

Solution:

  • Resolve the causes of the errors, and then change the capacity saving setting to Compression or Deduplication and Compression by using the Edit LDEVs window.

The processing stops when Capacity Saving Status is Enabling or Rehydrating.

Cause:

  • Errors occur while the capacity saving status is changing, and then the processing aborts. After recovering from the errors, the resumed status change process fails.

Solution:

  • For DP-VOLs, change Capacity Saving to Disabled, and then retry the operation by using the Edit LDEVs window.

A capacity saving status with DP-VOLs changes to the Failed status.

Causes:

  • The shared memory is volatilized and then the storage system is started again.
  • The pool is initialized.
  • The pool volumes are formatted.
  • The processing for deleting the DP-VOL failed.

Solution:

  1. In the pool, back up all of the DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data status is Enabled.
  2. Block the deduplication system data volume and all of the DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data status is Enabled.
  3. If a deduplication system data volume exists in the pool, the volume must be formatted. If you are using Device Manager - Storage Navigator, perform the Format LDEVs operation on the deduplication system data volume. If you are using CCI, specify the deduplication system data volume, and execute the raidcom initialize pool command.
  4. Perform the Format LDEVs operation for all blocked DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data status is Enabled.
  5. Restore the back-up data, or retry the delete LDEV operation.

Note: If you format DP-VOLs for which the capacity saving setting is disabled and Deduplication Data is Enabled, the capacity saving setting for the DP-VOLs might become Compression. If you format the deduplication system data volume for a pool that has DP-VOLs for which the capacity saving setting is disabled and Deduplication Data is Enabled, the capacity saving setting for the DP-VOLs might become Deduplication and compression. Therefore, verify the capacity saving setting of DP-VOLs after the format operation completes.

When the storage system is restarted, one of following problems occur:

  1. For the DP-VOLs, Capacity Saving Status indicates Deleting Volume, and the progress indicates a hyphen.
  2. For the DP-VOLs, Capacity Saving Status indicates Disabled.

Delete the DP-VOLs corresponding to 1 or 2 again.

For a DP-VOL, the Capacity Saving Status indicates Rehydrating, but the processing progress does not increase.

Causes:

  • The pool used capacity exceeded the depletion threshold.
  • The target DP-VOL is being blocked.
  • The pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, or the pool volumes are being blocked.
  • The deduplication system data volume of the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked.
  • The SVP or a Device Manager - Storage Navigator secondary window is in Modify mode.

Solutions:

If the pool used capacity exceeded the depletion threshold, take the following action:

  1. Verify the free capacity of the pool, and then expand the pool capacity for the capacity shortage.
  2. Perform the operation to release pages in DP-VOLs to reclaim zero pages.

If the target DP-VOL is being blocked, take the following action:

  1. Restore the blocked DP-VOL.

If the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, or if the pool volumes are being blocked, take the following action:

  1. Restore the pool or pool volumes.

If the deduplication system data volume of the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, take the following action:

  1. Restore the deduplication system data volume that is being blocked.

If the SVP or a Device Manager - Storage Navigator secondary window is in Modify mode, change to View mode.

For a DP-VOL, the Capacity Saving Status indicates Deleting Volume, however the processing progress does not increase.

Causes:

  • The pool used capacity exceeded the depletion threshold.
  • The pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, or the pool volumes are being blocked.
  • The deduplication system data volume of the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked.
  • The SVP or a Device Manager - Storage Navigator secondary window is in Modify mode.

Solutions:

If the pool used capacity exceeded the depletion threshold, take the following action:

  1. Verify the free capacity of the pool, and then expand the pool capacity for the capacity shortage.
  2. Perform the operation to release pages in DP-VOLs to reclaim zero pages.

If the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, or if the pool volumes are being blocked, take the following action:

  1. Restore the pool or pool volumes.

If the deduplication system data volume of the pool with which the target DP-VOL is associated is being blocked, take the following action:

  1. Restore the deduplication system data volume that is being blocked.

If the SVP or a Device Manager - Storage Navigator secondary window is in Modify mode, change to View mode.