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.

Problem

Causes and solutions

Cannot create a DP-VOL.

Causes:

  • Usage of the pool has reached to 100%.
  • Something in the storage system is blocked.

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:

  • Add some pool-VOLs to the pool to increase the capacity of the pool. See Expanding a pool.
  • 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.

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 Expanding a pool.
  • 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 Expanding a pool.
  • 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.

Causes:

Solutions:

  • After refreshing the display, confirm whether the processing for increasing DP-VOL capacity meets the requirements for increasing DP-VOL capacity.
  • 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 Expanding a pool.
  • 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 Provisioning Guide.

SIM code 622xxx was issued.

Causes:

  • Usage of the pool has reached 100%.

Solutions:

  • Add pool-VOLs to the pool to increase the free space in the pool. See Expanding a pool.
  • Perform the operation to reclaim zero pages in order to release pages in which zero data are stored. See Releasing pages in a DP-VOL.

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 Expanding a pool.
  • 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 shrink pool operation ends abnormally.

Causes:

  • Cache memory maintenance was performed while the pool capacity was being decreased.
  • Cache memory errors occurred while the pool capacity was being decreased.
  • The I/O load to DP-VOLs associated with the pool is too high.
  • DP-VOLs associated with the pool are being blocked.

Solution:

  • Restore the cache memory, and then perform the shrink pool operation again.
  • Wait until the I/O load to DP-VOLs associated with the pool is lower, and then perform the shrink pool operation again.
  • Delete or format DP-VOLs associated with the pool, and then perform the shrink pool operation again.

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.

One of the following problems occurred:

  • When the capacity saving status of DP-VOLs is Enabling, the initialize processing whereby the capacity saving setting is enabled is stopped.
  • When the capacity saving status of DP-VOLs is Rehydrating, the processing by which the capacity saving setting changes to disabled is stopped. Also, the progress ratio in the LDEV Properties window does not display.

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 whose Deduplication Data is Disabled changes to the Failed status.

Cause:

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

Solution:

  • Format the operation target DP-VOLs.

A capacity saving status with DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data is Enabled changes to the Failed status.

Causes:

  • The shared memory is volatilized and the storage system is restarted.
  • 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 DP-VOLs in the following order: 1. DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data status is Enabled 2. Deduplication system data volumes.
  3. If you are using Device Manager - Storage Navigator, select the pool with which the deduplication system data volumes are associated and then launch the Initialize Duplicated Data window. 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 the following LDEVs: Deduplication system data volumes (data store) and DP-VOLs whose Deduplication Data status is Enabled.
    CautionDo not perform the restore LDEV operation because these DP-VOLs cannot be used again.
  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 Disabled, the capacity saving setting for the DP-VOLs might become Compression. If you initialize duplicated data 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 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 SVP or a Device Manager - Storage Navigator secondary window is in Modify mode, change to View mode.

The saved capacity for the DP-VOL of which the capacity saving is enabled is not increased.

Causes:

If the saved capacity is not increased, the initial capacity saving processing might have been stopped. The initial capacity saving processing is performed on the existed data in DP-VOLs. Following are causes for the stopping of the initial capacity saving processing:

  1. The cache write pending rate of CLPR for the DP-VOLs is 50% or more.
  2. The controller of the storage system is being blocked.
  3. The ratio of a free pool space with which the DP-VOLs are associated is 1% or less.
  4. The size of a free pool space with which the DP-VOLs are associated is 120GB or less.
  5. The pool with which the DP-VOLs are associated is being shrunk.
  6. The pool volumes are being blocked.
  7. The operation targeted DP-VOLs enabled of the capacity saving are being blocked.
  8. The used capacity rate of the data store area for the operation targeted DP-VOLs enabled of the capacity saving is 80% or more.
  9. The average operating ratio for MPs on basis of a controller is 70% or more.

Solutions:

  • For the item number 1, reduce the written data size from hosts.
  • For the item number 2, restore the blocked controller.
  • For the item number 3 and 4, expand the pool capacity.
  • For the item number 5, wait until the pool shrink task is completed.
  • For the item number 6, restore the blocked pool volumes.
  • For the item number 7, restore the blocked DP-VOLs of the operation target.
  • For the item number 8, split the operation targeted DP-VOLs into DP-VOLs of that the capacity saving is enabled and whose size is 2.4TB or less.
  • For the item number 9, in this case, the storage system reduces the number of processes of the initial capacity saving. If you want to increase the amount of the processing, balance the loading on a basis of a controller.

The garbage data of DP-VOLs for which capacity saving is enabled is being increased.

Causes:

If the garbage data continues to increase, following are the potential of causes. However, the garbage data is included in the system data.

  • The amount of written data by hosts (the average performance of host writing) exceeds the throughput of the garbage collection (the garbage collection performance).
  • The processing of the garbage collection is being stopped.

Solutions:

Perform following if the amount of written data by hosts (the average performance of host writing) exceeds the throughput of the garbage collection (the garbage collection performance).

  • If the amount of written data by hosts exceeds the throughput of the garbage collection on a basis of a storage system, perform either of following:
    • Reduce the amount of written data by hosts.
    • Change the capacity saving setting to Disable.
    • Verify the design of pools and DP-VOLs again.

    However, if the setting of the capacity saving is changed to Disabled, the used pool capacity increases. Therefore you must verify that the pool has the enough free space before performing of the operation.

  • If the amount of written data of hosts exceeds the throughput of the garbage collection on a basis of a MP unit, perform either of following:

    To rebalance the load (the writing I/Os from hosts) to MP units, change the assignment of MP units.

  • If the amount of written data by hosts exceeds the throughput of the garbage collection on a basis of a DP-VOL, perform either of following:

    To rebalance the load (the writing I/Os from hosts) to DP-VOLs, divide DP-VOLs.

If the processing of the garbage collection is being stopped, following are possibly causes.

  1. In the CLPR, the cache write pending rate is 83% or more.
  2. There is no free space in the pool with which DP-VOLs are associated.
  3. Pool volumes are being blocked.
  4. DP-VOLs of that the capacity saving function is enabled are being blocked.

Solutions:

  • For the item number 1, reduce the amount of written data by hosts, add the CLPR capacity, or change the capacity saving setting to Disable.
  • However, if the setting of the capacity saving is changed to Disabled, the used pool capacity increases. Therefore you must verify that the pool has the enough free space before performing of the operation.
  • For the item number 2, expand the pool capacity.
  • For the item number 3, restore the blocked pool volumes.
  • For the item number 4, restore the blocked DP-VOLs.

The actual performance for DP-VOLs enabled of the capacity saving is lower than the estimate.

Causes:

  • The setting is not correct.
  • The pool used capacity exceeds the threshold.
  • The DP-VOLs are used in a task which is not suited with using of the capacity saving function.

Solutions:

  1. Verify the setting. If the setting is correct, go to the step 2. If the capacity saving setting is accidentally set to Compression or Deduplication and Compression, change the setting to Disable. If the capacity saving mode is accidentally set to Inline, change the mode to Post process. For the setting of the capacity saving mode, see the command, raidcom modify ldev -capacity_saving_mode in the Command Control Interface Command Reference.
  2. Verify whether the pool used capacity exceeds the warning threshold by seeing the item of Pool Usage. If the pool used capacity is not exceeded the warning threshold, go to the step 3.

    If the pool usage is exceeded the warning threshold, verify the garbage data size by seeing the item of System Data.

    If the ratio of system data size in a pool used capacity is more than 10%, the Pool Usage will go below the warning threshold by the garbage collection. The ratio of the pool used capacity goes under the warning threshold ratio, so that the I/O performance will be improved. If you know that the performance decrement is temporary and you can wait until the recovery time, waiting is the workable alternative. However, if you do not have a time to wait until the recovery, expand the pool capacity.

    If the ratio of the system data for the pool used capacity is less than 10%, expand the pool capacity.

  3. If the performance of DP-VOLs is short even though there is no effect of the garbage collection, we do not recommend that you apply the capacity saving function for those volumes. Change the capacity saving function setting to Disable. However, if the setting of the capacity saving is changed to Disabled, the used pool capacity increases. Therefore you must verify that the pool has the enough free space before performing of the operation.

The operation of creating DP-VOLs of which the capacity saving setting is Deduplication and Compression was performed. However, no DP-VOLs but deduplication system data volumes are created.

Cause:

  • After deduplication system data volumes are created, errors occur while DP-VOLs are being created, and then the processing stops.
Solution:
  • Resolve the causes of errors. Then, repeat the task of creating DP-VOLs of which the capacity saving setting is Deduplication and Compression.

The capacity saving setting was changed from Disable to Deduplication and Compression for DP-VOLs. However, the setting of DP-VOLs is not changed and deduplication system data volumes are created.

Cause:

  • After deduplication system data volumes are created, errors occur while the settings for DP-VOLs are being changed, and then the processing stops.
Solution:
  • Resolve the causes of errors. Then, repeat the task of changing the capacity saving setting for DP-VOLs.

The capacity saving setting was changed to Disable. However, deduplication system data volumes are not deleted.

Cause:

  • After the capacity saving setting for DP-VOLs are disabled, errors occur while deduplication system data volumes are being deleted, and then the processing stops.
Solution:
  • Resolve the causes of errors. Then, delete deduplication system data volumes using the CCI command, raidcom modify pool -pool -delete dsd_volumes.

The pool auto expansion function in an accelerated compression-enabled parity group does not work.

Causes:

  • The pool auto expansion function for the pool is disabled.
  • The pool auto expansion function for the parity group is disabled.
  • Available LDEV IDs are insufficient.
  • Available cache management devices are insufficient.
  • Maintenance work is in process.
  • Shared memory is insufficient.
Solutions:
  • Enable the pool auto expansion function for the pool.
  • After a shrink pool operation fails, if the pool auto expansion function for a parity group is disabled, disable accelerated compression for the pool, and then re-enable accelerated compression for the pool.
  • Delete LDEVs that are not used.
  • Stop the maintenance work.
  • Delete pools that are not used.
  • Delete V-VOLs that are not used.
  • Delete all TI pairs that contain P-VOLs of unnecessary TI pairs.

Parent Topic
  • Troubleshooting for provisioning

    Troubleshooting for provisioning operations involves identifying the cause of the error and resolving the problem. For information about the error messages displayed by Device Manager - Storage Navigator, see Device Manager - Storage Navigator Messages. If you are unable to solve a problem, please contact customer support.

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