Creating a pool

The following procedure tells how to create a pool. This procedure is for setting up Dynamic Provisioning, but optional steps are shown for setting up Dynamic Tiering, if you chose to add tiers to your storage system.

Before creating a pool, you must install the proper amount of shared memory, and you must have a V-VOL management area in shared memory. When shared memory is added, the V-VOL management area is automatically created. To add shared memory, contact your Hitachi Data Systems representative.

One pool-VOL with system area is defined for a pool. The priority of the pool-VOL with system area is assigned according to the data drive type. The available capacity of the pool-VOL with system area is deducted from the management area capacity. The management area capacity stores the management information of software that uses the pool. If Dynamic Provisioning, Dynamic Tiering, or Thin Image is used on an open-system, 4.2 GB are used as the management area in the pool-VOL with system area.

When the pool is created, a pool-VOL with system area is assigned the priority shown in the following table.

Priority

Data drive type

1

SAS7.2K

2

SAS10K

3

SAS15K

4

SSD

5

External volume

If multiple pool-VOLs of the same data drive type exist, the priority of each is determined by the internal index of the storage system.

For Dynamic Provisioning when selecting pool-VOLs manually

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

To create pools by selecting pool-VOLs manually:

  1. Perform one of following to display the Create Pools window.

For Hitachi Command Suite:

For the General Tasks pane in Storage Navigator:

For the Pools window in Storage Navigator:

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

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

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

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

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

  1. 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.

  1. Click Select Pool VOLs.

The Select Pool VOLs window appears.

  1. In the Available Pool Volumes table, select the pool-VOL row to be associated with a pool. 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.

olh-note.gif When you add external volumes, note the following points.

olh-tip.gif Perform the following steps if necessary:

  1. Click OK.

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

  1. In the Pool Name text box, enter the prefix and initial number of the pool. The pool name may consist of up to 32 characters.

Prefix: Case-sensitive, alphanumeric characters that begin the pool name.

Initial Number: From 1 to 9 digits that follow the prefix.

  1. Click Options.

  1. 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 value you entered. If a pool ID unavailable, no number is displayed.

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. 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 greater than the value of the Warning Threshold.

  1. 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 clickAdd.

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.

  1. Click Next.

The Create LDEVs window appears. Go to Creating V-VOLs to create LDEVs.

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

Click Finish and the Confirm window appears.

  1. In the Confirm window, click Apply to register the setting in the task.

If you select a row and click Detail, the Pool Properties window appears.

If the Go to tasks window for status check box is selected, the Tasks window appears.

For Dynamic Provisioning when selecting pool-VOLs automatically

To create pools by selecting pool-VOLs automatically:

  1. Perform one of following to display the Create Pools window.

For Hitachi Command Suite:

For the General Tasks pane in Storage Navigator:

For the Pools window in Storage Navigator:

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

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

  1. From the Pool Volume Selection field, select Auto.

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

  1. From the Resource Group list, select the resource group name of the pool-VOL.

  1. From the Performance list, select the performance of the pool.

  1. In the Total Capacity list, specify the capacity of the pool

Values are displayed in Total Pool Volumes and Total Capacity. These values are greater than the specified value of the pool capacity. If you change the pool configuration, perform steps d, e, and f.

  1. Click Change Pool Configuration.

The Change Pool Configuration Pattern window appears. You can change the pool configuration that is automatically selected.

  1. From the Pool Configuration Patterns table, select the pool configuration row. Then click Select

olh-note.gif 

Priority 1: There is no free space in the parity group and one LDEV exists in the group.

Priority 2: There is no free space in the parity group and multiple LDEVs exist in the group.

Priority 3: There is free space in the parity group and multiple LDEVs exist in the group.

Parity groups with LDEVs that cannot be used as pool-VOLs.

Pool configuration patterns that contain more than 1,024 LDEVs.

  1. Click OK.

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

  1. In the Pool Name text box, enter the prefix and initial number of the pool. The pool name may consist of up to 32 characters.

Prefix: Case-sensitive, alphanumeric characters that begin the pool name.

Initial Number: From 1 to 9 digits that follow the prefix.

  1. Click Options.

  1. 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 value you entered. If a pool ID unavailable, no number is displayed.

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. 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 greater than the value of the Warning Threshold.

  1. Click Add.

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

If an item that must be set is not entered or selected, you cannot click Add.

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.

  1. Click Next.

The Create LDEVs window appears. Go to Creating V-VOLs to create LDEVs.

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

Click Finish and the Confirm window appears.

  1. In the Confirm window, click Apply to register the setting in the task.

If you select a row and click Detail, the Pool Properties window appears.

If the Go to tasks window for status check box is selected, the Tasks window appears.

For Dynamic Tiering pool when selecting pool-VOLs manually

To create pools by selecting pool-VOLs manually:

  1. Perform one of following to display the Create Pools window.

For Hitachi Command Suite:

For the General Tasks pane in Storage Navigator:

For the Pools window in Storage Navigator:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  1. Click Select Pool VOLs.

The Select Pool VOLs window appears.

  1. In the Available Pool Volumes table, select the pool-VOL row to be associated with a pool. 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.

olh-note.gif 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.

olh-tip.gif Perform the following steps if necessary:

  1. Click OK.

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

  1. In the Pool Name text box, enter the prefix and initial number of the pool. The pool name may consist of up to 32 characters.

Prefix: Case-sensitive, alphanumeric characters that begin the pool name.

Initial Number: From 1 to 9 digits that follow the prefix.

  1. Click Options.

  1. 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 value you entered. If a pool ID unavailable, no number is displayed.

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. 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 greater than the value of the Warning Threshold.

  1. 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 Hitachi Device Manager - Storage Navigator to manually perform performance monitoring and tier relocation.

  1. 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 Hitachi 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.

olh-caution.gif When 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.

  1. 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

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. In the Buffer Space for Tier relocation text box, enter an integer value from2 to 40 as the percentage (%) to set for each tier.

The default value is 2%.

  1. 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.

  1. Click Next.

The Create LDEVs window appears. Go to Creating V-VOLs to create LDEVs.

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

Click Finish and the Confirm window appears.

  1. In the Confirm window, click Apply to register the setting in the task.

If you select a row and click Detail, the Pool Properties window appears.

If the Go to tasks window for status check box is selected, the Tasks window appears.

For Dynamic Tiering pool when selecting pool-VOLs automatically

To create pools by selecting pool-VOLs automatically:

  1. Perform one of following to display the Create Pools window.

For Hitachi Command Suite:

For the General Tasks pane in Storage Navigator:

For the Pools window in Storage Navigator:

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

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

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

  1. From the Pool Volume Selection field, select Auto.

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

  1. From the Resource Group list, select the resource group name of the pool.

  1. From the Performance list, select the performance of the pool.

  1. In the Total Capacity list, specify the capacity of the pool.

Values are displayed in Total Pool Volumes and Total Capacity. These values are greater than the specified value of the pool capacity. If you change the pool configuration, perform steps d, e, and f.

  1. Click Change Pool Configuration.

The Change Pool Configuration Pattern window appears. You can change the pool configuration that is automatically selected.

  1. From the Pool Configuration Patterns table, select the pool configuration row. Then click Select

olh-note.gif 

Priority 1: There is no free space in the parity group and one LDEV exists in the group.

Priority 2: There is no free space in the parity group and multiple LDEVs exist in the group.

Priority 3: There is free space in the parity group and multiple LDEVs exist in the group.

Parity groups with LDEVs that cannot be used as pool-VOLs.

Pool configuration patterns that contain more than 1,024 LDEVs.

  1. Click OK.

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

  1. In the Pool Name text box, enter the prefix and initial number of the pool. The pool name may consist of up to 32 characters.

Prefix: Case-sensitive, alphanumeric characters that begin the pool name.

Initial Number: From 1 to 9 digits that follow the prefix.

  1. Click Options.

  1. 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 value you entered. If a pool ID unavailable, no number is displayed.

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. 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 greater than the value of the Warning Threshold.

  1. 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 Hitachi Device Manager - Storage Navigator to manually perform performance monitoring and tier relocation.

  1. 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 Hitachi 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.

olh-caution.gif When 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.

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

If you perform tier relocation in a specified cycle or you do not need to specify the Monitoring Mode option, select Period Mode. If you perform tier relocation weighted to the monitoring result of the past period, select Continuous Mode

  1. 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.

  1. 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%.

  1. In the Buffer Space for Tier relocation text box, enter an integer value from2 to 40 as the percentage (%) to set for each tier.

The default value is 2%.

  1. 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.

  1. Click Next.

The Create LDEVs window appears. Go to Creating V-VOLs to create LDEVs.

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

Click Finish and the Confirm window appears.

  1. In the Confirm window, click Apply to register the setting in the task.

If you select a row and click Detail, the Pool Properties window appears.

If the Go to tasks window for status check box is selected, the Tasks window appears.