Creating a Disk Pool

This section describes how to create a disk pool for a storage pool.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Choose Resources > Resources > Storage Pool.
  2. Click the name of the desired storage pool. On the page that is displayed, click the Disk Pool tab.
  3. Click Create.

    The Create Disk Pool page is displayed.

  4. Set basic parameters for the disk pool.

    Table 1 describes related parameters.
    Table 1 Disk pool parameters

    Parameter

    Description

    Disk Pool Name

    Name of the disk pool.

    NOTE:
    • The name must be unique.
    • The name can contain only letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-).
    • The name contains 1 to 64 characters.

    Security Level

    Security level of the disk pool.

    • Node:
      • N+M: N data fragments and M parity fragments are randomly stored on different nodes. (The number of storage nodes is greater than N + M. To ensure reliability, data fragments are stored on different nodes.) In this case, the disk pool can tolerate the failure of M disks or M nodes simultaneously.
      • N+M:1 (folded): N data fragments and M parity fragments are randomly distributed on all nodes. Each node stores M fragments. In this case, the disk pool can tolerate the failure of M disks simultaneous or one node.
    • vNode: A vNode is a logical area consisting of multiple disks on a node.

      N data fragments and M parity fragments are stored on different vNodes, and EC redundancy calculation is performed by vNode. A larger EC ratio indicates higher storage utilization.

      If a node is faulty, its disks can be taken over by the other node in the same chassis and main storage disks will not be degraded or rebuilt.

      NOTE:

      vNode is supported only when Redundancy Policy is set to EC.

    EC

    EC redundancy policy of the disk pool. Select the EC redundancy ratio planned in the Bill of Quotation (BOQ).

    NOTE:
    • This parameter is available only when Redundancy Policy is set to EC.
    • If you set Max. Main Storage Media per Node to Self-adaptive, the system automatically sets the number of data fragments based on the EC redundancy ratios and the selected nodes or cabinets and parity fragments.
    • When creating multiple disk pools, ensure that the settings of Parity Fragments for the disk pools are the same.

    Main Storage

    Main storage type of the disk pool.

    • When Storage Pool Type is set to Common, possible options are SAS, Self-encrypting SAS, SATA, Self-encrypting SATA, SSD, and SSD card or NVMe SSD. In this case, self-encrypting drives function as common disks and do not use the encryption function.
    • When Storage Pool Type is set to Self-encrypting SAS or Self-encrypting SATA.
    • Each node must be configured with at least four disks of the same type.
      NOTE:
      Meanings of the values are:
      • SAS: SAS HDDs
      • SATA: SATA HDDs
      • SSD card or NVMe SSD: NVMe SSDs
      • SSD: SAS SSDs

    Cache

    Cache type of the disk pool. Possible options are SSD card or NVMe SSD and SSD.

    NOTE:

    This parameter is not required when Main Storage is set to SSD or SSD card or NVMe SSD.

    Max. Main Storage Media per Node

    Maximum number of storage disks that can be used by a single storage node to store user data. The value of this parameter determines the allocation of cache and compute resources on the node. Set this parameter based on site requirements.

    To ensure that cache resources can be allocated to newly added main storage disks in the case of capacity expansion, you are advised to set this parameter based on the total number of main storage disks after capacity expansion.

    • If the value is too small, newly-added main storage disks cannot be allocated with cache resources. Cache resources can be allocated to newly-added main storage disks only after both main storage disks and cache disks are added.
    • If the value is too large, extra cache resources are reserved. As a result, cache resources cannot be fully utilized to improve read/write performance.

    If you select Default, the system automatically determines the value based on the number of selected main storage disks. Assume that the number of selected main storage disks is N:

    • If N ≤ 12, a single node supports a maximum of 12 main storage disks.
    • If 12 < N ≤ 24, a single node supports a maximum of 24 main storage disks.
    • If N = 25, a single node supports a maximum of 25 main storage disks.
    • If 25 < N ≤ 36, a single node supports a maximum of 36 main storage disks.
    • If 36 < N ≤ 60, a single node supports a maximum of 60 main storage disks.

    If you select Custom, set the value based on site requirements. The value ranges from 4 to 60.

    Tier Grade

    Tier grade of the disk pool, which is defined based on the type of main storage disks in the disk pool. Possible values are Hot, Warm, Cold, and Self-adaptive. You can choose Resources > Tuning > SmartTier and set tiering policies to store different files to disk pools of different tier grades.

    NOTE:

    If you select Self-adaptive: When Main Storage is set to SSD or SSD card or NVMe SSD, Self-adaptive equals to tier grade Hot. When Main Storage is set to SAS, Self-adaptive equals to tier grade Warm. When Main Storage is set to SATA, Self-adaptive equals to tier grade Cold. If you select a tier grade, you are advised to configure the storage tiers based on the self-adaptive rules.

  5. In the Choose Node and Disk area, select the nodes and disks that are used to create the disk pool.

    • You can click Add and select nodes and disks in the cluster to add them to the disk pool on the Choose Node and Disk page that is displayed.
    • You can select one or more added nodes or disks and click Remove to remove them.

  6. Click OK.
  7. Confirm your operation as prompted.
Parent topic: Managing a Converged Storage Pool