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ETERNUS SF Storage Cruiser V16.9 Operation Guide
FUJITSU Storage

6.1.3 Thin Provisioning Management

With this product, it is possible to manage the storage device's Thin Provisioning. It is possible to operate with the same operability without being aware of restrictions according to type of storage device and model.

The target device is selected with Web Console, and processing is selected from the Action pane.

The executable operations are as follows:

Point

  • For the Deduplication/Compression, the ETERNUS DX900 S5, DX8900 S4 can use Compression only.

  • The data size before reduction, data size after reduction, and GC remaining size can be displayed only if the target device is an ETERNUS DX S5 series, DX8900 S4, or an ETERNUS AF S3 series. Note that to display the GC remaining size, the firmware version of the target device must be V11L40 or later.

  • The displayed content for the Data reduction rate, Data size before reduction, Data size after reduction, and GC remaining size is as follows.

    Displayed Item

    Displayed Content

    Data reduction rate

    Reduction rate of the data due to Deduplication or Compression

    Data size before reduction

    Total data size before compressing a volume enabled with Compression

    Data size after reduction

    Total data size after compressing a volume enabled with Compression

    GC remaining size

    Size of a Thin Provisioning Pool enabled with Deduplication or Compression temporarily used by the storage device for Deduplication or Compression

The following information can also be displayed in a graph using the Dashboard. Refer to "Operations for Capacity" in the Web Console Guide for details.

When you create a Thin Provisioning Pool, Deduplication or Compression of Thin Provisioning Pool can be enabled.
When you enable Deduplication or Compression of a Thin Provisioning Pool in the ETERNUS DX S5 series (excluding the ETERNUS DX900 S5) or the ETERNUS AF S3 series, a Container Volume is automatically created. When you enable Compression of a Thin Provisioning Pool in the ETERNUS DX900 S5, DX8900 S4, a Container Volume is automatically created. When you enable Deduplication or Compression of a Thin Provisioning Pool in a storage device other than the ETERNUS DX S5 series, DX8900 S4, and the ETERNUS AF S3 series, a Container Volume and a Block Map Volume are automatically created.
In addition, information related to the Thin Provisioning is updated every hour.

If you delete the Thin Provisioning Pool for which Deduplication or Compression is enabled, after disabling Deduplication and Compression, delete the Thin Provisioning Pool.

Refer to the following storage device manuals for information on the Deduplication/Compression of Thin Provisioning Pool.

Used Storage Model Name

Manual Name

ETERNUS DX S5 series (excluding the ETERNUS DX60 S5, DX100 S5)
ETERNUS DX S4 series (excluding the ETERNUS DX60 S4, DX100 S4)
ETERNUS DX S3 series (excluding the ETERNUS DX60 S3, DX100 S3)
ETERNUS AF All-Flash Arrays (excluding the ETERNUS AF150 S3)
ETERNUS DX200F

ETERNUS Web GUI User's Guide (Settings)

Point

The methods for creating Thin Provisioning Pools are automatic creation (recommended) and manual creation. For automatic creation, select "Automatic" in the Create Mode field on the Create Thin Provisioning Pool screen. For manual creation, select "Manual".

  • For the ETERNUS DX S5 series (excluding the ETERNUS DX900 S5) or the ETERNUS AF S3 series

    When you create a Thin Provisioning Pool automatically or manually, Deduplication/Compression can be set to "Enable".
    For automatic creation, a configuration suitable to Deduplication/Compression is automatically created based on the specified disk type, reliability, and Thin Provisioning Pool total capacity.
    For manual creation, a RAID group configuration can be selected.

  • For the ETERNUS DX900 S5, DX8900 S4

    When you create a Thin Provisioning Pool automatically or manually, Compression can be set to "Enable".
    For automatic creation, a configuration suitable to Compression is automatically created based on the specified disk type, reliability, and Thin Provisioning Pool total capacity.
    For manual creation, a RAID group configuration can be selected.

  • For storage devices other than above

    When you create a Thin Provisioning Pool automatically, Deduplication/Compression can be set to "Enable". For automatic creation, a configuration suitable to Deduplication/Compression is automatically created based on the specified disk type, reliability, and Thin Provisioning Pool total capacity. Therefore, before the automatic creation, check that the required number of assigned disks in which two or more RAID groups can be created exist. For the required number of disks to create RAID groups, refer to the manuals of the target ETERNUS Disk storage system.

    Deduplication/Compression can be used even if a Thin Provisioning Pool is created manually, but advanced knowledge is required. For manual creation, a RAID group configuration can be selected. To enable Deduplication/Compression for manual creation, after creating a Thin Provisioning Pool by setting the chunk size to 21 MB, enable Deduplication/Compression. To set the chunk size to 21 MB, check the Deduplication/Compression Ready checkbox of the Chunk Size field on the Create Thin Provisioning Pool screen.

In the Create Thin Provisioning Pool screen, if you select "Automatic" in the Create Mode field, the maximum capacity that can be created for the Thin Provisioning Pool is displayed in the format "(MAX: maximumCapacityToBeCreated)" in the Thin Provisioning Pool Total Capacity field.

Note

  • If the firmware version number of the ETERNUS DX80 S2/DX90 S2 is less than V10L20, a total capacity of Thin Provisioning Pool exceeding 2 TB cannot properly be displayed. When using a Thin Provisioning Pool exceeding 2 TB, the firmware version number must be V10L20 or later:

  • For creation of the Thin Provisioning Pool with Deduplication or Compression enabled, even if a Thin Provisioning Pool is successfully created, Deduplication or Compression may fail to be enabled. If it fails to be enabled, take action according to the corresponding message.

  • If the state of Deduplication or Compression is "Error", a hyphen (-) is displayed in the Data Reduction Rate, Data Size Before Reduction, and Data Size After Reduction fields. If an automatic update occurs after recovering from the "Error" state, the hyphens (-) change to a numeric value. If you want to update the display manually before the automatic update, perform the Reload Conf. operation for the target ETERNUS Disk storage system.