Changing the Deduplication Pool Size (Post-Processing)

Deduplication pools consist of one disk which is added to the pool when it is created. There are two recommended methods of increasing or decreasing a deduplication pool.

Adding disks to an existing deduplication pool can result in a loss of deduplication savings and is not advised as a permanent solution. (see Best Practices for Post-Processing Deduplication).

Method 1

Before beginning, see Replacing/Moving a Storage Source in a Virtual Disk for complete information about the Move operation.

  1. In the DataCore Deduplication Console, create a new deduplication pool of the desired size.
  2. In the SANsymphony Management Console, use the Move operation to move the existing storage sources from the current pool to the new pool.

    The Move operation will move the virtual disk storage sources created from the pool while maintaining high availability during most of the process and only requires a log recovery. The storage sources must be mirrored in order to use the Move operation. Moving data can take several hours depending on the amount of allocated SAUs and the amount of I/O from the host during the operation.

    Do not use the Replace operation to move the storage sources.

  3. After the move is complete, delete the original deduplication pool.

Method 2

Before beginning, see Removing Physical Disks from Pools for complete information about the Remove from Disk Pool operation.

  1. In the DataCore Deduplication Console, create a new deduplication pool of the desired size.
  2. In the SANsymphony Management Console, use the Remove from Disk Pool operation to remove the disk from the new deduplication pool. (The operation will only take a moment because virtual disk data has not been written to the disk.)
  3. Add the new physical disk from the new deduplication pool to the original deduplication pool.
  4. Use the Remove from Disk Pool operation to remove the original disk from the original deduplication pool.

    The Remove from Disk Pool operation will cause copy the allocated SAUs from the original disk to the new physical disk. Copying data from the original disk to the new disk can take a considerable amount of time.