Disk Pool Details and List

Information is collected for each disk pool and displayed in a Disk Pool Details page. A summary of all disk pool information is displayed in the Disk Pools List.

In this topic:

Disk Pool Details

Disk Pools List

Disk Pool Details

Each disk pool has a Disk Pool Details page with detailed information for the disk pool. A shared disk pool uses the same details form but is labeled as a shared disk pool at the top of the page.

(Basic disk pool information can also be viewed per DataCore Server in DataCore Server Details page>Disk Pools tab.)

The details page displays the following information at the top of the page:

  • Pool status is displayed under the icon.
  • Pool size
  • Sector size
  • Maximum possible size. The maximum size of the pool is an estimate based on the SAU size and other factors such as number of disks in the pool and number of virtual disks created from the pool.
  • Storage allocation unit (SAU) size. The SAU is a single unit of storage used in thin provisioning, which is allocated when a virtual disk is created and when additional storage is required.
  • The pie chart displays pool usage in percentages of the total pool space. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole percent. The different categories of pool usages are color-coded and the key is next to the chart. Actual amounts for the usage in the chart are provided in the Info tab in the details page. The pie chart is only displayed if physical disks exist in the pool.
    • In reclamation: Space being reclaimed. SAUs go into reclamation when physical disks are initially added to pools and when a previously-used virtual disk is deleted which causes the SAUs to be returned to the pool.
    • Free: Space that is available for use. Free space is space that is not allocated, not reserved, and not in reclamation.
    • Reserved: Space that is not allocated, but exclusively reserved in the disk pool for any of the following uses:
      • Space reserved for exclusive use by virtual disks.
      • Space reserved when Sequential Storage (Random Write Accelerator) is enabled for virtual disks.
      • Space reserved for the history log when Continuous Data Protection (CDP) is enabled for virtual disks.
      • Virtual disks first allocate SAUs from their reserved space before allocating from the general pool space.

    • Total allocations: Total allocated space in the pool, including system allocations, virtual disk allocations, history log allocations, and sequential storage allocations. This allocated percentage is temporarily displayed while performance data is gathered in order to show the more specific allocations that follow.
    • Virtual disk allocations: Space that has been allocated to virtual disk writes, including allocations used by the logstore and mapstore, and allocations to virtual disks enabled for CDP or Sequential Storage. This does not include allocations used in the process of converting writes to sequential order (displayed in Sequential storage allocations) or writes in a CDP history log (displayed in History log allocations).
    • History log allocation: Space that has been allocated for history logs used by virtual disks enabled for CDP. Virtual disks with history log allocations from the pool are listed in the Virtual Disks tab.
    • Sequential storage allocations: Space used in the pool to convert random writes into sequential order for those virtual disks enabled for Sequential Storage. This is additional working space for the feature, not allocations to the virtual disks.
    • System allocations: Space used for system overhead. This percentage will be less than 1% of total pool size and in most cases will not be visible in the chart due to the small percentage of the overall disk pool size.
  • Disk pool name and description can be changed at the top of the page by clicking Edit. When changes are made, click Done.

To open the details page:

  1. In the DataCore Servers Panel, expand Disk Pools and click on the disk pool to open the details page.
  2. Information is organized under tabs. Click on a tab to view the information.

When the Disk Pool Details page is active, the Disk Pool Actions tab appears in the Ribbon to perform actions on the pool.

Disk Pool Details Tabs

Info tab

Usage

Provides the actual storage amounts that are displayed in the pool usage pie chart as a percentage. The pie chart is located at the top of the Disk Pool Details page (see above for definitions). In additional, the amount of oversubscription is displayed. Also see Disk Pools.

Oversubscription is the difference between the total size of all virtual disks created from the pool plus any overhead used for virtual disks, and the size of the pool.

Pool Information per Server

Provides the DataCore Server that owns the pool, status, sector size, and virtual disk count per type (single, multi-copy which includes mirrored and 3-copy virtual disks, and dual).

When the disk pool is shared, two sets of information are provided; one set from each server sharing the disk pool.

Settings tab

  • Bulk storage check box. This setting is automatically set by the software and cannot be changed by administrators.

    The check box is selected for all pools on servers licensed for bulk capacity, and will not be visible for standard disk pools.

  • Shared Multi-port Array Approved check box. If the check box is selected, it designates that the pool has been acknowledged as an actively shared pool containing qualified shared multi-port array disks. Certain actions (such as creating shared pools, adding disk to shared pools, creating dual virtual disks, and evacuating storage sources) taken in the console which are related to a operation of a shared pool may prompt an administrator to confirm that all pool disks are qualified for use in a shared pool. If confirmed, the check box will be selected automatically. The check box can later be cleared if the administrator chooses to use the pool as non-shared and there are no virtual disks created from the pool at that time.

    This check box will only appear if a pool is shared. See Shared Multi-port Array Support for more information.

  • Auto-tiering settings, see Automated Storage Tiering for more information.
  • The maximum number of disk tiers in the pool
  • Space preserved for new allocations
  • System Health Threshold settings, see System Health Thresholds for more information.
    • Available space
    • I/O latency
    • Pool depletion

Physical Disks tab

Displays information for physical disks added to the pool, such as:

  • name
  • size
  • disk sector size
  • free space (Amount of space available that can be used to create virtual disks.)
  • mirror state (if the disk is mirrored in the pool)
  • port/bus/target/LUN used
  • status
  • disk tier assignment (Tier in the pool that the disk is assigned to.)

Click on a disk in the list to view the Physical Disks Summary at the bottom of the tab. If mirrored, the summary includes mirror recovery state. If in recovery the estimated time to recovery and the recovery rate is also displayed. The estimated time will fluctuate because it is continuously recalculated and based on the network traffic at the time of calculation. Physical disk status and Port.Bus.Target.LUN are displayed.

Right-click a disk in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the disk.

A link is provided to add physical disks to the pool.

Virtual Disks tab

Lists all virtual disks created from the pool. Virtual disk information matches the information displayed in the Virtual Disks List. See Virtual Disks List for descriptions.

Right-click a virtual disk in the list and a context menu appears to perform actions on the virtual disk.

A link is included to create virtual disks. See Creating Virtual Disks.

Allocation View tab

This tool provides a visual representation of the storage usage in a pool by physical disks. Space in use by virtual disks in the disk can be displayed.

See Pool Allocation Tools.

Allocation Estimation tab

This tool is a graphical representation of projected storage depletion for a pool. The graph shows current pool size versus actual allocations and predicted allocations for up to 30 days in the future. See Pool Allocation Tools.

Performance tab

Displays real-time performance counter measurements for the pool. See Live Performance.

Events tab

Lists events for the selected pool. Click an event in the list to view details in the Message Text area at the bottom of the tab. See Event Log and Alerts.

Disk Pools List

The Disk Pools List provides basic information for every disk pool associated with the server group in one list.

To open the Disk Pools List:

  1. In the Ribbon>Home tab, click Disk Pools to open the Disk Pools List.
  2. In the list, right-click a disk pool to perform actions from the context menu. Additional fields in the list may be available by selecting the Column Chooser from the column header context menu.
Disk Pools List

Pool Name

Alias of the pool.

DataCore Server(s)

The servers owning the storage resources of the pool.

Size

Amount of physical disk space added to the pool.

Status

See Disk Pool Status.

SAU Size

The storage allocation unit size that was selected when the disk pool was created.

Sector size

The sector size (512 B or 4 KB) selected when the pool was created.

Available Storage

Amount of storage resources not allocated. Also provides amount of storage in reclamation in parenthesis.

Single Virtual Disks

The number of single virtual disks created from the pool.

Mirrored Virtual Disks

The number of mirrored virtual disks and 3-copy virtual disks created from the pool.

Dual Virtual Disks

The number of dual virtual disks created from the pool.

Over Subscription

The total logical space of all virtual disks created from the pool minus the amount of total pool space.

Usage

Amount (displayed in percentage) of allocated and reserved space in the pool.