Storage Profiles

In this topic:

Storage profiles

Changing storage profiles for a virtual disk

Creating custom storage profiles

Changing custom storage profile settings

Deleting custom storage profiles

Viewing storage profile details and list

Storage Profiles

The storage profile encapsulates settings for various functions of a virtual disk. Each virtual disk has a storage profile, which is assigned when a virtual disk is created. The storage profile assigned to a virtual disk, sets in one operation the priority levels to use for various virtual disk functions. SANsymphony software provides five different system-defined storage profiles.

Custom storage profiles can also be created to allow each setting to be selected individually. The settings for custom storage profiles can be changed at any time.

When virtual disks are assigned storage profiles based on their data priority, and pool disks are assigned to tiers based on performance, this results in a correlation between virtual disk priority and disk performance. Virtual disks with higher priority will be allocated from disks with better performance, and virtual disks with lower priority will be allocated from disks with lesser performance. This is the storage profile scheme. See Disk Pools for more information on tiers.

A list of all storage profiles can be viewed. Open the list from the Home tab in the Ribbon.

Virtual disks can be assigned different storage profiles without a license for Automated Storage Tiering, but users must ensure that sufficient physical disks exist in applicable tiers to accommodate the storage profiles assigned.

A storage profile consists of these settings:

1. Performance class - The performance class setting designates the priority of the virtual disk data and determines the preferred disk tiers (tier affinity) where data will be stored in the disk pool.
   • Performance class settings from highest to lowest priority are: Critical, High, Normal, Low and Archive.
     • Virtual disks with settings of Critical or High will prefer to use only the upper tiers.
     • Virtual disks with settings of Low or Archive will prefer to use only the lower tiers.
     • Virtual disks with the setting of Normal will have a tier affinity of all tiers in a disk pool.
   • Performance class only applies to virtual disks created from disk pools.
   • See Automated Storage Tiering to learn how storage profiles effect auto-tiering in a disk pool.

   Automated Storage Tieringmust be enabled for data migration to occur. If auto-tiering is not enabled and the performance class of a virtual disk is changed, new SAUs will be stored based on the new performance class, but SAUs that were previously allocated will not be moved.

2. Replication priority - The setting for replication transfer priority. Virtual disks with higher priority settings are given more available throughput to transfer data than virtual disks with lower priority settings. Replication Priority settings from highest to lowest priority are: Critical, High, Regular, and Low. See the Replication Transfer Priority section in the topic Replication for more information.
3. Mirror recovery priority - The setting for mirror recovery priority. Virtual disks with higher priority settings are given available resources to perform mirror recovery before virtual disks with lower priority settings. Recovery Priority settings from highest to lowest priority are: Critical, High, Regular, and Low. See Mirror Recovery for more information.
4. Write-aware auto-tiering - This setting, when enabled, will cause auto-tiering to also migrate data based on the frequency of write operations. This setting enables the temperature of data to be determined by both read and write operations equally and data will be migrated accordingly. This setting could be useful when the virtual disk gets very few read operations, so that the virtual disk data temperature is not adequately heated by read operations alone. This may be the case with some applications where most operations are performed in memory. The setting is not enabled by default; the default behavior of auto-tiering is to migrate data based on the frequency of read operations only. This setting is only available for custom storage profiles. See Creating Custom Storage Profiles and Changing Custom Storage Profile Settings. Also see Automated Storage Tiering for more information.

There are five system-defined storage profiles from which to choose. The priority of a system-defined storage profile is consistent with the individual settings within the profile. For instance, setting a virtual disk storage profile to Critical ensures that the performance class, replication priority and recovery priority of that virtual disk are all set to Critical. All functions (performance class, replication priority, and recovery priority) will all be processed with the highest possible priority.

System-defined storage profiles from highest priority to lowest priority are:

• Critical
• High
• Normal (default setting)
• Low
• Archive

The use of storage profiles is optional. If the storage profile is not specifically set during creation, the storage profile Normal is assigned to the virtual disk.

The storage profile for a virtual disk can be changed at any time.

Storage profiles can also be set for snapshots and rollbacks.

Changing Storage Profiles for a Virtual Disk

When the storage profile of a virtual disk is changed, the settings within the profile are changed immediately.

To change a storage profile:

1. In the DataCore Servers Panel, right-click on the virtual disk to change, point to Storage Profile and select the new setting.

   The storage profile can also be changed in any virtual disk list or details page.

2. Click Yes on the confirmation message to proceed with the operation.

Creating Custom Storage Profiles

To create a custom storage profile:

1. In the Ribbon>Home tab, click Storage Profiles to open the Storage Profiles List.
2. In the list, click the link Create Storage Profile.
3. In the Create Storage Profile dialog box, enter the name and description of the new storage profile.
4. Use the pull-down menus to select the priority for performance class, replication priority and mirror recovery priority.
5. Select the Write-aware auto-tiering check box to allow auto-tiering to determine SAU temperature by both read and write operations equally. See Storage Profiles for more information.
6. Click Create.

Changing Custom Storage Profile Settings

Changing performance class in a storage profile can result in a new tier affinity and the migration of virtual disk data (if auto-tiering is enabled). Data migration can impact disk pool performance. If changing performance class, ensure that sufficient physical disk free space exists in the new tier affinity. The tier affinity can be viewed in the Virtual Disk Details page>Info tab. The data migration to the new tier affinity set begins immediately, but is a gradual process occurring over time in order to lessen the impact on performance.

To change custom profile properties:

1. In the Ribbon>Home tab, click Storage Profiles to open the Storage Profiles List.
2. In the list, right-click the storage profile to change and select View details to open the details page.
3. In the details page, click Edit.
4. Make the necessary changes and click Done.
5. If a confirmation message is received, confirm to continue.

Deleting Custom Storage Profiles

Custom storage profiles can be deleted as long as the profile is not assigned to any virtual disk or virtual disk template.

To delete a custom storage profile:

1. In the Ribbon>Home tab, click Storage Profiles to open the Storage Profiles List.
2. In the list, right-click the storage profile and select Delete.

Viewing Storage Profile Details and List

The Storage Profile List contains a list of all storage profiles and the individual priority settings and Write-aware Auto-tiering setting within each profile. Custom storage profiles with write-aware auto-tiering enabled will be notated with a green check mark. The number of virtual disks that are assigned to each profile is also included.

Details pages are available for each storage profile. Detail pages provide the settings within the storage profile and information for each virtual disk that is assigned to that storage profile. The individual priority settings can be changed in the details page.

To open the Storage Profile List:

• In the Ribbon>Home tab, click Storage Profiles to open the Storage Profiles List.

To open a storage profile details page:

• In the Storage Profiles List, right-click a profile and select View details.

  You can also open the details page by double-clicking on the profile name in the list.