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.In this topic:
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
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 Tiering
must 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:
o Critical -
o High
o Normal (default setting)
o Low
o 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.
When the storage profile of a virtual disk is changed, the settings within the profile are changed immediately.
Important
o Changing the performance class of a storage profile can result in a new tier affinity.
· If auto-tiering is enabled, this can result in the migration of virtual disk data to bring SAUs into the new tier affinity. Data migration can impact disk pool performance. 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.
· If auto-tiering is not enabled, new allocations will be made in the new tier affinity, but the SAUs already allocated will never be migrated. For instance, in the case of a default pool with three tiers, if a storage profile is changed from Archive to Critical the tier affinity will change. SAUs already allocated in Tier 3 will remain in Tier 3 (where the slowest disks should reside). New allocation will be made from Tier 1 (where the fastest disks should reside).
· If the new storage profile changes the tier affinity, 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.
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. Tip
2 Click Yes on the confirmation message to proceed with the operation.
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 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.
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.
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. Tip