Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

Overview Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning greatly simplifies storage management and at the same time improves utilization and performance. The fundamental concept of Virtual Provisioning is thin provisioning, which is the ability to create thin devices and only allocate capacity as storage is consumed. This makes it practical to present a host with much larger devices than is needed initially, eliminating the need to incrementally add storage as application capacity requirements increase with time. This procedure is based on content from the following EMC manual: EMC Symmetrix Virtual Provisioning Implementation and Best Practices Technical Note

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups

1.

Log in to the Symmetrix Management Console You should see the EMC Symmetrix Management Console login screen, which looks something like this:

Enter the appropriate user name in the User Name field and the corresponding password in the Password field. When finished, left-click Login to complete the login process. 2. Identify one or more private devices that are not currently part of a thin pool Using the Navigation tree of the Symmetrix Management Console, expand both the object representing your Symmetrix array and the Private Devices folder. Then, left-click the Data Devices folder to display a list of data devices available in the Properties view. Using the information presented in the Properties view, identify one or more devices (not Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

currently part of an existing pool) that are to be used to create a new thin pool. (Refer to the following screen.)

Note: Thin pools typically contain multiple data devices (usually eight or more). To maximize the benefit of wide-striping when space is allocated, generally more data devices are better than fewer. Like other devices, data devices are configured using appropriate disk types and data protection schemes. What makes data devices different is that they are private devices with an attribute that allows them to be added as members of a thin pool. Record the device number and device configuration of each device chosen. 3. Open the Device Pool Management Create dialog Using the Navigation tree of the Symmetrix Management Console, right-click on the object representing your Symmetrix array and select Device Pool Management, Create Device Pool from the menus presented. (Refer to the following screen.)

4.

Create a thin pool and add data devices to the new pool When the Device Pool Management Create dialog is presented, perform the following tasks in the order shown: a) Specify a descriptive name for the thin pool to be created in the Pool Name field. b) Select Thin from the drop-down list provided with the Pool Type field. c) Select the devices you identified in step 2 from the devices shown in the Available list by left-clicking on them (hold the Ctrl key down and left-click to select multiple devices). d) Left-click Add to move the devices selected to the Target list. If every device shown in the Available list is to be added to the pool, left-click Add All instead. This will cause all devices shown in the Available list to be moved to the Target list. e) Check the Max Subscription checkbox and specify a value in the Max Subscription % Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

entry field. This will limit the total capacity of all thin devices that are bound to the pool to no more than the specified percentage of the total capacity of the pool. (This parameter allows you to specify the risk tolerance for oversubscription. To prevent oversubscription, set this parameter to 100%.) f) Check the Enable New Pool Member checkbox. This allows the data devices specified to be used immediately. g) Left-click OK to create the thin pool and exit the Device Pool Management Create dialog. (Refer to the following screen.)

5.

Verify that the pool was created From the Symmetrix Management Console, both the object representing your Symmetrix array and the Pools folder. Then, expand the Thin Pools folders and locate the thin pool you just created. Left-click that object and examine the information presented in the Properties view. If you selected eight devices in the previous step, the Properties view should show that the new thin pool has eight devices in it. (Refer to the following screen.)

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

6.

Verify that no tracks are used at this time Left-click the Data Devices tab. There should be no Used Tracks at this time as there are no bound thin devices.

7.

Open the Device Configuration Create dialog A thin device must be bound to a thin pool before it can be read/write enabled. The task of creating a thin device and binding it to a thin pool can be performed separately, but in this procedure both steps will be performed in a single operation. Using the Navigation tree of the Symmetrix Management Console, right-click on the object representing your Symmetrix array and select Device Creation, Create Device from the menus presented. (Refer to the following screen.)

8.

Create one or more thin devices (TDEVs) and bind them to the thin pool just created When the Device Configuration Create dialog is presented, perform the following tasks in the order shown: a) Left-click the Thin Device tab. b) Specify the number of thin devices to create in the Number of Devices field. c) Select the desired configuration from the drop-down list provided with the Configuration field. d) Select the desired emulation from the drop-down list provided with the Emulation field. e) Specify the desired capacity for each thin device from the drop-down list provided with the Capacity field. f) Enter the name of the thin pool created in step 4 in the Bind to Pool field or left-click the corresponding Select... button to display a list of thin pools and select the thin pool created in step 4 from the list presented. g) Left-click Add to Config Session List to queue the task needed to create the desired thin device(s) and exit the Device Configuration Create dialog.

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

(Refer to the following screen.)

When the Add to Config Session List button is selected, the Config Session screen should appear and the task to create the desired thin devices should be displayed on the My Active Tasks page. 9. Commit the configuration change If the Config Session screen is not automatically displayed, left-click on the object representing your Symmetrix array (using the Navigation tree of the Symmetrix Management Console) and then left-click the Config Session tab. Verify that the task to create the desired thin devices is displayed on the My Active Tasks page and left-click Commit All to execute the task and commit the results. (Refer to the following screen.)

When asked whether or not to continue, left-click Yes and wait for the process to complete. This will create the desired thin devices and bind them to the appropriate thin pool. (This does not take long as no disk space is actually allocated when thin devices are created.) 10 . Verify that the thin devices were created and bound to the appropriate thin pool From the Symmetrix Management Console, open the Properties view and expand both the object representing your Symmetrix array and the Pools folder. Then, expand the Thin Pools folder and locate the thin pool you created in step 4. Left-click that object, then left-click the Data Devices tab in the Properties view and examine the Used Tracks for the data devices displayed. You should see that one extent (12 tracks) has been allocated for each thin device created. (Refer to the following screen.)

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

11 .

Obtain the device number of each bound thin device Left-click the Bound Thin Devices tab of the Properties view to obtain the device numbers for each bound thin device. (Refer to the following screen.)

Record the device numbers shown. 12 . Present the bound thin devices to the host A thin device is made available to a host like any other device and must be mapped to a frontend director and masked to one or more host bus adapters. Because we are using a Symmetrix VMAX system, we can perform these steps by simply adding the thin devices to an existing Storage Group that has been associated with a Masking View. Using the Navigation tree of the Symmetrix Management Console, expand both the object representing your Symmetrix array and the Symmetrix Masking folder. Then, left-click the Storage Groups folder to display a list of Storage Groups available in the Properties view. From the Properties view, right-click on the object representing the Storage Group that the bound thin devices identified in the previous step are to be added to and select Device Masking and Mapping, Storage Group Maintenance, Modify Storage Group from the menus presented. (Refer to the following screen.)

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

13 .

Add the bound thin devices to the Storage Group When the Storage Group Management Modify dialog is presented, perform the following tasks in the order shown: a) Select the thin devices you identified in step 11 from the devices shown in the Available Devices list by left-clicking on them (hold the Ctrl key down and left-click to select multiple devices). b) Left-click Add to move the devices selected to the Group Members list. If every device shown in the Available Devices list is to be added, left-click Add All instead. This will cause all devices shown in the Available Devices list to be moved to the Group Members list. c) Left-click OK to add the selected devices to the Storage Group and exit the Storage Group Management Create dialog. (Refer to the following screen.)

If the Storage Group used is associated with a mapping view, the mapping and masking needed to make the devices added available to your host will be performed automatically.

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc

14 .

Verify that the bound thin devices were added to the Storage Group From the Symmetrix Management Console, expand both the Symmetrix Masking and the Storage Groups folders and locate the object representing the Storage Group you just added thin devices to. Left-click that object and examine the information presented in the Properties view. The Properties view should show the number of devices that are associated with the Storage Group and this number should have increased by the number of devices that were added in the previous step. Run the appropriate configuration method on the host or reboot the host Adding the thin devices to the Storage Group is all that needs to be done to make the thin device available to the host. However, before the host will see the new device, the host configuration utility must be run. Many host operating systems provide a utility that can be used to automatically configure devices that have been made available to a system. For example, in Windows you can use the Device Manager to scan for hardware changes; with AIX you can execute the cfgmgr command. Before the devices associated with the masking group will be made visible to a host, this utility must be run on the host. If no such utility exists, the affected hosts should be rebooted. Refer to the online help available with each host operating system for information on how to perform online configuration changes or a reboot operation.

15 .

16 .

Verify that the devices are available to the host Verify that the devices added in step 11 can be accessed by the host by executing the syminq command. When this command is executed, you should see output that looks something like this:
Device -------------------------Name Type -------------------------\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE4 \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE5 Product --------------------------Vendor ID Rev --------------------------Dell VIRTUAL DISK 1028 EMC SYMMETRIX 5874 EMC SYMMETRIX 5874 EMC SYMMETRIX 5874 EMC SYMMETRIX 5874 EMC SYMMETRIX 5874 Device --------------------Ser Num Cap (KB) --------------------N/A N/A 690011C000 919680 690011D000 919680 690011E000 919680 690011F000 919680 6900179000 15360000

(In the output produced by the syminq command, device serial numbers Ser Num are displayed in the format XX YYYYY 000 where XX is the last two digits of the Symmetrix serial number and YYYYY is the Symmetrix device number.) Note: In this example, a Windows host was used. The thin devices that you added to the Storage Group should now be available to your host.

Adding Thin Devices Using Auto-provisioning Groups_smc