HP XP P9500 Storage - Manual (Page 62)

4 Configuring thin provisioning
Thin provisioning technology allows you to allocate virtual storage capacity based on anticipated
future capacity needs, using virtual volumes instead of physical disks.
Thin provisioning is an optional provisioning strategy for both open and mainframe systems. Thin
provisioning is implemented with Thin Provisioning by creating one or more Thin Provisioning pools
(THP pools) of physical storage space using multiple LDEVs. Then, you can establish virtual THP
volumes (THP V-VOLs) and connect them to the individual THP pools. In this way, capacity can be
randomly assigned on demand anywhere in the pool.
Thin Provisioning software is required to configure thin provisioning. If you chose to set up storage
tiers in your thin provisioned environment, then both Thin Provisioning and Smart Tiers are required.
Smart Tiers overview
Smart Tiers is a software product that helps you reduce storage costs and increase storage
performance by supporting a volume configured with different storage media of different cost and
performance capabilities. This support allows you to allocate data areas with heavy I/O loads to
higher-speed media and to allocate data areas with low I/O loads to lower-speed media. In this
way, you can make the best use of the capabilities of installed storage media. Up to three storage
tiers consisting of different types of data drives are supported in a single pool of storage.
Thin Provisioning overview
Thin Provisioning is an advanced thin-provisioning software product that allows you to save money
on storage purchases and reduce storage management expenses.
You can operate Thin Provisioning using both Remote Web Console software and the RAID
Manager.
Thin provisioning requirements
Thin Provisioning license requirements
Using Thin Provisioning on the P9500 storage system requires the following:
•
The license key installed on the Remote Web Console computer for Thin Provisioning. For
details about the license key or product installation, see the HP P9000 Remote Web Console
User Guide.
•
You will need the Thin Provisioning license for the total capacity of the pool for which the tier
function is enabled.
•
If THP V-VOLs are used for the P-VOLs and S-VOLs of Business Copy, Continuous Access
Synchronous, Continuous Access Journal, or External Storage Access Manager, you will need
the Business Copy, Continuous Access Synchronous, or Continuous Access Journal for the
consumed pool capacity used by the P-VOLs and S-VOLs.
•
If the total used pool capacity exceeds the licensed capacity, the additional capacity will be
treated as being supported by a temporary license. You will be able to use additional capacity
for 30 days. After 30 days, and the pool capacity remains excessive, then operations will be
limited, such as pools cannot be created or expanded, and replication management will be
limited to pair suspend and/or deletion.
62 Configuring thin provisioning