Allocating and unallocating volumes, About allocating volumes, Volume allocation methods – HP XP Racks User Manual

Page 54: 54 volume allocation methods

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When you select the target Smart pool from the tree view in the Resources tab, check that the external
LDEV tiering rank for the Smart pool volume has been changed.

Allocating and unallocating volumes

This module reviews volume allocation requirements, methods, and related procedures for allocating,
or provisioning, volumes.

About allocating volumes

Volume allocation makes storage capacity available to host applications or clustered hosts and
applications. Hosts must be registered before volume allocation.

Depending on your registered storage systems, volumes can be allocated using basic volumes, pool
volumes, or volumes from a tier. Basic volumes are volumes from a parity group. Any storage system
can provide basic volumes. Allocating THP/Smart pool volumes involves grouping resources on
storage systems that support this feature. THP/Smart pools must exist prior to volume allocation from
a THP/Smart pool. To allocate volumes from a tier, a Tiered Storage Manager license is required,
and tier policies must be established for storage systems that support tier policy configuration.

Volume allocation behaviors include:

The settings assigned when allocating volumes to a host become the default settings for the next
volume allocation to the same host, but can be changed during volume allocation.

If a variety of volumes with different characteristics have been allocated to a host, you can allocate
a new volume by selecting an existing volume to set the volume allocation criteria.

If no volumes match the specified requirements, new volumes are created from unused capacity
and allocated to the host. When a basic volume is created, the volume is also formatted at the
same time.

You can use keyword or criteria based searches to find existing unallocated volumes that meet
your requirements.

When you allocate volumes to a host, LUN paths are assigned automatically. LUN paths can be
edited during or after volume allocation.

Volumes can be allocated on ports where LUN security is not enabled. All hosts with access to the
port can access the volume.

Volume allocation to a cluster should be done with logical groups. This ensures the same volumes
are allocated to all hosts in the cluster.

Volume allocation does not occur until you approve the volume allocation plan and submit the
volume allocation task.

When volumes are allocated to a host OS, you must create a file system on them and mount them,
before they can be used by host applications.

NOTE:

Before allocating volumes, review the available volume allocation methods. This will optimize your
ability to perform volume allocation, and help you understand the Allocate Volumes dialog box.

Volume allocation methods

When you allocate volumes, you can either:

Setting up and operating a SAN environment

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