HP XP7 Storage - Manual (Page 15)

Smart Tiers Z gives you:
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Improved storage resource usage
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Improved return on high-cost storage tiers
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Reduced storage management effort
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More automation
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Nondisruptive storage management
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Reduced costs
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Improved overall performance
Tiers concept
When not using Smart Tiers Z, data is allocated to only one kind of data drive (without regard to
the workload) to the volumes because the volumes are configured with only one kind of data drive.
When using Smart Tiers Z, the higher performance drive is automatically allocated to the high
workload portion of a volume’s data, and the lower speed drive to the low workload portion of a
volume. This improves performance and reduces costs.
Smart Tiers Z places the host volume's data across multiple tiers of storage contained in a pool.
There can be up to three tiers (high-, medium-, and low-speed layers) in a pool. Smart Tiers Z
determines tier usage based on data access levels. It allocates pages with high I/O load to the
upper tier, which contains a higher speed drive, and the page with low I/O load to the lower tier,
which contains a lower speed drive.
The following figure illustrates the basic tier concept.
When to use Smart Tiers Z
Smart Tiers Z is the best fit in an environment in which Thin Provisioning Z is a good fit and datasets
with different performance requirements share volumes.
For detailed information, see “Configuring thin provisioning ” (page 54) .
Resource groups strategies
A storage system can connect to multiple hosts and be shared by multiple divisions in a company
or by multiple companies. Many storage administrators from different organizations can access
the storage system. Managing the entire storage system can become complex and difficult. Potential
problems are that private data might be accessed by other users, or a volume in one organization
might be destroyed by mistake by a storage administrator in another organization.
Tiers concept 15