HP StorageWorks XP Remote Web Console Software - Manual (Page 6)

Nondisruptive Addition of Physical Disks
An XP Thin Provisioning volume will be displayed as a Virtual LVI/LUN volume that has no actual
storage capacity. Actual storage capacity from the XP Thin Provisioning pool is assigned when the
data is written. Because the application only sees the amount of virtual capacity that is allocated
to it, additional physical disk capacity can be installed transparently when needed, without an
application service interruption.
Improved Performance
XP Thin Provisioning Software effectively combines many program products' I/O patterns and
spreads the I/O activity across all available physical resources. Prior to XP Thin Provisioning
Software, optimizing to use all spindles was a complex manual task requiring considerable expertise.
Avoiding disk hot spots has always been challenging because of the complexity of spreading an
application over many spindles as well as predicting when multiple program products that share
a limited number of spindles may generate I/O patterns that cause contention and performance
bottlenecks.
XP Thin Provisioning Software does this automatically. By evenly spreading out hundreds of users’
I/O patterns over all available spindles, XP Thin Provisioning Software will optimize aggregate
throughput and generally deliver the best performance. Balancing individual program products
and manually matching up drive spindles is no longer necessary.
Reduced Storage Acquisition Costs
Defining a volume larger than the physical disk allows you to plan for additional future storage
needs during an initial installation, purchase only the physical disk capacity required at the start,
and add physical storage capacity incrementally over time. This approach also provides savings
in space, power, and cooling requirements.
Figure 1 (page 6) illustrates the difference between purchases made before and after installing
XP Thin Provisioning.
Figure 1 Effects of XP Thin Provisioning
Simplified Replication Planning
You can define the desired volume capacity without regard to the physical disk capacity. For
volumes of 4.0 TB and smaller, you no longer need to use LUSE for volume expansion, which also
simplifies creating replication pairs.
Complementary Software
HP XP Replication Software
The high-speed, nondisruptive technology of HP replication software rapidly creates multiple copies
of mission-critical information within XP storage systems. It keeps data RAID-protected and fully
6 Overview of HP XP Thin Provisioning Software