VNXe Storage Pools Test

VNXe storage is contained in storage pools. A storage pool is a group of disks of similar type and speed. When storage is allocated for application use, you have the option of choosing the type of storage pool. Depending on the model of the target VNXe storage system and its disk configuration, different storage pools are available for new storage. Storage pools can be created automatically by the system depending on the disk types present, or they can be custom created via a wizard.

Similarly, thin provisioning is the ability to present a server with more capacity than is actually allocated within the storage system. When thin provisioning is enabled for a storage resource, the amount of storage requested is not allocated immediately to the resource. Instead, a small quantity of the storage is allocated by the EMC VNXe to the storage resource. When the amount of storage consumed within the storage resource reaches the limit of the current allocation, the system allocates additional storage to the storage resource from the storage pool. Thin provisioning allows multiple storage resources to subscribe to common storage capacity within a pool, while the system allocates only a portion of the physical capacity requested by each storage resource. VNXe systems allows the storage pools to be oversubscribed.

Without sufficient space, the disks cannot service I/O requests from users. Similarly, if a storage pool is oversubscribed, the users have to wait longer than usual toretreive the data from the disks. This is why, the storage pool assigned to a disk has to be frequently checked for space. The Storage Pools test enables this check. This test monitors the health, subscription and the usage of space in every storage pool and proactively alerts administrators if the storage space in any pool is about to be used up completely! This way, the test prompts administrators to right-size their storage pools, so that users have no issues accessing their disks.

Target of the test : An EMC VNXe Storage system

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each Storage Pool in the target storage system being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Unisphere CLI Path	The eG agent uses the command-line utility, UEMCli.exe, which is part of the UniSphere Management Suite, to communicate with and monitor the storage device. To enable the eG agent to invoke the CLI, configure the full path to the CLI in the UniSphere CLI Path text box.
Username and Password	Provide the credentials of a user possessing monitor role to access the storage device in the Username and Password text boxes.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
VNXe Version	Select the version of the target EMC VNXe storage system that is to be monitored from this list. By default, 1600 will be chosen from this list.
Detailed Diagnosis	To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Health state

Indicates the current health of this storage pool.

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure value	Numeric Value
Normal	0
Attention	1
Unknown	2
Degraded/Warning	3
Minor failure	4
Major failure	5
Critical failure	6
Non-recoverable error	7

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the current health of this storage pool. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only - 0 to 7.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure lists the ID, description, health, threshold, RAID level, Fast cache enabled status of the storage pool.

Total space

Indicates the total capacity of this storage pool.

Current allocation

Indicates the amount of space that is currently in use in this storage pool.

Ideally, the value of this measure should be low.

Remaining space

Indicates the amount of space that is available for use in this storage pool.

Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. Compare the value of this measure across storage pools to identify which storage pool is about to run out of space. You may want to add more space to this storage pool by say, adding more disk volumes to the pool.

Used size

Indicates the percentage of space that is currently in use in this storage pool.

Percentage

Free size

Indicates the percentage of space that is available for use in this storage pool.

Percentage

Subscription size

Indicates the amount of storage that had been requested by the storage resources associated with this storage pool.

Subscription

Indicates the percentage of storage that had been requested by the storage resources associated with this storage pool.

Percentage

A value greater than 100 indicates that the storage pool is over subscribed.

Number of Drives

Indicates the number of drives configured for this storage pool.

Number