C H A P T E R  5

 


Configuring Basic Storage

This chapter describes how to configure basic storage on the array. It guides you through the following steps:

For more information about the configuration introduced in this chapter, see the appropriate topic in the online help.



Note - Before you configure storage, be sure to understand the concepts presented in Planning Your Storage Configuration



Enabling Premium Features

License certificates are issued when you purchase premium services and contain instructions for obtaining license information from the Sun Licensing Center.

Premium features that are available with the Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager software include:

Refer to your license certificate and contact the Sun License Center for license key information. Go to http://www.sun.com/licensing for your local Sun License Center phone number.



Note - Adding Storage Domains Licenses to Partition Storage.
If you want to create storage domains to partition storage with other than the default domain, you must activate the storage domain licenses.


To Add a License and Enable a Premium Feature:

1. Click Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager.

The navigation pane and the Storage System Summary page are displayed.

2. In the navigation pane, expand the array for which you want to display license information.

The navigation tree is expanded for that array.

3. Expand Administration and choose Licensing.

The Licensable Feature Summary page is displayed.

4. Click Add License.

The Add License page is displayed.

5. Select the type of license you want to add, and specify the version number and key digest supplied by Sun.

6. Click OK.


Configuring Basic Storage

The following sections guide you though configuring storage.

The New Volume wizard, available form the Volume Summary page, guides you through the steps for creating a volume and other basic storage configuration.



Note - and do not activate premium storage domains., all hosts in the domain will have access to the volume and you will not be able to change the default domain’s storage characteristics in the wizard.


When you create a volume, the wizard prompts you to enter or select the following information:

Unless you create new pools, only the default pool with the default RAID-5 profile will be available.

You can also map to the default domain.

Before beginning the New Volume wizard in Using the New Volume Wizard to Create and Map Volumes, review the next section to decide if there are non-default storage elements that you want to configure. If so, you can either configure the elements before you begin the New Volume wizard or you can open a second browser window and configure them as you need to during the wizard.


Planning Storage Before Using the New Volume Wizard

Before you create a volume, you should plan the allocation of your storage. This section will tell you if you need to use the following sections before using the New Volume wizard:

Before using the New Volume wizard, you should know

If so, you can select the defaults in the wizard.

If not, you will need to define a new pool as described in Creating Storage Pools and assign it a pre-defined or new profile, as described in Selecting Additional Profiles.

If so, you need to activate the domain licenses as described in Enabling Premium Features. Then you need to define hosts or host groups before or after the New Volume wizard as described in Creating Hosts and Host Groups. Otherwise you will be using the default domain.

Selecting Additional Profiles

The StorageTek Common Array Manager software provides several storage profiles that meet most storage configuration requirements. By default, the New Volume wizard will allow you to select a default pool with its default profile of RAID-5 characteristics. The profiles that display are specific to the model of the array and the drives it supports.

Profiles are selected from pools. If the default profile does not meet your performance needs, before entering the New Volume wizard, you can create a pool and select one of several other predefined profiles, or you can create a custom profile.

To View the Predefined Storage Profiles:

1. Click Sun StorageTek Common Array Manager.

The navigation pane and the Storage System Summary page are displayed.

2. In the navigation pane, expand the array you want to work with and choose Profiles.

The Storage Profile Summary page for the array model is displayed.

TABLE 5-1 shows an example of the predefined storage profiles for an array. Refer to the Storage Profile Summary page in the software for your array to see the available predefined profiles.

The following table shows the predefined profiles with storage characteristic showing the RAID levels, segment size, read-ahead mode, drive type and number of drives.
TABLE 5-1 An Example of Predefined Storage Profiles

Name

RAID Level

Segment Size

Read-Ahead Mode

Drive Type

Number of Drives

Default

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

ANY

Variable

High_Capacity_Computing

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SATA

Variable

High_Performance_Computing

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Mail_Spooling

RAID-1

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Microsoft Exchange

RAID-5

32 KB

Enabled

SAS

4

Microsoft_NTFS

RAID-5

64 KB

Enabled

ANY

4

Microsoft_NTFS_HA

RAID-1

64 KB

Enabled

2500: SAS

Others: FC

Variable

NFS_Mirroring

RAID-1

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

NFS_Striping

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Oracle_10_ASM_VxFS_HA

RAID-5

256 KB

Enabled

SAS

5

Oracle_VxFS

RAID-5

128 KB

Enabled

SAS

4

Oracle_VxFS_HA

RAID-5

128 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Oracle_DSS

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Oracle_OLTP

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Oracle_OLTP_HA

RAID-1

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Random_1

RAID-1

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Sequential

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Sun_SAM-FS

RAID-5

128 KB

Enabled

ANY

4

Sun_ZFS

RAID-5

128 KB

Enabled

ANY

4

Sybase_DSS

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Sybase_OLTP

RAID-5

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

Sybase_OLTP HA

RAID-1

512 KB

Enabled

SAS

Variable

VxFS

RAID-5

128 KB

Enabled

ANY

4


3. Select a profile that matches your storage requirements.

You will need the name of the storage profile later, when you create a storage pool.



Note - If you want to create a custom profile, click New on the Storage Profile Summary page. If you need information about any of the fields, click Help.


Creating Storage Pools

A storage pool is a collection of volumes with the same configuration. By default, you can select a pool with a default profile of RAID-5 characteristics. You can create new pools and assign other profiles to them.

To Create Storage Pools:

1. In the navigation pane, under the array you want to work with, choose Pools.

The Storage Pool Summary page is displayed.

2. Click New.

The Create New Storage Pool page is displayed.

3. Enter a name for the new storage pool, using a maximum of 30 characters.

4. Enter a description of the new storage pool.

5. Select Default or another predefined storage profile that meets your storage needs.

For information about the characteristics of the predefined storage profiles, see TABLE 5-1.

6. Click OK.

The new storage pool is displayed on the Storage Pool Summary page.

Creating Hosts and Host Groups

By default, the New Volume wizard assigns a default storage domain if no other hosts or host groups have been created.

Most storage users will want to create additional storage domains and host groups to partition storage. You typically create host groups to group hosts that share the same storage characteristics and so that they can share access to a volume.

You can map volumes to a host group or to individual hosts that have a LUN.

You can create the host and host groups either before or after the New Volume wizard. (If afterwards, you will have to manually complete the steps equivalent to the New Volume wizard to configure initiators for each host, assign hosts to host groups, if needed, and complete the volume-to-LUN-mapping.)

If you have many hosts to create, you may find it easier to create the hosts first and then to add the hosts to a host group.



Note - Lun-mapping requires a storage domain license. Hosts and host groups can be created without a storage domain license but have no valid purpose without a storage domain.


To Create Hosts

1. In the navigation pane, under the array you want to work with, expand Physical Devices and choose Hosts.

The Host Summary page is displayed.

2. Click New.

The Create New Host page is displayed.

3. Type a name for the new host, using a maximum of 30 characters.

Use a name that will allow you to recognize the data host on your network.

4. (Optional) If host groups have already been created, assign the new host directly to a host group.

5. Click OK.

The host is created and added to the Host Summary page.

To Create a Host Group

1. In the navigation pane, under the array you want to work with, choose Physical Devices > Host Groups.

The Host Group Summary page is displayed.

2. Click New.

The New Host Group page is displayed.

3. Enter a name for the new host group, using a maximum of 30 characters.

4. Double-click the names of the available hosts you want to add to the group. You can also click Select All or Remove All to add or remove all of the available hosts.

5. Click OK.

The new host group is created and added to the Host Group Summary page.

Creating Initiators to Assign to Hosts

To make non-default storage available to a data host or host group, you create an initiator and associate it with a host. An initiator is an FC port that is identified by a unique WWN of an HBA installed on the data host.

To Create An Initiator and Assign It To a Host:

1. In the navigation pane, under the array you want to work with, choose Physical Devices > Initiators.

The Initiator Summary page is displayed.

2. Click New.

The New Initiator page is displayed.

3. Enter a name for the new initiator, using a maximum of 30 characters.

4. Specify a new WWN for the initiator, or select an existing WWN from the drop-down list of unassigned WWNs.

If you specify a new WWN, the delimiting colons (:) of the 16-character hexadecimal WWN are optional.

5. Select the host name for the new initiator.

6. Select the host type for the new initiator.

7. Click OK.

The Initiator Summary page displays the initiator name, host name, host type, and WWN of the new initiator.


Using the New Volume Wizard to Create and Map Volumes

A volume is a “container” into which applications, databases, and file systems can store data. A volume is created from virtual disks that are part of a storage pool. Based on your selections, the array automatically allocates storage from different disks to meet your volume configuration requirements.

As mentioned in Planning Storage Before Using the New Volume Wizard, you may want to configure new profiles, pools, host, host-groups, or initiators before or during the wizard if the defaults do not match your storage needs.

When you are ready to begin, the New Volume wizard guides you through the steps for creating a volume.

To Use the New Volume Wizard to Create Volumes

1. In the navigation pane, under the array you want to work with, choose Volumes.

The Volume Summary page is displayed.

2. Click New.

The New Volume wizard is displayed.



Note - After the initial installation, you will be unable to select New if there is not enough disk space for a new volume or if no existing virtual disks match the selected profile.


3. Enter a name and capacity for the volume, and select the storage pool with which you want it to be associated.

4. Click Next.

You are prompted to select the method by which virtual disks will be selected:

5. Select the method you want to use to create a virtual disk:

6. Follow the rest of the wizard to configure the virtual disks.

You are prompted to map the volume to a host or host group and to select a LUN. If you have not created additional hosts or host groups, only the default storage domain will display. You map the volume to new hosts or host groups later.

7. Select a host or host group select a LUN number.

After you click Finish, the new volume is displayed on the Volume Summary page.

About Volumes and the Default Domain or Partitioned Storage Domains.

After the New Volume wizard completes, your volumes will be belong to:

All hosts in the domain will have access to the volume and you will not be able to change storage characteristics within the domain.