PowerVC

IBM Storwize Spectrum Virtualize v8.1.2 has introduced the new capability of Data Reduction Pool (DRP). Data Reduction Pools are a new type of storage pool that implement several techniques, such as thin-provisioning, compression, deduplication, and so on. The major benefit includes reduction in the amount of physical capacity required to store data, thereby reducing the storage costs. See Introduction and Implementation of Data Reduction Pools and Deduplication for more details and benefits of Data Reduction Pool.

With PowerVC version 1.4.3.0 or later, you can create a Storwize volume using Data Reduction Pool feature. This blog discusses on how you can leverage the DRP feature in PowerVC.

Note: This feature is only applicable for IBM Storwize.

Pre-requisites –
• Storwize models that support DRP compression Storwize V7000 Gen2, V7000 Gen 3, all SVC nodes (DH8 and SV1 require compression hardware)
• To use compression on the SVC and Storwize V7000, licensing is required. Ensure that the Storwize has required compression license.
• Before registering Storwize on PowerVC, ensure that the Data Reduction Pool exists on the Storage backend.

PowerVC Data Reduction Pool template
In order to use Data Reduction Pool, user has to first create a Storage template in PowerVC, Which can be further used for any DRP volume creation.
To create a Storage template, perform the following steps:

1. Go to Configuration -> Storage Templates and click Create.
   Select SVC Storage Provider and then select data reduction pool as Storage pool.





2. Click on Advanced Settings.
   
   For Data Reduction Pool, you can see that the Automatic Expand property is selected by default.
   
   
   Note: The 'Warning Threshold, Real Capacity and Grain size' are not applicable to DRP pools as they are calculated automatically by the storage backend.
   You can view the Data Reduction Pool template properties on the Storage template details page.
   
   
   
   Now, you can use the template for any volume related operations. For example, when you create a volume, you can choose the DRP template as shown below.
   
   
   Note- Ensure to use Data Reduction Pool feature only for new storage template creation and not during the Storwize registration.
   
   As you can see, it’s quick and easy to create storage template using Data Reduction Pool feature. If you have any questions, post them below. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook!
   
   Author: Jagdish Choudhary