160 ©
Copyright 2017 QSAN Technology, Inc. All Right Reserved.
9.2.
Theory of Operation
Thin provisioning, in a shared-storage environment, provides a method for optimizing
utilization of available storage. It relies on on-demand allocation of blocks of data versus
the traditional method of allocating all the blocks up front. This methodology eliminates
almost all whitespace which helps avoid poor utilization rates, that occur in the traditional
storage allocation method where large pools of storage capacity are allocated to individual
servers but remain unused (not written to. This traditional model is often called "fat" or
"thick" provisioning.
With thin provisioning, storage capacity utilization efficiency can be automatically driven up
towards 100% with very little administrative overhead. Organizations can purchase less
storage capacity up front, defer storage capacity upgrades in line with actual business
growth, and save the operating costs (electricity and floor space) associated with keeping
unused disk capacity spinning.
9.2.1.
Thin Provisioning Architecture
A thin provisioning pool is a collection of disk groups which contain disk drives. Similarly, a
storage pool is grouped to provide capacity for volumes. Volumes are then allocated out of
the storage pool and are mapped to LUN which can be accessed by a host system. The
following is the storage architecture of a thin provisioning pool.
Figure 9-4
Storage Architecture of Thin Provisioning Pool
Summary of Contents for XCubeSAN XS5224D
Page 71: ...SANOS User Interface 49 nnnnn RPM Power Supply Local PSU n status Reset to Default Yes No...
Page 99: ...System Settings 77 Figure 6 14 System Information...
Page 315: ...Monitoring 293 Figure 13 5 Hardware Monitoring...
Page 327: ...Support and Other Resources 305 Figure 15 1 Download Service Package in the SANOS UI...
Page 331: ...Support and Other Resources 309...