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Dynamic Disk Pool creation

Dynamic Disk Pools (subsequently referred to as "disk pools") are created from the Total Unconfigured Capacity node of a storage array. Total unconfigured capacity is the sum capacity of the unassigned drives in the storage array.

To create a disk pool, the storage array must have a minimum of 11 drives. The storage management software provides two ways to create a disk pool: using the Disk Pool Automatic Configuration dialog or using the Create Disk Pool Wizard.

Disk Pool Automatic Configuration Dialog

The storage management software can detect the unconfigured capacity in a storage array. When the unconfigured capacity is detected, the storage management software lets you create one or more disk pools, or add the unconfigured capacity to an existing disk pool, or both. By default, the Automatic Configuration dialog appears each time you access the Array Management Window and your storage array has unassigned drives, or if new drives were added to a storage array that has at least one disk pool. This dialog shows the number of unassigned drives and calculates the free capacity of these drives.

By default, the storage management software assumes you want to create a disk pool rather than a volume group when your storage array has unassigned drives. If a disk pool already exists on your storage array, and the storage management software detects unassigned drives, the Automatic Configuration dialog shows information about adding the unassigned drives to any existing disk pools.

When creating a disk pool using the Automatic Configuration dialog, you can indicate whether you want the storage management software to create a specific number of equal-capacity volumes in the disk pool or simply add a free-capacity disk pool. A free-capacity disk pool does not have any volumes. If you have multiple applications on your storage array and do not want them competing for the same drive resources, you might consider manually creating a smaller disk pool for one or more of the applications. You can assign just one or two volumes instead of assigning the workload to a large disk pool that has many volumes across which to distribute the data.

Create Disk Pool Wizard

Use the Create Disk Pool wizard to guide you through the process of creating a disk pool. One advantage of using this wizard rather than the automatic configuration method is that the wizard lets you change the Drive Security if this feature is enabled, include only Data Assurance (DA) capable drives in your disk pool, select specific unassigned drives to comprise your disk pool, and adjust the capacity alert notification percentages.

RAID level auto-assigned

Regardless of the method you use to create a disk pool, the storage management software automatically bases the RAID level of the disk pool on RAID 6. You cannot change the RAID level of the disk pool.

Size of disk pool

There is no practical limit on the number of drives that can comprise a disk pool. However, the disk pool cannot contain more drives than the maximum limit for each storage array. Total unconfigured capacity, which is based on the capacity of all drives in a storage array that are not in a disk pool or volume group, determines the size and number of volumes that can be in your disk pool.

Before creating disk pools, refer to the following online help topics in the Array Management Window: