How FAST Works in Symmetrix VMAX

FAST VP for EMC Symmetrix VMAX
Theory a nd Best Pra ctices

for Pla nning a nd Performa nce
Technica l Notes
P/ N 300- 012- 014
REV A04
June 2012
This technical notes d ocu m ent contains inform ation on these top ics:
Execu tive su m m ary ................................................................................... 2

Introd u ction and overview ....................................................................... 2
Fu lly Au tom ated Storage Tiering ............................................................ 3
FAST and FAST VP com p arison .............................................................. 5
Theory of op eration ................................................................................... 6
Perform ance consid erations ................................................................... 11
Prod u ct and featu re interop erability ..................................................... 14
Planning and d esign consid erations ..................................................... 17
Su m m ary and conclu sion ....................................................................... 34
Ap p end ix: Best p ractices qu ick reference ............................................. 37
Executive summary
Executive summary
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX Fam ily w ith Enginu ity incorp orates a
scalable fabric-interconnect d esign that allow s a storage array to
seam lessly grow from an entry-level configu ration to a 4 PB system .
Sym m etrix VMAX Series arrays p rovid e p red ictable, self-op tim izing
p erform ance and enables organ izations to scale ou t on d em and in
p rivate clou d environm ents.
VMAX Series arrays au tom ate storage op erations to exceed bu siness
requ irem ents in virtu alized environm ents, w ith m anagem ent tools that
integrate w ith virtu alized servers and red u ce ad m inistra tion tim e in
p rivate clou d infrastru ctu res. Cu stom ers are able to achieve alw ays -on
availability w ith m axim u m secu rity, fu lly nond isru p tive op erations , and
m u lti-site m igration, recovery, and restart to p revent ap p lication
d ow ntim e.
Inform ation infrastru ctu re m u st continu ou sly ad ap t to changing
bu siness requ irem ents. EMC Sym m etrix Fully Au tom ated Storage
Tiering for Virtu al Pools (FAST VP) au tom ates tiered storage strategies,
in Virtu al Provisioning environm ents, by easily m oving w orkload s
betw een Sym m etrix tiers as p erform ance characteristics change over
tim e. FAST VP p erform s d ata m ovem ents, im p roving p erform ance , and
red u cing costs, all w hile m aintaining vital service levels.
Introduction a nd overview
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX FAST VP for Virtu al Provisioning environm ents
au tom ates the id entification of d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses of
relocating ap p lication d ata across d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers
w ithin an array. FAST VP p roactively m onitors w orkload s at both the
LUN and su b-LUN level in ord er to id entify bu sy d ata that w ou ld
benefit from being m oved to higher -p erform ing d rives. FAST VP also
id entifies less-bu sy d ata that cou ld be m oved to higher -cap acity d rives
w ithou t existing p erform ance being affected . This p rom otion/ d em otion
activity is based on p olicies that associate a storage grou p to m u ltip le
d rive technologies, or RAID p rotection schem es, by w ay of thin storage
p ools, as w ell as the p erform ance requ irem ents of the ap p lication
contained w ithin the storage grou p . Data m ovem ent execu ted d u ring
this activity is p erform ed nond isru p tively, w ithou t affecting bu siness
continu ity and d ata availability.
FAST VP fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX Theo ry a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Fully Automated Storage Tiering

Audience
This technical notes d ocu m ent is intend ed for anyone w ho need s to
u nd erstand FAST VP theory, best p ractices, and associated
recom m end ations as necessary to achieve the best p erform ance for FAST
VP configu rations. This d ocu m ent is sp ecifically targeted to EMC
cu stom ers, sales, and field technical staff w ho are either ru nning FAST
VP or are consid ering FAST VP for fu tu re im p lem entation.
Significant p ortions of this d ocu m ent assu m e a base know led ge
regard ing the im p lem entation and m anagem ent of FAST VP. For
inform ation regard ing the im p lem entation and m anagem ent of FAST VP
in Virtu al Provisioning environm ents, refer to the Implementing Fully
A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools (FA ST V P) for EM C Symmetrix
V M A X Series A rrays Technical N ote (P/ N 300-012-015).
Fully Automa ted Stora ge Tiering

Fu lly Au tom ated Storage Tiering (FAST) au tom ates the id entification of
d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses of relocating ap p lication d ata across
d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers w ithin an array , or to an external
array u sing Fed erated Tiered Storage (FTS).
The p rim ary benefits of FAST inclu d e:
Elim ination of m anu ally tiering ap p lications w hen p erform ance

objectives change over tim e.
Au tom ating the p rocess of id entifying d ata that can benefit from
Enterp rise Flash Drives or that can be kep t on higher -cap acity,
less-exp ensive SATA d rives w ithou t im p acting p erform ance.
Im p roving ap p lication p erform ance at the sam e cost, or

p rovid ing the sam e ap p lication p erform ance at low er cost. Cost
is d efined as acqu isition (both hard w are and softw are),
sp ace/ energy, and m anagem ent exp ense.
Op tim izing and p rioritizing bu siness ap p lications, allow ing

cu stom ers to d ynam ically allocate resou rces w ithin a single
array.
Delivering greater flexibility in m eeting d ifferent

p rice/ p erform ance ratios throu ghou t the lifecycle of the
inform ation stored .
Du e to ad vances in d rive technology, and the need for storage

consolid ation, the nu m ber of d rive typ es su p p orted by Sym m etrix arrays
has grow n significantly. These d rives sp an a range of storage service
sp ecializations and cost characteristics that d iffer greatly.
FAST VP Theo ry fo r EMC Symm etrix VMAX a nd Best Pra c tic es fo r Pla nning a nd Perfo rm a nc e
Fully Automated Storage Tiering
Several d ifferences exist betw een the fou r d rive technologies su p p orted
by the Sym m etrix VMAX Series arrays: Enterprise Flash Drive (EFD), Fibre
Channel (FC), Serial Attach SCSI (SAS), and SATA. The p rim ary
d ifferences are:
Resp onse tim e
Cost p er u nit of storage cap acity
Cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing
At one extrem e are EFDs, w hich have a very low resp onse
tim e, bu t w ith a high cost p er u nit of storage cap acity
At the other extrem e are SATA d rives, w hich have a low

cost p er u nit of storage cap acity, bu t high resp onse tim es
and high cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing
Betw een these tw o extrem es lie Fibre Channel and SAS

d rives
Based on the natu re of the d ifferences that exist betw een these fou r d rive
typ es, the follow ing observations can be m ad e regard ing the m ost su ited
w orkload typ e for each d rive.
Enterp rise Flash Drives: EFDs are m ore su ited for

w orkload s that have a high back-end rand om read storage
requ est d ensity. Su ch w orkload s take ad vantage of both
the low resp onse tim e p rovid ed by the d rive, and the low
cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing w ithou t
requ iring a log of storage cap acity.
SATA d rives: SATA d rives are su ited tow ard w orkload s

that have a low back-end storage requ est d ensity.
Fibre Channel/ SAS d rives: Fibre Channel and SAS d rives

are the best d rive typ e for w ork load s w ith a back-end
storage requ est d ensity that is not consistently high or low .
This d isp arity in su itable w orkload s p resents both an op p ortu nity and a
challenge for storage ad m inistrators.
To the d egree it can be arranged for storage w orkload s to be served by
the best su ited d rive technology, the op p ortu nity exists to im p rove
ap p lication p erform ance, red u ce hard w are acqu isition exp enses, and
red u ce op erating exp enses (inclu d ing energy costs and sp ace
consu m p tion).
The challenge, how ever, lies in how to realize these benefits w ithou t
introd u cing ad d itional ad m inistrative overhead and com p lexity.
The ap p roach taken w ith FAST is to au tom ate the p rocess of id entifying
w hich regions of storage shou ld resid e on a given d rive technology, and
4
FAST and FAST VP comparison

to au tom atically and nond isru p tively m ove storage betw een tiers to
op tim ize storage resou rce u sage accord ingly. This also need s to be d one
w hile taking into accou nt op tional constraints on tier cap acity u sage that
m ay be im p osed on sp ecific grou p s of storage d evices.
FAST a nd FAST VP compa rison

EMC Sym m etrix VMAX FAST and FAST VP au tom ate the id entification
of d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses of relocating ap p lication d ata across
d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers w ithin an array, or to an external
array u sing Fed erated Tiered Storage (FTS). While the ad m inistration
p roced u res u sed w ith FAST VP are very sim ilar to those available w ith
FAST, there is a m ajor d ifference: The storage p ools u sed by FAST VP are
thin storage p ools.
FAST op erates on non-thin, or d isk-grou p -p rovisioned , Sym m etrix
volu m es. Data m ovem ents execu ted betw een tiers are p erform ed at the
fu ll-volu m e level. FAST VP op erates on Virtu al Provisioning thin
d evices. As su ch, d ata m ovem ents execu ted can be p erform ed at the su bLUN level, and a single thin d evice m ay have extents allocated across
m u ltip le thin p ools w ithin the array, or on an external array u sing FTS.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on Virtual Provisioning, refer to the Best Practices
for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
Technical N ote available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on Fed erated Tiered Storage, refer to the Design
and Implementation Best Practices for EM C Symmetrix Federated Tiered Storage
(FTS) technical note available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
Becau se FAST and FAST VP su p p ort d ifferent d evice typ es, non-thin and
thin, resp ectively, they both can op erate sim u ltaneou sly w ithin a single
array. Asid e from som e shared configu ration p aram eters, the
m anagem ent and op eration of each can be consid ered sep arately.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on FAST refer to the Implementing Fully
A utomated Storage Tiering (FA ST) for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays
technical note available at http :/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
The goal of FAST and FAST VP is to op tim ize the p erform ance and costefficiency of configu rations containing m ixed d rive technologies. While
FAST m onitors and m oves storage in u nits of entire logical d evices,
FAST VP m onitors d ata access w ith m u ch finer granu larity. This allow s
FAST VP to d eterm ine the m ost ap p rop riate tier (based on op tim izing
p erform ance and cost efficiency) for each 120 track region of storage. In
Theory of operation
this w ay, the ability of FAST VP to m onitor and m ove d ata w ith m u ch
finer granu larity greatly enhances the valu e p rop osition of au tom ated
tiering.
FAST VP bu ild s u p on and extend s the existing cap abilities of Virtu al
Provisioning and FAST to p rovid e the u ser w ith enhanced Sym m etrix
tiering op tions. The Virtu al Provisioning u nd erp innings of FAST VP
allow FAST VP to com bine the core benefits of Virtu al Provisioning
(w id e strip ing and thin p rovisioning) w ith the benefits of au tom ated
tiering.
FAST VP m ore closely aligns storage access w orkload s w ith the bestsu ited d rive technology than is p ossible if all regions of a given d ev ice
m u st be m ap p ed to the sam e tier. At any given tim e, the hot regions of a
thin d evice m anaged by FAST VP m ay be m ap p ed to an EFD tier, and
the w arm p arts m ay be m ap p ed to an FC tier, w hile the cold p arts m ay
be m ap p ed to a SATA tier. By m ore effectively exp loiting d rive
technology sp ecializations, FAST VP d elivers better p erform ance and
greater cost efficiency that FAST.
FAST VP also better ad ap ts to shifting w orkload locality of reference,
changes in tier-allocation lim its, or storage-grou p p riority. This is d u e to
the fact that the workload m ay be ad ju sted by m oving less d ata. This
fu rther contribu tes to m aking FAST VP m ore effective at exp loiting d rive
sp ecializations and also enhances som e of the op erational ad vantages of
FAST. This inclu d es the ability to nond isru p tively ad ju st the qu ality of
storage service (resp onse tim e and throu ghp u t) p rovid ed to a storage
grou p .
Theory of opera tion

There are tw o com p onents of FAST VP: Sym m etrix Enginu ity and the
FAST controller. Sym m etrix Enginu ity storage is the op erating
environm ent that controls com p onents w ithin the array. The FAST
controller is a service that ru ns on the service p rocessor.
Theory of operation
Figure 1. FAST VP components

When FAST VP is active, both com p onents p articip ate in the execu tion of
tw o algorithm s (the intelligent tiering algorithm and the allocation
com p liance algorithm ) to d eterm ine ap p rop riate d ata p lacem ent.
The intelligent tiering algorithm u ses p erform ance d ata collected by
Enginu ity, as w ell as su p p orting calcu lations p erform ed by the FAST
controller, to issu e d ata m ovem ent requ ests to the Virtu al LUN (VLUN )
VP d ata m ovem ent engine.
The allocation com p liance algorithm enforces the u p p er lim its of storage
cap acity that can be u sed in each tier by a given storage grou p by also
issu ing d ata m ovem ent requ ests to the VLUN VP d ata m ovem ent
engine.
Perform ance tim e w ind ow s can be d efined to sp ecify w hen the FAST VP
controller shou ld collect p erform ance d ata, u p on w hich analysis is
p erform ed to d eterm ine the ap p rop riate tier for d evices. By d efau lt, this
Theory of operation
occu rs 24 hou rs a d ay.

Defined d ata m ovem ent w ind ow s d eterm ine w hen to execu te the d ata
m ovem ents necessary to m ove d ata betw een tiers.
Data m ovem ents p erform ed by Enginu ity are achieved by m oving
allocated extents betw een tiers. The size of d ata m ovem ent can be as
sm all as 12 tracks, rep resenting a single allocated thin d evice extent, bu t
m ore typ ically it is a u nit know n as an extent grou p , w hich is 120 tracks.
The follow ing sections fu rther d escribe each of these algorithm s.
Intelligent tiering a lgorithm

The goal of the intelligent tiering algorithm is to u se the p erform ance
m etrics collected at the su b-LUN level to d eterm ine w hich tier each
extent grou p shou ld resid e in and to su bm it the need ed d ata m ovem ents
to the VLUN VP d ata m ovem ent engine. The d eterm ination of w hich
extent grou p s need to be m oved is p erform ed by a task that ru ns w ithin
the Sym m etrix array.
The intelligent tiering algorithm is stru ctu red into tw o com p onents : a
m ain com p onent that execu tes w ithin Enginu ity and a second ary,
su p p orting com p onent that execu tes w ithin the FAST controller on the
service p rocessor.
The m ain com p onent assesses w hether extent grou p s need to be m oved
in ord er to op tim ize the u se of the FAST VP storage tiers. If so, the
requ ired d ata m ovem ent requ ests are issu ed to the VLUN VP d ata
m ovem ent engine.
When d eterm ining the ap p rop riate tier for each extent grou p , the m ain
com p onent m akes u se of both the FAST VP m etrics, p reviou sly
d iscu ssed , and su p p orting calcu lations p erform ed by the second ary
com p onent on the service p rocessor.
The intelligent tiering algorithm ru ns continu ou sly d u ring op en d ata
m ovem ent w ind ow s w hen FAST is enabled and the FAST VP op erating
m od e is Au tom atic. As su ch, p erform ance-related d ata m ovem ents can
occu r continu ou sly d u ring an op en d ata m ovem ent w ind ow .
Allocation complia nce a lgorithm

The goal of the allocation com p liance algorithm is to d etect and correct
situ ations w here the allocated cap acity for a p articu lar storage grou p
w ithin a thin storage tier exceed s the m axim u m cap acity allow ed by the
associated FAST p olicy.
Theory of operation
A storage grou p is consid ered to be in com p liance w ith its associated
FAST p olicy w hen the configu red cap acity of the thin d evices in the
storage grou p is located on tiers d efined in the p olicy , and w hen the
u sage of each tier is w ithin the u p p er lim its of the tier u sage lim its
sp ecified in the p olicy.
Com p liance violations m ay occu r for m u ltip le reasons, inclu d ing:
N ew extent allocations p erform ed for thin d evices

m anaged by FAST VP
Changes m ad e to the u p p er u sage lim its for a VP tier in a

FAST p olicy
Ad d ing thin d evices to a storage grou p that are them selves

ou t of com p liance
Manu al VLUN VP m igrations of thin d evices
The com p liance algorithm attem p ts to m inim ize the am ou nt of

m ovem ents p erform ed to correct com p liance that m ay, in tu rn, gene rate
m ovem ents p erform ed by the intelligent tiering algorithm . This is d one
by coord inating the m ovem ent requ ests w ith the analysis p erform ed by
the intelligent tiering algorithm to d eterm ine the m ost ap p rop riate
extents to be m oved , and the m ost ap p rop ria te tier to be m oved to, w hen
correcting com p liance violations.
When FAST is enabled and the FAST VP op erating m od e is Au tom atic,
the com p liance algorithm ru n s every 10 m inu tes d u ring op en d ata
m ovem ent w ind ow s.
Da ta movement
Data m ovem ents execu ted by FAST VP are p erform ed by the VLUN VP
d ata m ovem ent engine, and involve m oving thin d evice extents betw een
thin p ools w ithin the array. Extents are m oved by w ay of a m ove
p rocess only; extents are not sw ap p ed betw een p ools.
The m ovem ent of extents, or extent grou p s, d oes not change the thin
d evice bind ing inform ation. The thin d evice still rem ain s bou nd to the
p ool it w as originally bou nd to. N ew allocations for the thin d evice, as
the resu lt of host w rites, w ill continu e to com e from the bou nd p ool,
u nless VP allocation by FAST VP is enabled .
To com p lete a m ove, the follow ing m u st hold tru e:
The FAST VP op erating m od e m u st be Au tom atic.
The VP d ata m ovem ent w ind ow m u st be op en.
The thin d evice affected m u st not be p inned .
There m u st be su fficient u nallocated sp ace in the thin
Theory of operation
p ools inclu d ed in the d estination tier to accom m od ate the

d ata being m oved .
The d estination tier m u st contain at least one thin p ool that

has not exceed ed the p ool reserved cap acity (PRC).
N ote: If the selected d estination tier contains only pools that have reached the
PRC lim it, then an alternate tier m ay be consid ered by the movem ent task.
Other m ovem ent consid erations inclu d e:
Only extents that are allocated w ill be m oved .
N o back-end configu ration changes are p erform ed d u ring

a FAST VP d ata m ovem ent, and , as su ch, no configu ration
locks are held d u ring the p rocess.
As sw ap s are not p erform ed , there is no requ irem ent for

any sw ap sp ace, su ch as DRVs, to facilitate d ata
m ovem ent.
Data m ovem ent tim e w ind ow s are u sed to sp ecify d ate and tim e ranges
w hen d ata m ovem ents are allow ed , or not allow ed , to be p erform ed .
FAST VP d ata m ovem ents ru n as low -p riority tasks on the Sym m etrix
back end . Data m ovem ent w ind ow s can be p lanned so as to m inim ize
im p act on the p erform ance of other m ore critical w orkload s.
A d efau lt d ata m ovem ent tim e w ind ow exclu d es all p erform ance d ata
sam p les 24 hou rs a d ay, 7 d ays a w eek, 365 d ays a year. There are tw o
typ es of d ata m ovem ent that can occu r u nd er FAST VP : Those generated
by the intelligent tiering algorithm and those generated by the allocation
com p liance algorithm . Both typ es of d ata m ovem ent only occu r d u ring
u ser-d efined d ata m ovem ent w ind ow s.
Related m ovem ents of the intelligent tiering algorithm are requ ested and
execu ted by Enginu ity. These d ata m ovem ents are governed by the
w orkload on each extent grou p , bu t m ay only be execu ted w ithin the
constraints of the associated FAST p olicy. Th erefore, a p erform ance
m ovem ent cannot cau se a storage grou p to becom e non -com p liant w ith
its FAST p olicy.
Allocation com p liance related m ovem ents are generated by the FAST
controller and execu ted by Enginu ity. These m ovem ents bring the
cap acity of the storage grou p back w ithin the bou nd aries sp ecified by the
associated p olicy. Perform ance inform ation from the intelligent tiering
algorithm is u sed to d eterm ine m ore ap p rop riate su b -extents to m ove
w hen restoring com p liance.
When a com p liance violation exists, the algorithm generate s a d ata
m ovem ent requ est to retu rn the allocations w ithin the requ ired lim its.
10
Performance considerations
This requ est exp licitly ind icates w hich thin d evice extents shou ld be
m oved , and the sp ecific thin p ools they shou ld be m oved to.
Performa nce considera tions

The Enginu ity op erating environm ent collects and m aintains
p erform ance d ata that is u sed by FAST VP. The FAST controller analyzes
the p erform ance d ata to d eterm ine the best location to p lace the thin
d evice d ata on the d efined VP tiers w ithin the Sym m etrix array.
Performa nce metrics

When collecting p erform ance d ata at the LUN and su b-LUN level for u se
by FAST VP, Enginu ity only collects statistics related to Sym m etrix back end activity that is the resu lt of host I/ O. The m etrics collected are:
Read m iss
Write
Prefetch (sequ ential read )
The read m iss m etric accou nts for each DA read op eration that is
p erform ed . Read s to areas of a thin d evice that have not had sp ace
allocated in a thin p ool are not cou nted . Also, read hits, w hich are
serviced from cache, are not consid ered .
Write op erations are cou nted in term s of the nu m ber of d istinct DA
op erations that are p erform ed . The m etric accou nts for w hen a w rite is
d estaged w rite hits, to cache, are not consid ered .
Writes related to sp ecific RAID p rotection schem es are also not cou nted .
In the case of RAID 1 p rotected d ev ices, the w rite I/ O is only cou nted for
one of the m irrors. In the case of RAID 5 and RAID 6 p rotected d evices,
p arity read s and w rites are not cou nted .
Prefetch op erations are accou nted for in term s of the nu m ber of d istinct
DA op erations p erform ed to p refetch d ata sp anning a FAST VP extent.
This m etric consid ers each DA read op eration p erform ed as a front-end
p refetch op eration.
Workload related to internal cop y op erations, su ch as d rive rebu ild s,
clone op erations, VLUN m igrations, or even FAST VP d ata m o vem ents,
is not inclu d ed in the FAST VP m etrics.
These FAST VP p erform ance m etrics p rovid e a m easu re of activity that
assigns greater w eight to m ore recent I/ O requ ests, bu t are also
influ enced by less recent activity. By d efau lt, based on a w orkload
analysis p eriod of 24 hou rs, an I/ O that has ju st been received is
w eighted tw o tim es m ore heavily than an I/ O received 24 hou rs
11
p reviou sly.
N ote: Perform ance m etrics are only collected d uring user -d efined
perform ance tim e w ind ow s. The tim es d uring w hich m etrics are not being
collected d oes not contribute to red ucing the w eight assigned to those m etrics
alread y collected .
The m etrics collected at the su b-LUN level for thin d evices u nd er FAST
VP control contain m easu rem ents to allow FAST VP to m ake sep arat e
d ata m ovem ent requ ests for each 120 tracks u nit of storage that m ake u p
the thin d evice. This u nit of storage consists of 10 contigu ou s thin d evice
extents and is know n as an extent grou p .
In ord er to m aintain the su b-LUN -level m etrics collected by Enginu ity,
the Sym m etrix array allocates one cache slot for each thin d evice that is
u nd er FAST VP control.
When m anaging m etad evices, cache slots are allocated for both the
m etahead and for each of the m etam em bers.
N ote: Each cache slot on a Sym m etrix VMAX Series array is one track in size.
FAST VP tuning
FAST VP p rovid es a nu m ber of p aram eters that can be u sed to tu ne the
p erform ance of FAST VP and to control the aggressiveness of the d ata
m ovem ents. These p aram eters can be u sed to nond isru p tively ad ju st the
am ou nt of tier storage that a given storage grou p is allow ed to u se, or to
ad ju st the m anner in w hich storage grou p s u sing the sam e tier com p ete
w ith each other for sp ace.
FAST VP reloca tion ra te
The FAST VP relocation rate (FRR) is a qu ality of service (QoS) setting
for FAST VP and affects the aggressiveness of d ata m ovem ent requ ests
generated by FAST VP. This aggressiveness is m easu red as the am ou nt
of d ata that is requ ested to be m oved at any given tim e, and the p riority
given to m oving the d ata betw een p ools.
N ote: The rate at w hich d ata is m oved betw een pools can also be controlled
by m eans of the Sym m etrix Quality of Service VLUN setting.
Pool reserved ca pa city

The Pool reserved cap acity (PRC) reserves a p ercentage of each p ool
inclu d ed in a VP tier for non -FAST VP activities. The p u rp ose of this is to
ensu re that FAST VP d ata m ovem ents d o not fill a thin p ool, and
12
su bsequ ently cau se a new extent allocation (a resu lt of a host w rite) to
fail.
The PRC can be set both system -w id e and for each ind ivid u al p ool. By
d efau lt, the system -w id e setting is ap p lied to all thin p ools that have
been inclu d ed in VP tier d efinitions. H ow ever, this can be overrid d en for
each ind ivid u al p ool by u sing the p ool-level setting.
When the p ercentage of u nallocated sp ace in a thin p ool is equ al to the
PRC, FAST VP no longer p erform s d ata m ovem ents into that p ool.
H ow ever, d ata m ovem ents m ay continu e to occu r ou t of the p ool to
other p ools. When the p ercentage of u nallocated sp ace becom es greater
than the PRC, FAST VP can begin p erform ing d ata m ovem ents into that
p ool again.
FAST VP time windows
FAST VP u tilizes tim e w ind ow s to d efine certain behaviors regard ing
p erform ance d ata collection and d ata m ovem ent. There are tw o p os sible
w ind ow typ es:
Perform ance tim e w ind ow
Data m ovem ent tim e w ind ow
The p erform ance tim e w ind ow s are u sed to sp ecify w hen p erform ance
m etrics shou ld be collected by Enginu ity.
The d ata m ovem ent tim e w ind ow s d efine w hen to p erform the d ata
relocations necessary to m ove d ata betw een tiers. Sep arate d ata
m ovem ent w ind ow s can be d efined for fu ll LUN m ovem ent, p erform ed
by FAST and Op tim izer, and su b-LUN d ata m ovem ent p erform ed by
FAST VP.
Both p erform ance tim e w ind ow s and d ata m ovem ent w ind ow s m ay be
d efined as inclu sion or exclu sion w ind ow s. An inclu sion tim e w ind ow
ind icates that the action shou ld be p erform ed d u ring the d efined tim e
w ind ow . An exclu sion tim e w ind ow ind icates that the action shou ld be
p erform ed ou tsid e the d efined tim e w ind ow .
Performa nce time window
The p erform ance tim e w ind ow s are u sed to id entify the bu siness cycle
for the Sym m etrix array. They sp ecify d ate and tim e ranges (p ast or
fu tu re) w hen p erform ance sam p les shou ld be collected , or not collected ,
for the p u rp oses of FAST VP p erform ance analysis. The intent of
d efining p erform ance tim e w ind ow s is to d istingu ish p eriod s of tim e
w hen the Sym m etrix array is id le from p eriod s w hen it is active, and to
only inclu d e p erform ance d ata collected d u ring the active p eriod s.
By d efau lt, p erform ance m etrics are collected 24 hou rs a d ay, 7 d ays a
13
Product and feature interoperability
w eek, 365 d ays a year.

Da ta movement time window
FAST VP d ata m ovem ents ru n as low -p riority tasks on the Sym m etrix
back end . By d efau lt, d ata m ovem ent is p revented 24 hou rs a d ay, 7 d ays
a w eek, 365 d ays a year.
Stora ge group priority
When a storage grou p is associated w ith a FAST p olicy, a p riority valu e
m u st be assigned to the storage grou p . This p riority valu e can be
betw een 1 and 3, w ith 1 being the highest p riority . The d efau lt is 2.
When m u ltip le storage grou p s share the sam e p olicy, the p riority valu e
is u sed w hen the d ata contained in the storage grou p s is com p eting for
the sam e resou rces in one of the associated tiers. Storage grou p s w ith a
higher p riority are given p reference w hen d ecid ing w hich d ata need s to
be m oved to another tier.
Product a nd fea ture interopera bility

FAST VP is fu lly interop erable w ith all Sym m etrix rep lication
technologies: EMC SRDF , EMC Tim eFind er / Clone, Tim eFind er/ Snap ,
and Op en Rep licator. Any active rep lication on a Sym m etrix d evice
rem ains intact w hile d ata from that d evice is being m oved . Sim ilarly, all
increm ental relationship s are m aintained for the m oved or sw ap p ed
d evices. FAST VP also op erates alongsid e Sym m etrix featu res, su ch as
Sym m etrix Op tim izer, Dynam ic Cache Partitioning, and Au top rovisioning Grou p s.
SRDF
Thin SRDF d evices, R1 or R2, can be associated w ith a FAST p olicy.
Extents of SRDF d evices can be m oved betw een tiers w hile the d evices
are being actively rep licated , in either synchronou s or asynchronou s
m od e.
TimeFinder/ Clone
Both the sou rce and target d evices of a Tim eFind er/ Clone session can be
m anaged by FAST VP. H ow ever, the sou rce and target are m anaged
ind ep end ently, and , as su ch, m ay end u p w ith d ifferent extent
allocations across tiers.
14

TimeFinder/ Sna p
The sou rce d evice in a Tim eFind er/ Snap session can be m anaged by
FAST VP. H ow ever, target d evice VDEVs are not m anaged by FAST VP.
TimeFinder VP Sna p
The sou rce d evice in a Tim eFind er VP Snap session can be m anaged by
FAST VP. Target d evices m ay also be m anaged by FAST VP, how ever,
extent allocations that are shared by m u ltip le target d evices w ill not be
m oved .
Open Replica tor for Symmetrix
The control d evice in an Op en Rep licator session, p u sh or p u ll, can have
extents m oved by FAST VP.
Virtua l Provisioning
All thin d evices, w hether u nd er FAST VP control or not, m ay only be
bou nd to a single thin p ool. All host-w rite-generated allocations, or u serrequ ested p re-allocations, are p erform ed to this p ool. FAST VP d ata
m ovem ents d o not change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice.
It is p ossible to change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice w ithou t
changing any of the cu rrent extent allocations for the d evice. H ow ever,
w hen rebind ing a d evice that is u nd er FAST VP control, the th in p ool the
d evice is being re-bou nd to m u st belong to one of the VP tiers contained
in the p olicy that the d evice is associated w ith.
Virtua l Provisioning spa ce recla ma tion
Sp ace reclam ation m ay be ru n against a thin d evice u nd er FAST VP
control. H ow ever, d u ring the sp ace reclam ation p rocess, su b-LUN
p erform ance m etrics are not u p d ated , and d ata m ovem ents are not
p erform ed .
N ote: If FAST VP is actively m oving extents of a d ev ice, a request to reclaim
space on that d evice w ill fail. Prior to issuing the space reclam ation task , the
d evice should first be pinned. This suspend s any active FAST VP d ata
m ovem ents for the d evice and allow s the request to succeed .
Virtua l Provisioning T10 unma p

Unm ap com m and s can be issu ed to thin d evices u nd er FAST VP control.
The T10 SCSI unmap com m and for thin d evices ad vises a target thin
d evice that a range of blocks are no longer in u se. If this range covers a
fu ll thin d evice extent, that extent can be d eallocated and the free sp ace
retu rned to the p ool.
If the unmap com m and range covers only som e tracks in an extent, those
tracks are m arked N ever Written by H ost (N WBH ). The extent is not
15
d eallocated ; how ever those tracks w ill not have to be retrieved from d isk
shou ld a read requ est be p erform ed . Instead , the Sym m etrix array
im m ed iately retu rns all zeros.
Virtua l Provisioning pool ma na gement
Data d evices m ay be ad d ed to or rem oved from a thin p ool that is
inclu d ed in the FAST VP tier. Data m ovem ents related to FAST VP, into
or ou t of the thin p ool, continu e w hile the d ata d evices are being
m od ified .
In the case of ad d ing d ata d evices to a thin p ool, au tom ated p ool
rebalancing m ay be ru n. Sim ilarly, w hen d isabling and rem oving d ata
d evices from the p ool, they d rain their allocated tracks to other enabled
d ata d evices in the p ool.
While both d ata d evice d raining and au tom ated p ool rebalancing m ay be
active in a thin p ool that is inclu d ed in a VP tier, both of these p rocesses
m ay affect p erform ance of FAST VP d ata m ovem ents.
Virtua l LUN VP mobility
A thin d evice u nd er FAST VP control m ay be m igrated u sing VLUN VP.
Su ch a m igration resu lts in all allocated extents of the d evice being
m oved to a single thin p ool.
While the m igration is in p rogress, no FAST VP-related d ata m ovem ents
are p erform ed . H ow ever, once the m igration is com p lete, all allocated
extents of the thin d evice w ill be available to be retiered .
To p revent the m igrated d evice from being retiered by FAST VP
im m ed iately follow ing the m igration, it is recom m end ed that the d evice
first be p inned . To re-enable FAST VP-related d ata m ovem ents, the
d evice can later be u np inned .
FAST
Both FAST and FAST VP m ay coexist w ithin a single Sym m etrix array.
FAST only p erform s fu ll d evice m ovem ents of non-thin d evices. As su ch,
there is no im p act to FAST VPs m anagem ent of thin d evices.
Both FAST and FAST VP share som e configu ration p aram eters. These
are:
Workload Analysis Period (WAP)
Initial Analysis Period (IAP)
Perform ance tim e w ind ow s
Symmetrix Optimizer
Sym m etrix Op tim izer op erates only on non -thin d evices. As a resu lt,
there is no im p act on FAST VPs m anagem ent of thin d evices.
16
Planning and design considerations

Both Op tim izer and FAST VP share som e configu ration p aram eters.
These are:
Perform ance tim e w ind ow s
Dyna mic Ca che Pa rtitioning (DCP)

Dynam ic Cache Partitioning can be u sed to isolate storage hand ling of
d ifferent ap p lications. As d ata m ovem ents u se the sam e cache p artition
as the ap p lication, m ovem ents of d ata on behalf of one ap p lication d o
not affect the p erform ance of ap p lications that are not sharing the sam e
cache p artition.
Auto-provisioning Groups
Storage grou p s created for the p u rp oses of Au to-p rovisioning m ay also
be u sed for FAST VP. H ow ever, w hile a d evice m ay be contained in
m u ltip le storage grou p s for the p u rp oses of Au to-p rovisioning, it m ay
only be contained in one storage grou p that is associated w ith a FAST
p olicy (DP or VP).
Shou ld a storage grou p contain a m ix of d evice typ es, thin and non -thin,
only the d evices m atching the typ e of FAST p olicy it is associated w ith
are m anaged by FAST.
If it is intend ed that both d evice typ es in an Au to-p rovisioning storage
grou p are to be m anaged by FAST and FAST VP, resp ectively, then
sep arate storage grou p s need to be created . A storage grou p w ith the
non-thin d evices m ay then be associated w ith a p olicy containing DP
tiers. A sep arate storage grou p containing the thin d evices w ill be
associated w ith a p olicy containing VP tiers.
Pla nning a nd design considera tions

The follow ing sections d etail best p ractice recom m end ations for
p lanning the im p lem entation of a FAST VP environm ent .
The best p ractices d ocu m ented are based on featu res available in
Enginu ity 5876.82.57, Solu tions Enabler 7.4, Sym m etrix Managem ent
Console 7.3.3, and Unisp here for VMAX 1.0.

FAST VP configura tion pa ra meters
FAST VP has m u ltip le configu ration p aram eters that control its behavior.
These inclu d e settings to d eterm ine the effect of p ast w orkload s on d ata
analysis, qu ality of service for d ata m ovem ents, and p ool sp ace to be
17
reserved for non-FAST VP activities. Also, p erform ance collection and

d ata m ovem ent tim e w ind ow s can be d efined .
The follow ing sections d escribe best p ractice recom m end ations for each
of these configu ration p aram eters.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on each of these configuration param eters, refer
to the Implementing Fully A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools (FA ST V P)
for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays technical note available at
http://powerlink.emc.com.
Performance time window
The p erform ance tim e w ind ow s sp ecify d ate and tim e ranges w hen
p erform ance m etrics shou ld be collected , or not collected , for the
p u rp oses of FAST VP p erform ance analysis. By d efau lt, p erform ance
m etrics are collected 24 hou rs a d ay, every d ay. Tim e w ind ow s m ay be
d efined , how ever, to inclu d e only certain d ays or d ays of the w eek, as
w ell as exclu d e other tim e p eriod s.
As a best p ractice, the d efau lt p erform ance w ind ow sh ou ld be left
u nchanged . H ow ever, if there are extend ed p eriod s of tim e w hen the
w orkload s m anaged by FAST VP are not active, these tim e p eriod s
shou ld be exclu d ed .
N ote: The perform ance tim e w ind ow is applied system -w id e. If m ultiple
applications are active on the array, but active at d ifferent tim es, then the
d efault perform ance tim e w ind ow behavior should be left unchanged .
The best p ractice recom m end ation is that, at a m inim u m , the d ata
m ovem ent w ind ow shou ld allow d ata m ovem ents for the sam e p eriod of
tim e that the p erform ance tim e w ind ow s allow d ata collection. This
allow s FAST VP to react m ore qu ickly and m ore d ynam ically to any
changes in w orkload that occu r on the array.
Unless there are sp ecific tim e p eriod s to avoid d ata m ovem ents, d u ring a
backu p w ind ow , for exam p le, it m ay be ap p rop riate to set the d ata
m ovem ent w ind ow to allow FAST VP to p erform m ovem ents 24 hou rs a
d ay, every d ay.
18

N ote: If there is a concern about possible im pact of d ata m ovem ents
occurring d uring a prod uction w orkload then the FAST VP Relocation Rate
can be used to m inim ize this im pact.
Workload Analysis Period
The Workload Analysis Period (WAP) d eterm ines the d egree to w hich
FAST VP m etrics are influ enced by recent host activity, and also less recent host activity, that takes p lace w hile the p erform ance tim e w ind ow
is consid ered op en.
The longer the tim e d efined in the WAP, the greater the am ou nt of
w eight is assigned to less recent host activity.
The best p ractice recom m end ation for the WAP is to u se the d efau lt
valu e of 168 hou rs (1 w eek).
Initial Analysis Period
The Initial Analysis Period (IAP) d efines the m inim u m am ou nt of tim e a

thin d evice shou ld be u nd er FAST VP m anagem ent before any
p erform ance-related d ata m ovem ents shou ld be ap p lied .
This p aram eter shou ld be set to a long enou gh valu e so as to allow
su fficient d ata sam p les for FAST VP to establish a good characterization
of the typ ical w orkload on that d evice.
At the initial d ep loym ent of FAST VP, it m ay m ake sense to set the IAP
to 168 hou rs (1 w eek) to ensu re that a typ ical w eekly w orkload cycle is
seen. H ow ever, once FAST VP d ata m ovem ent has begu n, you m ay
red u ce the IAP to 24 hou rs (1 d ay), w hich allow s the new ly associated
d evices to benefit from FAST VP m ovem ent recom m end ations m ore
qu ickly.
FAST VP Relocation Ra te
The FAST VP Relocation Rate (FRR) is a qu ality of service (QoS) setting

for FAST VP. The FRR affects the aggressiveness of d ata m ovem ent
requ ests generated by FAST VP. This aggressiveness is m easu red as the
am ou nt of d ata that is requ ested to be m oved at any given tim e, and the
p riority given to m oving the d ata betw een p ools.
Setting the FRR to the m ost aggressive valu e, 1, cau ses FAST VP to
attem p t to m ove the m ost d ata it can, as qu ickly as it can. Dep end ent on
the am ou nt of d ata to be m oved , an FRR of 1 is m ore likely to cau se
im p act to host I/ O resp onse tim es, d u e to the ad d itional back -end
overhead being generated by the FAST VP d ata m ovem ents. H ow ever,
the d istribu tion of d ata across tiers is com p leted in a shorter p eriod of
tim e.
Setting the FRR to the least aggressive valu e, 10, cau ses FAST VP to
19
greatly red u ce the am ou nt of d ata that is m oved , and the p ace at w hich it
is m oved . This setting cau ses no im p act to host resp onse tim e, bu t the
final d istribu tion of d ata takes longer.
Figu re 2 show s the sam e w orkload , 1,500 IOPS of typ e OLTP2, being ru n
on an environm ent containing tw o FAST VP tiers, Fibre Channel (FC)
and Enterp rise Flash (EFD). The sam e test w as carried ou t w ith three
sep arate relocation rates: 1, 5, and 8.
With a FRR of 1, an initial increase in resp onse tim e is seen at the tw o hou r m ark, w hen FAST VP d ata m ovem ent began, w hile no increase in
resp onse tim e is seen w hen the relocation rate is set to 8. H ow ever, the
stead y state for the resp onse tim e is seen in a m u ch shorter p eriod of
tim e for the low er, m ore aggressive, setting.
Figure 2. Example workload with varying relocation rates

The d efau lt valu e for the FRR is 5. H ow ever, the best p ractice
recom m end ation for the initial d ep loym ent of FAST VP is to start w ith a
m ore conservative valu e for the relocation rate, p erhap s 7 or 8. The
reason for this is that w hen FAST VP is first enabled , the am ou nt of d ata
to be m oved is likely to be greater , com p ared to w hen FAST VP has been
ru nning for som e tim e.
At a later d ate, w hen it is seen that the am ou nt of d ata m ovem ent s
betw een tiers is less, the FRR can be set to a m ore aggressive level,
20

p ossibly 2 or 3. This allow s FAST VP to ad ju st to sm all changes in
w orkload m ore qu ickly.
Pool Reserved Ca pacity
The Pool Reserved Cap acity (PRC) reserves a p ercentage of each p ool
inclu d ed in a VP tier for non -FAST VP activities. When the p ercentage of
u nallocated sp ace in a thin p ool is equ al to the PRC, FAST VP no longer
p erform s d ata m ovem ents into that p ool.
The PRC can be set both as a system -w id e setting and for each ind ivid u al
p ool. If the PRC has not been set for a p ool, or the PRC for the p ool has
been set to NONE, then the system -w id e setting is u sed .
For the system -w id e setting, the best p ractice recom m end ation is to u se
the d efau lt valu e of 10 p ercent.
For ind ivid u al p ools, if thin d evices are bou nd to the p ool, the best
p ractice recom m end ation is to set the PRC based on the low est allocation
w arning level for that thin p ool. For exam p le, if a w arning is triggered
w hen a thin p ool has reached an allocation of 80 p ercent of its cap acity,
then the PRC shou ld be set to 20 p ercent. This ensu res that the rem aining
20 p ercent of the p ool is only u sed for new host-generated allocations,
and not FAST VP d ata m ovem ents.
If no thin d evices are bou nd to the p ool, or are going to be bou n d , then
the PRC shou ld be set to the low est p ossible valu e, 1 p ercent.
VP Allocation by FAST Policy
The VP allocation by FAST p olicy featu re allow s new allocations to com e

from any of the thin p ools inclu d ed in the FAST VP p olicy that the thin
d evice is associated w ith.
With this featu re enabled , FAST VP attem p ts to allocate new w rites in
the m ost ap p rop riate tier first, based on available p erform ance m etrics. If
no p erform ance m etrics are available, the allocation is attem p ted in the
p ool the d evice is bou nd to.
If the p ool initially chosen to allocate the d ata is fu ll, FAST VP then look s
to other p ools contained w ithin the FAST VP p olicy and allocate from
there. As long as there is sp ace available in at least one of the p ools
w ithin the p olicy, all new extent allocations w ill be su ccessfu l.
The allocation by p olicy featu re is enabled at the Sym m etrix array level
and ap p lies to all allocations for all d evices m anaged by FAST VP. The
featu re is either enabled or d isabled (the d efau lt setting is d isabled ).
When d isabled , new allocations only com e from the p ool the thin d evice
is bou nd to.
As a best p ractice, it is recom m end ed that VP allocation by FAST p olicy
21
be enabled .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on the d ecision m aking process of the VP
allocation by FAST policy feature, refer to the A dvance FA ST V P features
section of the Implementing Fully A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools
(FA ST V P) for EM C Symmetrix V M A X Series A rrays technical note.
FAST VP tier configura tion

A Sym m etrix storage tier is a sp ecification of a set of resou rces of the
sam e d isk technology typ e (EFD, FC/ SAS, SATA, or FTS storage)
com bined w ith a given RAID p rotection typ e (RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6,
or Unp rotected ), and the sam e em u lation (FBA or CKD).
N ote: The unprotected RAID type m ay only be applied to a tier resid ing on
an FTS-connected storage array.
FAST VP tiers can contain betw een one and fou r thin storage p ools . Each
thin p ool m u st contain d ata d evices configu red on the sam e d rive
technology and em u lation (and the sam e rotational sp eed , in the case of
FC, SAS, and SATA d rives). H ow ever, tw o or m ore thin p ools containing
d ata d evices configu red on rotating d rives of d ifferent sp eed s m ay be
com bined in a single VP tier.
Drive-size considerations
Drive size is not a factor w hen ad d ing d ata d evices to a thin p ool. For
exam p le, d ata d evices configu red on 300GB FC 15k d rives can coexist in
a p ool w ith d ata d evices configu red on 600GB FC 15k d rives.
H ow ever, w hen p lanning to have d ata d evices on d ifferent d rive s izes
exist in the sam e storage tier, it is recom m end ed to create tw o sep arate
p ools for each d rive size, and then com bine those tw o p ools into a single
tier.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on best practices for configuring thin pools, refer
to the Best Practices for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix
V irtual Provisioning Technical N ote available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
External tiers
When creating a tier on an external array u sing FTS, it is recom m end ed

that the eDisks be configu red on a single array. The eDisks shou ld also
be configu red on sim ilar d rives w ithin that external array.
External tiers can only be configu red on storage configu red for external
p rovisioning. Encap su lated storage is n ot su p p orted by FAST VP.
22

N ote: For m ore inform ation on best practices for configuring eDisks, refer to
the Design and Implementation Best Practices for EM C Symmetrix Federated Tiered
Storage (FTS) technical note available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
FAST VP policy configura tion

A FAST VP p olicy grou p s betw een one and three VP tiers and assigns an
u p p er-u sage lim it for each storage tier. The u p p er lim it sp ecifies the
m axim u m am ou nt of cap acity of a storage grou p associated w ith the
p olicy can resid e on that p articu lar tier. The u p p er cap acity u sage lim it
for each storage tier is sp ecified as a p ercentage of the configu red , logical
cap acity of the associated storage grou p .
Figure 3. Storage tier, policy, storage group association

The u sage lim it for each tier m u st be betw een 1 p ercent and 100 p ercent.
When com bined , the u p p er u sage lim it for all thin storage tiers in the
p olicy m u st total at least 100 p ercent, bu t m ay be greater than 100
p ercent.
Tier ranking
FAST VP ranks tiers w ithin a p olicy based on know n p erform ance

m od els. For internal tiers, FAST VP ord ers the three available
technologies in term s of p erform ance cap abilities in d escend ing ord er :
EFD, Fibre Channel/ SAS, and SATA.
FAST VP has no m echanism for d eterm ining the p otential p erform ance
of an external, FTS tier. As a resu lt, any external tier inclu d ed in a p olicy
is consid ered to be the low est tier in that p olicy.
Tier usa ge limits
Creating a p olicy w ith a total u p p er u sage lim it greater than 100 p ercent
allow s flexibility w ith the configu ration of a storage grou p , w hereby d ata
m ay be m oved betw een tiers w ithou t necessarily having to m ove a
corresp ond ing am ou nt of other d ata w ithin the sam e storage grou p .
The id eal FAST VP p olicy w ou ld be to sp ecify 100 p ercent for each of the
inclu d ed tiers. Su ch a p olicy w ou ld p rovid e the greatest am ou nt of
flexibility to an associated storage grou p , as it w ou ld allow 100 p ercent
23

of the storage grou p s cap acity to be p rom oted or d em oted to any tier
w ithin the p olicy.
While id eal, op erationally it m ay not be ap p rop riate to d ep loy the
100/ 100/ 100 p olicy. There m ay be reasons to lim it access to a p articu lar
tier w ithin the array.
As an exam p le, it m ay be ap p rop riate to lim it the am ou nt of a storage
grou p s cap acity that can be p laced on EFD. This m ay be u sed to p revent
one single storage grou p , or ap p lication, from consu m ing all of the EFD
resou rces. In this case, a p olicy containing ju st a sm all p ercentage for
EFD w ou ld be recom m end ed .
Sim ilarly, it m ay be ap p rop riate to restrict the am ou nt of SATA cap acity
a storage grou p m ay u tilize. Som e ap p lications, w hich can becom e
inactive from tim e to tim e, m ay requ ire a m inim u m level of p erform ance
w hen they becom e active again. For su ch ap p lications, a p olicy exclu d ing
the SATA tier cou ld be ap p rop riate.
The best w ay to d eterm ine ap p rop riate p olicies for a FAST VP
im p lem entation is to exam ine the w orkload skew for the ap p lication
d ata to be m anaged by FAST VP. The w orkload skew d efines an
asym m etry in d ata u sage over tim e. This m eans a sm all p ercentage of the
d ata on the array m ay be servicing the m ajority of the w orkload on the
array. One tool that p rovid es insight into this w orkload skew is Tier
Ad visor.
Tier Advisor
Tier Ad visor is a u tility available to EMC technical staff that estim ates
the p erform ance and cost of m ixing d rives of d ifferent technology typ es
(EFD, FC, and SATA) w ithin Sym m etrix VMAX Series storage arrays.
Tier Ad visor can exam ine p erform ance d ata collected from Sym m etrix,
VN X , or CLARiiON storage arrays and d eterm ine the w orkload skew

at the fu ll LUN level. It can also estim ate the w orkload skew at the su b LUN level.
With this inform ation, Tier Ad visor can m od el an op tim al storage array
configu ration by enabling the ability to interactively exp erim ent w ith
d ifferent storage tiers and storage p olicies, u ntil achieving the d esired
cost and p erform ance p references.
Thin device binding
Each thin d evice, w hether u nd er FAST VP control or not, m ay only be
bou nd to a single thin p ool. By d efau lt, all host w rite generated
allocations, or u ser-requ ested p re-allocations, are p erform ed from this
p ool.
24

From an ease-of-m anagem ent and rep orting p ersp ective, it is
recom m end ed that all thin d evices be bou nd to a single p ool w ithin the
Sym m etrix array.
N ote: FAST VP d ata m ovem ents d o not change the bind ing inform ation for a
thin d evice.
In d eterm ining the ap p rop riate p ool, both p erform ance requ irem ents
and cap acity m anagem ent shou ld be taken into consid eration , as w ell as
the u se of thin d evice p reallocation and the system w rite p end ing lim it.
N ote: Unless there is a very specific perform ance need , it is not
recom m end ed to bind thin d evices, und er FAST VP control, to the EFD tier.
Performance considera tion
With VP allocation by FAST p olicy enabled , FAST VP attem p t s to

allocate new extents in the m ost ap p rop riate tier. This is based on
available p erform ance m etrics for the thin d evice being allocated . Shou ld
p erform ance m etrics not be available, the allocation com es from the p ool
the thin d evice is bou nd to.
As su ch, the best p ractice recom m end ation is to bind all thin d evices to a
p ool w ithin the second highest tier in the p olicy.
In a three-tier configu ration (EFD, FC, and SATA), this w ou ld im p ly the
Fibre Channel tier. In a FC and SATA configu ration, this w ou ld im p ly
the SATA tier. Once the d ata has been w ritten, and sp ace has been
allocated in the p ool, FAST VP then m akes the d ecision to p rom ote or
d em ote the d ata as ap p rop riate.
Ca pacity management considera tion
Bind ing all thin d evices to a single p ool u ltim ately cau se s that single
p ool to be oversu bscribed . If the allocation by p olicy featu re is not
enabled , this cou ld p otentially lead to issu es as the p ool fills u p . H ost
w rites to u nallocated areas of a thin d evice w ill fail if there is insu fficient
sp ace in the bou nd p ool.
In an EFD, FC, SATA configu ration, if the FC tier is significan tly sm aller
than the SATA tier, bind ing all thin d evices to the SATA tier red u ces the
likelihood of the bou nd p ool filling u p .
If p erform ance need s requ ire the thin d evices to be bou nd to FC, the Pool
Reserved Cap acity, the FAST VP p olicy configu ration , or a com bination
of both, can be u sed to alleviate a p otential p ool-fu ll cond ition.
25
N ote: Enabling VP allocation by FAST policy on the Sym m etrix VMAX Series
array greatly alleviates the cap acity-m anagem ent consid eration .
Prealloca tion
A w ay to avoid w rites to a thin d evice failing d u e to a p ool being fu lly

allocated is to p reallocate the thin d evice w hen it is bou nd . H ow ever,
p erform ance requ irem ents of new ly w ritten d ata shou ld be consid ered
p rior to u sing p reallocation.
When FAST VP p erform s d ata m ovem ents, only allocated extents are
m oved . This ap p lies not only to extents allocated as the resu lt of a host
w rite, bu t also to extents that have been p reallocated . These p reallocated
extents w ill be m oved even if no d ata has yet been w ritten to them .
N ote: When m oving preallocated , but unw ritten, extents, no d ata is actually
m oved . The pointer for the extent is sim ply red irected to the pool in the
target tier.
Preallocated , bu t u nw ritten, extents show as inactive and , as a resu lt, are

d em oted to the low est tier inclu d ed in the associated FAST VP p olicy.
When these extents are eventu ally w ritten to, the w rite p erform ance w ill
be that of the tier it has been d em oted to.
A best p ractice recom m end ation is to not p reallocate th in d evices
m anaged by FAST VP. Preallocation shou ld only be u sed selectively for
those d evices that can never tolerate a w rite failu re d u e to a fu ll p ool.
System write pending limit
FAST VP is d esigned to throttle back d ata m ovem ents, both p rom otions
and d em otions, as the w rite p end ing cou nt ap p roaches the system w rite
p end ing lim it. This throttling gives an even higher p riority to host I/ O to
ensu re that tracks m arked as w rite p end ing are d estaged ap p rop riately.
N ote: By d efault, the system w rite pend ing lim it on a Sym m etrix VMAX
Series array is set to 75 percent of the available cache.
If the w rite p end ing cou nt reaches 60 p ercent of the w rite p end ing lim it,
FAST VP d ata m ovem ents stop . As the w rite p end ing cou nt d ecreases
below this level, d ata m ovem ents au tom atically restart.
A very bu sy w orkload ru nning on SATA d isks, w ith SATA d isks at, or
near, 100 p ercent u tilization, cau sing a high w rite p end ing cou nt,
im p acts FAST VP from p rom oting active extents to FC and / or EFD tiers.
In an environm ent w ith a high w rite w orkload , it is recom m end ed to
bind thin d evices to a p ool in the FC tier.
26

Migration
When p erform ing a m igration to thin d evices, it is p ossible that the thin
d evices m ay becom e fu lly allocated as a resu lt of the m igration. As su ch,
the thin d evices being m igrated to shou ld be bou nd to a p ool that has
su fficient cap acity to contain the fu ll cap acity of each of the d evices.
Virtu al Provisioning zero sp ace reclam ation can be u sed follow ing the
m igration to d eallocate zero d ata cop ied d u ring the m igration.
Alternatively, the front-end zero d etection cap abilities of SRDF and
Op en Rep licator can be u sed d u ring the m igration.
Rebinding a thin device
It is p ossible to change the bind ing inform ation for a thin d evice w ithou t
m oving any of the cu rrent extent allocations for the d evice. This is d one
by a p rocess called rebind ing.
Rebind ing a thin d evice increases the su bscrip tion level of the p ool the
d evice is bou nd to, and d ecrease the su bscrip tion level of the p ool it w as
p reviou sly bou nd to. H ow ever, the allocation levels in both p ools rem ain
u nchanged .
N ote: When rebind ing a d evice that is und er FAST VP control, the thin pool
the d evice is being re-bound to m ust belong to one of the VP tiers contained
in the policy the d evice is associated w ith.
Thin pool oversubscription

Thin p ool oversu bscrip tion allow s an organization to p resent larger than
need ed d evices to hosts and ap p lications w ithou t having to p u rchase
enou gh p hysical d rives to fu lly allocate all of the sp ace rep resented by
the thin d evices.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on oversubscription, refer to the Best Practices for
Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
In a FAST VP configu ration, the cap acity available for thin d evices is
now sp read across m u ltip le p ools. Even if there is no p lan to
oversu bscribe the available cap acity in the Sym m etrix array , there
typ ically is insu fficient sp ace in a single tier to accom m od ate the
configu red thin d evice cap acity.
By follow ing the p reviou s recom m end ation, bind ing all thin d evices
being m anaged by FAST VP to a single thin p ool inherently cau se s that
p ool to be oversu bscribed . As a resu lt, the over-su bscrip tion lim it for that
p ool need s to be set to a valu e greater than 100 p ercent.
27
Available capacity
In ord er to d eterm ine at w hat level to set the over -su bscrip tion lim it, the
total cap acity available to d evices u nd er the control of FAST VP shou ld
first be calcu lated .
If the VP allocation by FAST p olicy featu re is enabled , then 100 p ercent
of the cap acity of each p ool w ithin the p olicy is available.
If the allocation by p olicy featu re is not enabled , the follow ing p oints
shou ld be consid ered :
For p ools w ith thin d evices bou nd , 100 p ercent of the

cap acity is available.
For p ools w ith no thin d evices bou nd , 100 p ercent of the

p ool, less the cap acity reserved by the PRC, is available.
N ote: The pool reserved capacity value only affects FAST VP m ovem ents into
the pool; the PRC d oes not affect the ability for the thin d evices to allocate
extents w ithin the pool.
Over-subscription limits
After d eterm ining the cap acity available to FAST VP, an over su bscrip tion lim it can then be calcu lated for the p ool d evices that are
going to be bou nd to it.
To ensu re the configu red cap acity of the array is not oversu bscribed , the
lim it can be calcu lated by d ivid ing the cap acity of the thin p ool being
u sed for bind ing into the available cap acity of all the p ools. This valu e is
then m u ltip lied by 100 to get a p ercent valu e.
For exam p le, consid er a configu ration w ith a 1TB EFD p ool, a 5 TB FC
p ool, and a 10TB SATA p ool. The total available cap acity is 16TB. If all
thin d evices are bou nd to FC, the oversu bscrip tion lim it cou ld be set to
320% (16/ 5)*100.
This valu e can be set higher if the intention is to initially oversu bscribe
the configu red p hysical cap acity of the array , and then ad d storage on an
as-need ed basis.
For thin p ools w here d evices w ill never be bou nd , the su bscrip tion lim it
can be set to 0 p ercent. This p revents any accid ental bind ing or m igration
to that p ool.
RAID protection considera tions
When d esigning a Virtu al Provisioning configu ration, and p articu larly
w hen choosing a corresp ond ing RAID p rotection strategy, both d evice-
28

level p erform ance and availability im p lications shou ld be carefu lly
consid ered .
N ote: For m ore inform ation on these consid erations, refer to the Best Practices
for Fast, Simple Capacity A llocation with EM C Symmetrix V irtual Provisioning
FAST VP d oes not change these consid erations and recom m end ations
from a p erform ance p ersp ective. What FAST VP d oes change, how ever,
is that a single thin d evice can now have its d ata sp read across m u ltip le
tiers of varying RAID p rotection and d rive technology w ithin the array.
Becau se of this, the availability of an ind ivid u al thin d evice is not based
ju st on the availability characteristics of the thin p ool the d evice is bou nd
to. Instead , availability is based on the characteristics of the tier w ith the
low est availability.
While p erform ance and availability requ irem ents u ltim ately d eterm ine
the configu ration of each tier w ithin the Sym m etrix array, it is
recom m end ed , as a best p ractice, to choose RAID 1 or RAID 5 p rotection
on EFDs. The faster rebu ild tim es of EFDs p rovid e higher availability for
these p rotection schem es on that tier.
Also, it is recom m end ed to u se either RAID 1 or RAID 6 on the SATA
tier. This is d u e to the slow er rebu ild tim es of the SATA d rives
(com p ared to EFD and FC), and the increased chance of a d u al-d rive
failu re, lead ing to d ata u navailability w ith RAID 5 p rotection .
For the FC tier, RAID 1 is the recom m end ed p rotection level. Mirrored
d ata d evices on FC p ools p rovid e a higher level of p erform ance than
both RAID 5 and RAID 6, p articu larly for w rite w orkload . Availability of
RAID 1, in regard to a d u al-d rive failu re, is also greater than RAID 5. To
obtain the best availability nu m bers for RAID 1 on FC, the u se of low er
cap acity d rives is recom m end ed .
N ote: For new environm ents being configured in anticipation of
im plem enting FAST VP, or for existing environm ents having ad d itional tiers
ad d ed , it is highly recom m end ed that EMC representatives be engaged to
assist in d eterm ining the appropriate RAID protection schem es for each tier.
Drive configura tion

For m ost cu stom er configu rations, the best p ractice configu ration
gu id elines recom m end an even, balanced d istribu tion of p hysical d isks
across the d isk ad ap ters (DAs) and DA CPUs.
This is of p articu lar relevance for EFDs, w hich are each able to su p p ort
thou sand s of I/ Os p er second , and , therefore, are able to create a load on
29
the DA equ ivalent to that of m u ltip le hard d isk d rives.

An even d istribu tion of I/ O across all DA CPUs is op tim al to m axim ize
their cap ability, and the overall cap ability of the Sym m etrix array.
H ow ever, there are scenarios w here it is not ap p rop riate to evenly
d istribu te d isk resou rces. An exam p le of this is w hen the cu stom er
d esires p artitioning and isolation of d isk resou rces to sep arate cu stom er
environm ents and w orkload s w ithin the VMAX Series array.
Generally, it is ap p rop riate to configu re m ore, sm aller d rives, than few er,
larger d rives for both EFD and FC tiers. Doing so sp read s I/ O load as
w id e as p ossible across the Sym m etrix back-end .
For exam p le, on a 2-engine VMAX Series array w ith 16 DAs, if the EFD
raw cap acity requ irem ent is 3.2 TB, it w ou ld be m ore op tim al to
configu re 16 x 200 GB EFDs than 8 x 400 GB EFDs, as each DA cou ld
have one EFD configu red on it.
When a storage grou p is associated w ith a FAST p olicy, a p riority valu e
m u st be assigned to the storage grou p . This p riority valu e can be
betw een 1 and 3, w ith 1 being the highest p riority . The d efau lt is 2.
When m u ltip le storage grou p s are associated w ith FAST VP p olicies, the
p riority valu e is u sed w hen the d ata contained in the storage grou p s is
com p eting for the sam e resou rces on one of the FAST VP tiers. Storage
grou p s w ith a higher p riority are given p reference w hen d ecid ing w hich
d ata need s to be m oved to another tier.
The best p ractice recom m end ation is to u se the d efau lt p riority of 2 for
all storage grou p s associated w ith FAST VP p olicies. These valu es m ay
then be m od ified if it is seen, for exam p le, that a high-p riority
ap p lication is not getting su fficient resou rces from a higher tier.
SRDF
FAST VP has no restrictions in its ability to m anage SRDF d evices,
how ever, w hat m u st be consid ered is that d ata m ovem ents are restricted
to the array u p on w hich FAST VP is op erating. By d efau lt, there is no
coord ination of d ata m ovem ents; FAST VP acts ind ep end ently on both
the local and rem ote arrays. H ow ever, enabling FAST VP SRDF
coord ination allow s R1 p erform ance m etrics to be u sed w hen m aking
p rom otion-and -d em otion d ecisions for d ata belonging to an R2 d evice.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on the operation of FAST VP SRDF coord ination ,
refer to the A dvance FA ST VP features section of the Implementing Fully
30

A utomated Storage Tiering for V irtual Pools (FA ST V P) for EM C Symmetrix
V M A X Series A rrays technical note available at http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
As a general best p ractice, FAST VP shou ld be em p loyed for both R1 and

R2 d evices, p articu larly if the rem ote R2 array has also been configu red
w ith tiered storage cap acity. Where p ossible, sim ilar FAST VP tiers and
p olicies shou ld be configu red at each site.
When available, FAST VP SRDF coord ination shou ld be enabled for each
storage grou p containing SRDF d evices that is associated w ith a FAST
VP p olicy.
Each SRDF configu ration , how ever, p resents its ow n u niqu e behaviors
and w orkload s. Prior to im p lem enting FAST VP in an SRDF
environm ent, the inform ation in the follow ing sections shou ld be
consid ered .
N ote: The follow ing sections assum e that SRDF is im plem ented w ith all
Sym m etrix arrays configured for Virtual Provisioning (all SRDF d evices are
thin d evices) and installed w ith the m inim um Enginuity version capable of
running FAST VP (5875.135.91).
FAST VP behavior
For SRDF R1 d evices, FAST VP p rom otes and d em otes extent grou p s
based on the read -and -w rite activity exp erienced on th e R1 d evices.
Meanw hile, by d efau lt, the SRDF R2 d evices typ ically only exp erience
w rite activity d u ring norm al op erations. As a resu lt, FAST VP is likely to
p rom ote only R2 d evice extents that are exp eriencing w rites.
If there are R1 d evice extents that only exp erience read activity, no
w rites, then the corresp ond ing extents on the R2 d evices w ill see no I/ O
activity. This w ill likely lead to these R2 d evice extents being d em oted to
the SATA tier, assu m ing this w as inclu d ed in the FAST VP p olicy.
SRDF coord ination changes this d efau lt behavior by p eriod ically
transm itting FAST VP p erform ance m etrics collected for R1 d evices
across the SRDF link to the corresp ond ing R2 d evices. On the R2 d evice,
the R1 p erform ance m etrics are m erged w ith the actu al R2 m etrics.
Movem ent d ecisions m ad e by FAST VP for these R2 d evices are then
based on the m erged p erform ance m etrics. In this w ay, read activity on
the R1 d evice can be reflected on the R2.
SRDF opera ting mode
EMC best p ractices, for both synchronou s and asynchronou s m od es of

SRDF op eration, recom m end im p lem enting a balanced configu ration on
both the R1 and R2 Sym m etrix arrays. Id eally, d ata on each array w ou ld
31
be located on d evices configu red w ith the sam e RAID p rotection typ e, on
the sam e d rive typ e.
As FAST VP op erates ind ep end ently on each array, and also p rom otes
and d em otes d ata at the su b-LUN level, there is no gu arantee that su ch a
balance m ay be m aintained .
In SRDF synchronou s (SRDF/ S) m od e, host w rites are transferred
synchronou sly from R1 to R2. These w rites are only acknow led ged by
the host w hen the d ata has been received into cache on the rem ote R2
array. These w rites to cache are then d estaged asynchronou sly to d isk on
the R2 array.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ S, see the EM C Solutions Enabler
Symmetrix SRDF Family CLI Product Guide available at
http:/ / pow erlink.em c.com .
In an u nbalanced configu ration, w here the R2 d ata resid es on a low er p erform ing tier than on the R1, p erform ance im p act m ay be seen at the
host if the nu m ber of w rite p end ings bu ild s u p and w rites to cache are
d elayed on the R2 array.
With FAST VP, this typ ically d oes not cau se a p roblem , as the
p rom otions that occu r on the R2 sid e are the resu lt of w rite activity.
Areas of the thin d evices u nd er heavy w rite w orkload are likely to be
p rom oted and m aintained on the higher-p erform ing tiers on the R2
array.
To avoid p otential p roblem s w ith the configu ration becom ing
u nbalanced , it is recom m end ed that FAST VP SRDF coord ination be
enabled in SRDF/ S environm ents.
In SRDF asynchronou s (SRDF/ A) m od e, host w rites are transferred
asynchronou sly in p re-d efined tim e p eriod s or d elta sets. At any given
tim e, there are three d elta sets in effect: The cap tu re set, the
transm it/ receive set, and the ap p ly set.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ A, see the EM C Solutions Enabler
Symmetrix SRDF Family CLI Product Guide available at
A balanced SRDF configu ration is m ore im p ortant for SRDF/ A , as d ata

cannot transition from one d elta set to the next u ntil the ap p ly set has
com p leted d estaging to d isk. If the d ata resid es on a low er -p erform ing
tier on the R2 array, com p ared to the R1, then the SRDF/ A cycle tim e
m ay elongate and eventu ally cau se the SRDF/ A session to d rop .
32

This is sim ilar to SRDF/ S m od e in m ost environm ents, so this m ay not
be a large issu e, as the d ata u nd er w rite w orkload is p rom oted and
m aintained on the higher-p erform ing tiers.
To avoid p otential p roblem s w ith the configu ration becom ing
u nbalanced , it is strongly recom m end ed that FAST VP SRDF
coord ination be enabled in SRDF/ A environm ents.
SRDF/ A DSE (d elta set extension) shou ld be consid ered to p revent
SRDF/ A sessions from d rop p ing in situ ations w here w rites p rop agated
to the R2 array are being d estaged to a low er tier, p otentially cau sing an
elongation of the SRDF/ A cycle tim e.
N ote: For m ore inform ation on SRDF/ DSE, see the Best Practices for EM C
SRDF/A Delta Set Extension technical note available at
SRDF failover
As FAST VP w orks ind ep end ently on both the R1 and R2 arrays, it

shou ld be exp ected that the d ata layou t w ill be d ifferent on each sid e if
SRDF coord ination is not enabled . When an SRDF failover op eration is
p erform ed , and host ap p lications are brou ght u p on the R2 d evices, it
shou ld then also be exp ected that the p erform ance characteristics on the
R2 w ill be d ifferent from those on the R1.
In this situ ation it takes FAST VP som e p eriod of tim e to ad ju st to the
change in w orkload and start p rom otion and d em otion activities based
on the m ixed read -and -w rite w orkload .
To better p rep are for a failover, and to shorten the tim e p eriod to achieve
an ad ju stm ent to the new w orkload , FAST VP SRDF coord ination shou ld
be enabled .
N ote: FAST VP perform ance m etrics are only transm itted from R1 to R2.
When failed over, and w ith applications are running on R2 devices,
perform ance m etrics w ill not be sent from R2 to R1.
Personality swa p
An SRDF p ersonality sw ap follow s a sim ilar p attern of behavior to an

SRDF failover scenario. Ap p lications are brou ght u p on the d evices that
w ere form erly R2 d evices.
In ord er for p erform ance m etrics to be transm itted from the new R1
d evices to the corresp ond ing R2 d evices, SRDF coord ination need s to be
enabled on the storage grou p s containing the R1 d evices.
SRDF coord ination can be enabled in ad vance on a storage grou p
containing R2 d evices. H ow ever, the setting only takes effect w hen a
33
Summary and conclusion
p ersonality sw ap is p erform ed , converting the R2 d evices to R1.

SRDF bi-directional
Best p ractice recom m end ations change slightly in a bi-d irectional SRDF
environm ent. In this case, each Sym m etrix array has both R1 and R2
d evices configu red .
With SRDF coord ination enabled , it is p ossible that d ata belonging to an
R2 d evice cou ld d isp lace d ata belonging to an R1 d evice on a higher tier .
This m ay hap p en if the R2 d evices corresp ond ing R1 d evice has a higher
w orkload than the local R1 d evice.
In this scenario, it is recom m end ed to reserve the EFD tier for R1 d evice
u sage. This can be d one by exclu d ing any EFD tiers from the p olicies
associated w ith the R2 d evices.
Shou ld a failover be p erform ed , then the EFD tier can be ad d ed
d ynam ically to the p olicy associated w ith the R2 d evices. Alternatively,
the storage grou p containing the R2 d evices cou ld be reassociated w ith a
p olicy containing EFD.
N ote: This recom m end ation assum es that the low er tiers are of sufficient
capacity and I/ O cap ability to hand le the expected SRDF w rite w orkload on
the R2 d evices.
EFD considerations
If there is a d ifference in the configu ration of the EFD tier on the rem ote
array, then it is recom m end ed not to inclu d e the EFD tier in the FAST VP
p olicies on the R2 array. Exam p les of a configu ration d ifference inclu d e
either few er EFDs or no EFDs. Sim ilarly, if the EFD configu ration on the
R2 array d oes not follow the best p ractice gu id eline of being balanced
across DAs, d o not inclu d e the EFD tier on the R2 sid e.
N ote: This recom m end ation assum es that the low er tiers are of sufficient
capacity and I/ O cap ability to hand le the expected SRDF w rite w orkload on
the R2 d evices.
Summa ry a nd conclusion
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX Fam ily w ith Enginu ity incorp orates a scalable
fabric-interconnect d esign that allow s a storage array to seam lessly grow
from an entry-level configu ration to a 4 PB system . Sym m etrix VMAX
arrays p rovid e p red ictable, self-op tim izing p erform ance and enables
organizations to scale ou t on d em and in p rivate clou d environm ents.
34

Inform ation infrastru ctu re m u st continu ou sly ad ap t to changing
bu siness requ irem ents. FAST VP au tom ates tiered storage strategies, in
Virtu al Provisioning environm ents, by easily m oving w orkload s
betw een Sym m etrix tiers as p erform ance characteristics change over
tim e. FAST VP p erform s d ata m ovem ents, im p roving p erform ance, and
red u cing costs, all w hile m aintaining vital service levels.
EMC Sym m etrix VMAX FAST VP for Virtu al Provisioning environm ents
au tom ates the id entification of d ata volu m es for the p u rp oses relocating
ap p lication d ata across d ifferent p erform ance/ cap acity tiers w ithin an
array. FAST VP p roactively m onitors w orkload s at both the LUN and
su b-LUN level, in ord er to id entify bu sy d ata that w ou ld benefit from
being m oved to higher-p erform ing d rives. FAST VP also id entifies lessbu sy d ata that cou ld be m oved to higher -cap acity d rives, w ithou t
existing p erform ance being affected .
Prom otion/ d em otion activity is based on p olicies that associate a storage
grou p to m u ltip le d rive technologies, or RAID p rotection schem es, by
w ay of thin storage p ools, as w ell as the p erform ance requ irem ents of the
ap p lication contained w ithin the storage grou p . Data m ovem ent
execu ted d u ring this activity is p erform ed nond isru p tively, w ithou t
affecting bu siness continu ity and d ata availability.
There are tw o com p onents of FAST VP: Sym m etrix Enginu ity and the
FAST controller. Enginu ity is the storage op erating environm ent that
controls com p onents w ithin the array. The FAST controller is a service
that ru ns on the service p rocessor. FAST VP u ses tw o d istinct algorithm s,
one p erform ance-oriented and one cap acity-allocation -oriented , in ord er
to d eterm ine the ap p rop riate tier a d evice shou ld belong to. The
intelligent tiering algorithm consid ers the p erform ance m etrics of all thin
d evices u nd er FAST VP control, and d eterm ines the ap p rop riate tier for
each extent grou p . The allocation com p liance algorithm is u sed to
enforce the p er-tier storage cap acity u sage lim its.
Data m ovem ents execu ted by FAST VP are p erform ed by the VLUN VP
d ata m ovem ent engine, and involve m oving thin d evice extents be tw een
thin p ools w ithin the array. Extents are m oved by m eans of a m ove
p rocess only; extents are not sw ap p ed betw een p ools.
Perform ance d ata for u se by FAST VP is collected and m aintained by
Enginu ity. This d ata is then analyzed by the FAST controller , and the
gu id elines generated for the p lacem ent of thin d evice d ata on the d efined
VP tiers w ithin the array. When collecting p erform ance d ata at the LUN
and su b-LUN level for u se by FAST VP, Enginu ity only collects statistics
related to Sym m etrix back-end activity that is the resu lt of host I/ O.
35
FAST VP p rovid es a nu m ber of p aram eters that can be u sed to tu ne the

p erform ance of FAST VP and to control the aggressiveness of the d ata
m ovem ents. These p aram eters can be u sed to nond isru p tively ad ju st the
am ou nt of tier storage that a given storage grou p is allow ed to u se, or to
ad ju st the m anner in w hich storage grou p s u sing the sam e tier com p ete
w ith each other for sp ace.
FAST VP is fu lly interop erable w ith all Sym m etrix rep lication
technologies: EMC SRDF, EMC Tim eFind er/ Clone, Tim eFind er/ Snap ,
and Op en Rep licator. Any active rep lication on a Sym m etrix d evice
rem ains intact w hile d ata from that d evice is being m oved . Sim ilarly, all
increm ental relationship s are m aintained for the m oved or sw ap p ed
d evices. FAST VP also op erates alongsid e Sym m etrix featu res, su ch as
Sym m etrix Op tim izer, Dynam ic Cache Partitioning, and Au to p rovisioning Grou p s.
36
Appendix: Best practices quick reference
Appendix: Best pra ctices quick reference

The follow ing p rovid es a qu ick reference to the general best p ractice
recom m end ations for p lanning the im p lem entation of a FAST VP
environm ent.
The best p ractices d ocu m ented are based on featu res available in
Enginu ity 5876.82.57, Solu tions Enabler 7.4, Sym m etrix Managem ent
Console 7.3.3, and Unisp here for VMAX 1.0.
For m ore d etails on these recom m end ations, and other consid erations,
see Planning and design considerations.
FAST VP configura tion pa ra meters
FAST VP inclu d es m u ltip le configu ration p aram eters that control its
behavior. The follow ing sections d escribe best p ractice recom m end ations
for each of these configu ration p aram eters.
Performance time window
Use the d efau lt p erform ance tim e w ind ow to collect p erform ance m etrics
24 hou rs a d ay, every d ay.
Create a d ata m ovem ent w ind ow to allow d ata m ovem ent for the sam e
p eriod of tim e that the p erform ance tim e w ind ow s allow d ata collection.
Use the d efau lt w orkload analysis p eriod of 168 hou rs (7 d ays).

At the initial d ep loym ent of FAST VP, set the initial analysis p eriod to
168 hou rs to ensu re, at a m inim u m , that a typ ical w eekly w orkload cycle
is seen. After this p eriod has p assed , the valu e can be d rop p ed to 24
hou rs.
FAST VP Relocation Ra te
For the initial d ep loym ent of FAST VP, start w ith a conservative valu e
for the relocation rate, p erhap s 7 or 8. At a later d ate the FRR can be
grad u ally low ered to a m ore aggressive level, p ossibly 2 or 3.
Pool Reserved Ca pacity (PRC)
For ind ivid u al p ools w ith bou nd thin d evices, set the PRC based on the
low est allocation w arning level for that thin p ool.
For p ools w ith no bou nd thin d evices, set the PRC to 1 p ercent.
VP Allocation by FAST Policy
VP allocation by FAST p olicy shou ld be enabled .

37
FAST VP policy configuration
The id eal FAST VP p olicy w ou ld be 100 p ercent EFD, 100 p ercent FC,
and 100 p ercent SATA. While id eal, op erationally it m ay not be
ap p rop riate to d ep loy the 100/ 100/ 100 p olicy. There m ay be reasons to
lim it access to a p articu lar tier w ithin the array.
The best w ay to d eterm ine the ap p rop riate p olicies for a FAST VP
im p lem entation is to exam ine the w orkload skew for the ap p lication
d ata to be m anaged by FAST VP. This can be d one by u sing a tool su ch
as Tier Ad visor.
Thin device binding
If no ad vance know led ge of the exp ected w orkload on new ly w ritten

d ata is available, the best p ractice recom m end ation is to bind all thin
d evices to a p ool w ithin the second highest tier. In a three -tier
configu ration, this w ou ld im p ly the FC tier.
VP allocation by FAST p olicy shou ld be enabled .
It is not recom m end ed to bind thin d evices, u nd er FAST VP control, to
the EFD tier.
A best p ractice recom m end ation is to not p reallocate thin d evices
m anaged by FAST VP.
RAID protection considera tions
For EFD, choose RAID 5 p rotection .

For FC, choose RAID 1 p rotection.
For SATA, choose RAID 6 p rotection.
Drive configuration
Where p ossible, balance p hysical d rives evenly across DAs. Configu re

m ore, sm aller EFDs, rather than few er, larger EFDs, to sp read I/ O load
as w id e as p ossible.
The best p ractice recom m end ation is to u se the d efau lt p riority of 2 for
all storage grou p s associated w ith FAST VP p olicies.
SRDF
As a general best p ractice, FAST VP shou ld be em p loyed for both R1 and

R2 d evices, p articu larly if the rem ote R2 array has also been configu red
w ith tiered storage cap acity. Sim ilar FAST VP tiers and p olicies shou ld
be configu red at each site.
FAST VP SRDF coord ination shou ld be enabled for storage gr ou p s
containing SRDF R1 d evices.
38
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How FAST Works in Symmetrix VMAX

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FAST VP for EMC Symmetrix VMAX

Theory a nd Best Pra ctices

Execu tive su m m ary ................................................................................... 2

Fully Automated Storage Tiering

Fully Automa ted Stora ge Tiering

Elim ination of m anu ally tiering ap p lications w hen p erform ance

Im p roving ap p lication p erform ance at the sam e cost, or

Op tim izing and p rioritizing bu siness ap p lications, allow ing

Delivering greater flexibility in m eeting d ifferent

Du e to ad vances in d rive technology, and the need for storage

Fully Automated Storage Tiering

Resp onse tim e

Cost p er u nit of storage cap acity

Cost p er u nit of storage requ est p rocessing

At the other extrem e are SATA d rives, w hich have a low

Betw een these tw o extrem es lie Fibre Channel and SAS

Enterp rise Flash Drives: EFDs are m ore su ited for

SATA d rives: SATA d rives are su ited tow ard w orkload s

Fibre Channel/ SAS d rives: Fibre Channel and SAS d rives

FAST and FAST VP comparison

FAST a nd FAST VP compa rison

Theory of opera tion

Figure 1. FAST VP components

occu rs 24 hou rs a d ay.

Intelligent tiering a lgorithm

Allocation complia nce a lgorithm

N ew extent allocations p erform ed for thin d evices

Changes m ad e to the u p p er u sage lim its for a VP tier in a

Ad d ing thin d evices to a storage grou p that are them selves

Manu al VLUN VP m igrations of thin d evices

The com p liance algorithm attem p ts to m inim ize the am ou nt of

The FAST VP op erating m od e m u st be Au tom atic.

The VP d ata m ovem ent w ind ow m u st be op en.

The thin d evice affected m u st not be p inned .

There m u st be su fficient u nallocated sp ace in the thin

p ools inclu d ed in the d estination tier to accom m od ate the

The d estination tier m u st contain at least one thin p ool that

Other m ovem ent consid erations inclu d e:

Only extents that are allocated w ill be m oved .

N o back-end configu ration changes are p erform ed d u ring

As sw ap s are not p erform ed , there is no requ irem ent for

Performa nce considera tions

Performa nce metrics

Prefetch (sequ ential read )

Pool reserved ca pa city

Perform ance tim e w ind ow

Data m ovem ent tim e w ind ow

Product and feature interoperability

w eek, 365 d ays a year.

Product a nd fea ture interopera bility

Product and feature interoperability

Virtua l Provisioning T10 unma p

Product and feature interoperability

Workload Analysis Period (WAP)

Initial Analysis Period (IAP)

Perform ance tim e w ind ow s

Planning and design considerations

Workload Analysis Period (WAP)

Initial Analysis Period (IAP)

Perform ance tim e w ind ow s

Dyna mic Ca che Pa rtitioning (DCP)

Pla nning a nd design considera tions

Console 7.3.3, and Unisp here for VMAX 1.0.

Planning and design considerations