Module 09

Volumes and Snapshots

 By the end of the module, you should be able to:

• Identify and describe volume properties

• Describe how the pool reserves and uses a pool's free space / capacity for volumes

• Explain the difference between volume reserve and snapshot reserve and how they are related

• Describe how Snapshots operate, and the impact it has on a the Volume’s Volume and Snapshot Reserve

• Identify the terms Free Space, Volume Reserve, Snapshot Reserve

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

2 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Pools Capacity and

Storage Data Pages

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

3 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity – Total Capacity

• Total Capacity is the collection of all

storage capacity provided by each of
the Pool’s members (a member’s Total
Space)
• A member’s Total Space is determined
once the member has been defined with
a RAID Policy
• Each Member’s Total Space is
contributed to the Pool’s Total Capacity
• This is an example of how a Pool
virtualizes the usable space

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

4 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity – Total Capacity

• Total Capacity will only change if a

member is
• Added (increase)
• Removed/Vacated (decrease)
• Modified (RAID Policy) (increase)
• Total Capacity only reflects formatted
space, not how it is used
• Managed in 15MB chunks, or Pages

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

5 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity – Pages: Building Blocks of Storage

• What is a Page?
• A fixed amount of data
• A page is a set of preformatted collections of allocated
and unallocated logical blocks, (allocation units).
• What is a logical block / cluster unit / allocation unit?
• In terms of Pages, a logical block (sometimes called an
Allocation Unit, or AU) is a group of records on a
storage device that is defined by the formatting of the
file system. This should not be confused with the
physical blocks at the disk level or storage device pages
• NOTE: Sometimes “block” is used interchangeably
with the word “page”. Be aware of the context of the
discussion when the word block or page is used

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

6 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity – Pages: Building Blocks of Storage

• The size of the page is determined by the storage device

• Pages sizes are specific to the storage device
• Dell Compellent has variable set sizes– 512KB, 2MB, and 4MB page sizes
• Dell EqualLogic uses 15MB pages (fixed, not adjustable)
• A Pool’s basic unit of capacity is the 15MB Page
• When a single logical block that resides in the page changes, the whole page is considered
changed

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

7 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity and Page Tracking

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

8 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Capacity and Page Tracking

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

9 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Volume and Snapshot

Reserve

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

10 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume - Space Settings

• When a Volume is created, pages

are reserved for use
• Upon commit:
• Free Space amount is
immediately reduced
• Snapshot Reserves are
allocated, but actual pages are
not assigned until data is written
• An internal Page Table is
created to track consumption of
reserve and to keep track of
pointers to the pages
Dell - Restricted - Confidential
11 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume Info Table – Volume Metadata & the Page Table

• Volume Information Table is metadata about all the Group’s Volumes

• When a Volume is created, a Volume Entry tracks its metadata
• We refer to the pages being tracked in the metadata as the volume’s Page Table
• This keeps track of which pages have been allocated and where data resides on the volume
• Other metadata is retained as well
• Volume Name
• Volume Description
• Access Control List / Access Policy Association
• Snapshot Space Recovery Policy (Borrow, Delete Snaps, Set Volume Offline)

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

12 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Creating A Volume – Page Reservations

• An Administrator creates 600MB

Volume with 100% Snapshot Reserve
(SR)
• 40 pages are reserved as Volume
Reserve (VR) (40 pages * 15MB/pg =
600MB)
• 40 pages are reserved as Snapshot
Reserve (SR) (100%*VR=40pg)
• Page Table Entry Updated
• 80 pages (1,200MB) are deducted from
Free Space page count/tally

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

13 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume Page Consumption – Allocation on Write

• Upon creation, the volume is available to receive data immediately

• As iSCSI Writes are received by the volume, pages are allocated and the Page Table is
updated as needed
• The data will get written to the first available page (which could be anywhere
within the pool)
• If a volume has a preferred RAID Policy, contributed pages from members with that
policy will be preferred but not guaranteed
• As new data comes in, it may fill up an existing page or it may require a new page
• The Page Table contains pointers to the actual page where the data exists

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

14 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Volume Snapshots

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

15 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Snapshots – About Snapshots

• Snapshots
• Represents the contents of a volume at the time of creation
• Snapshots are mountable like any other Volume
• Snapshots have unique IQNs – derived from the source volume with the date appended
• ACL/Access Policy Association is inherited, but changeable

• Snapshots are typically used as short term recovery points

• Side-by-side recovery (Files & directories on file server)
• Full volume restore/recovery
• Temporary access to production level data without interfering with production volume

• Recurring Snapshots Schedule

• Crash consistent snapshots through Group Manager schedule
• Application consistent snapshots

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

16 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Dell EqualLogic Snapshots – How they work

• A Volume’s pages are tracked using

information about the page location, or
pointers, in the Page Table
• When a Snapshot is taken, no actual
data is copied, just the pointers to it

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

17 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Dell EqualLogic Snapshots – How they work

• A Volume can have up to 512*

Snapshots as long as there is enough
Snapshot Reserve to cover the usage
• As new data gets written or old data is
changed, more of the Snapshot
Reserve is consumed

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

18 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Mounting a Snapshot

• Operating Systems mount a Snapshot just like any other iSCSI Target Volume
• Since the Snapshot appears identical at the block level, your Operating Systems may or may not allow you
to mount the Snapshot from the same host if the source Volume is also mounted
• Windows – Yes
• Can mount R/O Snapshots if source Volume is not mounted on same host
• Can mount R/W Snapshots, even if source volume mounted on same host
• Linux – Yes
• Can mount R/W Snapshot in R/W or R/O mode
• Can mount R/O Snapshot even if source volume is mounted
• VMware – Yes, but needs re-signatured before usable
• NetWare – No

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

19 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Snapshot Space Policy
• When the Snapshot Reserve has exhausted available pages, how the Volume handles snapshots are
managed by the Snapshot Space Policy
• Beginning with version 6.0, Volumes can “borrow” pages from the Pool’s Free Space
• First taken from other volumes snapshot reserve space
• Second taken from free pool space, then other reserves with the exception of volume reserve space

• Borrowed pages will be reclaimed if Free Space falls below 5%

• The Volume Recovery Bin will be purged first
• Then oldest snapshot(s)will be deleted

• The Default Borrowing Policy is a Group Configuration setting

• Changing the Group Default will not affect already existing volumes
• New volumes can be created by explicitly setting the policy

• Available & Reclaimable space for Borrowing is a property of the pool

• Group->Pool->Pool name->Status Tab or pool select <POOLNAME> show

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

20 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 “Trimmer” Process – Recycle Bin & Borrowed Pages

• An array process called the “trimmer” purges recovery bin volumes

• Trimmer typically sleeps for 24 hours and wakes to look for trimming activities

• Trimmer recovers “Reclaimable and oversubscribed space”

• Works on both volumes that have been deleted and snapshots that have borrowed space

• Four types of trimming activities:

• Shelf-life trimming – wakes up once a day and deletes volumes in recovery bin more than 7 days old
• Management request trimming
• Group Volume Limit – more than 1024 volumes will cause trimmer to delete oldest volume to allow new volume creation
• Administrator quota – Volume administrator tries to create new volume but has reached their limit
• Free space trimming – if “reclaimable and oversubscribed space” for a pool approaches zero the trimmer will be called and will delete
oldest volumes in recovery bin

• Borrowed snapshot trimming – delete oldest snapshots that have borrowed space

• Trimming rule – remove deleted volumes before any snapshots are deleted to reclaim space

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

21 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Displaying Space-Borrowing Information- v8.0 feature

• The Group Manager GUI can

help you monitor borrowed
space on your system.
• To see borrowing Click
Group, then Borrowed
Space.

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

22 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Prior Borrowing Behavior

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

23 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 New Borrowing Behavior

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

24 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume Snapshot Reserve Space Settings

• Snapshot Reserve must have a value

greater than 0% to enable snapshots -
Default is 100%
• Set during volume creation (if not
specified, will assume the Group
Default)
• Can be modified on existing volume
• Valid values are 0% (no snapshots) to
percentage that is equal to available
Free Space in pool

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

25 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Modifying a Volume’s Snapshot Reserve Values

• You can increase or decrease the Snapshot Reserve for

any volume
• SR Warning Limit will trigger an event entry when
the SR usage exceeds the limit
• Snapshot Policy determines behavior when SR is
exhausted
• Changing Snapshot Reserve Values in GUI
• Select the volume and choose Modify settings from
the Activities Panel or Volume’s right-click menu
• Set new percentage for SR, and slider for warning
• Changing Snapshot Reserve Values in CLI
• Set the Snapshot Reserve Percentage
• volume select <VOLUMENAME> snapshot-reserve <%>
• Set the Snapshot Reserve Warning
• volume select <VOLUMENAME> snap-warn <%>

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

26 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Creating and Scheduling

Snapshots

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

27 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Creating a Snapshot Manually with Group Manager (GUI)

1. Navigate to the Volumes Section

2. Select the Volume
3. Create the Snapshot
4. Provide a description for the Snapshot
5. View the Snapshot
• Properties will have unique IQN
derived from the Volume IQN (date
is appended)

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

28 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Creating a Snapshot Manually with Group Manager (CLI)

• Command Syntax
• volume select <VOLUMENAME> snapshot create-now [description <String>] [<online | offline>] [<read-only |
read-write>]
• Creating a Snapshot with the CLI
• Login as a Group, Pool or Volume Administrator
• Identify the volume name, if necessary using the volume show command
• Enter the command to create the snapshot from the Group or Volume Select submenu
• volume select <VOLUMENAME> snapshot create-now
• View the snapshot
• volume select <VOLUMENAME> snapshot show

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

29 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Deleting a Snapshot

• Snapshot must be off-line to Delete

• From the GUI
1. Select the Snapshot from the Volume’s
Snapshot branch in the Volume Tree
2. Choose Delete snapshot from the
Activities Panel
—or–
3. From the Snapshot’s right-click menu
Click Yes on the Delete snapshot
confirmation window

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

30 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Deleting a Snapshot

• CLI Syntax
• volume select <VOLUMENAME>
snapshot delete <SNAPSHOTNAME>
• From the CLI
• Confirm the snapshot name
• Delete the snapshot - volume select
<VOLUMENAME> snapshot delete
<SNAPSHOTNAME>
• Confirm the removal of the desired
snapshot name

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

31 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Snapshot Schedules in the Group Manager

• Schedules created through Group Manager

• Crash Consistent, not Application Consistent
• Preferred method of Snapshots & Snapshot Scheduling
is through the Host Integration Tools (HIT for Microsoft,
for Linux and VSM for VMware)
• Schedule Settings
• Schedule Name
• Schedule Type
• Schedule Options
• Schedule Configuration
• Volume can have more than one active Schedule running at
a time
• Default Snapshot Schedule
• New CLI Commands “grpparams default-snapshot-
sched”

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

32 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Creating a Group Manager Snapshot Schedule (GUI)

• From the Volumes Section Choose the Volume and Then:

• Start the Create schedule wizard
• Click Create schedule using the Right-click menu or the
Activities Panel
• From the Schedules tab, click Add within the Snapshot and
Replication Schedules section
• Enter Schedule name
• Choose Snapshot type if volume is setup for replication
• Choose Schedule Option (Run once, hourly, daily, based on
other schedule)
• Click Next
• Choose time to execute and how often (depending on choice)
• Specify the maximum number of snapshots to retain
• Specify whether to make Snapshots R/W or R/O
• Review Summary and Commit by clicking Finish

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

33 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Creating a Group Manager Snapshot Schedule (CLI)

• CLI Syntax
• volume select MyVolume schedule create <name> type <once | hourly | daily> start-time <String>
[end-time <String>] [max-keep <1-512>] [frequency <String>] [start-date <String>] [end-date
<String>] [repeat-interval <String>] [partner <String>] [<read-write | read-only>] [<enable |
disable>]
• From the CLI
• Use the online help & command tab completion for assistance as needed
• The example below shows the creation of two schedules:
• An hourly schedule that will occur every 15 min and retain 40 snapshots
• A Daily schedule that will occur every 12 hours and retain 4 snapshots

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

34 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Compression

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

35 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Compression of Snapshots and Replicas

• You can enable compression of snapshots and/or replicas to decrease the amount of space used by data to
which you do not need access
• Compression is disabled by default on Dell EqualLogic arrays, because once you start compression you
are not able to cancel, only suspend the action
• Important considerations to keep in mind, as you determine when to start compression:
• You must be running supported firmware on a PS6210 or PS6610 array
• You can start, suspend, and resume compression, but you cannot cancel the operation when it has started
• When compression is paused, new snapshots are not compressed and previous compressed snapshots remained
compressed
• When compressed data is moved from one array to another, (such as during a “vacate” action) the data must be
rehydrated. This is often a permanent condition, though it may be eligible for compression if the destination supports it.

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

36 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Member Compression States

• Member Compression States

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

37 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Enabling Compression

• Enabling Compression is
simple
• Simply Select the Eligible
Member and Click Start
Compression
• You must accept the terms in
the dialog box below

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

38 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Compression Statistics

• The three main statistics used in compression are:

• Expanded/uncompressed size: amount of snapshot data a volume can hold when fully hydrated
• Compressed size: amount of disk space consumed by the expanded size
• Space savings: describes the space savings achieved by compression

• When a snapshot is online and compressed data is read, it is automatically rehydrated

• If the snapshot data is accessed often enough, it may change the eligibility of the data to be compressed

• If compression eligibility changes, the rehydration could become permanent and the change would be
reflected in the volume compression statistics

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

39 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume Compression Statistics

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

40 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Member Compression Statistics

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

41 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Pool Compression Statistics

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

42 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Volume and Snapshot

Collections

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

43 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volume Collections & Snapshot Collections

• Volume Collections
• Logical container of Volumes
• Allow Snapshots & Replication to occur at the same time
• Can create Snapshot Collection & Replication for cross
volume consistency
• Not the same as Volume Folders
• Avoid placing volumes in multiple containers
• Snapshot Collections
• Snapshots of Volume Collections
• Can create Snapshot Schedule against Volume Collections
• Custom Snapshot Collections
• Creating Snapshots across multiple volumes without using
a Volume Collection
• CLI
• collection create <NAME> <volume1>, [volume,
…,volume8] [description “<text>”]

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

44 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes and Snapshots

Module Review and Lab

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

45 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 End of Module Review

• In this module we have reviewed and discussed the following:

• Identify and describe Dell EqualLogic volume properties
• Describe how the Pool reserves and uses a Pool’s Free Space / Capacity for Volumes
• Explain the difference between Volume Reserve and Snapshot Reserve and how they are
related
• Describe how Snapshots operate, and the impact it has on a the Volume’s Volume and
Snapshot Reserve
• Identify the terms Free Space, Volume Reserve, Snapshot Reserve

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

46 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential
 Volumes & Snapshots Lab

• Please refer to the lab manual for instructions.

Dell - Restricted - Confidential

47 Dell - Restricted - Confidential
Internal Use - Confidential