Home > Storage > PowerScale (Isilon) > Product Documentation > Data Efficiency > Dell PowerScale OneFS: Data Reduction and Storage Efficiency > Configuration and use
Before configuring small file storage efficiency on a cluster, please ensure the following pre-requisites are met:
Also, it is highly recommended to have DataIQ or InsightIQ software licensed on the cluster. This enables the file systems analysis (FAS) job to be run, which provides enhanced storage efficiency reporting statistics. This is covered later in this paper.
The first step in configuring small file storage efficiency on a cluster is to enable the packing process. To do so, run the following command from the OneFS CLI:
# isi_packing –-enabled=true
Once the isi_packing variable is set, and the licensing agreement is confirmed, configuration is done using a filepool policy. The following CLI example will containerize data under the cluster directory /ifs/data/dicom.
# isi filepool policies create dicom --enable-packing=true --begin-filter --path=/ifs/data/pacs --end-filter
The SmartPools configuration for the resulting ‘dicom’ filepool can be verified with the following command:
# isi filepool policies view dicom
Name: dicom
Description: -
State: OK
State Details:
Apply Order: 1
File Matching Pattern: Birth Time > 1D AND Path == dicom (begins with)
Set Requested Protection: -
Data Access Pattern: -
Enable Coalescer: -
Enable Packing: Yes
...
Note: There is no dedicated WebUI for OneFS small file storage efficiency, so configuration is performed by the CLI.
The isi_packing command will also confirm that packing has been enabled.
# isi_packing –-ls
Enabled: Yes
Enable ADS: No
Enable snapshots: No
Enable mirror containers: No
Enable mirror translation: No
Unpack recently modified: No
Unpack snapshots: No
Avoid deduped files: Yes
Maximum file size: 1016.0k
SIN cache cutoff size: 8.00M
Minimum age before packing: 0s
Directory hint maximum entries: 16
Container minimum size: 1016.0k
Container maximum size: 1.000G
Note: While the defaults will work for most use cases, the two values you may want to adjust are maximum file size (--max-size <bytes>) and minimum age for packing (--min-age <seconds>).
Files are then containerized in the background using the SmartPools job, which can be run on-demand, or using the nightly schedule.
# isi job jobs start SmartPools
Started job [1016]
After enabling a new filepool policy, the SmartPools job may take a relatively long time due to packing work. However, subsequent job runs should be significantly faster.
Small file storage efficiency reporting can be viewed using the SmartPools job reports, which detail the number of files packed. For example:
# isi job reports view –v 1016
For clusters with a valid DataIQ or InsightIQ license, if the FSA (file system analytics) job has run, a limited efficiency report will be available. This can be viewed by the following command:
# isi_packing -–fsa
Note: For clusters using CloudPools, be aware that you cannot containerize stubbed files. SyncIQ data will be unpacked, so packing will need to be configured on the target cluster.
To unpack previously packed, or containerized, files, in this case from the ‘dicom’ filepool policy, run the following command from the OneFS CLI:
# isi filepool policies modify dicom -–enable-packing=false
Note: Ensure there is sufficient free space on the cluster before unpacking. Also, if the data is in a snapshot, it will not be packed – only HEAD file data will be containerized
A threshold is provided, which prevents very recently modified files from being containerized. The default value for this is 24 hours, but this can be reconfigured by the isi_packing –min-age <seconds> command, if wanted. This threshold guards against accidental misconfiguration within a filepool policy, which could potentially lead to containerization of files which are actively being modified, which could result in container fragmentation.