Home > Storage > Unity XT > Storage Admin > Dell Unity Dynamic Pools > Viewing the properties of a dynamic pool
To view the pools created on the system, select Pools under the Storage header in the left pane of Unisphere. On this page, the pools are shown along with other information. The Type column is available in UnityOS versions that support dynamic pools. This column can be added to the view by selecting the Customize your view button, denoted by the sun icon, and selecting the Type check box under Columns.
Figure 27 shows an all-flash system with multiple pools created on it. This example shows how to easily determine which pool is a traditional pool and which one is a dynamic pool by reviewing the Type column. The Type can also be seen in the quick properties view to the right after a pool is selected. To view the properties of a pool, select the View/Edit button, denoted by the pencil icon, or double-click the pool name.
Figure 27 Unisphere > Pools page
The Pool Properties window on all-flash storage systems contains five tabs: General, Drives, Usage, Snapshot Settings, and RAID. Hybrid systems has an additional tab named FAST VP. The General tab is shown by default when opening the Pool Properties window. Within the window is basic information about the pool, such as its Name, Description, Size, Flash Capacity, and Type. An example of this screen for a hybrid model system is shown in Figure 28.
Figure 28 Dynamic Pool Properties window > General tab
The second tab within the Pool Properties window is the Drives tab. This tab displays all drives currently in use by the pool. This tab has a number of default columns which include Name, Type, Capacity (GB), Details (K RPM), and Estimate EOL. The Tier column is also shown for hybrid model systems. These columns can be further sorted or filtered as needed. Figure 29 shows an example of this screen for a hybrid model system.
Figure 29 Dynamic Pool Properties window > Drives tab
The next tab within the Pool Properties window is the Usage tab. This tab includes subcategories such as Capacity, which includes capacity information about the pool, and Storage Resources, which lists what is currently created on the pool. As shown in Figure 30, the Capacity section includes information about the pool. The Non-base Space, Used, Preallocated Space,and Free capacities are all shown. Below the chart is the Alert Threshold, which is customizable and allows the user to have the system flag an alert when the storage allocation surpasses the percentage set. The Data Reduction Savings can also be seen on this screen, which includes the GBs, Percentage, and Ratio savings values. In UnityOS 4.3, Compression Savings has been replaced with Data Reduction Savings. Lastly, a chart on the pool usage is present.
Figure 30 Dynamic Pool Properties window > Usage tab
For hybrid model systems, the FAST VP tab is displayed next. The FAST VP tab shows data relocation information for the Pool. Information for each Tier within the pool is displayed on this tab, along with data rebalance information for each tier. An example of this page is shown in Figure 31. These items are described in further detail within the Dell Unity: FAST Technology Overview white paper on Dell Technologies Info Hub.
Figure 31 Dynamic Pool Properties window > FAST VP tab
The next tab within the Pool Properties window is the Snapshot Settings tab, which can be seen in Figure 32. Within this tab, the user can customize the auto-deletion mechanism based on space for snapshots within the system. By default, snapshots are only deleted when the Total pool consumption crosses the defined values within this window. The user can also select the Snapshot pool consumption option if they wish to control the maximum amount of space snapshot storage should use within the pool. These items are described in further detail within the Dell Unity: Snapshots and Thin Clones– A Detailed Review white paper on Dell Technologies Info Hub.
Figure 32 Dynamic Pool Properties window > Snapshot Settings tab
The last tab within the Pool Properties window is the RAID tab, which was added for dynamic pools and is shown in Figure 33. The RAID tab contains information such as the Drive Types utilized, the RAID Type, the Stripe Width, and the number of Drives. This information is displayed for each drive tier within the pool. In the figure, the dynamic pool contains three different drive tiers, and the Stripe Width and the number of drives is different per drive tier. The Hot Spare Capacity value for each drive tier is also displayed. In this example, 1 drive worth of spare space out of every 32 drives is reserved as hot spare space within each tier in the pool, although this value can be different across the tiers.
Figure 33 Dynamic Pool Properties window > RAID Settings tab