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There is an important concept to understand about storage groups and the PowerMax. The PowerMax internal engine, which is known as FAST, manages all host-related data on the array. However, that does not necessarily mean that a storage group is “FAST managed.” In order for a storage group to be “FAST-managed,” the user must explicitly provide either an SRP, a service level, or both. The Solutions Enabler CLI provides the easiest way to demonstrate this concept. Figure 113 shows two symsg commands. The first in red explicitly states both an SRP and service level, making it a “FAST managed” storage group. The second in blue specifies neither, and is not “FAST managed.” By default, the second storage group is in the default SRP and has a service level of Optimized. However, the storage group shows an SRP of NONE and a service level of NONE. Assigning storage groups like this allows a single device to be in two storage groups at once, since a device can only be managed by one FAST storage group.
The following points apply to storage groups on arrays running on PowerMax:
Unisphere for PowerMax makes provisioning different storage groups with different service levels a simple process. In the example in Figure 114, a single parent storage group is provisioned with three child storage groups. Each child group has a different service level. Also, data reduction is enabled on each storage group. It is possible to disable it at the storage group level for any or all the children by using the edit function.