Dell Unity Data Reduction is supported on Thin LUNs, whether standalone or within a Consistency Group, Thin File Systems, and Thin VMware VMFS and NFS Datastores. For configurations that support it, Advanced Deduplication can be enabled on resources with Data Reduction enabled. The following sections outline how you can easily determine what the current state of data reduction and Advanced Deduplication are on existing resources using Unisphere. The current state of data reduction and Advanced Deduplication can also be determined via Unisphere CLI and REST API, but won’t be covered in the following sections.

LUNs

To review the status of data reduction and Advanced Deduplication on each of the LUNs created on the system, navigate to the Block page, which can be accessed by selecting Block under Storage in the left Unisphere pane. This page contains three columns specific for data reduction. The columns are Data Reduction, which shows if Data Reduction is enabled or not on the resource, Advanced Deduplication, which shows if Advanced Deduplication is enabled, and Data Reduction Savings (GB), which shows the amount of savings in GBs for the resource. To add these and other columns to the view, simply click the Gear Icon in the top right portion of the LUNs tab and select the columns to add under the Columns option. An example of this screen is shown in Error! Reference source not found..

Data reduction information has also been added to the quick properties view of the LUN tab on the Block page. After selecting a LUN, the right portion of the screen is populated with more information about the storage resource. In Error! Reference source not found., a data reduction enabled storage resource is selected. In the information provided in the right portion of the screen, you can determine if Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication are enabled and the current Data Reduction Savings on the selected resource.

Figure 23.    Block Page – LUNs Tab

Consistency Group LUNs

To review which Consistency Groups contain data reduction enabled LUNs, view the Consistency Group tab, which is found on the Block page. On this page, columns named Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication can be added to the current view by clicking the Gear Icon and selecting Data Reduction or Advanced Deduplication under Column. An example of the Consistency Group tab with the Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication columns displayed is shown in Error! Reference source not found.. The Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication columns have three potential entries, No, Yes, and Mixed. No is displayed if none of the LUNs within the Consistency Group have the option enabled. Yes is displayed if all LUNs within the Consistency Group have the option enabled. Mixed is displayed if there are a mix of LUNs with the option enabled and disabled within the Consistency Group. After selecting a Consistency Group, the quick properties view also displays the Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication options, and No, Yes, or Mixed.

Figure 24.    Block Page – Consistency Group Tab

File Systems

To review the status of data reduction on each of the File Systems, navigate to File Systems tab within the File page, which can be accessed by selecting File under Storage in the left Unisphere pane. This page contains three columns specific for data reduction. The columns are Data Reduction, which shows if data reduction is enabled or not on the resource, Advanced Deduplication, which shows if Advanced Deduplication is enabled, and Data Reduction Savings (GB), which shows the amount of savings in GBs for the resource. To add these and other columns to the view, simply click the Gear Icon in the top right portion of the File Systems tab and select the new columns to add under the Columns option. An example of this screen is shown in Error! Reference source not found..

When reviewing the Data Reduction, Advanced Deduplication, and Data Reduction Savings (GB) columns, the information provided depends on if the storage resource supports data reduction or not. For Thick File Systems or File Systems created on a code prior to Dell UnityOS version 4.2, -- is displayed in the columns to denote that the storage resource does not support data reduction. For Thin File Systems created on Dell UnityOS version 4.2 or later, the Data Reduction column will display Yes or No depending on if data reduction is enabled or not. No is also displayed for File Systems created on Dell UnityOS version 4.2 or later, and currently reside within a pool that does not support data reduction. The Advanced Deduplication column is available for configurations which support Advanced Deduplication and displays either Yes or No depending on the current state of Advanced Deduplication. The Data Reduction Savings (GB) column displays the amount of savings currently achieved within the File System. As data reduction savings are not removed when disabling data reduction on a storage resource, data reduction may be disabled, but savings still exist.

Data reduction information has also been added to the quick properties view of the File Systems tab on the File page. After selecting a File System, the right portion of the screen is populated with more information about the storage resource. In Error! Reference source not found., a data reduction enabled storage resource is selected. In the information provided in the right portion of the screen, you can determine if Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication are enabled and the current Data Reduction Savings on the selected resource. This is an easy way to review the current state of data reduction on a specific resource if the Data Reduction, Advanced Deduplication, and Data Reduction Savings (GB) columns are not shown. The -- designation, which is explained above, is also used when the storage resource selected does not support data reduction.

Figure 25.    File Page – File Systems Tab

VMware VMFS and NFS Datastores

To review the status of data reduction on each of the VMware VMFS and NFS Datastores created on the system, navigate to the VMware page, which can be accessed by selecting VMware under Storage in the left Unisphere pane. This page contains three columns specific for data reduction. The columns are Data Reduction, which shows if data reduction is enabled or not on the resource, Advanced Deduplication, which shows if Advanced Deduplication is enabled, and Data Reduction Savings (GB), which shows the amount of savings in GBs for the resource. To add these and other columns to the view, simply click the Gear Icon in the top right portion of the Datastores tab and select the columns to add under the Columns option. An example of this screen is shown in Error! Reference source not found..

When reviewing the Data Reduction, Advanced Deduplication, and Data Reduction Savings (GB) columns, the information provided depends on if the storage resource supports data reduction or not. For Thick NFS Datastores or NFS Datastores created on a code prior to Dell UnityOS version 4.2, -- is displayed in the columns to denote that the storage resource does not support data reduction. For Datastores which support data reduction, the Data Reduction column will display Yes or No depending on if data reduction is enabled or not. No is also displayed for Datastores which support data reduction, but currently reside within a pool that does not support data reduction. The Advanced Deduplication column is available for configurations which support Advanced Deduplication and displays either Yes or No depending on the current state of Advanced Deduplication. The Data Reduction Savings (GB) column displays the amount of savings currently achieved within the File System. As space savings are not removed when disabling data reduction on a storage resource, data reduction may be disabled, but savings still exist.

Data reduction information is also added to the quick properties view of the Datastores tab on the VMware page. After selecting a VMware Datastore, the right portion of the screen is populated with more information about the storage resource. In Error! Reference source not found., a data reduction enabled storage resource has been selected. In the information provided in the right portion of the screen, you can determine if Data Reduction and Advanced Deduplication are enabled, and the current Data Reduction Savings on the selected resource. This is an easy way to review the current state of data reduction on a specific resource if the Data Reduction, Advanced Deduplication, and Data Reduction Savings (GB) columns are not shown. The -- designation, which is explained above, is also used when the storage resource selected does not support data reduction.

Figure 26.    VMware Page – Datastores Tab