PowerMax and VMAX All Flash Solutions Design (Auto-provisioning Groups Overview + Data Reduction) Flashcards

1
Q

What is the purpose of auto-provisioning groups on PowerMax and VMAX?

A

unable users to group initiators, FE ports, and devices together and build masking views for them

reduces complexity and chance of error

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2
Q

What happens when a masking view is created with auto-provisioning groups?

A

necessary mapping and masking operations are performed automatically to provision storage

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3
Q

What happens after a masking view exits with auto-provisioning groups?

A

any changes to the grouping propagate throughout the view

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4
Q

What are the 4 kinds of auto-provisioning groups?

A

Initiator Group
Port Group
Storage Group
Masking View

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5
Q

What is an Initiator Group (IG)?

A

collection of host initiators (HBAs) that are used together

contains WWN and IQN of host initiators

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6
Q

What is a Cascaded IG?

A

an IG that contains other IGs

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7
Q

What is a Port Group (PG)?

A

collection of FE director ports that are used together

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8
Q

What is a Storage Group (SG)?

A

collection of storage volumes/devices grouped together

can contain either volumes/devices or child Storage Groups but not both simultaneously

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9
Q

What is a Masking View?

A

helpful in provisioning storage and making changes to storage presentation

making changes to any of the groups automatically updates the masking view making provisioning easier

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10
Q

How is auto-provisioning managed in PowerMax/VMAX?

A

Unisphere/SYMCLI

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11
Q

What does the symaccess command do?

A

performs all necessary auto-provisioning needs for IGs, PG, SGs, and Masking Views

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12
Q

What is the symsg command used for?

A

does a lot of what symaccess can do

used for auto-provisioning and w/ FAST operations

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13
Q

What are the limitations on IGs?

A

may contain either HBAs or child IGs but not both simultaneously

initiator can belong to one IG at a time but once initiator is added to IG that IG can become part of another IG

port flags are set at the IG level

FCID lockdown is set per initiator basis

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14
Q

What are the limitations on FGs?

A

FE ports may belong to more than one PG

before a port can be part of a PG ACLX flag must be enabled on it

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15
Q

What are the limitations on SGs?

A

can either contain devices or other SGs but not both

logical volume can belong to more than one SG

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16
Q

What is the limit on Initiator Groups?

A

up to 64 initiators or child IGs per IG

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17
Q

What is the limit on PGs?

A

up to 16,000 PGs per array

up to 32 ports per PG

up to 16,000 devices per director

up to 4,000 LUN addresses per director

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18
Q

What is the limit on SGs?

A

up to 16,000 SGs per array

up to 64 child SGs per SG

up to 4,000 devices per SG

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19
Q

What is the limit on Masking Views?

A

up to 16,000 masking views per array

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20
Q

What are the parts of a Cascaded Storage Group?

A

Parent SG
Child SG

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21
Q

What is a Parent SG?

A

SG that contains other SGs

cannot contain devices directly - inherits the child SG devices

cannot inherit same device from more than one child

masking view only permitted on parent SG

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22
Q

What is a child SG?

A

contain devices only

can only be contained in a single parent SG

used for setting SRP, SL and workload type

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23
Q

What does the symaccess command do for SGs?

A

creates SG and simultaneously adds devices or child SGs

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24
Q

What does the symsg command do for SGs?

A

enables you to create an empty SG

enables you to set SL, workload type, and Host IO limits

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25
Q

What is an SRP?

A

Storage Resource Group

26
Q

When you create a SG w/ Unisphere what is the SRP assigned?

A

default SRP

27
Q

When you create a SG w/ SYMCLI what is the SRP assigned?

A

SRP not assigned to SG unless specified

28
Q

When you create a SG w/ Unisphere what is the SL assigned?

A

default is Diamond

29
Q

When you create a SG w/ SYMCLI what is the SL assigned?

A

no SL is assigned unless specified

30
Q

What is true about Workload Type feature?

A

no longer used w/ PMax or VMAX

31
Q

What is true about compressed data on PowerMax/VMAX?

A

encrypted in real time

32
Q

Where is data reduction applied in PMax/VMAX?

A

SG level

33
Q

What is the data path for data reduction on PMax/VMAX?

A

data reduced as it moved from system cache to BE drives using data reduction IO module on each director

34
Q

What happens if the hardware IO module fails on a PowerMax director?

A

software based reduction is used

35
Q

How is PowerMax data reduction performance optimized?

A

ensures that most active data is not compressed

36
Q

What is the difference between PowerMax and VMAX data reduction?

A

PowerMaxOS running on PowerMax give compression and deduplication

PowerMax OS running on VMAX gives compression only

37
Q

What is a crucial sizing piece for data reduction?

A

cache sizing

38
Q

What is the IO Data Reduction module on PowerMax?

A

Data Reduction Module

39
Q

What is the IO Data Reduction module on VMAX?

A

Compression Module

40
Q

What is the Adaptive Compression Engine (ACE)?

A

intelligent algorithms that learn from incoming workloads and dynamically create a customized BE

ACE changes BE compression pool layout as needed to ensure optimal performance levels

41
Q

How do the algorithms work on ACE?

A

identify busiest data in the system and leaves it uncompressed, minimizing decompression overhead

42
Q

What is the compression algorithm on PowerMax?

A

Deflate

43
Q

What is the compression algorithm on VMAX?

A

LZS

44
Q

Between PowerMax and VMAX which one has Extended Data Compression (EDC)?

A

PowerMax

45
Q

What is Extended Data Compression (EDC)?

A

compresses data that is already compressed

46
Q

What metrics must data meet to be further compressed by EDC ?

A

data that has not been accessed for 30 days qualifies for EDC

belong to a data reduction enabled SG

must not already have been compressed by EDC

47
Q

What SRP Type supports data reduction on PowerMax/VMAX?

A

Open Systems (FBA) SGs

48
Q

What SRP Type does not support data reduction on PowerMax/VMAX?

A

mainframe (CKD) SGs

mixed FBA and CKD SGs

SRPs w/ external flash (FAST .X)

49
Q

When is CloudArray supported w/ data reduction?

A

when using VMAX as long as a different SRP is used

50
Q

How does deduplication work on PowerMax?

A

pointers used to replace the redundant copies of data and provide access to multiple sources for subsequent requests

51
Q

What is the Hardware Acceleration piece of PowerMax deduplication?

A

inline process using same methods as ACE

data passes through IO module to create unique Hash ID

52
Q

What is the Deduplication Algorithm piece of PowerMax deduplication?

A

identifies identical patterns based on Hash ID

performs as data passes through data reduction module

53
Q

What is the Hash Table piece of PowerMax deduplication?

A

unique Hash IDs stored in system memory

representation of data in a deduplication relationship

54
Q

What is the Deduplication Management Object (DMO) piece of PowerMax deduplication?

A

only exists when deduplication relationship exists

stores and manages pointers between FE devices and the single instance of data stored on disk

55
Q

What is the limit on DMOs?

A

5 pointers or less per DMO before new one is created

56
Q

What is the write IO flow on PowerMax/VMAX?

A

writes stores in cache when immediately received from host

at later point destaged to disk

57
Q

How is write IO flow on PowerMax w/ data reduction?

A

cache destages to data reduction IO module instead of disk

module compresses data and creates random Hash ID

IO engine check if Hash ID exists

compressed data written to BE TDAT and hash linked to it

58
Q

What is duplicate write IO flow w/ on PowerMax?

A

duplicate write done to a different TDEV

data reduction module compresses data and generates dedupe hash

hash table checked and duplicate is recognized

data does not need to be destaged - pointer in the table is updated w/ new write

59
Q

What is the default data reduction setting on PowerMax/VMAX?

A

compression on by default - can be turned off by SG

60
Q

How is compression enabled on a cascaded SG?

A

enabling compression on the parent SG enables it on all the child SGs

can disable compression per child if user wishes