Data Domain: How To Calculate Usable Storage | Active Tier

Summary: This article explains how disk capacity is calculated for the active tier in Data Domain systems and how RAID 6 overhead reduces usable capacity. It does not apply to other storage tiers. ...

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Instructions

Raw storage capacity is the total capacity of the storage in a system. Due to RAID 6 overhead and disk drive formatting, a system does not use the raw capacity amount for data storage.
 
The basic calculation for disk overhead on a RAID 6 configuration is as follows: 
(N - 2) x Smin

N = Number of disks "in use" in the disk group (DG) array
2 = Number of disks used for parity overhead space inherent with all RAID 6
Smin = Minimum disk size in the array (after formatting).
 
  1. Determine the number of drives (N) in each disk group by running the command "storage show all", or look in an AutoSupport (Data Domain - Gathering Autosupports) under the "Detailed Storage Layer" heading. Drives in spare state (Data Domain - Spare Disks) are not counted, as they are not used for storage. There is no option to use spare drives for storage.
    Example output: 
    ==========  DETAILED STORAGE LAYER  ==========

Storage Show All
----------------
Active tier details:
Disk      Disks      Count   Disk       Additional
Group                        Size       Information
-------   --------   -----   --------   -----------
dg2       3.2-3.15   14      2.7 TiB
dg1       2.2-2.15   14      2.7 TiB
(spare)   2.1        1       2.7 TiB
(spare)   3.1        1       2.7 TiB
-------   --------   -----   --------   -----------

Current active tier size: 65.4 TiB
Active tier maximum capacity: 392.9 TiB
  2. Determine the disk size (Smin) in each disk group by running the command "disk show hardware", or look in an AutoSupport under the "Disk Show Hardware" heading. The "Capacity" column indicates the storage available after formatting.
    Example output: 
    Disk Show Hardware
------------------
Disk         Slot   Manufacturer/Model                         Firmware   Serial No.                 Capacity    Type
(enc/disk)
----------   ----   ----------------------------------------   --------   ------------------------   ---------   --------
1.1          1      P400e200-MTFDDAK200MAR_________118033108   0158       12350352845B               186.3 GiB   SATA-SSD
1.2          2      P400e200-MTFDDAK200MAR_________118033108   0158       123503528460               186.3 GiB   SATA-SSD
1.3          3      P400e200-MTFDDAK200MAR_________118033108   0158       123503528474               186.3 GiB   SATA-SSD
2.1          0      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CMAC____000093172ASW   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.2          1      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CDD9____00009317HJBL   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.3          2      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CDNK____00009317HH9X   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.4          3      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CD5E____00009317HL3Z   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.5          4      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CDEN____000093172154   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.6          5      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295C8PZ____00009317HBLT   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.7          6      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295E63Y____00009313EW1B   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.8          7      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CDWJ____0000931721AA   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.9          8      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z29579ZC____00009313DYSR   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.10         9      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295J2F4____00009317HEAD   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.11         10     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z294BREA____000092501BTZ   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.12         11     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295C4AG____00009317HBU5   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.13         12     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295J1CB____00009313EGDQ   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.14         13     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295CD8S____00009317HL4K   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.15         14     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z295J0PK____00009313E0FG   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.1          0      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2944STC____00009233FCZH   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.2          1      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2944SCV____0000924919JN   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.3          2      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NMEP____0000924919DN   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.4          3      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2944S9Q____000092501CHR   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.5          4      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2940ZDR____00009234RWL8   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.6          5      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2941G6P____00009234RWCP   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.7          6      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293ZK3Z____00009234GLDX   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.8          7      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NLWQ____000092501GML   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.9          8      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NLZK____00009234GKT8   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.10         9      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2944SCW____00009249MHKJ   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.11         10     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z2944SJR____00009233NT4P   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.12         11     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NMF6____00009234G26B   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.13         12     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NLJM____000092501BTS   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.14         13     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NLXN____000092501HXS   2.7 TiB     SAS
3.15         14     SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000                   YS1E       Z293NKNK____00009234RLER   2.7 TiB     SAS
----------   ----   ----------------------------------------   --------   ------------------------   ---------   --------
33 drives present.
  3. Basic formula for calculating usable storage capacity. In the example above: 
    DG1
(14 - 2) x 2.7 = 32.4 TiB

DG2
(14 - 2) x 2.7 = 32.4 TiB

DG1 + DG2 = 64.8 TiB
    The raw capacity of the system is 75.6 TiB, and the usable storage is 64.8 TiB.
 

Example: Calculation for a DD system with five ES30 shelves containing 2.7 TiB disks

ES30 2.7 TiB Disks
2.1          0      SEAGATE ST3000NXCLAR3000   GS1F       Z1Y3N2AR   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.2          1      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000   YS1E       Z293KJ3F   2.7 TiB     SAS
2.3          2      SEAGATE ST330006CLAR3000   YS1E       Z293FEN1   2.7 TiB     SAS
...
5.15         14      SEAGATE ST3000NXCLAR3000   YS1E       Z1Y3N2SN   2.7 TiB     SAS
 
Raw data for an ES30 shelf is the total disk space in the shelf before any formatting or RAID overhead: 
15 drives x 2.7 TiB =  40.5 TiB
 
Every ES30 shelf has 15 drives total: 12 data drives + 2 parity drives (RAID 6) + 1 spare. Calculated RAID 6 overhead leaves 12 working drives per shelf.
Calculated maximum FS capacity presented to active tier: 
12 working drives x 2.7 TiB = 32.4 TiB
32.4 TiB x 5 shelves = 162 TiB
 
Actual maximum usable capacity in active tier volume: 
# storage show all
...
Current active tier size: 163.7 TiB
 
Convert active tier maximum volume capacity to GiB: 
163.7 TiB = 167,628.8 GiB
 
Note: Final numbers in calculation differ slightly from command output due to decimal rounding. 
# filesys show space
Active Tier:
Resource           Size GiB   Used GiB   Avail GiB   Use%   Cleanable GiB*
----------------   --------   --------   ---------   ----   --------------
/data: pre-comp           -   256793.5           -      -                -
/data: post-comp   163438.2     6336.2    157102.0     4%             12.6
/ddvar                 29.4       19.6         8.3    70%                -
/ddvar/core           338.5        7.8       313.5     2%                -
----------------   --------   --------   ---------   ----   --------------
 
This usable (GiB) capacity will be further reduced as the filesystem index grows.

Affected Products

Data Domain

Products

Data Domain
Article Properties
Article Number: 000010749
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 07 Jan 2026
Version:  6
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