Dell Unity: Managing FAST VP Auto Tiering Relocation Through Unisphere CLI

This article explains:

• Providing information about managing the auto tiering in Unity hybrid storage pools through Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI)
• Briefly explaining FAST VP

Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools (FAST VP) functionality is available in traditional, hybrid pools. It is not applicable to dynamic pools.

FAST VP enables the system to retain the most frequently accessed or important data on fast, high-performance drives. It moves the less frequently accessed and less important data to lower performance, cost-effective drives.

FAST VP:

• Fast VP monitors the usage of the data in a tiered pool. Tiered pools are heterogeneous pools that are configured with multiple classes of drives (SAS Flash 2 or SAS Flash 3, plus SAS or NL-SAS).
• Depending on the tiering policy, uses the monitoring statistics to automatically relocate data chunks, at 256 MB granularity, to other tiers within the pool. 
• Performs load balancing across the drives in tiered and nontiered pool

System-level settings:

• View system FAST VP information:

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/fastvp show -detail

Storage system address: 10.0.0.1
Storage system port: 443
HTTPS connection

1: Paused = no
Schedule enabled = yes
Frequency = Every Mon, Fri at 22:30 until 8:00
Rate = high
Data to move up = 4947802324992 (1.5T)
Data to move down = 4947802324992 (1.5T)
Data to move within = 4947802324992 (1.5T)
Estimated scheduled relocation time = 7h 30m

 

• Edit system FAST VP information:

Format :
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/fastvp set [-schedEnabled {yes | no}] [- days ] [-at ] [-until ] [-rate {low | medium | high}] [-paused {yes | no}]

For example, the following command changes the data relocation schedule to run on Mondays and Fridays from 23:00 to 07:00:
uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/fastvp set -schedEnabled yes -days "Mon,Fri" -at 23:00 -until 07:00

Pool-level settings:

• View pool FAST VP settings:

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/pool/ fastvp –show -detail
Storage system address: 10.0.0.1
Storage system port: 443
TTPS connection

1: Pool = pool_1
Relocation type = manual
Status = Active
Schedule enabled = no
Start time = 2013-09-20 12:55:32
End time = 2013-09-20 21:10:17
Data relocated = 100111454324 (100G)
Rate = high
Data to move up = 4947802324992 (4.9T)
Data to move down = 4947802324992 (4.9T)
Data to move within = 4947802324992 (4.9T)
Data to move up per tier = Performance: 500182324992 (500G), Capacity: 1000114543245 (1.0T)
Data to move down per tier = Extreme Performance: 1000114543245 (1.0T), Performance: 500182324992 (500G)
Data to move within per tier = Extreme Performance: 500182324992 (500G), Performance: 500182324992 (500G), Capacity: 500182324992 (500G)
Estimated relocation time = 7h 30m

 

• Edit pool FAST VP settings to have it follow the system-level schedule or not (making it under manual relocation):

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/pool/fastvp {-pool | -poolName } set -schedEnabled {yes | no}

 

• Start data relocation on a pool:

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/pool/fastvp {-pool | -poolName } start [-rate {low | medium | high}] [-endTime ]

Default rate is medium
Default end time is 8 hours after start
If you want to edit the end time, add the time in HH:MM format

 

• Stop data relocation on a pool:

uemcli -d 10.0.0.1 -u Local/joe -p MyPassword456! /stor/config/pool/fastvp {-pool | -poolName } stop