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Dell EMC Metro node 7.1 CLI Guide

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virtual-volume create

Creates a virtual volume on a host device.

Contexts

All contexts.

Syntax

 virtual-volume create
  [-r|--device] context-path  
  [-t|--set-tier] tier
  [-n | --thin] 
  [-i | --initialize]
  [--confirm-init] 
  [--verbose]

Arguments

Required arguments
[-r | --device] context-path * Device on which to host the virtual volume.
Optional arguments
[-t | --set-tier] tier Set the storage-tier for the new virtual volume.
[-n | --thin] Specifies whether to create a thin-enabled virtual volume or not.
[-i | --initialize]Initializes the virtual volume by erasing 10 MB of the initial storage blocks. This prevents the virtual volume from retaining old or stale data. This must be used along with the confirm-init option.
[--confirm-init]

Confirms the initialization process on the virtual volume. This must be used along with the initialize option.

* - argument is positional.

Description

A virtual volume is created on a device or a distributed device, and is presented to a host through a storage view. Virtual volumes are created on top-level devices only, and always use the full capacity of the device or distributed device.

The underlying storage of a virtual volume may be distributed over multiple storage volumes, but appears as a single contiguous volume.

The specified device must not already have a virtual volume and must not have a parent device.

Use the --set-tier argument to set the storage tier for the new virtual volume.

Table 1. virtual-volume field descriptions
Field Description
block count The number of blocks in the volume.
block size The size of a single block, in kilobytes.
cache-mode Synchronous (write-through).
capacity The total number of bytes in the volume. Equals the block-size multiplied by the block-count.
NOTE The capacity of a virtual volume on which the initialization process has failed will be 0.
thin-capable Determines whether the virtual volume is thin-capable or not.
thin-enabled Determines whether the virtual volume is configured as thin-enabled.
consistency-group The name of the consistency group to which this volume belongs, if any.
expandable-capacity Excess capacity not yet exposed to the host by the virtual volume. This capacity is available for expanding the virtual volume.
  • Zero (0) - Expansion is not supported on the virtual volume or that there is no capacity available for expansion.
  • Non-zero - The capacity available for virtual volume expansion using the storage-volume method.
expansion-method The expansion method that can be used to expand the virtual volume.
  • concatenation - The virtual volume can be expanded only by adding the specified extents.
  • not-supported - The virtual volume cannot be expanded.
  • storage-volume - The virtual volume can be expanded using storage array based volume expansion or by migrating to a larger device.
expansion-status Expansion status for the volume.
  • - - None of the other expansion states apply. No operation is blocked by this state.
  • failed - An expansion has failed. The expansion has failed and the expansion must be re-tried. If the expansion is not retried this state will persist for up-to 2 days. See health-indications for more information.
  • When an expansion fails, the overall health, operational-status, or service-status of the virtual-volume is not degraded.
  • in-progress - An expansion has been started, but has not completed. The following operations are blocked on the volume: additional expansion, migration, and NDU.
  • unknown - Metro node could not determine the expansion status of the volume.
health-indications Indicates the reasons for:
  • A health-state that is not 'ok'
  • The reasons for the failure of virtual volume expansion or initialization.
health state
  • major failure - One or more of the virtual volume's underlying devices is out-of-date, but will never rebuild.
  • minor failure - One or more of the virtual volume's underlying devices is out-of-date, but will rebuild.
  • non-recoverable error - Metro node cannot determine the virtual volume's Health state.
  • ok - The virtual volume is functioning normally.
  • unknown -Metro node cannot determine the virtual volume's Health state, or the state is invalid.
initialization-status Status of the initialization process on the virtual volume.
  • success - Indicates that the initialization process is completed successfully.
  • failed - Indicates that the initialization process is failed.
  • in-progress - Indicates that the initialization process is in progress.
  • unknown - Indicates that the initialization process remains in a status other than success, failed, or in-progress.
NOTE If initialization is requested during the creation of the virtual volume, you must wait until the initialization process is completed successfully to use the virtual volume. If the initialization process fails, restart the process by using the virtual-volume re-initialize command.
locality
  • local - The virtual volume relies completely on storage at its containing cluster.
  • remote - The virtual volume is a proxy for a volume whose storage resides at a different cluster. I/O to a remote virtual volume travels between clusters.
  • distributed - The virtual volume is the cluster-local representation of a distributed RAID-1. Writes to a distributed volume travels to all the clusters at which it has storage; reads come, if possible, from the local leg.
operational status
  • degraded - The virtual volume may have one or more out-of-date devices that will eventually rebuild.
  • error - One or more of the virtual volume's underlying devices is hardware-dead.
  • ok - The virtual volume is functioning normally.
  • starting -The virtual volume is not yet ready.
  • stressed - One or more of the virtual volume's underlying devices is out-of-date and will never rebuild.
  • unknown - Metro node cannot determine the virtual volume's Operational state, or the state is invalid.
scsi-release-delay A SCSI release delay time in milliseconds. Optimum value is 0 to 2 seconds. Setting a very high value could break the SCSI semantics. If another reserve arrives at this cluster within this time frame, neither release nor reserve will be sent across the WAN.
service-status The service status of a virtual-volume.
  • running - I/O is running for the virtual-volume.
  • inactive - The virtual-volume is part of an inactive storage-view and is not visible from the host.
  • unexported - The virtual-volume is unexported.
  • suspended - I/O is suspended for the virtual-volume.
  • cluster-unreachable - Cluster is unreachable at this time.
  • need-resume - Issue re-attach to resume after link has returned.
storage-array-family The family of the storage array from which the virtual volume was created.
storage-tier The storage-tier for the virtual volume.
supporting-device The local, remote, or distributed device underlying this virtual volume.
system-id The internal system ID for the storage.
volume-type Always virtual-volume.
vpd-id The VPD identifier for the virtual volume.

About storage tier IDs

The storage-tier identifier is displayed to the host as part of the virtual volumes’s product ID.

Use the storage-tier identifier to logically group storage.

For example, assign Symmetrix arrays as tier 1 storage, and CLARiiON as tier 2 storage.

Use the ll command in a specific virtual volume’s context to display the current storage-tier.

Use the set command to modify a virtual volume’s storage-tier.

Examples

In the following example:

  • The virtual-volume create command creates a new virtual volume,
  • The cd command navigates to the new virtual volume’s context,
  • The ll command displays the new virtual volume:
    VPlexcli:/> virtual-volume create --device /distributed-storage/distributed-devices/r0_C1_VATS_00001_vol 
    
    
    VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-1/virtual-volumes> cd r0_C1_VATS_00001_vol
    VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-1/virtual-volumes/r0_C1_VATS_00001_vol> ll
    Name                        Value
    --------------------------  ----------------------------------------
    block-count                 20971520
    block-size                  4K
    cache-mode                  synchronous
    capacity                    80G
    consistency-group           -
    expandable                  true
    expandable-capacity         0B
    expansion-method            storage-volume
    expansion-status            -
    health-indications          []
    health-state                ok
    initialization-status       success
    locality                    local
    operational-status          ok
    scsi-release-delay          0
    service-status              unexported
    storage-array-family        clariion
    storage-tier                -
    supporting-device           r0_C1_VATS_00001
    system-id                   r0_C1_VATS_00001_vol
    thin-capable                false
    thin-enabled                unavailable
    volume-type                 virtual-volume
    vpd-id                      VPD83T3:6000144000000010200ecb6260b7ac42
    
    
    
    VPlexcli:/clusters/cluster-1/virtual-volumes/r0_C1_VATS_00001_vol>

See Also

  • virtual-volume destroy
  • virtual-volume expand
  • virtual-volume provision
  • virtual-volume reinitialize

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