Dell PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide

Create virtual volumes

Perform the following steps to create virtual volumes:

1. Perform one of the following:
   • In the Pools topic, select a virtual pool in the pools table and select Action > Create Volumes.
   • In the Volumes topic, select Action > Create Virtual Volumes.
   The Create Virtual Volumes panel opens and shows the current capacity usage of each pool.

   NOTE:If a virtual pool does not exist, the option to create virtual volumes will be unavailable.
2. Optional: Change the volume name. The default is Voln, where n starts at 0001 and increments by one for each volume that has a default name. A volume name is case-sensitive and can have a maximum of 32 bytes. It cannot already exist in the system or include the following: " , < \
   If the name is used by another volume, the name is automatically changed to be unique. For example, MyVolume would change to MyVolume0001, or Volume2 would change to Volume3.
3. Optional: Change the volume size, including unit of measurement. You can use any of the following units: MiB, GiB, TiB, MB, GB, TB. The default size is 100 GB. See the System configuration limits topic in the PowerVault Manager help for the maximum volume size that the system supports.
   Volume sizes are aligned to 4.2 MB (4 MiB) boundaries. When a volume is created or expanded, if the resulting size is less than 4.2 MB it will be increased to 4.2 MB. A value greater than 4.2 MB will be decreased to the nearest 4.2 MB boundary.
4. Optional: Change the number of volumes to create. See the System configuration limits topic in the PowerVault Manager help for the maximum number of volumes supported per pool.
5. Optional: Specify a volume tier affinity setting to automatically associate the volume data with a specific tier, moving all volume data to that tier whenever possible. The default is No Affinity. For more information about the volume tier affinity feature, see About automated tiered storage.
6. Optional: Select the pool in which to create the volume. The system load-balances volumes between the pools so the default may be A or B, whichever contains fewer volumes.
7. Optional: To create another volume with different settings, click Add Row and then change the settings. To remove the row that the cursor is in, click Remove Row.
8. Click OK.
   If creating the volume will overcommit the pool capacity, the system prompts you to configure event notification to be warned before the pool runs out of physical storage.
9. If the virtual volume exceeds the capacity:
   1. Click OK to continue. Otherwise, click Cancel. If you clicked OK, the volumes are created and the volumes table is updated.
   2. To close the confirmation panel, click OK.