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Dell PowerVault ME5 Series Administrator's Guide

Disk groups

A disk group is an aggregation of disks of the same type, using a specific RAID level for the purpose of storing volume data. Disk groups are used in both virtual and linear storage environments and are added to pools to configure storage.

A pool is an aggregation of one or more disk groups that serves as a container for volumes. Disk groups and pools are mutually inclusive. A pool cannot exist without at least one disk group in it, and you cannot create a disk group without selecting the pool it will reside in.

NOTE Clarification of pool and disk group terms:
  • For linear storage, a storage pool can contain only one disk group; therefore the disk group is the pool, and the two terms are interchangeable.
  • For virtual storage, a pool can contain multiple disk groups; therefore the pool and disk group terms are different and distinct.
  • For hybrid storage, support is provided for either linear and virtual storage paradigms; so each of the above definitions applies to its corresponding storage type within the system.

All disks in a disk group must be the same type (SSD, enterprise SAS, or midline SAS). A disk group can contain disks with different capacities, sector formats, and models. If you mix disks with different capacities, the smallest disk determines the logical capacity of all other disks in the disk group regardless of RAID levels except ADAPT. For example, the capacity of a disk group composed of one 1.2 TB disk and one 2.4 TB disk is equivalent to a disk group composed of two 1.2 TB disks. To maximize disk usage, use disks of similar size.

The PowerVault Manager configuration options that display when you are creating disk groups and pools are dependent on whether you are operating in a virtual storage environment or a linear storage environment.

NOTE After you create a disk group using one storage environment, the system will use that storage environment for additional disk groups. To switch storage environments, you must first remove all disk groups.

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