Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

Disk Management

Storage Center manages both physical disks and the data movement within the virtual disk pool. Disks are organized physically, logically, and virtually.

• Physically – Disks are grouped by the enclosure in which they reside, as shown in the Enclosures folder.
• Logically – Disks are grouped by class in disk folders. Storage Center enclosures may contain any combination of disk classes.
• Virtually – All disk space is allocated into tiers. The fastest disks reside in Tier 1 and slower drives with lower performance reside in Tier 3. Data that is accessed frequently remains in Tier 1, and data that has not been accessed for the last 12 progression cycles is gradually migrated to Tiers 2 and 3. Data is promoted to a higher tier after three days of consistent activity. Disk tiering is shown when you select a Storage Type.

For SCv3000, SC5020, and SC7020 storage systems, Storage Center uses the Automatic Drive Placement function to manage drives automatically. When configuring a storage system, Storage Center manages the disks into folders based on function of the disk. FIPS-certified Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) are managed into a separate folder than other disks. When Storage Center detects new disks, it manages the disk into the appropriate folder.

In Storage Center version 7.3 and later, the Automatic Drive Placement function can be turned on or off for all Storage Centers (except SCv2000 series storage systems) using the Storage Center Storage settings.