Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

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Storage Profiles for Standard Storage Types

The table below summarizes the storage profiles available for standard storage types. Each profile is described in more detail following the table.

Storage profiles for standard storage types
Name	Initial Write Tier	Tier (T) and RAID Levels	Progression
Recommended (All Tiers)	1	Writes: T1 RAID 10 Snapshots: RAID 5/RAID 6	Yes - to all Tiers
High Priority (Tier 1)	1	Writes: T1 RAID 10 Snapshots: T1 RAID 5/RAID 6	No
Medium Priority (Tier 2)	2	Writes: T2 RAID 10 Snapshots: T2 RAID 5/RAID 6	No
Low Priority (Tier 3)	3	Writes: T3 RAID 10 Snapshots: T3 RAID 5/RAID 6	No

NOTE:The Recommended, High Priority, and Medium Priority profiles are not available for the Flash Optimized storage type.

Recommended (All Tiers)

The Recommended storage profile is available only when data progression is licensed. Cost and performance are optimized when all volumes use the Recommended storage profile. The Recommended profile allows automatic data progression between and across all storage tiers based on data type and usage.

When a volume uses the Recommended profile, all new data is written to Tier 1 RAID level 10 storage. Data progression moves less active data to Tier 1 RAID 5/ RAID 6 or a slower tier based on how frequently the data is accessed. In this way, the most active blocks of data remain on high-performance drives, while less active blocks automatically move to lower-cost, high-capacity SAS drives.

Because SSDs are automatically assigned to Storage Tier 1, profiles that include Storage Tier 1 allow volumes to use SSD storage. If you have volumes that contain data that is not accessed frequently, and do not require the performance of Tier 1 SSDs, use a Medium or Low Priority profile or create and apply a new profile that does not include Storage Tier 1.

High Priority (Tier 1)

The High Priority storage profile provides the highest performance by storing data on Tier 1. It is efficient in terms of using RAID 5 or 6, but it uses more expensive media to store the data. A volume created using the High Priority profile stores written data on Tier 1 RAID 10. Snapshot data is stored on Tier 1 RAID 5/RAID 6. Storage Center does not migrate data to lower storage tiers unless Tier 1 storage becomes full.

If data progression is not licensed, the default storage profile is High Priority. Without data progression, you must configure volumes to use a specific tier of storage, because data will not migrate between tiers.

Medium Priority (Tier 2)

The Medium Priority storage profile provides a balance between performance and cost efficiency. A volume created using the Medium Priority profile stores written data on Tier 2 RAID 10. Snapshot data is stored on Tier 2 RAID 5/RAID 6. Storage Center does not migrate data to other storage tiers unless Tier 2 storage becomes full.

Low Priority (Tier 3)

The Low Priority profile provides the most cost efficient storage. Creating a volume using the Low Priority profile stores written data on Tier 3 RAID 10. Snapshot data is stored on Tier 3 RAID 5/6. Storage Center does not migrate data to higher tiers of storage unless Tier 3 storage becomes full.