Unisphere and Unisphere Central 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

Create a Volume and Map it to a Windows Server

You can create a volume, map it to a Windows server, format it, and mount it on the server in one operation.

1. If a Storage Center is selected from the drop-down list in Unisphere Central, click (Home).
   The Unisphere CentralHome page is displayed.
2. From the STORAGE menu, click Servers.
   The Servers view is displayed.
3. Click the Registered Servers tab.
4. Select the Windows server on which to create the volume.
5. Click (More Actions) and select Create Windows Volume.
   The Create Windows Volume dialog box opens.
6. Enter a name for the volume in the Label field. The name is displayed as the disk label in Windows.
7. Select a unit of storage from the drop-down menu and enter the size for the volume in the Total Space field. The available storage units are kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), and terabytes (TB).
8. Select the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated for a file in the Allocation Size drop-down menu. The default allocation value is dependent on the size of the volume.
9. Select how to format the volume from the Format Type drop-down menu:
   • GPT: Formats the volume using the GUID Partition Table disk partitioning scheme.
   • MBR: Formats the volume using the master boot record disk partitioning scheme.
10. Specify how to mount the volume in the Drive or Mount Point area:
    • Use Next Available Drive Letter: The volume is mounted on the server using the next unused drive letter.
    • Drive Letter: The volume is mounted on the server using the drive letter selected from the drop-down menu. To update the list of drive letters that are available on the server, click Refresh.
    • Mount Point: The volume is mounted to an empty folder on the server. The path to the folder must be entered in the text field. To verify the path entered is valid, click Verify mount point is available.
11. Select the Storage Center on which to create the volume.
    • To manually choose a Storage Center, select it from the Storage Center drop‑down menu.
    • To automatically choose a Storage Center based on capacity and performance, click Recommend. The drop-down menu displays the recommended Storage Center.
12. If you want to specify a custom LUN, restrict mapping paths, configure multipathing, or make the volume read-only, click Advanced Mapping.
13. To configure settings for the Storage Center volume that will be created, click Volume Settings. In the Volume Settings dialog box that appears, modify the options as needed, then click OK.
    1. Select the folder in which to create the volume from the Volume Folder drop-down menu.
    2. Type notes in the Notes field as needed.
    3. To schedule snapshot creation and expiration for the volume, apply one or more Snapshot Profiles by clicking Change across from Snapshot Profiles.
    4. To enable caching for reads on the volume, select the Enabled check box across from Read Cache.
    5. To enable caching for writes on the volume, select the Enabled check box across from Write Cache.
    6. To enable compression on eligible data in the volume, select a Data Reduction Profile from the drop-down list.
    7. To use specific tiers and RAID levels for volume data, select the appropriate Storage Profile from the Storage Profile drop-down menu. Using the Recommended Storage Profile allows the volume to take full advantage of data progression.
    8. If more than one Storage Type is defined on the Storage Center, select the Storage Type to provide storage from the Storage Type drop-down menu.
       To use a QoS profile, select a Volume QoS Profile or Group QoS Profile from the drop down lists.
14. Click OK.