eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by VNXeLUNCapTest

Thin provisioning, also known as virtual provisioning or thin storage, is an on-demand storage allocation based on user requirements in storage area networks (SAN), centralized storage disks, and storage virtualization systems.

In thin storage, as the user consumes their allocated storage space, they are allocated more. Alternatively, when they free up space, by deleting files or transferring data, the idle space is reclaimed, repurposed and used for other workloads in need of storage.

In comparison to thin provisioning, thick provisioning (also called fat provisioning) pre-allocates storage space in anticipation of future capacity requirements. While both thin and thick provisioning are methods of storage allocation, the difference lies in how the Logical Unit Number (LUN) is configured. A storage administrator should always be up to date with the LUN configuration in their environment as well as the capacity of the LUNs. To aid administrators in figuring out the capacity of thousands of LUNs in a much shorter duration, eG Enterprise offers the VNXeLUNCapTest.

Using this test, administrators can figure out if the LUN is thin provisioned or not. Also, this test throws light on total capacity and the allocated capacity of each LUN. This way, administrators can figure out the LUN that is allocated with more storage resources. This test also helps administrators figure out the total capacity of each LUN in the storage pool.

Outputs of the test:One set of results for each Storage Processor: LUN combination on the target storage system being monitored

Descriptor:Storage Processor

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
isThin Indicates whether/not thin provisioning is enabled for this LUN.  

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalents are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
No 0
Yes 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not thin provisioning is enabled on each LUN. The graph of this measure however is represented using the numeric equivalents only i.e., 0 or 1.
lunSize Indicates the overall capacity of this LUN. GB

 
allocated Indicates the total storage capacity that is currently allocated to this LUN. GB

Compare the value of this measure across LUNs to figure out the LUN that is allocated with more storage capacity.
unAllocated Indicates the amount of storage capacity that is yet to be allocated to this LUN. GB

 
poolSizeUsed Indicates the total capacity of this LUN in the storage pool. GB

If the LUN is thin-provisioned, then, the value of this measure is the sum of Allocated measure, the Snapshot size used by the LUN and the Space used for metadata of the LUN.

If the LUN is not thin-provisoned, then , the value of this measure is the sum of total LUN size, Snapshot used by the LUN and the Space used for metadata of the LUN.