Hitachi Command Suite 8 User Guide

							Managing Hitachi NAS Platform file systems and sharesThis module describes how to create file systems and shares for Hitachi NASPlatform (HNAS) file servers.
About managing Hitachi NAS Platform file systems and shares The Hitachi NAS Platform family (HNAS) provides high performance fileserver capabilities using storage system volumes.
The Hitachi NAS Platform family (HNAS), managed using Systems
Management Unit (SMU), includes the following models:
• Hitachi NAS Platform 3080/3090 • Hitachi NAS Platform 3100/3200• Hitachi NAS Platform 4060/4080/4100
Note:  Model references will only be used if necessary, as in the case of
features supported on specific models.
When introducing a new file server, register the file server in Device Manager
by using file server management software, then allocate storage system
volumes to the file server to create file systems and shares.
Allocated volumes are stored in storage pools, and when you create or
expand a file system, capacity is added from the storage pool as needed.
HNAS tasks can be performed using SMU. Common tasks can also be
performed from the HCS GUI, for ease of use.
Depending on HNAS software versions, and the HCS version in use, tasks will
either describe using SMU, or describe using the HCS GUI.
When the management software of the file server is System Management
Unit (SMU) v10.1.3070 or later, you can:
• Create storage pools Create a storage pool using volumes (system drives) allocated to the file
server, and use the storage pool for file systems or cache.
If you are using Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later, you can create a
storage pool by specifying parity groups. Device Manager applies the best
practice for the storage pool configuration, and automatically allocates volumes and specifies the setting for writing to the system drives.
• Create file systems You can create a file system in a storage pool that consists of a collectionof volumes (system drives) allocated to the file server, and mount the file
system on Enterprise Virtual Server (EVS).
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							• Add file sharesYou can add file shares (CIFS Share or NFS Export) to file systems with
adequate free capacity for your purpose. If a file system does not have
adequate free capacity, it may be possible to expand the file system (see
below). A license related to file sharing functionality for file servers is
required.
• Expand file systems
You can use  Top 10 File Systems  from the dashboard to check for file
systems with a high capacity usage. If a file system is at risk of not having enough free capacity, you can add capacity:
• File systems whose allocation type is On Demand Allocation are allocated an appropriate amount of capacity as needed. File systemsexpand automatically until reaching a predefined maximum size. If the file system reaches this maximum size, you can manually set a higher
maximum size.
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							• File systems whose allocation type is Full Allocation should be expandedmanually. When expanding a file system, specifying a capacityimmediately allocates that capacity to the file system.
• Expand storage pools You can use  Top 10 File Server Storage Pools  from the dashboard to
check for storage pools with a high capacity usage. If a storage pool does
not have sufficient free capacity, allocate volumes (system drives) to the
file server by using Device Manager to expand the storage pool.
If you are using Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later, you can expand a
storage pool by specifying parity groups. Device Manager applies the best practice for the storage pool configuration, and automatically allocatesvolumes and specifies the setting for writing to the system drives.
• Review or edit managed items You can check the details of the target system drives, system drive
groups, storage pools, file systems, and file shares, and edit their settings.
For example, you can check the capacity of a file system or a storage pool,
or change the name of a storage pool.
• Mount/Unmount file systems File systems can be mounted and unmounted from Device Manager whenyou want to copy a file system or perform maintenance operations, such as changing EVS settings.
• Delete managed items You can delete file shares, file systems, and storage pools when necessary.If you delete a file system by using Device Manager, all file shares that are related to the target file system will also be deleted. If you delete a
storage pool, all the volumes that are related to the target storage pool
will also be deleted.
Related concepts
•
Allocating storage  on page 133
•
About registering and removing file servers  on page 75
Related tasks
•
Creating a NAS Platform file system  on page 245
•
Adding NAS Platform file shares  on page 251
•
Expanding a NAS Platform file system  on page 247
•
Changing NAS Platform file share settings  on page 252
•
Creating a NAS Platform storage pool (v11.3 or later)  on page 239
•
Expanding a NAS Platform storage pool (v11.3 or later)  on page 240
•
Creating a NAS Platform storage pool (earlier than v11.3)  on page 242
•
Expanding a NAS Platform storage pool (earlier than v11.3)  on page 243
•
Changing NAS Platform storage pool settings  on page 244
Related references •
Workflow for providing NAS Platform file shares  on page 234
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							•File share configuration examples on page 260
•
Conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools  on page 236
Workflow for providing NAS Platform file shares Use Device Manager to create files systems and files shares (CIFS or NFS
Export) when a Hitachi NAS Platform file server is managed using System
Management Unit (SMU) v10.1.3070 or later.Tip:  When a file server is managed by an SMU version earlier than
v10.1.3070, first allocate volumes to the file server by using Device Manager,
and then create file systems by using SMU.
The workflow for registering a file server to providing file systems and shares is indicated in the following figure:
• Register a file server
• Set Device Manager information
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							By setting Device Manager information in SMU, file server information
managed in SMU is sent to Device Manager to register file servers to be managed by Device Manager.
• Set Admin services EVS For Hitachi NAS Platform v10.2.3071 or later, using Device Manager, set
Admin services EVS information (IP address and user account for the
Server Control (SSC) of the file server) for each cluster.
• Create a storage pool Hitachi NAS Platform manages system drive volumes that are allocated toa file server and creates a storage pool by using required capacity from the system drives. The method depends on the version of Hitachi NASPlatform.
○ Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later
Using Device Manager, create a storage pool by specifying the parity
groups that have suitable performance and capacity for your storage
pool purposes. Device Manager automatically allocates volumes and
specifies the settings for writing to the system drives.
○ Hitachi NAS Platform earlier than v11.3
Create a volume on Device Manager and allocate the volumes to a file server. Then from Device Manager, open the SMU dialog box and create
a storage pool. If you are using a version of Hitachi NAS Platform earlier than v11.2, the system drives in the storage pool must belong to a
system drive group.
• Create a file system and add file shares Create a file system on the storage pool, and add file shares. The methoddepends on the version of Hitachi NAS Platform.
○ Hitachi NAS Platform v10.2.3071 or later
You can use Device Manager to create a file system and file shares at
the same time.
○ Hitachi NAS Platform earlier than v10.2.3071
Launch SMU from Device Manager to create a file system and add file
shares.Tip:  For SMU v10.2.3071 or later, if configuration changes or version
upgrades performed on the file server side are not applied to Device
Manager, use SMU to synchronize the information between the file server and
Device Manager.
Related concepts
•
About managing Hitachi NAS Platform file systems and shares  on page 231
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							•About registering and removing file servers on page 75
•
About allocating volumes  on page 188
Related tasks
•
Creating a NAS Platform file system  on page 245
•
Adding NAS Platform file shares  on page 251
•
Creating a NAS Platform storage pool (v11.3 or later)  on page 239
•
Creating a NAS Platform storage pool (earlier than v11.3)  on page 242
•
Allocating volumes to selected file servers  on page 194
Related references
•
File share configuration examples  on page 260
•
Conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools  on page 236
Conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools This topic describes the recommended conditions for parity groups fromwhich you configure storage pools when creating a storage pool in Hitachi
NAS Platform.
To maximize the file server performance and efficiently use the storage
capacity, use parity groups that meet the following conditions for creating or
expanding storage pools:
• The parity groups are not used by any server or cluster other than the target server or cluster.
• A volume has not been created or only one volume has been created by using the entire capacity of the parity group.
• There are two or more parity groups. Parity groups are needed for each creation or expansion operation.
• All parity groups have the same capacity. • All parity groups have the same attribute for the following: ○The system is an external storage system or internal storage system.
○ Drive type
○ Drive RPM
○ Chip Type
○ RAID level
If linking with Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later, when you select appropriate parity groups, Device Manager automatically creates or expands
a storage pool with the optimum configuration based on best practices for Hitachi NAS Platform.
Related references
•
Best practices for configuring storage pools  on page 237
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							Best practices for configuring storage poolsThis topic describes the best practices for configuring storage pools tomaximize the performance and reliability of Hitachi NAS Platform and toefficiently use as much of the storage capacity as possible.
Storage pool configuration greatly affects performance, reliability, capacity efficiency, and expandability of file systems used. Follow the best practices
suggested by Hitachi NAS Platform for creating or expanding a storage pool.
Following is an overview of the best practices.
• Number and capacity of volumes For creating or expanding a storage pool, separate out volumes from two
or more parity groups to ensure performance.
For using volumes for system drives, separate out fewer and larger
volumes from each parity group. It is recommended to use the entire
capacity of a parity group to create one volume. The reasons are:
○ Separating out many volumes from a parity group reduces performance.
○ When volumes that constitute a storage pool are small, the lower the
upper expansion limit becomes for a storage or file system.
In addition, the capacity of volumes that configure a storage pool needs to
be equal. If you use volumes with different capacities, some areas might
not be used and capacity efficiency deteriorates.
• Volume attributes Volumes that configure a storage pool must have the same attributes
(drive type, drive speed in RPM, chip type, RAID level, and whether the
drive is external or internal). If the attributes are different, overall performance is degraded by the volume with the lowest performance.
• Configuration of LUN paths If too many LUN paths exist between system drives and file server nodes,
the system might stop.
• Settings for writing to system drives You can achieve high I/O performance by specifying appropriate writesettings for the performance of the device for each storage system type. In addition, if the stripe size of volumes can be defined, specify a size thatis compatible with the characteristics of Hitachi NAS Platform to improve
data access efficiency.
• Chunk size of storage pools For Hitachi NAS Platform versions earlier than 11.2, you can specify the
chunk size when creating a storage pool. There is a limit to the number of
chunks that a file system can use. The chunk size affects the expandability of a file system. Small chunk sizes compromise expandability but have
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							better performance. Large chunk sizes have better expandability but
compromise performance.
If linking with Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later, Device Manager automatically creates or expands a storage pool with the optimum
configuration based on best practices. You just need to select parity groups
that meet the conditions. You do not need to configure volumes, paths, or
settings for writing to system drives.
Related references
•
Conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools  on page 236
Notes on NAS Platform file system capacity When creating a file system for Hitachi NAS Platform family, the file systemcapacity entered by a user might differ from the capacity that is actually created.
Below are recommendations for specifying file system creation parameters, and reasons why specified capacity and actual capacity may differ.
For Hitachi NAS Platform family, a file system is created in chunks. Therefore,
the actual capacity of a file system is a multiple of the chunk size.
If the file server is Hitachi NAS Platform v10.2.3071 or later, the value set for
File System Capacity is rounded down to the nearest multiple of a chunk and
displayed for Guideline Capacity as an approximation of the actual file system capacity. If you are creating a storage pool in Device Manager, the chunk size is set to 18 GB.
For example, if you specify 750 GB for File System Capacity, and then select
a storage pool whose chunk size is 18 GB, 738 GB is displayed for Guideline
Capacity.
When setting the file system capacity, consider the following recommendations:
• Create a file system with a capacity of 18 GB or more: If you set a value smaller than 18 GB for the file system capacity, themetadata area for managing the file system becomes large, and the actual
file system capacity might become much larger than the specified value.
• If the chunk size is large for the file system capacity, the value of Guideline Capacity can easily differ from the actual file system capacity. On the otherhand, if the chunk size is small, the maximum file system capacity also becomes small because the maximum number of chunks usable by the filesystem is limited.
If the free capacity of the selected storage system is smaller than the value specified for File System Capacity, a file system is created with the size of the
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							free capacity of the storage pool. Therefore, the actual file system capacitydiffers from the value of Guideline Capacity.Tip:  If you are using a version of Hitachi NAS Platform prior to v11.2,
consider the following recommendations:
• Create a chunk size of 1 GB or more.
• The size of a created chunk may not match the specified size. If you create a file system by using a storage pool that has this chunk size, the capacityof the file system also may not match the value of  Guideline Capacity.
For example, if you specify 10 GB for the chunk size when creating a storage pool, depending on the available capacity at the time of creation, a chunk
might be created with 9.8 GB instead of 10 GB. In addition, when you expandthe storage pool, depending on how much capacity you choose to expand, a
chunk might then be created with a chunk size (for example 10.3 GB) that
differs from the chunk size created originally (for example 9.8 GB). For this
reason, the capacity of a file system you can create varies depending on the
chunk that can be used when a file system is created.
Notes on setting LUN paths for NAS Platform
This topic describes recommended storage port guidelines when allocatingvolumes from storage systems to Hitachi NAS Platform.
Recommendations for volumes and storage ports include:
• Set the number of volumes to less than or equal to the maximum values allowed for the number of storage ports that are being used.
• If the I/O load on the file server is high, increase the number of storage ports to be used according to the number of volumes.
For VSP G1000, VSP, Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V/VM, and Hitachi Unified Storage VM, the maximum number of volumes that can be allocated
to a single file server (node) are:
• 64 x  number-of-storage-ports
For Hitachi USP:
• 32 x  number-of-storage-ports
For mid-range storage systems:
• 16 x  number-of-storage-ports
If the number of volumes exceeds the maximum value recommended,
system performance might be affected.
Creating a NAS Platform storage pool (v11.3 or later) Creating a storage pool on a cluster or a file server when the file server isHitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later.
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							Prerequisites
• For cluster configurations, identify the name of the target cluster • For non-cluster configurations, identify the name of the target file server
• For creating a storage pool, identify settings such as the storage pool name and capacity
• The file server must be registered in Device Manager
• Device Manager must be linked to Admin services EVS
• To improve performance, reliability, and capacity efficiency of storage pools, set conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools.
Procedure 1. On the  Resources  tab, select  File Servers > All File Servers .
2. Select the target cluster or file server.
3. Click  Create Storage Pool  and specify the required items.
4. Click  Show Plan  and confirm that the information in the plan summary
is correct. If changes are required, click  Back.
5. (Optional) Update the task name and provide a description.
6. (Optional) Expand  Schedule to specify the task schedule.
You can schedule the task to run immediately or later. The default setting
is  Now . If the task is scheduled to run immediately, you can select  View
task status  to monitor the task after it is submitted.
7. Click  Submit.
If the task is scheduled to run immediately, the process begins.
8. (Optional) Check the progress and result of the task on the  Tasks &
Alerts  tab. Click the task name to view details of the task.
Result
The storage pool is created on the NAS Platform file server.
Related concepts
•
About managing Hitachi NAS Platform file systems and shares  on page 231
Related tasks
•
Deleting NAS Platform storage pools  on page 245
Related references
•
Conditions for parity groups that are used in storage pools  on page 236
Expanding a NAS Platform storage pool (v11.3 or later) If the file server is Hitachi NAS Platform v11.3 or later and the capacity of a
storage pool is insufficient, expand the already created storage pool.
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