Owner's Manual

32 iSCSI Cluster Setup for EqualLogic Storage Systems
A Dell EqualLogic PS-series storage group can be segregated into multiple
tiers or pools. Tiered storage provides administrators with greater control over
how disk resources are allocated. At any one time, a member can be assigned
to only one pool. It is easy to assign a member to a pool and to move a
member between pools with no impact to data availability. Pools can be
organized according to different criteria, such as disk types or speeds,
RAID levels, and application types.
In Figure 5-2, pools are organized by member RAID levels:
• One pool with the name RAID-10 consists of RAID 10 members
• One pool with the name RAID-5 consists of RAID 5 members
Creating Volumes
Before data can be stored, the physical disks of the Dell EqualLogic
PS5000XV storage array must be configured into usable components,
known as volumes. A volume represents a portion of the storage pool, with a
specific size, access controls, and other attributes. A volume can be spread
across multiple disks and group members. The volume is seen on the network
as an iSCSI target. Volumes are assigned to a pool and can be easily moved
between pools, with no impact to data availability. In addition, based on the
overall workload of the storage hardware resources within the pool, automatic
data placement and automatic load balancing occurs within a pool.