Pool specifications and requirements

Provisioning Guide for Mainframe Systems for VSP One Block 85

Version
10.5.x
File Size
1619 KB
Audience
anonymous
Part Number
MK-26VSP1B034-03
ft:lastEdition
2026-06-23

A pool is a set of volumes reserved for storing Dynamic Provisioning write data.

The following table lists and describes the requirements and specifications for pools.

Items

Requirements and specifications

Pool capacity Calculate pool capacity using this formula:

Capacity of the pool (MB) = total-number-of-pages * 38 - 3800.

3800 in the formula is the management area size of the pool-VOL with System Area.

Total Number of pages = Σ(floor(floor(pool-VOL number of blocks / 116) / 672)) for each pool-VOL.

where

  • 1 cylinder = 1740 blocks
  • floor( ): Truncates the value calculated from the formula in parentheses after the decimal point (that is, round down to nearest whole number).

The minimum capacity for a single pool is 8 GB.

The maximum capacity for a single pool is as follows:

  • A pool configured with external volumes: 927 TB
  • A pool configured with internal volumes: 695 TB

However, the upper limit of total capacity of all pools is 15.0 PB on each storage system if shared memory is installed.

Maximum number of pool-VOLs From 1 to 1,024 volumes (per pool).

A volume can be registered as a pool-VOL to one pool only.

Maximum number of pools Up to a total of 128 pools per storage system. The 128 pools include these pool types:
  • Dynamic Provisioning
  • Dynamic Provisioning for Mainframe

Pool IDs (0 to 127) are assigned as pool identifiers.

Increasing capacity You can increase pool capacity dynamically. Best practice is to add pool-VOLs to increase capacity by one or more parity groups.
Reducing capacity You can reduce pool capacity by removing pool-VOLs.
Deleting You can delete pools that are not associated with any DP-VOLs or with any Thin Image Advanced pairs or Thin Image Advanced snapshot data.
Subscription limit 0 through 65534 (%).

You can set the subscription limit to Unlimited by leaving this field blank.

Thresholds
  • Warning Threshold: You can set the value between 1% and 100%, in 1% increments. The default is 70%.
  • Depletion Threshold: You can set the value between the Warning Threshold and 100%, in 1% increments. The default is 80%.

If the pool used-capacity is equal to or greater than the warning threshold or the depletion threshold, a service information message (SIM) is issued by the storage system.

Thresholds cannot be defined for a pool with data direct mapping enabled.

Data allocation unit 38 MB

The 38-MB page corresponds to a 38-MB continuous area of the DP-VOL. Pages are allocated for the pool volumes only when data has been written to the area of the DP-VOL.