Learn About Creating Storage Partitions

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After you have organized your total storage capacity into logical drives, you must then consider how to share those logical drives among hosts in the storage subsystem. In this release of the storage management software, hosts with different operating systems (heterogeneous hosts ) can share access to a storage subsystem through the use of Storage Partitioning.

A storage partition is a logical entity consisting of one or more storage subsystem logical drives that can be shared among hosts, which may be part of a host group or accessed by a single host. A storage partition is created when you define a collection of hosts (a host group ) or a single host and then define a logical drive-to-LUN mapping . This mapping allows you to define what host group or host will have access to a particular logical drive in your storage subsystem.

Benefits of using storage partitions include ease of management, amortization of costs, scalability, and flexibility.

Important: Storage Partitioning is a premium feature of the storage management software and, therefore, must be enabled either by you or your storage vendor supplier. There is a maximum number of storage partitions that can be created on the storage subsystem depending on the premium feature that has been enabled.

For a tutorial detailing how to use Storage Partitioning, see the Storage Partitioning Tutorial.

Storage Partition Icon

The Storage Partition icon , when present in the Topology View, indicates a storage partition has been defined for a host group, or a host. This icon is also displayed in the status bar of the Mappings View window when storage partitions are enabled.

How to Define Storage Partitions

There are three major steps to defining storage partitions:

1

Create logical drives on the storage subsystem. During logical drive creation, specify one of two logical drive-to-LUN mapping settings:

Automatic

This setting specifies that a LUN should be automatically assigned to the logical drive. This setting allows host groups or hosts that do not have specific logical drive-to-LUN mappings (designated by the Default Group node in the Mappings View) to have access to the logical drive.

If storage partitions are not required, choose this setting.

Map later with Storage Partitioning

This setting specifies that a LUN not be assigned to the logical drive. This setting allows you to define a specific logical drive-to-LUN mapping and create storage partitions using the Mappings >> Define >> Storage Partitioning pull-down menu option from the Mappings View.

If storage partitions are required, choose this setting.

For more information, see Learn About Creating Logical Drives and Arrays.

2

Define the storage partition topology including host groups, hosts, and host ports that access the logical drives. For more information, see Learn About Defining Storage Partition Topology.

3

Grant logical drive access to defined host groups or hosts by defining logical drive-to-LUN mappings, using the Storage Partitioning Wizard. Each host group or host is granted a unique view of partitioned storage and is identified with a storage partition icon .

A defined host group or host can either access:

  • Logical Drives with default logical drive-to-LUN mappings. In this case, the host group or host is part of the Default Group.

    -OR-

  • Logical Drives to which they have been granted access through a specific logical drive-to-LUN mapping.

For more information, see Learn About Granting Logical Drive Access to Hosts and Host Groups.

Related Topics

Learn About Using the Mappings View

Using the Storage Partitioning Wizard