Capacity overview charts and information

Review the capacity charts and metrics to monitor storage usage and to identify the pools with the highest rates of storage consumption. The type of storage system determines the metrics that are displayed.

Overview charts

Usable Capacity

For block storage systems, usable capacity is the amount of capacity that is available for storing data on a storage system, pool, array, or managed disk after formatting and RAID techniques are applied. It includes all the storage that the system can be virtualized and assigned to pools.

This information is displayed in a donut chart that includes the following metrics:
Used Capacity
The amount of capacity that is used on the storage system after capacity savings. The system calculates the stored capacity by subtracting the available capacity and any reclaimable capacity from the total capacity that is allocated to managed disks. To calculate the percentage, the stored capacity is divided by the total capacity that is allocated to managed disks. On the donut chart, the used capacity is displayed in both the capacity value and as a percentage.
Available Capacity
The available capacity plus the total reclaimable capacity on the storage system. To calculate the percentage of available capacity on the storage system, the available capacity is divided by the total amount of capacity that is allocated to managed disks. On the donut chart, the available capacity is displayed in both the capacity value and as a percentage.
Total Capacity
All the capacity that is available on the storage system.

Capacity Savings

For block storage systems, use the following information in Capacity Savings to monitor the amount of capacity that is saved by using deduplication, thin provisioning, and the data compression capabilities of the storage system.
Data Reduction
The ratio of capacity that is written by applications, compared to the capacity that is stored on the storage system after written data is compressed, deduplicated, or both. The value zero is displayed if the storage system contains no data reduction.
Availability: Storage systems that run IBM Storage Virtualize 8.5.1 or later.
Total Savings
The ratio of all the capacity savings after data reduction and thin-provisioning compared to the capacity that is stored on the storage system after data is compressed, deduplicated, or both. The value zero is displayed if the storage system contains no total savings.
Availability: Storage systems that run IBM Storage Virtualize 8.5.1 or later.
Total Provisioned
The total capacity of all volumes that are created on the storage system, which includes volumes that are not mapped to hosts.
Get more views of Usable Capacity and Capacity Savings:
  • To get a capacity breakdown of the storage system by pool and the fill and growth rate for each pool, click the kebab menu (three vertical dots) Usable Capacity and select View capacity by pool.
  • To get a capacity breakdown of the storage system by volume, click the kebab menu (three vertical dots) in Usable Capacity and select View capacity by volume.
  • To view the capacity savings of a storage system with data reduction metrics and savings summary that includes duplication, thin provisioning, drive compression, and pool compression, click View more in Capacity Savings. If a capacity limit was set, you can hover over the capacity chart and check how much available capacity you have left before you reach the capacity limit.

Storage systems with block and file storage

The following information is shown for storage systems that have both block and file storage, such as Dell EMC Unity and NetApp ONTAP 9:

Overview charts
  • The Capacity section shows how much capacity is used and how much capacity is available for storing data.
  • The Provisioned Capacity section shows the written capacity values in relation to the total provisioned capacity values before data reduction techniques are applied:
    • % Written: The capacity of the data that is written to the volumes as a percentage of the total provisioned capacity of the volumes. In the illustration of the Provisioned Capacity chart, the written capacity as a percentage of the total provisioned capacity is 60.60%.
    • GiB Available: The amount of capacity that is still available for writing data to the thin-provisioned volumes. It is the difference between the provisioned capacity and the written capacity, which is the thin-provisioning savings. In the illustration of the Provisioned Capacity chart, 5,175.64 GiB out of a total provisioned capacity of 13,137.70 GiB is still available for writing data.
  • The Capacity Savings section shows the amount of capacity that is saved by using deduplication, thin provisioning, and the data compression capabilities of the storage system.
Get more views of Capacity, Provisioned Capacity, and Capacity Savings:
  • To get a breakdown of the capacity usage by pool or volume, click the links in each section. For example, on the Block Storage Systems page, double-click a storage system, and then click View capacity by pool. You get a capacity breakdown of the storage system by pool, and you see the fill and growth rate for each pool.
  • To view the capacity savings of a storage system with data reduction metrics and savings summary that includes duplication, thin provisioning, drive compression, and pool compression, click View capacity savings. If a capacity limit was set, you can hover over the capacity chart and check how much available capacity you have left before you reach the capacity limit.