Demo: Thin Reclamation for Symantec Storage Foundation

This is an older video I shot from late last year with Chakri Avala from Symantec and and Karl Swarz for 3PAR demoing how thin reclamation for Symantec Storage Foundation works. Storage demos like this are a bit like watching grass grow, but storage admins will get the idea of how file system-integrated reclamation works.

Comments

[Richard Siemers]

I love the idea of the operating system talking to the storage to unallocate unused chunklets automatically. I don't like the idea of being locked into Symantec software because their product/pricing/maintenance model is confusing and cumbersome. Storage Foundations is quite an oversized hammer to use if all you want to do is drive a "thin reclamation" nail.

I hope as thin provisioning becomes more main stream, the host-to-storagae communication API will become a standard, and this premium functionality will become built in to windows, linux and aix operating systems.

[marc farley]

Hi Richard, there is standards work underway in the ANSI T10 committee for two programmatic interfaces - WRITE SAME and UNMAP. Different file systems, databases, etc will likely implement these at some point, but it makes sense that Symantec, as a storage focused company, would do this first.