Manual Chapter : Disk Management for Datastor

Applies To:

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BIG-IP AAM

  • 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0, 14.0.1, 14.0.0, 13.1.5, 13.1.4, 13.1.3, 13.1.1, 13.1.0, 13.0.1, 13.0.0, 12.1.5, 12.1.4, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0
Manual Chapter

Disk Management for Datastor

About disk management

You can use disk management to allocate dedicated disk space for the datastor service, which increases the data storage that BIG-IP® Application Acceleration Manager™ (AAM™) uses for deduplication. Additional disk space is available in the following deployments.

  • If you are installing BIG-IP AAM Virtual Edition, you can select an extra disk deployment configuration.
  • Selected higher-end BIG-IP AAM platforms support the use of solid-state drives (SSDs) that come in a dual-disk drive sled and are installed along with hard disk drives.

Task summary

Perform these tasks to configure disk management for Application Acceleration Manager™ (AAM™).

Task list

Provisioning extra VE disk for datastor

Before beginning this procedure, you must have licensed and configured BIG-IP® Application Acceleration Manager™ (AAM™) Virtual Edition (VE).
If you selected one of the extra disk options when you configured BIG-IP AAM VE, you must manually allocate the disk space to the datastor service, after you delete the datastor application volume from the primary disk. Datastor cannot span the primary disk and the extra disk.
  1. On the Main tab, click System > Resource Provisioning .
    You must de-provision AAM before you can delete the datastor allocation from the primary disk.
  2. In the Provisioning column. clear the Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) check box.
  3. Click Submit.
  4. Click OK to proceed.
    The BIG-IP system restarts without AAM in the configuration, which might take a minute or so.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. On the Main tab under System, click Disk Management.
  7. In the Logical View area, click HD1.
    The General Properties screen opens for the primary disk.
  8. In the Contained Application Volumes area, select the check box for Datastor, and click Delete.
  9. On the Disk Management screen, click HD2.
    The General Properties screen opens for the extra disk.
  10. In the General Properties area, for the Mode setting, select Datastor.
  11. Click Update.
  12. On the Main tab under System, click Resource Provisioning.
  13. In the Resource Provisioning (Licensed Modules) area, from the Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) list, select a provisioning setting that applies to your environment.
  14. Click Submit.
  15. Click OK to proceed.
    The BIG-IP system restarts with AAM in the configuration, which may take a minute or so.
  16. Click Continue.
The datastor is now allocated to the extra disk. You can verify the result by checking the Disk Management screen.

Provisioning solid-state drives for datastor

Before beginning this procedure, you must have licensed Application Acceleration Manager™ (AAM™).
By default, datastor, which is the data storage used for optimization, is provisioned on the primary hard disk drive (HDD). To use solid-state drives (SSDs) on BIG-IP® AAM, you must manually allocate the disk space on each SSD to the datastor service. If you install SSDs after you have provisioned AAM, you must first de-provision AAM, and then delete the datastor application volume from the primary disk, before you assign the datastor service to the SSD volume.
  1. On the Main tab, click System > Resource Provisioning .
  2. In the Provisioning column. clear the Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) check box.
  3. Click Submit.
  4. Click OK to proceed.
    The BIG-IP system restarts without AAM in the configuration, which might take a minute or so.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. On the Main tab under System, click Disk Management.
  7. If the Logical View shows Datastor allocation on HD1, delete it by performing the following steps.
    If datastor is not allocated to HD1, skip this step.
    Note: Datastor does not span the primary disk and the SSDs. If datastor is allocated to the primary disk, it will not use the SSDs.
    1. Click the disk label, for example HD1.
      The General Properties screen opens for the logical disk you selected.
    2. In the Contained Application Volumes area, select the check box for Datastor, and click Delete.
  8. On the Disk Management screen, click the SSD disk label, for example, SSD1.
    The General Properties screen opens for the logical disk you selected.
  9. For the Mode setting, select Datastor.
  10. Click Update.
  11. Repeat the datastor selection steps for each SSD displayed on the Disk Management screen.
  12. On the Main tab under System, click Resource Provisioning.
  13. In the Resource Provisioning (Licensed Modules) area, from the Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) list, select Nominal.
  14. Click Submit.
  15. Click OK to proceed.
    The BIG-IP system restarts with AAM in the configuration, which might take a minute or so.
  16. Click Continue.
The datastor service is now allocated to the SSDs. The datastor volume spans the installed SSDs. You can verify the result by checking the Disk Management screen. The logical view displays the datastor allocation for each disk.

Monitoring SSD usage

If you are using solid-state drives (SSDs) for datastor, you can view the SSD allocation and monitor the SSD lifespan.
  1. On the Main tab under System, click Disk Management.
  2. Use the Disk Management screen to view details about the SSDs, including the following.
    • To view the general properties of a disk, in the Logical View area, click the disk label.
    • In the Physical View area, note which bays contain the SSDs.
    • In the Data Disks area, view the Media Wearout Indicator to monitor disk usage.