Finding first, then living off your (storage) body fat

By David Merrill on June 17th, 2009

Allocation rates to hosts are at a relatively high ratio (60-80% for some), but the underlying usage rate within the allocated volumes is much lower, around 30%
We have a banking client who is moving active volumes to be thin volumes, and is see a give back rate of usable capacity in the 35-45% range
Reclamation has everything to do with the OS and the applications that you are running
Reclamation and zero page reclaim tend to be seen as a one-time event, but periodic analysis of volumes and file systems is suggested
Incentives and encouragements are needed to get applications or users to move to thinned or virtualized environments
- Lower chargeback is always a good carrot
- Provisioning time can be much faster (even applications can provision themselves) and be a good motivator
- Let the storage consumer see the per-unit-cost-difference to the company with this new technology. Everyone is more socially and economically sensitive to spending these days

Try before you buy. Make sure the right approach for reclamation is what works best in your environment.

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