Creating storage pools

You can use the Hardware Management Console to create a volume-group-based or file-based storage pool on your managed system.

About this task

To create a volume-group-based storage pool, you must assign at least one physical volume to the storage pool. When you assign physical volumes to a storage pool, the Virtual I/O Server erases the information on the physical volumes, divides the physical volumes into physical partitions, and adds the capacity of the physical partitions to the storage pool. Do not add a physical volume to the storage pool if the physical volume contains data that you want to preserve.

To create storage pools, be sure you meet the following requirements:
  • The Hardware Management Console must be at version 7 release 3.4.2 or later.
  • The Virtual I/O Server must be at version 2.1.1.0 or later.
  • Ensure that there is a resource monitoring and control connection between the Hardware Management Console and the Virtual I/O Server.

To create a storage pool, complete the following steps in the Hardware Management Console:

Procedure

  1. In the navigation pane, click the Resources icon The icon represents the Resources function of the HMC.
  2. Click All Systems. The All Systems page is displayed.
  3. In the PowerVM area, click Virtual Storage. The Virtual Storage page lists the VIOS partitions in the Virtual Storage Management tab.
  4. Select a VIOS and click Action > Manage Virtual Storage.
  5. In the Virtual Storage Management page, click the Storage Pools tab and click Create Storage Pool.
  6. Enter a name for the storage pool and select the storage pool type.
  7. Enter or select the information required to create the volume-group-based or file-based storage pool, and click OK to return to the Storage Pools page.
    Note: The new storage pool appears in the table. If you select one or more physical volumes that might belong to a different volume group, the Hardware Management Console displays a warning message to indicate that adding them to the new storage pool can result in data loss. To create the new storage pool with the selected physical volumes, select the Force option, and click OK.