Reclaiming Space of Unused Volume

Identifying Unmapped (Orphans) Volumes

Over time, as servers connected to a SAN get decommissioned, administrators find an increasing number of unmapped volumes that are no longer used by any server. These volumes, while unused, still occupy disk space in the storage system. Being able to identify such unmapped volumes and reclaim the disk space uselessly consumed by them will help administrators avoid unnecessary upgrades and extensions of their storage system.

To list the volumes in a storage system that are not mapped to any server and therefore safe to remove, right-click the disk storage system icon > KM Commands > Reporting > LUNs Mapping Table. Whether a volume is actually mapped or not is also shown in the infobox of each volume instance.

UseCase_Unused_Volume_Infobox

Volume Properties - Infobox tab

Identifying Unused Volumes

When a server is decommissioned or reconfigured, its associated volumes can stay mapped preventing storage administrator from accurately identifying unused volumes. Since the KM monitors permanently the traffic on each volume, it becomes easy to detect those for which the activity is null.

1.	Create a PATROL Query in the PATROL Console to show the value of the TimeSinceLastActivity parameter of the SEN_XIV_VOLUME class; In the PATROL Central Operator task pad menu bar, click Action > New Query…

UseCase_Unused_Volume_Query_General

PATROL Query – General Tab

2.	Enter the Query name (example: Unused Volumes)

3.	Enter the Query description (optional)

4.	In the Query Results Filter section, select Show Selected Objects and check the Parameters box

5.	In the Additional Filtering, select the Application Class level filtering and the Enable Parameter level filtering options

6.	Open the Application Class tab

UseCase_Unused_Volume_Query_Class

PATROL Query – Application Class Tab

7.	In the Pattern Matching section, select Like and type SEN_XIV_VOLUME

8.	Open the Parameter tab

UseCase_Unused_Volume_Query_Param

PATROL Query – Parameter Tab

9.	In the Pattern Matching section, select Like and type TimeSinceLastActivity

10.	Click OK to display a list of the monitored volumes and their respective number of days since when the KM has not recorded any activity.

UseCase_Unused_Volume_Query_Result

PATROL Query – Results

The value collected for this parameter upon the first collect reflects the number of days since any activity occurred on the volume for the time observed by the KM, i.e. this first collected metric might not reflect the actual absence of activity on the volume.