D-Link DSN-626 User Manual - Page 97

D-Link Document - User Manual Volume Volume Whole System Traditional Fat Provisioning Actual Physical Available space Thin provisioning sometimes is known as just-in-time capacity or over allocation. As the term explains itself, it provides storage space by requests dynamically. Thin provisioning presents more storage space to the hosts or servers connecting to the storage system than is actually available on the storage system. Put it in another way. Thin provisioning allocates storage space that may or may not exist. The whole idea is actually another way of virtualization. Virtualization is always about a logical pool of physical assets and provides better utilization over those assets. Here the virtualization mechanism behind thin provisioning is a storage pool. The capacity of the storage pool is shared by all volumes. When write requests come in, the space will be drawn dynamically from this storage pool to meet the needs. Volume Volume Whole System Thin Provisioning Actual Physical Thin provisioning Available space Disks not The Benefits of Thin provisioning The benefits of Thin provisioning are described below.  Less disk purchase is needed initially when setting up a new storage system. You don't need to buy more capacity to meet your future data growth. Usually hard drive price declines as time progresses. You can buy the same hard drives with cheaper price at a later time. Why not save money upfront while you can?  No stranded storage capacity, better utilization efficiency and lower total cost of ownership. Thin provisioning can make full use of the stranded capacity that traditional provisioning can't. All free capacity can be made available to other hosts. A single storage system can serve more hosts and servers to achieve high consolidation ratio. Thin provisioning can help you achieve the same Copyright@2014 D-Link System, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 97