HP P4000 9.0 HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN Solution User Guide - Page 205

12 Using volumes A volume is a logical entity that is made up of storage on one or more storage systems. It can be used as raw data storage or it can be formatted with a file system and used by a host or file server. Create volumes on clusters that contain one or more storage systems. Before creating volumes, plan your strategies for using the volume: how you plan to use it, its size, how servers will access it, and how you will manage backups of the data, whether through Remote Copy or third-party applications, or both. Volumes and server access After you create a volume, assign it to one or more servers to provide access to volumes by application servers. For detailed information, see Chapter 16 on page 257. Prerequisites Before you create a volume, you must have created a management group and at least one cluster. For more information, see the following: • Chapter 8 on page 145 • "Creating additional clusters" on page 177 Planning volumes Planning volumes takes into account multiple factors. • The number of volumes you need • The type of volumes you are creating - primary or remote • The size for each volume • Whether you plan to use snapshots • The level of data protection required • Whether you plan to grow the volume, or leave it the same size NOTE: If you plan to mount file systems, create a volume for each file system you plan to mount. Then grow each file system independently. Planning how many volumes For information about the recommended maximum number of volumes and snapshots that can be created in a management group, see "Configuration Summary overview" on page 151. P4000 SAN Solution user guide 205