Defragmenting an Array

Use this option to consolidate all Free Capacity on a selected Array so that additional logical drives can be created from the maximum amount of free capacity. A fragmented Array can result from the deletion of logical drives or from not using the entire available free capacity in a Free Capacity node during logical drive creation.

Example: You have two logical drives, "New York" and "Dallas" of 2 GB each. You would like to create a new logical drive, "Chicago" of 2 GB in the same array. There is 2 GB of space available in the array, but it is split between two Free Capacity nodes that are not contiguous and cannot be organized into a single logical drive.

In order to create a new logical drive "Chicago" of 2 GB, you must first defragment the array so that the space in the two Free Capacity nodes is contiguous.


Important:

How to Defragment an Array

1 Select an array in the Logical View, then select either (1) the Array >> Defragment pull-down menu option, or (2) Defragment from the right-mouse pop-up menu.

Result: The Confirm Defragment dialog box is displayed.
2 Select Yes.

Result: All free data blocks on the Free Capacity nodes are consolidated into one Free Capacity node containing a larger set of contiguous data blocks. The Logical View is updated to display the larger, single Free Capacity node. You can select this Free Capacity node for logical drive creation.
Example: In the previous example, there were two Free Capacity nodes of 1 GB each in Array 2. After a Defragment Array operation, there is a resulting single Free Capacity node of 2 GB.