Chapter 22. Managing Virtual Data Optimizer volumes using the web console

Procedure

1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

   For details, see Logging in to the web console.

2. Click Storage.
3. Click the + button in the VDO Devices box.
4. In the Name field, enter a name of a VDO volume without spaces.
5. Select the drive that you want to use.

6. In the Logical Size bar, set up the size of the VDO volume. You can extend it more than ten times, but consider for what purpose you are creating the VDO volume:

   • For active VMs or container storage, use logical size that is ten times the physical size of the volume.
   • For object storage, use logical size that is three times the physical size of the volume.

   For details, see Deploying VDO.

7. In the Index Memory bar, allocate memory for the VDO volume.

   For details about VDO system requirements, see System Requirements.

8. Select the Compression option. This option can efficiently reduce various file formats.

   For details, see Enabling or disabling compression in VDO.

9. Select the Deduplication option.

   This option reduces the consumption of storage resources by eliminating multiple copies of duplicate blocks. For details, see Enabling or disabling compression in VDO.

10. [Optional] If you want to use the VDO volume with applications that need a 512 bytes block size, select Use 512 Byte emulation. This reduces the performance of the VDO volume, but should be very rarely needed. If in doubt, leave it off.
11. Click Create.

Procedure

1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console. For details, see Logging in to the web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. Click the VDO volume.
4. Click on the Unrecognized Data tab.
5. Click Format.

6. In the Erase drop down menu, select:

   Don’t overwrite existing data

   The RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. The advantage of this option is the speed of formatting.

   Overwrite existing data with zeros

   The RHEL web console rewrites the whole disk with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole disk. Use this option if the disk includes any data and you need to rewrite them.

7. In the Type drop down menu, select a filesystem:

   • The XFS file system supports large logical volumes, switching physical drives online without outage, and growing. Leave this file system selected if you do not have a different strong preference.

     XFS does not support shrinking volumes. Therefore, you will not be able to reduce volume formatted with XFS.

   • The ext4 file system supports logical volumes, switching physical drives online without outage, growing, and shrinking.

   You can also select a version with the LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) encryption, which allows you to encrypt the volume with a passphrase.

8. In the Name field, enter the logical volume name.

9. In the Mounting drop down menu, select Custom.

   The Default option does not ensure that the file system will be mounted on the next boot.

10. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
11. Select Mount at boot.

12. Click Format.

    Formatting can take several minutes depending on the used formatting options and the volume size.

    After a successful finish, you can see the details of the formatted VDO volume on the Filesystem tab.

13. To use the VDO volume, click Mount.

Procedure

1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

   For details, see Logging in to the web console.

2. Click Storage.
3. Click your VDO volume in the VDO Devices box.
4. In the VDO volume details, click the Grow button.
5. In the Grow logical size of VDO dialog box, extend the logical size of the VDO volume.

1. Click Grow.