When you create a volume, you can designate that it is thin-provisioned to save capacity for the volume. A thin-provisioned volume has different virtual capacity and a real capacity.
When you create a volume, you can designate that it is thin-provisioned to save capacity for the volume. A thin-provisioned volume has different virtual capacity and a real capacity.
The virtual capacity of a thin-provisioned volume is typically significantly larger than its real capacity. Each system uses the real capacity to store data that is written to the volume, and metadata that describes the thin-provisioned configuration of the volume. As more information is written to the volume, more of the real capacity is used.
Thin-provisioned volumes can also help simplify server administration. Instead of assigning a volume with some capacity to an application and increasing that capacity as the needs of the application change, you can configure a volume with a large virtual capacity for the application. You can then increase or shrink the real capacity as the application needs change, without disrupting the application or server.