Lenovo S3200 Quick Start Manual page 4

Lenovo Storage S3200 with Fibre Channel
The Lenovo Storage S3200 can contain as many as 192 drives ranging from NL SAS to
SSDs depending on performance and storage capacity needs. The S3200 also offers
Intelligent Real-Time Tiering that can optimize storage performance, reduce cost, and
simplify management. Features also include SSD read cache, virtualized storage pools,
snapshots, and thin provisioning. With 6.4 GBps maximum sequential read throughput
and 5.3 GBps maximum sequential write throughput at a 512KB block size, the Lenovo
Storage S3200 can handle most workloads with a single dual-controller enclosure at an
affordable price.
Thin Provisioning
In supported operating systems (recent versions of Linux, VMWare, and Windows), thin
provisioning can create a very large volume that only uses the space on disk that is
required while leaving the other disk space for other volumes. This allows you to have a
setup that can expand and grow over time as needed and allows for several scenarios
that can save time and money.

Allows for provisioning a larger volume than should be needed to accommodate
any future growth that is unexpected

Fewer drives may be purchased initially with the plan for buying more as needed
o Drive prices reduce over time and the size of drives continues to
increase, meaning in 2 years you can purchase a larger drive for less
money

No more estimating what an application will need for storage
o A larger value can be used and if an application doesn't use it, no space
is wasted
We tested thin provisioning on the storage array for this validation.
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