Thick, Thin, and Static Volumes
 |
Volume Type |
||
---|---|---|---|
Static |
Thick |
Thin |
|
Summary |
Best overall read/write performance, but does not support most advanced features |
Good balance between performance and flexibility |
Enables you to allocate storage space more efficiently |
Read/write speed |
Fastest for random writes |
Good |
Good |
Flexibility |
Inflexible A volume can only be expanded by adding extra drives to the NAS. |
Flexible A volume can easily be resized. |
Very flexible A volume can be resized. Also unused space can be reclaimed and added back into the parent storage pool. |
Parent storage space |
RAID group |
Storage pool |
Storage pool |
Volumes allowed in parent storage space |
One |
One or more |
One or more |
Initial size |
Size of the parent RAID group |
User-specified |
Zero Storage pool space is allocated on-demand, as data is written to the volume. This is called thin provisioning. |
Maximum size |
Size of the parent RAID group |
Size of the parent storage pool |
Twenty times the amount of free space in the parent storage pool The size of a thin volume can be greater than that of its parent storage pool. This is called over-allocation. |
Effect of data deletion |
Space is freed in the volume |
Space is freed in the volume |
QTS can reclaim the space and add it back into the parent storage pool. |
Method of adding storage space |
|
Allocate more space from the parent storage pool |
Allocate more space from the parent storage pool |
Snapshot support (fast backup and recovery) |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Qtier (automatic data tiering) support |
No |
Yes |
Yes |