As this is an old(ish) thread, and not many people keep track off comment feeds, I thought Id give my penny's worth based on what Ive seen as well as what people have told me -

A lot places have so far stuck with standard LUN sizes that they already present (e.g. 5GB 10GB 25GB and 50GB).  They do this for two main reasons that I hear -

• 1. Keeps things simple. Especially while they get to know and trust HDP and also while they still have older frames that they do not run HDP on and do not have its flexibility.
• 2. Makes migrating in LUNs from older arrays via UVM easier.
• 3. Actually a 3^rd reason – some folks are running "Classical" provisioning as well as HDP on the same frame, and keeping with existing "standard" LUN sizes feels sensible for some of them.

(Dont confuse the DBAs and Server guys by giving them too much choice for LUN size etc)

However, some people are starting to talk a little more about changing the way they provision now that dynamic expansion and Zero Page Reclaim has hit the streets.  Most of my experience was prior to these features being available.  But like all new technologies and new approaches, people like to look before they leap, especially for mission critical apps.

Quite a few people seem to very open to the notion of presenting all external storage through the USP V as HDP.  But are less likely to take this approach with more performant internal capacity, and like to keep some reserved internal capacity for performance applications and as a general safeguard.

Im not seeing or hearing about a lot of people (I cant think of any off the top of my head) writing small file systems to DP-VOLs and expanding them on when needed.  Most people I know are not overly keen on the over-provisioning aspect of the technology and see the almost micro-management of file systems on DP-VOLs as going against the inherent benefit of simplified and quicker LUN provisioning.

With the additions of Dynamic volume expansion and Zero Page Reclaim I expect the things might start to change a little more.

I have a question for the community, here:Does the usage of HDP change how your provisioning process?

For instance, do you deploy very large V-VOLs, then create small file systems?  (that would allow you to grow them later – non-disruptively)

Or does it change anything at all?

I'm hoping to put an early draft up for download this coming week.  Its a very early draft as with some empty chapters that I havent had a chance to write yet. 

Im wanting to tout other folks with experience who feel they can add content to step up and contribute content as well as feedback.

I'll drop you a mail this week later on listing some of the chapters that need more content if you're interested.  Same goes for you snig.Im also open to ideas on additional chapters etc….

Let me know if you're interested.

Nigel

BTW I have another doc on the go – USPV Unofficial Manual.  Might need some contributing authors though.