This post describes the Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) configuration using the Cockpit web console.
Create VDO volumes
1. Log in to the OL 8 cockpit web console.
2. Click Storage.
3. Click the + icon in the VDO Devices box.
4. In the Name field, enter a name of a VDO volume without spaces.
5. Select the drive.
6. In the Logical Size bar, set up the size of the VDO volume.
7. In the Index Memory bar, allocate memory for the VDO volume.
8. Select the Compression option. This option can efficiently reduce various file formats.
9. Select the Deduplication option. This option reduces the consumption of storage resources by eliminating multiple copies of duplicate blocks.
10. [Optional] To use the VDO volume with applications that need a 512 bytes block size, select Use 512 Byte emulation.
11. Click Create.
If the process of creating the VDO volume succeeds, the new VDO volume can be seen in the Storage section and format it with a file system.
Format VDO volumes
1. Click on the new VDO volume.
2. Click on the Unrecognized Data tab.
3. Click Format.
4. In the Erase drop down menu, select:
Don’t overwrite existing data
The OL web console rewrites only the disk header. The advantage of this option is the speed of formatting.
Overwrite existing data with zeros
The OL 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 that needs to be rewritten.
5. In the Type drop-down menu, select a filesystem:
The XFS file system supports large logical volumes, switching physical drives online without an outage, and growing. Leave this file system selected if there is no strong preference. XFS does not support shrinking volumes. Therefore, it will not be possible to reduce the volume formatted with XFS. The ext4 file system supports logical volumes, switching physical drives online without an outage, growing, and shrinking. It is also possible to select a version with the LUKS (Linux Unified Key Setup) encryption, which allows encryption of the volume with a passphrase.
6. In the Name field, enter the logical volume name.
7. 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.
8. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
9. Select Mount at boot.
10. Click Format. Formatting can take several minutes depending on the used formatting options and the volume size. After a successful finish, the details of the formatted VDO volume can be seen in the Filesystem tab.
11. To use the VDO volume, click Mount. At this point, the system uses the mounted and formatted VDO volume.
Extend VDO volumes
1. Click VDO volume in the VDO Devices box.
2. In the VDO volume details, click the Grow button.
3. In the Grow logical size of VDO dialog box, extend the logical size of the VDO volume.
4. Click Grow.
If the process of growing VDO succeeds, the new size can be seen in the VDO volume details.