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# Provision Storage wizard for mainframe

The Provisioning Storage wizard simplifies the process of provisioning storage for mainframe.

## Prerequisites

- The storage system must have at least one FICON director configured.
- See Roles and associated permissions to determine the user roles that can perform this task.
- Depending on the type of configuration selected, some of the following steps may not be required:

## About this task

To provision storage for mainframe:

## Steps

1. Select the storage system.
2. Select Hosts > Mainframe to open the mainframe Dashboard.
3. In the Actions panel, click Provision Storage.
   The Provision Storage wizard for mainframe is displayed.
4. In the Create Storage Group page, type a Storage Group Name.
   Storage group names must be unique from other storage groups on the storage system and cannot exceed 64 characters. Only alphanumeric characters, underscores ( _ ), and dashes (-) are allowed. Storage group names are case-insensitive.

   If you want to create an empty storage group, go to the final step after typing the storage group name.

5. Select a Storage Resource Pool.
   To create the storage group without an SRP, select None. External storage resource pools are listed below the External heading.
6. Select an Emulation type.
   Available values are CKD-3390 and CKD-3380. The emulation type CKD-3380 is not applicable for storage systems running PowerMaxOS 10 (6079).
7. Select the Service Level to set on the storage group.
   Service levels specify the characteristics of the provisioned storage, including average response time, workload type, and priority. This field defaults to None if you set the Storage Resource Pool to None.
   Available values are:

   Service level | Performance level | Use case
   --- | --- | ---
   Diamond (Default) | Ultra high | HPC, latency sensitive
   Bronze | Cost optimized | Backup, archive, file
   Optimized |  | Places the most active data on the highest performing storage and the least active on the most cost-effective storage.

8. Type the number of Volumes and select either a Model or Volume Capacity.
   Selecting a Model type automatically updates the Volume Capacity value. Alternatively, you can type the Volume Capacity.

   | NOTE: The maximum CKD volume size that is supported is 1182006 cylinders or 935.66 GB. It is possible to create an empty Storage Group with no volumes.

9. Optional: Configure volume options:

   | NOTE: When using this option, Unisphere uses only new volumes when creating the storage group; it does not use any existing volumes in the group.

   1. Hover the cursor on the service level and click .
   2. Edit the Volume Identifier.
      The following options are available:

      None | Do not set a volume identifier.
      Name Only | All volumes have the same name. Type the name in the Name field.
      Name and VolumeID | All volumes have the same name with a unique volume ID appended to them. For this option, the maximum number of characters that are allowed is 50. Type the name in the Name field.
      Name and Append Number | All volumes have the same name with a unique decimal suffix that are appended to them. The suffix starts with the value that is specified for the Append Number and increment by 1 for each additional volume. Valid Append Numbers must be 0 to 1000000. For this option, the maximum number of characters that are allowed is 50. Type the name in the Name field.

   3. Select Allocate capacity for each volume to allocate capacity for each volume that you are adding to the storage group. You can use this option only for newly created volumes, not existing volumes.
   4. If you selected to allocate capacity in the previous step, you can mark the allocation as persistent by selecting Persist preallocated capacity through reclaim or copy. Persistent allocations are unaffected by standard reclaim operations and any TimeFinder/Clone, TimeFinder/Snap, or SRDF copy operations.
   5. Click OK.
10. Optional: To add a child storage group, do one of the following:
    - On all-flash storage systems, click Add Storage Group.

    - On all other storage systems, click Add Service Level.

    Specify a Name, Service Level, Volumes, and Model/Volume Capacity. Repeat this step for each additional child storage group. The maximum number of child storage groups that are allowed is 64.
11. Select the blue text next to Snapshot Policies to associate up to four snapshot policies with a storage group and click OK.
12. Data reduction is enabled by default on All Flash systems running the HYPERMAX OS 5977 Q3 2016 Service Release or later. To disable it, clear the Enable Data Reduction check box. In a cascaded setup, changes are passed to each of the child storage groups. For more information about data reduction, see Understanding data reduction.
13. To create a storage group, without provisioning it, click one of the following; otherwise, click Next and go to the remaining steps in this task.
    - Click Run Now to perform the operation now.
    - Expand Run Now and click Add to Job List to add this task to the job list, from which you can schedule or run the task at your convenience. For more information, see Schedule jobs and Preview jobs.
14. On the CU Image page, select whether to use a New or an Existing CU image, and then do the following depending on your selection:
    - New:
      1. Specify the following information for the new CU image:
         - CU Image Number
         - SSID
         - Base Address
      2. Select a Split with which to associate the CU image.
    - Existing:
      1. Select a CU image.
      2. To specify a new value for the base address, click Set Base Address. For more information about setting the base address, see Set the base address.
15. Click Next.
16. On the Review page, review the summary information displayed including the performance impact.
    If the storage system is registered for performance, you can subscribe for compliance alerts for the storage group. You can run a suitability check to ensure that the load being created is appropriate for the storage system.

    To enable compliance alerts, select Enable Compliance Alerts.

17. Do one of the following:
    - Click Run Now to perform the operation now.
    - Expand Run Now and click Add to Job List to add this task to the job list, from which you can schedule or run the task at your convenience. For more information, see Schedule jobs and Preview jobs.