Visibility of offline flexvols in OCI

[moechnig]

I'm working with a customer to implement some reporting and monitoring processes around OCI.  We're currently using version 6.4.0. 

In the course of a normal reclaim of a NAS FlexVol, the customer takes the FlexVol offline and two weeks later, returns to destroy the FlexVol.  This allows time to recover in the event that the storage user realizes that they need some data from the volume. 

It appears that OCI does not show offline flexvols at all.  They do not appear in the Inventory-->Storage, Internal Volumes micro-view.  However, the space used by an offline FlexVol does seem to contribute to the Used Capacity number for the corresponding storage pool. 

We would like to see offline volumes, because they represent a potential source of orphan storage.  It would also be helpful to see the associated capacity when answering "where did all my storage go" type questions. 

Has anyone else encountered this issue?  Any workarounds? 

Thank you in advance. 

[ostiguy · Accepted solution]

Oci cannot report offline flexvols because my understanding is that not all offline flexvols can be put back online. I am a bit surprised we would have their capacity as contributing to storage pool used if offline volumes can be overwritten.

Basically, I think we think that offline vols are overwritable

[moechnig]

The data in an offline FlexVol will still occupy space on disk that can't be overwritten until the volume is destroyed, so it is correct for this to contribute to the Used total for the aggregate.  It's my understanding that only the used space in an offline FlexVol is reserved while it is offline; normal space reservation configuration would apply if it's brought online again. 

We'll go forward without reporting on offline FlexVols.  Thank you for confirming my understanding.