Using VMware SIOC and array-based automatic tiering together

Storage IO Control and array-based automatic tiering always complement each other and we should use it wherever possible.

Fully-automated storage tiering for Virtual Pools, or FAST VP, intelligently manages data placement at the sub-LUN level, thus increasing overall performance. When implemented on a storage system, FAST VP measures, analyzes, and implements a storage-tiering policy much faster and more efficiently than any user could.

Depending on the performance characteristics, FAST VP puts drives of varying performance levels and cost into storage pools. LUNs use the capacity from these pools as needed. FAST VP collects statistics based on I/O activity, in 1 GB slices. This is only specific to newer EMC Arrays, such as VNX or VMAX and so on. These statistics are then used to determine which slices will be promoted to a higher tier of storage.

At the user's discretion, relocation of the data can be initiated—either manually or...