Understanding Delphix self-service usage
Usage management Dashboard overview
Data templates are comprised of dSources, virtual databases (VDBs), and vFiles. These data sources are controlled by the standard policies configured in the Management application of the Delphix Engine. As with existing containers, space will be reclaimed by the retention policy over time. As retention cleans up historical data, users will no longer be able to use those points in time to restore or branch. In Delphix Self-Service, an admin can create a bookmark on the data template timeline, which will prevent retention from cleaning up the data that bookmark references.
Data containers are comprised of VDBs provisioned from the sources defined in the data template. Similar to VDBs in the Management application, data containers' VDBs will share blocks with the source from which they are provisioned. This prevents the referenced data on the source from being cleaned up by retention. Retention for these VDBs is controlled by the standard Delphix Engine retention policies. As on templates, bookmarks in data containers will prevent storage from being reclaimed by retention. In addition, Self-Service will ensure that the latest data on each branch is never removed.
The Usage pages of the data templates and data containers provide information that can help you understand how storage is being used, how to reclaim space, and how much space you are able to reclaim.
Usage Overview is a top-level page, along with the Data Operations and Overview pages. It contains the space usage breakdowns by data templates and users.
Container usage overview
The Usage Details page, shows the space used by data containers provisioned from the template and the bookmarks created on the template.
The stacked bar graph shows information about the top 10 space users. You can re-sort the graph based on the fields in the Sort by legend on the top right-hand corner of the screen as seen in the image above. For example, if you want to know which data containers are sharing the most data with others, you can un-select Shared (others data) and Unique by clicking them in the legend.
When the legend items are not selected, their corresponding colored boxes turn gray and the data is removed from the chart. The data and name will reappear when you re-select by click on the preferred grayed-out category.
The field categories display the following information:
Unique – The amount of space that will be freed if you delete this data container. This assumes that also delete underlying data sources.
Shared (others data) – The amount of space that cannot be freed on the parent data template (or sibling data containers) because it is also being referenced by this data container due to Restore or Create Branch operations. The snapshots on the template or sibling container are what use up space.
Shared (self data) – The amount of space that cannot be freed on this data container because it is also being referenced by sibling data containers due to Restore or Create Branch operations, via shared bookmarks
Unvirtualized – The amount of space that would be used by the data in this container without Delphix virtualization
Bookmarks usage overview
As shown in the image above, the Container Usage page provides the usage information about bookmarks created on a template. The primary categories of information include Unique, Shared (others data), and Shared (self data).
The field categories display the following information:
Unique – The amount of space that will be freed if you delete this bookmark
Shared – The amount of space referenced by this bookmark that cannot be freed by deleting this bookmark because it is also referenced by neighboring bookmarks or branches that have been created or restored from this bookmark
Externally Referenced – The amount of space referenced by this bookmark cannot be freed by deleting it because it is also being referenced outside of Self-Service – for example, by a retention policy.
Branches usage overview
As detailed in the image above, the Container Usage Details page shows the usage information about the branches and bookmarks created on a container. The primary categories of information include Unique, Shared (others data), and Shared (self data).
The field categories display the following information:
Unique – The amount of space that will be freed if you delete this branch
Shared (others data) – The amount of space that cannot be freed on the parent data template or sibling branches because it is also being referenced by this branch due to Restore or Create Branch operations. The snapshots on the template or sibling container are what use up the space.
Shared (self data) – The amount of space that cannot be freed on this branch because it is also being referenced by sibling data containers due to Restore or Create Branch operations, via shared bookmarks.