DPM 2010 has allocated 100% of our storage pool. What are our options?

Data Protection Manager 2010 has allocated 100% of our storage pool. We currently have all our protection groups set to 'automatically grow the volumes' [checkbox].

As we were trying to add a backup member (a network folder), we received the following error :

"There is insufficient free space in the storage pool for this protection group. To increase the free space, cancel this wizard and add disks to the storage pool or remove non-DPM volumes from the disks in the storage pool. To assign custom volums to select members, click Modify."

As you can see, the actual disk used is about 5.3TB, but DPM has allocated 99% of the storage pool. Where do we go from here?

• Will we have to recreate our protection groups without the 'auto grow' option?
• Is there a hybrid method between auto/manual disk allocation?
• Is there a method for controlling disk allocation?

Solution 1:

DPM 2010 allows you to shrink the Recovery Point Volumes. Find the Protection Group Member, on the Protection Tab, in the Admin console; right click -> Modify Disk Allocation. There will be a "Shrink" button next to each recovery point Volume. Click and wait.

If there's data near the "end" of the volume, it wont shrink much. The only solutions are:

1. Wait until stuff at the end is culled by age
2. Delete recovery points
3. Use a disk defrag that can move data to the front of the volume (best option by far).

Also, a minor side effect: If the volumes have to grow again because there's more data, they might end up adding new volumes instead of extending the old ones. This isn't really a problem usually, but you'll eventually end up with hundreds or thousands of volumes on the drive.

Solution 2:

In DPM 2007 (and I'm sure this applies to 2010 also), there's no way to reduce the allocation for individual storage groups. You'll have to recreate your protection groups and manually size them according to your needs to avoid tons of wasted space.