Domains

A deduplication domain is the area where deduplication takes place. It is defined by three settings: intersection of containers (same pool, or folder hierarchy), performance policy, and block size.

Volumes that share blocks are grouped together in the same deduplication domain. Two characteristics help determine which volumes can be grouped together: application category and block size. An application category is an attribute indicating that the volumes store data from the same type of application. Application categories are predefined, and cannot be changed. They are selected when creating or updating a performance policy. Volumes with the same block size are able to be deduplicated, and can be part of the same deduplication domain. Volumes with different block sizes, performance policies or pools cannot be part of the same deduplication domain.

Cloned volumes inherit the parent deduplication domain; you cannot create a clone in another domain. To move a clone to another domain, you use the volume move operation.

Deduplication domains cannot be merged. Also, deduplication is not supported where the volumes are striped across a pool. Pools containing deduplicated volumes cannot be merged with other pools. You cannot add an array to a pool containing an All Flash array that has volumes with deduplicated blocks.