Dell ObjectScale 1.3 Administration Guide

Understand object store space reclamation

Space reclamation (garbage collection) is an automatic process in ObjectScale.

ObjectScale uses the following thresholds to maximize processing and space efficiency:

• When entire objects are deleted, space reclamation is automatic.
• In an object store that contains all large objects (all objects are equal to or larger than 100KB), then automatic space reclamation is triggered when garbage data is more than 50% of used capacity.
• In an object store that contains a mix of large and smaller objects, but mostly larger objects, automatic space reclamation is triggered when garbage data is more than 50% of the used capacity. The smaller objects must consume less than 1/3 * 128MB of space.
• In an object store that contains mostly smaller objects (that is, the smaller objects consume more than 1/3 * 128MB), automatic space reclamation is triggered when garbage data is more than 66% of the used capacity.
• The thresholds assume that consumed capacity is above 10% total capacity.

If your data usage, object sizes, and delete patterns do not fall into the above categories, then space reclamation is not automatic. For example, if your object store contains many small objects, space reclamation may not occur.

If you experience capacity problems because space reclamation does not occur automatically, contact customer support. Customer support may perform manual space reclamation if your system meets certain criteria. The criteria include suitable CPU and system load availability, throughput capability, and enough free capacity.