Deal of The Day! Hurry Up, Grab the Special Discount - Save 25% - Ends In 00:00:00 Coupon code: SAVE25
Welcome to Pass4Success

- Free Preparation Discussions

Pure Storage FlashArray-Storage-Professional Exam - Topic 4 Question 6 Discussion

Posted by Carri on Apr 04, 2026 at 03:37 AM

A storage administrator is troubleshooting a FlashArray that is critically low on space. They have successfully deleted and eradicated a large volume, but used space keeps increasing.

What is a possible cause?

Suggested Answer: B

Logical vs. Physical Reclamation: When an administrator 'Eradicates' a volume, the FlashArray immediately removes the logical reference to that data. However, the physical blocks are not 'wiped' instantly. Instead, those blocks are marked as 'eligible for reclamation' by Purity's background Garbage Collection (GC) process.

Workload Prioritization: Purity is designed to prioritize Host I/O (production performance) over background system tasks. If the array is under an extremely high workload (high Load Meter percentage), Purity will automatically throttle the Garbage Collection process to ensure the application latency remains as low as possible.

The 'Reclamation Lag': If the incoming write rate from the hosts (new data being written) exceeds the speed at which the throttled GC process can reclaim space from the eradicated volume, the 'Used Space' metric will continue to trend upward. This is a common scenario when arrays are pushed to their performance or capacity limits simultaneously.

Why Option A is incorrect: The 24-hour safeguard applies to Destroyed volumes (the 'Pending Eradication' bucket). Once an administrator manually clicks Eradicate, that safeguard is bypassed, and the space should logically be freed. If the space is still not reflecting as 'Free,' it is a back-end processing delay, not a timer delay.

Why Option C is incorrect: In the Purity Operating Environment, the array does not require the host to 'unmount' or 'disconnect' before it can reclaim space. Once the volume is destroyed and eradicated on the array side, those blocks are gone from the array's perspective, regardless of the host's state (though the host will likely experience I/O errors).


Get Premium FlashArray-Storage-Professional Questions as Interactive Web-Based Practice Test or PDF Real Exam Format Detailed Explanations Instant Access Get Your Practice Test
12 comments · newest first
MI
Ming 3 months ago
C seems likely too. A host might still be linked to the volume.
LA
Laurena 3 months ago
I lean towards B. High workload could slow down reclamation.
LI
Linsey 3 months ago
I think it's option A. The safeguard period makes sense.
LU
Luisa 3 months ago
But if they deleted a large volume, shouldn't space free up immediately?
AN
Annamae 3 months ago
I agree, the reclamation process might just be lagging behind.
WH
Whitley 4 months ago
Wait, are you saying it takes a whole day to see space decrease? That seems odd.
DE
Deonna 5 months ago
I think it's more about the workload being too high.
CH
Christiane 5 months ago
A host still connected could definitely cause that!
JE
Jeannetta 6 months ago
I vaguely recall that there could be a delay in space reclamation, but I’m not confident about the specifics. I should have reviewed that section more thoroughly.
JE
Jerilyn 6 months ago
I’m not entirely sure, but I feel like if a host is still connected to the volume, it could definitely prevent space from being released. That sounds familiar from our practice sessions.
WY
Wynell 6 months ago
I think option B makes sense because if the workload is too high, the system might struggle to reclaim space quickly. I’ve seen similar questions where workload affected performance.
CH
Chantay 6 months ago
I remember something about how deleted volumes might not free up space immediately, but I thought it was more about snapshots than a 24-hour safeguard.
0/2000 characters

Save Cancel