SSD over-provisioning optimization

Solid state drive manufacturers reserve an additional percentage of the total drive capacity for over-provisioning. The over-provisioned capacity is used to manage writes and wear leveling. SSD over-provisioning can increase the endurance of an SSD by distributing the total number of writes and erases across a larger population of NAND flash blocks and pages.

Over-provision optimization is an optional Smart Array feature that initializes the drive to use the entire capacity to manage writes and wear leveling. As logical drives are created and data is written, this over-provisioned capacity is reduced. The optimization process is performed when the first logical drive in an array is created, and when a physical drive is used to replace a failed drive.