Exploring Storage Management Efficiencies and Provisioning - Understanding IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center and IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center with Advanced Provisioning

Chapter 2. Architecture 25

The integration layer connects to IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center (shown in

the middle of the graphic). The IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center uses Web

Services Description Language (WSDL) to communicate with subsequent

components.

In this initial version of this solution, IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager interacts

with the volume management portion of IBM TotalStorage Multiple Device

Manager and the fabric management of IBM Tivoli SAN Manager. Future

releases will provide workflows for Performance Manager and Replication

Manager from IBM TotalStorage Multiple Device Manager and new workflows for

IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager.

For more details on WSDL, please refer to the following Web site:

http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl

2.5 Communications with devices and agents

This section describes the interrelationships between the server components of

each product in the IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center and their agents or

devices, focusing on the high level architecture and communications between

these components.

2.5.1 IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager

IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager has four major components: the server,

scheduler, repository, and agent. There is also a Common Information

Model/Object Messaging (CIM/OM) component used for collecting data from

storage subsystems, such as the IBM Enterprise Storage Server and FAStT.

The high-level architecture and agent interaction is shown in Figure 2-5 and is

described in the proceeding sub-sections. The three layers in the graphic

represent the various component areas, such as the server, the agent, and the

proxy agents.

26 Exploring Storage Management Efficiencies and Provisioning

Figure 2-5 IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager high-level architecture

Server

The Server component is the center of IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager’s

architecture and directs all of the activities related to:

򐂰 The monitoring performed on the Monitored Agent computers

򐂰 The reporting performed on the Client GUI computers

The Server interacts with the components described in the following sections.

Enterprise Repository

IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager monitors your environment to accumulate

information about its storage assets and their usage over time. It records this

information in the centralized Enterprise Repository. The repository is organized

into a series of relational database tables and is accessed by IBM Tivoli Storage

Resource Manager using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC).

Storage

Host

Disk

Server

_______________

Scheduler

Data

Repository

CIM/OM

TCP/IP

SNMP, NFS, CIFS, NCP

SLP

TCP/IP

LUN

Enterprise

Storage Server

JDBC

Agents

Proxy Agents

File and

Print

Server

Application

Server

IBM Storage Resource Manager Server

CIM Agent

Chapter 2. Architecture 27

Job Scheduler

IBM Tivoli Storage Resource Manager deploys monitoring activities via an

embedded Job Scheduler. This Job Scheduler controls when to run Discovery,

Ping, Probe, Scan, and Quota checking jobs. It provides robust scheduling

functionality and the flexibility to specify exactly when to run monitoring jobs, as

well as other functions such as running scripts and creating reports.

Agents

The Agent component is installed on each machine containing storage that you

want to monitor. The Agent component runs in the background and deploys

monitoring jobs such as Pings, Probes, and Scans. It interacts with the Job

Scheduler and deploys monitoring jobs according to the schedules that you have

defined.

This allows an Agent to:

򐂰 Detect low-level problems, such as grown defects in the hardware containing

the storage information.

򐂰 Keep track of information such as the uptime/downtime of the machine on

which it is running.

򐂰 Return information to the server from the scans and probes.

Agents receive jobs to be run from a server’s scheduling service and then

contact the server for the job definition. Once this has been successfully

completed, no further communication to the server is required until the job is

completed.

Probes

A probe gathers local hardware and general filesystem information on a machine

where an Agent is installed. Use probes to discover information about new or

removed disks and filesystems and gather CPU, memory, and operating system

level information. The probe relies on local system calls and APIs.

A proxy probe is required for systems on which IBM Tivoli Storage Resource

Manager does not support an Agent (for example, on most NAS devices and

Netware servers). A proxy probe on these devices will use SNMP queries to

gather hardware information and CIFS, NFS, NCP commands to gather volume

and file system information. Again, see Figure 2-5 on page 26 for a depiction of

this.