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IBM SAN Volume Controller Best Practices and Performance Guidelines

by Anil K Nayak, Antonio Rainero, Barry Whyte, Chris Hoffmann, Danilo Morelli Miyasiro, David Green, Duane Bolland, Jackson Shea, Jon Herd, Jordan Fincher, Marcelo Avalos, Sergey Kubin, Sidney Varoni Junior, Thales Noivo Ferreira, Vasfi Gucer

October 2023

Intermediate to advanced

572 pages

18h 40m

English

IBM Redbooks

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1.1 Benefits of using IBM Spectrum Virtualize1.2 IBM SAN Volume Controller supported product range1.2.1 New in Spectrum Virtualize v8.41.2.2 Supported products1.2.3 IBM SAN Volume Controller high-level features1.3 IBM SAN Volume Controller product range1.4 Advanced functions for data reduction1.4.1 Data Reduction Pools1.4.2 Deduplication1.4.3 Thin provisioning1.4.4 Thin-provisioned flash copies1.5 Advanced software features1.5.1 Data migration1.5.2 Copy services1.5.3 Easy Tier1.5.4 External virtualization1.5.5 Enhanced stretch cluster1.5.6 IBM HyperSwap1.5.7 Licensing
2.1 SAN topology general guidelines2.1.1 SAN performance and scalability2.1.2 ISL considerations2.2 SAN topology-specific guidelines2.2.1 Single switch SAN Volume Controller SANs2.2.2 Basic core-edge topology2.2.3 Edge-core-edge topology2.2.4 Full mesh topology2.2.5 IBM Spectrum Virtualize as a SAN bridge2.2.6 Device placement2.3 SAN Volume Controller ports2.3.1 Slots and ports identification2.3.2 Port naming and distribution2.4 Zoning2.4.1 Types of zoning2.4.2 Prezoning tips and shortcuts2.4.3 SAN Volume Controller internode communications zones2.4.4 SAN Volume Controller storage zones2.4.5 SAN Volume Controller host zones2.4.6 Hot Spare Node zoning considerations2.4.7 Zoning with multiple SAN Volume Controller clustered systems2.4.8 Split storage subsystem configurations2.5 Distance extension for Remote Copy services2.5.1 Optical multiplexors2.5.2 Long-distance SFPs or XFPs2.5.3 Fibre Channel over IP2.5.4 SAN extension with Business Continuity configurations2.5.5 Native IP replication2.6 Tape and disk traffic that share the SAN2.7 Switch interoperability
3.1 General considerations for managing external storage3.1.1 Storage controller path selection3.1.2 Guidelines for creating optimal back-end configuration3.1.3 Considerations for compressing and deduplicating back-end3.2 Controller-specific considerations3.2.1 Considerations for DS8000 series3.2.2 IBM XIV Storage System considerations3.2.3 IBM FlashSystem A9000/A9000R considerations3.2.4 FlashSystem 5000, 5100, 7200, 9100, and 9200 considerations3.2.5 IBM FlashSystem 900 considerations3.2.6 Path considerations for third-party storage with EMC VMAX and Hitachi Data Systems3.3 Quorum disks
4.1 Introduction to pools4.1.1 Standard pool4.1.2 Data reduction pools4.1.3 Standard pools versus DRPs4.1.4 Data reduction estimation tools4.1.5 Understanding capacity use in a DRP4.2 Storage pool planning considerations4.2.1 Planning for availability4.2.2 Planning for performance4.2.3 Planning for capacity4.2.4 Extent size considerations4.2.5 External pools4.3 Data reduction pool best practices4.3.1 Data reduction pools with IBM FlashSystem NVMe attached drives4.3.2 DRP and external storage considerations4.3.3 Data reduction pools and VMware vVols4.3.4 Data reduction pool configuration limits4.3.5 DRP provisioning considerations4.3.6 Standard and DRP pools coexistence4.3.7 Data migration with DRP4.4 Operations with storage pools4.4.1 Creating data reduction pools4.4.2 Adding external MDisks to storage pools4.4.3 Renaming MDisks4.4.4 Removing MDisks from storage pools4.4.5 Remapping-managed MDisks4.4.6 Controlling extent allocation order for volume creation4.5 Considerations when using encryption4.5.1 General considerations4.5.2 Hardware and software encryption4.5.3 Encryption at rest with USB keys4.5.4 Encryption at rest with key servers4.6 Easy Tier, tiered, and balanced storage pools4.6.1 Easy Tier concepts4.6.2 Easy Tier definitions4.6.3 Easy Tier operating modes4.6.4 MDisk tier types4.6.5 Changing the tier type of an MDisk4.6.6 Easy Tier overload protection4.6.7 Removing an MDisk from an Easy Tier pool4.6.8 Easy Tier implementation considerations4.6.9 Easy Tier settings4.6.10 Monitoring Easy Tier using the GUI
5.1 Overview of volumes5.2 Guidance for creating volumes5.3 Thin-provisioned volumes5.3.1 Compressed volumes5.3.2 Deduplicated volumes5.3.3 Thin provisioning considerations5.3.4 Limits on virtual capacity of thin-provisioned volumes5.4 Mirrored volumes5.4.1 Write fast failovers5.4.2 Read fast failovers5.4.3 Maintaining data integrity of mirrored volumes5.5 HyperSwap volumes5.6 VMware virtual volumes5.7 Cloud volumes5.7.1 Transparent cloud tiering configuration limitations and rules5.7.2 Restoring to the production volume5.7.3 Restore to a new volume5.8 Volume migration5.8.1 Image-type to striped-type volume migration5.8.2 Migrating to image-type volume5.8.3 Migrating with volume mirroring5.8.4 Migration from standard pools to Data Reduction Pools5.9 Preferred paths to a volume5.10 Moving a volume between I/O groups and nodes5.10.1 Changing the preferred node of a volume within an I/O group5.10.2 Moving a volume between I/O groups5.11 Volume throttling5.12 Volume cache mode5.13 Other considerations5.13.1 Volume protection5.13.2 Volume resizing5.13.3 Migrating from Fibre Channel connections to RDMA over Ethernet connections between nodes
6.1 Introduction to copy services6.1.1 FlashCopy6.1.2 Metro Mirror and Global Mirror6.1.3 Volume Mirroring6.2 FlashCopy6.2.1 FlashCopy use cases6.2.2 FlashCopy capabilities overview6.2.3 FlashCopy functional overview6.2.4 FlashCopy planning considerations6.3 Remote Copy services6.3.1 Remote copy use cases6.3.2 Remote copy functional overview6.3.3 Remote copy network planning6.3.4 Remote copy services planning6.3.5 Multiple site remote copy6.3.6 1920 error6.4 Native IP replication6.4.1 Native IP replication technology6.4.2 IP partnership limitations6.4.3 VLAN support6.4.4 IP compression6.4.5 Remote copy groups6.4.6 Supported configuration examples6.4.7 Native IP replication performance consideration6.5 Volume Mirroring6.5.1 Read and write operations6.5.2 Volume mirroring use cases6.5.3 Mirrored volume components6.5.4 Volume Mirroring synchronization options6.5.5 Volume Mirroring performance considerations6.5.6 Bitmap space for out-of-sync volume copies
7.1 Business continuity topologies7.1.1 Business continuity with Stretched Cluster7.1.2 Business continuity with Enhanced Stretched Cluster7.1.3 Business continuity with HyperSwap7.2 Third site and IP quorum7.2.1 Quorum modes7.3 HyperSwap Volumes7.4 Comparison of business continuity solutions7.4.1 Other considerations and general recommendations

8.1 General configuration guidelines8.1.1 Number of paths8.1.2 Host ports8.1.3 Port masking8.1.4 N-port ID virtualization8.1.5 Host to I/O group mapping8.1.6 Volume size as opposed to quantity8.1.7 Host volume mapping8.1.8 Server adapter layout8.1.9 Host status improvements8.1.10 Considerations for NVMe over Fibre Channel host attachments8.1.11 Considerations for iSER host attachments8.2 Host pathing8.2.1 Path selection8.3 I/O queues8.3.1 Queue depths8.4 Host clusters8.4.1 Persistent reservations8.4.2 Clearing reserves8.5 AIX hosts8.5.1 Multipathing support8.5.2 Configuration recommendations for AIX8.6 Virtual I/O server hosts8.6.1 Multipathing support8.6.2 Physical and logical volumes8.6.3 Identifying a disk for use as a virtual SCSI disk8.7 Windows hosts8.7.1 Multipathing support8.7.2 Windows configuration8.8 Linux hosts8.9 Oracle Solaris hosts8.9.1 Solaris MPxIO8.9.2 Symantec Veritas Volume Manager8.9.3 DMP multipathing8.10 VMware server hosts8.10.1 Configuring VMware8.10.2 Multipathing configuration maximums
9.1 Generic monitoring9.1.1 Monitoring with the GUI9.1.2 Monitoring using quotas and alert9.2 Performance monitoring9.2.1 Performance monitoring with the GUI9.2.2 Performance monitoring with IBM Spectrum Control9.2.3 Performance monitoring with IBM Storage Insights9.3 Capacity metrics for block storage systems9.3.1 Storage system capacity metrics9.3.2 Pool capacity metrics9.3.3 Volume capacity metrics9.4 Creating alerts for IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights9.4.1 Alert examples9.4.2 Alert to monitor back-end capacity: Physical allocation9.5 Important metrics9.6 Performance support package9.7 Metro and Global Mirror monitoring with IBM Copy Services Manager and scripts9.7.1 Monitoring MM and GM with scripts9.8 Monitoring Tier1 SSD
10.1 User interfaces10.1.1 Management GUI10.1.2 Service Assistant Tool GUI10.1.3 Command-line interface10.2 Users and groups10.3 Volumes10.4 Hosts10.5 Software updates10.5.1 Determining the target software level10.5.2 Obtaining software packages10.5.3 Hardware considerations10.5.4 Update sequence10.5.5 SAN fabrics preparation10.5.6 Storage controllers preparation10.5.7 Hosts preparation10.5.8 Copy services considerations10.5.9 Running the Upgrade Test Utility10.5.10 Updating software10.6 Drive firmware updates10.7 SAN modifications10.7.1 Cross-referencing WWPN10.7.2 Cross-referencing LUN ID10.8 Server HBA replacement10.9 Hardware upgrades10.9.1 Adding nodes10.9.2 Upgrading nodes in a cluster10.9.3 Moving to a new IBM SAN Volume Controller cluster10.9.4 Splitting an IBM SAN Volume Controller cluster10.9.5 Adding expansion enclosures10.9.6 Removing expansion enclosures10.10 I/O Throttling10.10.1 I/O throttling overview10.10.2 I/O throttling on front-end I/O control10.10.3 I/O Throttling on back-end I/O control10.10.4 Overall benefits of using I/O throttling10.10.5 I/O throttling considerations10.10.6 Configuring I/O throttling using the CLI10.10.7 Configuring I/O throttling using the GUI10.10.8 Creating a volume throttle10.10.9 Creating a host throttle10.10.10 Creating a host cluster throttle10.10.11 Creating a storage pool throttle10.10.12 Creating an offload throttle10.11 Automation10.11.1 Red Hat Ansible10.11.2 RESTful API10.12 Documenting IBM SAN Volume Controller and SAN environment10.12.1 Naming conventions10.12.2 SAN fabric documentation10.12.3 IBM SAN Volume Controller documentation10.12.4 Storage documentation10.12.5 Technical support information10.12.6 Tracking incident and change tickets10.12.7 Automated support data collection10.12.8 Subscribing to IBM SAN Volume Controller support
11.1 Starting troubleshooting11.1.1 Using the GUI11.1.2 Recommended actions and fix procedure11.2 Diagnostic data collection11.2.1 Collecting data from IBM Spectrum Virtualize11.2.2 Host multipath software data collection11.2.3 Additional data collection11.3 Common problems and isolation techniques11.3.1 Host problems11.3.2 SAN problems11.3.3 Storage subsystem problems11.3.4 Native IP replication problems11.3.5 Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) based Clustering11.3.6 Advanced Copy services problems11.3.7 Health status during upgrade11.3.8 Managing physical capacity of over provisioned storage controllers11.4 Remote Support Assistance11.5 Call Home Connect Cloud and Health Checker feature11.5.1 Health Checker11.6 IBM Storage Insights11.6.1 Storage Insights Customer Dashboard11.6.2 Customized dashboards to monitor your storage11.6.3 Creating support tickets11.6.4 Updating support tickets11.6.5 SI Advisor
12.1 Evaluating compression savings by using Comprestimator12.2 Evaluating workload by using Disk Magic12.3 Verifying available CPU resources12.4 Configuring a balanced system12.5 Standard benchmark tools12.6 Compression with FlashCopy12.7 Compression with Easy Tier12.8 Compression on the backend12.9 Migrating generic volumes12.10 Converting RtC volumes to DRP compression
13.1 Base architecture13.2 Networking13.2.1 Node networking13.3 Hosts13.4 Storage13.4.1 Discovery and access13.4.2 EasyTier considerations13.5 Replication
14.1 Base architecture14.2 System resources14.3 Back-end storage14.4 Replication considerations
IBM i Storage managementSingle-level storageIBM i response timePlanning for IBM i storage capacityStorage connection to IBM iSetting attributes in VIOSDisk drives for IBM iDefining LUNs for IBM iData layoutFibre Channel adapters in IBM i and VIOSZoning SAN switchesIBM i MultipathBooting from SANIBM i mirroringCopy services considerationsIBM SAN Volume Controller stretched clusterDB2 mirroring for IBM i
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Content preview from IBM SAN Volume Controller Best Practices and Performance Guidelines

Storage back-end

This chapter describes the aspects and practices to consider when system’s external back-end storage is planned, configured, and managed.

External storage is acquired by Spectrum Virtualize by virtualizing a separate IBM or third-party storage system, which are attached with FC or iSCSI.

Note: IBM SAN Volume Controller that is built on SV1 nodes supports SAS-attached expansions with solid-state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs). However, nodes SV2 and SA2 do not support internal storage.

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780738459592Publisher Website