IBM System Storage N series Hardware Guide

IBM System Storage N series Hardware Guide

Released September 2012
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides a detailed look at the features, benefits, and capabilities of the IBM System Storage® N series hardware offerings.

The IBM System Storage N series systems can help you tackle the challenge of effective data management by using virtualization technology and a unified storage architecture. The N series delivers low- to high-end enterprise storage and data management capabilities with midrange affordability. Built-in serviceability and manageability features help support your efforts to increase reliability; simplify and unify storage infrastructure and maintenance; and deliver exceptional economy.

The IBM System Storage N series systems provide a range of reliable, scalable storage solutions to meet various storage requirements. These capabilities are achieved by using network access protocols such as Network File System (NFS), Common Internet File System (CIFS), HTTP, and iSCSI, and storage area network technologies such as Fibre Channel. Using built-in Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technologies, all data is protected with options to enhance protection through mirroring, replication, Snapshots, and backup. These storage systems also have simple management interfaces that make installation, administration, and troubleshooting straightforward.

In addition, this book also addresses high-availability solutions including clustering and MetroCluster supporting highest business continuity requirements. MetroCluster is a unique solution that combines array-based clustering with synchronous mirroring to deliver continuous availability.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Summary of changes
    1. September 2012, Third Edition
  5. Part 1 Introduction to N series hardware
  6. Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM System Storage N series
    1. 1.1 Overview
    2. 1.2 IBM System Storage N series hardware
    3. 1.3 Software licensing structure
      1. 1.3.1 Mid-range and high-end
      2. 1.3.2 Entry-level
    4. 1.4 Data ONTAP 8 supported systems
  7. Chapter 2. Entry-level systems
    1. 2.1 Overview
    2. 2.2 N3220
      1. 2.2.1 N3220 model 2857-A12
      2. 2.2.2 N3220 model 2857-A22
      3. 2.2.3 N3220 hardware
    3. 2.3 N3240
      1. 2.3.1 N3240 model 2857-A14
      2. 2.3.2 N3240 model 2857-A24
      3. 2.3.3 N3240 hardware
    4. 2.4 N32x0 common information
    5. 2.5 N3400
      1. 2.5.1 N3400 model 2859-A11
      2. 2.5.2 N3400 model 2859-A21
      3. 2.5.3 N3400 hardware
    6. 2.6 N3000 technical specifications at a glance
  8. Chapter 3. Mid-range systems
    1. 3.1 Overview
      1. 3.1.1 Common features
      2. 3.1.2 Hardware summary
      3. 3.1.3 Functions and features common to all models
    2. 3.2 Hardware
      1. 3.2.1 N6210 and N6240 and N6240 hardware overview
      2. 3.2.2 IBM N62x0 MetroCluster / gateway models
      3. 3.2.3 IBM N62x0 series technical specifications
    3. 3.3 N62x0 technical specifications at a glance
  9. Chapter 4. High-end systems
    1. 4.1 Overview
    2. 4.2 Hardware
      1. 4.2.1 Base components
      2. 4.2.2 IBM N series N7950T slot configuration rules
      3. 4.2.3 N7950T hot-pluggable FRUs
      4. 4.2.4 N7950T cooling architecture
      5. 4.2.5 System-level diagnostic procedures
      6. 4.2.6 N7950T supported back-end storage
      7. 4.2.7 MetroCluster, Gateway, and FlexCache
      8. 4.2.8 N7950T guidelines
      9. 4.2.9 N7950T SFP+ modules
    3. 4.3 N7950T technical specifications at a glance
  10. Chapter 5. Expansion units
    1. 5.1 Shelf technology overview
    2. 5.2 Expansion unit EXN3000
      1. 5.2.1 Overview
      2. 5.2.2 Supported EXN3000 drives
      3. 5.2.3 Environmental and technical specification
    3. 5.3 Expansion unit EXN3500
      1. 5.3.1 Overview
      2. 5.3.2 Intermix support
      3. 5.3.3 Supported EXN3500 drives
      4. 5.3.4 Environmental and technical specification
    4. 5.4 Expansion unit EXN4000
      1. 5.4.1 Supported EXN4000 drives
      2. 5.4.2 Environmental and technical specification
    5. 5.5 Self-Encrypting Drive
      1. 5.5.1 SED at a glance
      2. 5.5.2 SED overview
      3. 5.5.3 Threats mitigated by self-encryption
      4. 5.5.4 Effect of self-encryption on Data ONTAP features
      5. 5.5.5 Mixing drive types
      6. 5.5.6 managementKey management
  11. Chapter 6. Cabling expansions
    1. 6.1 EXN3000 and EXN3500 disk shelves cabling
      1. 6.1.1 Controller-to-shelf connection rules
      2. 6.1.2 SAS shelf interconnects
      3. 6.1.3 Top connections
      4. 6.1.4 Bottom connections
      5. 6.1.5 Verifying SAS connections
      6. 6.1.6 Connecting the optional ACP cables
    2. 6.2 EXN4000 disk shelves cabling
      1. 6.2.1 Non-multipath Fibre Channel cabling
      2. 6.2.2 Multipath Fibre Channel cabling
    3. 6.3 Multipath High-Availability cabling
  12. Chapter 7. Highly Available controller pairs
    1. 7.1 HA pair overview
      1. 7.1.1 Benefits of HA pairs
      2. 7.1.2 Characteristics of nodes in an HA pair
      3. 7.1.3 Preferred practices for deploying an HA pair
      4. 7.1.4 Comparison of HA pair types
    2. 7.2 HA pair types and requirements
      1. 7.2.1 Standard HA pairs
      2. 7.2.2 Mirrored HA pairs
      3. 7.2.3 Stretched MetroCluster
      4. 7.2.4 Fabric-attached MetroCluster
    3. 7.3 Configuring the HA pair
      1. 7.3.1 Configuration variations for standard HA pair configurations
      2. 7.3.2 Preferred practices for HA pair configurations
      3. 7.3.3 Enabling licenses on the HA pair configuration
      4. 7.3.4 Configuring Interface Groups (VIFs)
      5. 7.3.5 Configuring interfaces for takeover
      6. 7.3.6 Setting options and parameters
      7. 7.3.7 Testing takeover and giveback
      8. 7.3.8 Eliminating single points of failure with HA pair configurations
    4. 7.4 Managing an HA pair configuration
      1. 7.4.1 Managing an HA pair configuration
      2. 7.4.2 Halting a node without takeover
      3. 7.4.3 Basic HA pair configuration management
      4. 7.4.4 HA pair configuration failover basic operations
      5. 7.4.5 Connectivity during failover
  13. Chapter 8. MetroCluster
    1. 8.1 Overview of MetroCluster
    2. 8.2 Business continuity solutions
    3. 8.3 Stretch MetroCluster
      1. 8.3.1 Planning Stretch MetroCluster configurations
      2. 8.3.2 Cabling Stretch MetroClusters
    4. 8.4 Fabric Attached MetroCluster
      1. 8.4.1 Planning Fabric MetroCluster configurations
      2. 8.4.2 Cabling Fabric MetroClusters
    5. 8.5 Synchronous mirroring with SyncMirror
      1. 8.5.1 SyncMirror overview
      2. 8.5.2 SyncMirror without MetroCluster
    6. 8.6 MetroCluster zoning and TI zones
    7. 8.7 Failure scenarios
      1. 8.7.1 MetroCluster host failure
      2. 8.7.2 N series and expansion unit failure
      3. 8.7.3 MetroCluster interconnect failure
      4. 8.7.4 MetroCluster site failure
      5. 8.7.5 MetroCluster site recovery
  14. Chapter 9. FibreBridge 6500N
    1. 9.1 Description
    2. 9.2 Architecture
    3. 9.3 Administration and management
  15. Chapter 10. Data protection with RAID Double Parity
    1. 10.1 Background
    2. 10.2 Why use RAID-DP
      1. 10.2.1 Single-parity RAID using larger disks
      2. 10.2.2 Advantages of RAID-DP data protection
    3. 10.3 RAID-DP overview
      1. 10.3.1 Protection levels with RAID-DP
      2. 10.3.2 Larger versus smaller RAID groups
    4. 10.4 RAID-DP and double parity
      1. 10.4.1 Internal structure of RAID-DP
      2. 10.4.2 RAID 4 horizontal row parity
      3. 10.4.3 Adding RAID-DP double-parity stripes
      4. 10.4.4 RAID-DP reconstruction
      5. 10.4.5 Protection levels with RAID-DP
    5. 10.5 Hot spare disks
  16. Chapter 11. Core technologies
    1. 11.1 Write Anywhere File Layout (WALF)
    2. 11.2 Disk structure
    3. 11.3 NVRAM and system memory
    4. 11.4 Intelligent caching of write requests
      1. 11.4.1 Journaling write requests
      2. 11.4.2 NVRAM operation
    5. 11.5 N series read caching techniques
      1. 11.5.1 Introduction of read caching
      2. 11.5.2 Read caching in system memory
  17. Chapter 12. Flash Cache
    1. 12.1 About Flash Cache
    2. 12.2 Flash Cache module
    3. 12.3 How Flash Cache works
      1. 12.3.1 Data ONTAP disk read operation
      2. 12.3.2 Data ONTAP clearing space in the system memory for more data
      3. 12.3.3 Saving useful data in Flash Cache
      4. 12.3.4 Reading data from Flash Cache
  18. Chapter 13. Disk sanitization
    1. 13.1 Data ONTAP disk sanitization
    2. 13.2 Data confidentiality
      1. 13.2.1 Background
      2. 13.2.2 Data erasure and standards compliance
      3. 13.2.3 Technology drivers
      4. 13.2.4 Costs and risks
    3. 13.3 Data ONTAP sanitization operation
    4. 13.4 Disk Sanitization with encrypted disks
  19. Chapter 14. Designing an N series solution
    1. 14.1 Primary issues that affect planning
      1. 14.1.1 IBM Capacity Magic
      2. 14.1.2 IBM Disk Magic
    2. 14.2 Performance and throughput
      1. 14.2.1 Capacity requirements
      2. 14.2.2 Other effects of Snapshot
      3. 14.2.3 Capacity overhead versus performance
      4. 14.2.4 Processor utilization
      5. 14.2.5 Effects of optional features
      6. 14.2.6 Future expansion
      7. 14.2.7 Application considerations
      8. 14.2.8 Backup servers
      9. 14.2.9 Backup and recovery
      10. 14.2.10 Resiliency to failure
    3. 14.3 Summary
  20. Part 2 Installation and administration
  21. Chapter 15. Preparation and installation
    1. 15.1 Installation prerequisites
      1. 15.1.1 Pre-installation checklist
      2. 15.1.2 Before arriving on site
    2. 15.2 Configuration worksheet
    3. 15.3 Initial hardware setup
    4. 15.4 Troubleshooting if the system does not boot
  22. Chapter 16. Basic N series administration
    1. 16.1 Administration methods
      1. 16.1.1 FilerView interface
      2. 16.1.2 Command-line interface
      3. 16.1.3 N series System Manager
      4. 16.1.4 OnCommand
    2. 16.2 Starting, stopping, and rebooting the storage system
      1. 16.2.1 Starting the IBM System Storage N series storage system
      2. 16.2.2 Stopping the IBM System Storage N series storage system
      3. 16.2.3 Rebooting the system
  23. Part 3 Client hardware integration
  24. Chapter 17. Host Utilities Kits
    1. 17.1 What Host Utilities Kits are
    2. 17.2 The components of a Host Utilities Kit
      1. 17.2.1 What is included in the Host Utilities Kit
      2. 17.2.2 Current supported operating environments
    3. 17.3 Functions provided by Host Utilities
      1. 17.3.1 Host configuration
      2. 17.3.2 IBM N series controller and LUN configuration
    4. 17.4 Windows installation example
      1. 17.4.1 Installing and configuring Host Utilities
      2. 17.4.2 Preparation
      3. 17.4.3 Running the Host Utilities installation program
      4. 17.4.4 Host configuration settings
      5. 17.4.5 Overview of settings used by the Host Utilities
    5. 17.5 Setting up LUNs
      1. 17.5.1 LUN overview
      2. 17.5.2 Initiator group overview
      3. 17.5.3 About mapping LUNs for Windows clusters
      4. 17.5.4 Adding iSCSI targets
      5. 17.5.5 Accessing LUNs on hosts
  25. Chapter 18. Boot from SAN
    1. 18.1 Overview
    2. 18.2 Configure SAN boot for IBM System x servers
      1. 18.2.1 Configuration limits and preferred configurations
      2. 18.2.2 Preferred practices
      3. 18.2.3 Basics of the boot process
      4. 18.2.4 Configuring SAN booting before installing Windows or Linux systems
      5. 18.2.5 Windows 2003 Enterprise SP2 installation
      6. 18.2.6 Windows 2008 Enterprise installation
      7. 18.2.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 installation
    3. 18.3 Boot from SAN and other protocols
      1. 18.3.1 Boot from iSCSI SAN
      2. 18.3.2 Boot from FCoE
  26. Chapter 19. Host multipathing
    1. 19.1 Overview
    2. 19.2 Multipathing software options
      1. 19.2.1 Third-party multipathing solution
      2. 19.2.2 Native multipathing solution
      3. 19.2.3 Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA)
      4. 19.2.4 Why ALUA?
  27. Part 4 Performing upgrades
  28. Chapter 20. Designing for nondisruptive upgrades
    1. 20.1 System NDU
      1. 20.1.1 Types of system NDU
      2. 20.1.2 Supported Data ONTAP upgrades
      3. 20.1.3 System NDU hardware requirements
      4. 20.1.4 System NDU software requirements
      5. 20.1.5 Prerequisites for a system NDU
      6. 20.1.6 Steps for major version upgrades NDU in NAS and SAN environments
      7. 20.1.7 System commands compatibility
    2. 20.2 Shelf firmware NDU
      1. 20.2.1 Types of shelf controller module firmware NDUs supported
      2. 20.2.2 Upgrading the shelf firmware
      3. 20.2.3 Upgrading the AT-FCX shelf firmware on live systems
      4. 20.2.4 Upgrading the AT-FCX shelf firmware during system reboot
    3. 20.3 Disk firmware NDU
      1. 20.3.1 Overview of disk firmware NDU
      2. 20.3.2 Upgrading the disk firmware non-disruptively
    4. 20.4 ACP firmware NDU
      1. 20.4.1 Upgrading ACP firmware non-disruptively
      2. 20.4.2 Upgrading ACP firmware manually
    5. 20.5 RLM firmware NDU
  29. Chapter 21. Hardware and software upgrades
    1. 21.1 Hardware upgrades
      1. 21.1.1 Connecting a new disk shelf
      2. 21.1.2 Adding a PCI adapter
      3. 21.1.3 Upgrading a storage controller head
    2. 21.2 Software upgrades
      1. 21.2.1 Upgrading to Data ONTAP 7.3
      2. 21.2.2 Upgrading to Data ONTAP 8.1
  30. Part 5 Appendixes
  31. Appendix A. Getting started
    1. Preinstallation planning
    2. Start with the hardware
    3. Power on N series
    4. Data ONTAP update
    5. Obtaining the Data ONTAP software from the IBM NAS website
    6. Installing Data ONTAP system files
    7. Downloading Data ONTAP to the storage system
    8. Setting up the network using console
    9. Changing the IP address
    10. Setting up the DNS
  32. Appendix B. Operating environment
    1. N3000 entry-level systems
    2. N6000 mid-range systems
    3. N7000 high-end systems
    4. N series expansion shelves
  33. Appendix C. Useful resources
    1. N series to NetApp model reference
    2. Interoperability matrix
  34. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  35. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM System Storage N series Hardware Guide
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2012
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None