Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2

Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2

Released January 2015
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors. Nevertheless, 72% of them have not started, or are only planning, big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity that it already has.

The IBM® Storwize® family, including the IBM SAN Volume Controller Data Platform, is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources. This functionality helps support improved business application availability and greater resource use. The following list describes the business objectives of this system:

  • To manage storage resources in your information technology (IT) infrastructure

  • To make sure that those resources are used to the advantage of your business

  • To do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs


    • Virtualizing storage with Storwize helps make new and existing storage more effective. Storwize includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these functions in a virtualization system, Storwize standardizes them across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs.

    Storwize functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash memory. In addition, IBM Real-time Compression™ enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs.

    Integrating these functions into Storwize also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort.

    This IBM Redbooks® publication provides information about the latest features and functions of the Storwize V7000 Gen2 and software version 7.3 implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.

    Table of contents

    1. Front cover
    2. Notices
      1. Trademarks
    3. IBM Redbooks promotions
    4. Preface
      1. Authors
      2. Now you can become a published author, too
      3. Comments welcome
      4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
    5. Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM storage virtualization
      1. 1.1 Storage virtualization terminology
      2. 1.2 Requirements driving storage virtualization
        1. 1.2.1 Benefits of using IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
      3. 1.3 IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 architecture
        1. 1.3.1 IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 components
      4. 1.4 More information
    6. Chapter 2. IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 Hardware
      1. 2.1 Overview
        1. 2.1.1 Scalable write cache
        2. 2.1.2 Increase in performance
        3. 2.1.3 Support for 20 Expansion Enclosures
      2. 2.2 New hardware on the Storwize V7000 Gen2
        1. 2.2.1 Controller hardware overview
        2. 2.2.2 Base configuration
        3. 2.2.3 Controller SAS Topology
        4. 2.2.4 Compression Accelerator card
        5. 2.2.5 Host interface cards
        6. 2.2.6 Expansion Enclosure
        7. 2.2.7 SES firmware
      3. 2.3 Expansion Enclosures
        1. 2.3.1 Control enclosure midplane
        2. 2.3.2 Battery backup
        3. 2.3.3 Battery Pack
        4. 2.3.4 Control Enclosure power supplies
        5. 2.3.5 Control enclosure fan modules
        6. 2.3.6 Compression Accelerator card
        7. 2.3.7 FCoE and iSCSI
      4. 2.4 LEDs
        1. 2.4.1 Battery LED
        2. 2.4.2 Control Enclosure LED
        3. 2.4.3 Expansion Enclosure LED
      5. 2.5 Technician Port
        1. 2.5.1 Technician port is marked with a T (Ethernet port 4)
    7. Chapter 3. Planning and configuration
      1. 3.1 General planning rules
        1. 3.1.1 Base software
      2. 3.2 Physical planning
        1. 3.2.1 Single rack or dual rack configuration
        2. 3.2.2 Cable connections
      3. 3.3 Logical planning
        1. 3.3.1 Management IP addressing plan
        2. 3.3.2 SAN zoning and SAN connections
        3. 3.3.3 iSCSI IP addressing plan
        4. 3.3.4 Native IP replication
        5. 3.3.5 Back-end storage subsystem configuration
        6. 3.3.6 Real-time Compression
        7. 3.3.7 Easy Tier version 3
        8. 3.3.8 Storwize V7000 Gen2 clustered system configuration
        9. 3.3.9 Volume configuration
        10. 3.3.10 Host mapping (LUN masking)
        11. 3.3.11 Advanced Copy Services
        12. 3.3.12 SAN boot support
        13. 3.3.13 Data migration from a non-virtualized storage subsystem
        14. 3.3.14 Storwize V7000 Gen2 configuration backup procedure
      4. 3.4 Performance considerations
        1. 3.4.1 SAN
        2. 3.4.2 Disk subsystems
        3. 3.4.3 Cache
        4. 3.4.4 Port Configuration
        5. 3.4.5 Performance monitoring
    8. Chapter 4. IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 Easy Tier
      1. 4.1 IBM Storwize family software Easy Tier history
        1. 4.1.1 New features in Easy Tier 3
        2. 4.1.2 Storage pool balancing
      2. 4.2 Performance and monitoring considerations
        1. 4.2.1 Considerations for optimal performance
        2. 4.2.2 Monitoring tools
    9. Chapter 5. The IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 Initial Configuration
      1. 5.1 Managing the Storwize V7000 Gen2
        1. 5.1.1 Network requirements for the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
        2. 5.1.2 Prerequisites
      2. 5.2 Initial Configuration of the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
        1. 5.2.1 How to make the first connection to the Storwize V7000 Gen2
        2. 5.2.2 System Setup wizard
    10. Chapter 6. IBM Real-time Compression and the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
      1. 6.1 Real-time Compression background, overview, and value proposition
        1. 6.1.1 The solution: IBM Real-time Compression
        2. 6.1.2 Common use cases
      2. 6.2 IBM Real-time Compression technology
        1. 6.2.1 Random Access Compression Engine
        2. 6.2.2 RACE in Storwize V7000 Gen2 software stack
        3. 6.2.3 Data write flow
        4. 6.2.4 Data read flow
        5. 6.2.5 Compression of existing data
      3. 6.3 Storwize V7000 Gen2 software and hardware updates that enhance Real-time Compression
        1. 6.3.1 Software enhancements
        2. 6.3.2 Hardware enhancements
    11. Chapter 7. Performance overview of the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
      1. 7.1 IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 performance overview
        1. 7.1.1 Drive Performance
        2. 7.1.2 RAID performance
        3. 7.1.3 Drive, RAID, and storage pool best practices
      2. 7.2 SAN Performance considerations
      3. 7.3 Performance monitoring
        1. 7.3.1 Collecting performance statistics
        2. 7.3.2 Real-time performance monitoring
        3. 7.3.3 Performance data collection and Tivoli Storage Productivity Center for Disk
    12. Chapter 8. IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 command-line interface
      1. 8.1 How to set up the CLI
      2. 8.2 Configuring the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 using the CLI
        1. 8.2.1 Viewing the Node Canister details
        2. 8.2.2 Configuring event notification settings
        3. 8.2.3 Configuring internal storage
        4. 8.2.4 Configuring external storage
        5. 8.2.5 Configuring volumes
        6. 8.2.6 Configuring remote copy
        7. 8.2.7 Configuring hosts
      3. 8.3 New Commands introduced with the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
    13. Chapter 9. IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 operations using the GUI
      1. 9.1 Introduction to IBM Storwize V7000 GUI
        1. 9.1.1 Overview
        2. 9.1.2 Monitoring
        3. 9.1.3 Pools
        4. 9.1.4 Volumes
        5. 9.1.5 Hosts
        6. 9.1.6 Copy services
        7. 9.1.7 Access
        8. 9.1.8 Settings
      2. 9.2 IBM Storage Tier Advisor Tool
    14. Related publications
      1. IBM Redbooks
      2. Other resources
      3. Referenced websites
      4. Help from IBM
    15. Back cover
    16. IBM System x Reference Architecture for Hadoop: IBM InfoSphere BigInsights Reference Architecture
      1. Introduction
      2. Business problem and business value
      3. Reference architecture use
      4. Requirements
      5. InfoSphere BigInsights predefined configuration
      6. InfoSphere BigInsights HBase predefined configuration
      7. Deployment considerations
      8. Customizing the predefined configurations
      9. Predefined configuration bill of materials
      10. References
      11. The team who wrote this paper
      12. Now you can become a published author, too!
      13. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
    17. Notices
      1. Trademarks

    Product information

    • Title: Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2
    • Author(s):
    • Release date: January 2015
    • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
    • ISBN: None