Using IBM FlashSystem V9000
In this chapter, you learn how to operate IBM FlashSystem V9000 in your business environment. We use the graphical user interface (GUI) and the command-line interface (CLI) to demonstrate how to monitor the system and work with volumes, managed disks, hosts, and user security.
This chapter includes the following topics:
In this chapter, you learn how to operate IBM FlashSystem V9000 in your business environment. We use the graphical user interface (GUI) and the command-line interface (CLI) to demonstrate how to monitor the system and work with volumes, managed disks, hosts, and user security.
This chapter includes the following topics:
8.1 Overview of FlashSystem V9000 management tool
FlashSystem V9000 can be managed from either the built-in GUI, which is a web browser-based management tool, or from the command-line interface (CLI).
You must use a supported web browser to be able to manage the FlashSystem 9000 by using the GUI. For a list of supported web browsers, see the IBM FlashSystem V9000 web page in the IBM Knowledge Center:
Select Configuring → Configuration details → Initializing the system → Checking your web browser settings for the management GUI.
 
JavaScript: You might need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Additionally, if you are using Firefox, under Advanced JavaScript Settings, you need to click Disable or replace context menus and allow cookies.
8.1.1 Access to the GUI
To log in to the GUI, point your web browser at the IP address that was set during the initial setup of the FlashSystem V9000. The login window opens (Figure 8-1).
Figure 8-1 Login window: Default is superuser and passw0rd (with a zero)
8.1.2 GUI home window: Single building block system
After you log in, the Monitoring > System window opens, which is the home window (Figure 8-2). In this chapter, we describe each component of the GUI and provide examples.
Figure 8-2 System view - single system
The GUI home window shown in Figure 8-2 represents a system with a single building block (BB). That is a system containing a single control enclosure with two nodes and a storage enclosure.
To navigate the home window, complete the following steps:
1. By clicking the yellow arrow in the lower right corner of the FlashSystem V9000 depiction, the image turns around and shows the system from the back. By moving the mouse to each individual port or device additional information displays, as shown in Figure 8-3.
Figure 8-3 Back view of a single system
2. At the frontside view properties for the device can be viewed by pointing the mouse to the device, right-click and select Properties, as shown in Figure 8-4.
Figure 8-4 Select the storage expansion and right-click for properties
The system property window opens Figure 8-5.
Figure 8-5 Expansion enclosure properties
8.1.3 GUI home window: Multiple building block system
For systems containing more than a single control enclosure or more than a single storage enclosure in the cluster, the GUI home window displays differently. When opening the GUI after logon, a single control enclosure is depicted. This immediately animates into a new depiction of all the installed components in the managed entity, as shown in Figure 8-6.
Figure 8-6 System view - more systems
The system shown in the GUI in Figure 8-6 on page 265 has eight FlashSystem V9000 controller nodes and eight storage enclosures.
Hover the mouse over the individual items, and additional information is provided. For example, by pointing the mouse to the first controller node in io_grp0, as shown in Figure 8-7.
Figure 8-7 Mouse over node 1 in iogroup io_grp0
By clicking the selected node, the node properties window opens, as shown in Figure 8-8.
Figure 8-8 Node1 selected in the GUI
Hover the mouse over node1 and right-click. A menu displays, as shown in Figure 8-9 on page 267.
Figure 8-9 Configure node 1 menu displays
Node1 can also be viewed so that the rear side displays. From the rear side, the status of each individual IO-port can be monitored. The same configuration menu as opens from the front side view can also be opened, as shown in Figure 8-10.
Figure 8-10 Node 1 rear-side view
Information of individual ports can be displayed by pointing the mouse to the port of interest, as shown in Figure 8-11.
Figure 8-11 Node 1 rear-side view with FC-port information displayed
For iSCSI-enabled ports, the iSCSI IP address displays, as shown in Figure 8-12.
Figure 8-12 Node 1 rear-side view with iSCSI information displayed
 
8.1.4 Layout of GUI
The GUI has multiple functions (Figure 8-13 on page 269) for navigating through the management tool:
Actions This button has a list of menu items. You can also reach actions by right-clicking anywhere in the window.
Function icons You can directly access various functions.
Component status indicators
These provide more detailed information about the existing configuration of the FlashSystem V9000 solution.
User security key and help
The user security key shows which user is currently logging in. Click the question mark (?) help icon to get information about licenses, current system code level and serial, and access to the FlashSystem V9000 web page in the IBM Knowledge Center.
Capacity, performance, and health indicators
Get instant status of capacity, overall performance and current health.
Overview Shows the number of external mdisks, arrays, pools, volumes, and hosts, and provides a link for managing each of these items.
 
Figure 8-13 Home window layout for IBM FlashSystem V9000Figure 8-14
Overview
The overview window shows number of external mdisks, arrays, pools, volumes, and hosts, and provides link for management, as shown in Figure 8-14.
.
Figure 8-14 Overview window
For each of the items in the overview window a link is provided. The link opens the appropriate menu to configure the selected item.
8.1.5 Function icons
Each function icon offers various menu options. Click an icon to open its branch-out menu (Figure 8-15). The function icons are as follows:
•Monitoring
•Pools
•Volumes
•Hosts
•Copy Services
•Access
•Settings
 
The Settings menu: Details about the settings menu and its various options are provided in further detail in Chapter 9, “Configuring settings” on page 339.
Figure 8-15 Function icons
8.1.6 Capacity, performance, and health indicators
These indicators show real-time values of the current FlashSystem V9000 system (Figure 8-16).
Figure 8-16 Status indicators
The status indicators show the following information:
•Running tasks:
 – Currently ongoing tasks
 – Recently completed tasks
An example of running tasks is shown in Figure 8-17.
Figure 8-17 Running tasks
•Capacity:
 – Used gigabytes
 – Installed gigabytes
 
Note: Use the up and down arrows (1). Click the up arrow to see the Allocated capacity comparison; click the down arrow to see the Virtual capacity comparison.
•Performance:
 – Bandwidth (in MBps)
 – I/O per second (IOPS)
 – Latency (in ms)
 
Note: To view the detailed performance windows, hover the cursor over any of the three areas in the performance pod. For more detail, you can hover your cursor over any of the other components of IBM FlashSystem V9000.
•Health:
 – Healthy (green)
 – Warning or degraded (yellow) and a link to Monitoring → Events is provided
 – Error (red) and a link to Monitoring → Events is provided
 – Upgrade status percentage
•Status alerts:
 – Current unread alerts
 – Current unfixed events
An example of status alerts is shown in Figure 8-18.
Figure 8-18 Status alert
8.1.7 See which user is logged in, get help, and get overview information
This part of the window (Figure 8-19 on page 273) can be used for these tasks:
User security See which user is currently logged in and change password.
Help Get context-sensitive help, get current code level and serial number.
Overview Access the main functions through the Overview.
Figure 8-19 Systems general parameters
8.1.8 System details
The central part of the window enables you to get more deeply into the details for all parts of the FlashSystem V9000. Hover your cursor over an object and click to get details. Some objects also support right-click (Figure 8-20).
Figure 8-20 Front view selection
Click Rotate to see the rear view of the system (Figure 8-21).
Figure 8-21 Rear view selection
8.2 Actions menu
In the home window, you can click Actions (Figure 8-15 on page 270) to see a list of actions or right-click anywhere in the GUI to get a list of actions.
The following information can be retrieved and updated from the Actions menu (Figure 8-22):
Rename System Changes the host name and iSCSI IQN name.
Update System Provides a link to the firmware update wizard.
Power Off Power off entire system.
Figure 8-22 Actions menu
8.2.1 Rename System
You can rename your FlashSystem V9000 by using the GUI and the CLI.
Using the GUI to rename the system
To change the system name, click Actions → Rename System. In the Rename System window, enter the new name and click Rename (Figure 8-23).
Figure 8-23 System rename
After the system is renamed, the Modify System Properties window opens and displays the Task completed message (Figure 8-24). The window also shows the CLI command that the system used to make the change. Review this for future use and click Close.
Figure 8-24 System Rename CLI command
Using the CLI to rename the system
When system is renamed from the GUI, commands are run on the system. In the preceding example, we changed the system name by using the GUI, and the Modify System Properties window opened to indicate the CLI commands that the system used to change system properties.
Example 8-1 shows CLI commands to rename the system (for clarity, we shortened the output).
Example 8-1 System name change using CLI
IBM_FlashSystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>svctask chsystem -name test_change
 
IBM_FlashSystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>svcinfo lssystem
....
name test_change
....
8.2.2 Update System
For updating FlashSystem V9000 code, concurrent upgrade is the default way to upgrade the FlashSystem V9000 system. All components of the system are upgraded including the AC2 controllers and AE2 storage enclosures. Performance is affected during heavy IO load.
The details of the firmware update process, including concurrent upgrade, are covered in 9.5.3, “Update software” on page 382.
8.2.3 Power Off
The IBM FlashSystem V9000 can be turned off through the Actions menu. The power off function ensures that the system is turned off securely so that data is preserved.
After you click Actions → Power Off → System, a warning message displays. Figure 8-25 shows that the Power Off window requires the administrator to type a confirmation code to prevent an accidental power-off cycle of the device.
Figure 8-25 Power off confirmation window
8.3 Monitoring menu
The Monitoring → System page is the default home page for the FlashSystem V9000 GUI.
The Monitoring menu has three options:
System Default GUI entry point.
Events Messages, alerts, and recommended actions/fix procedures.
Performance Review overall system performance in a five-minute window.
8.3.1 System
Select Monitoring → System from anywhere in the GUI to return to the main window as shown in Figure 8-26.
Figure 8-26 System home window
8.3.2 Events
The health status indicator can be green (healthy), yellow (degraded or warning), or red (critical), as shown in Figure 8-27. For more details about events that caused the status to change, click Events on the Monitoring menu.
Figure 8-27 Events start menu
At any time, you can click the question mark (?) help icon (Figure 8-28) to get context-sensitive details.
Figure 8-28 Get help on events
Figure 8-29 shows the Monitoring > Events window where the mode is Show All. In this mode, all events, including messages, warnings, and errors, are displayed.
Figure 8-29 Show All events mode
To view the Show All mode, click Recommended Actions → Show All (Figure 8-30).
Figure 8-30 Mode change to Show All
Changing the Events view
You might want more or less information displayed in the Monitoring > Events window. To change the default view, right-click the menu bar or click the check mark icon in the upper-right corner of the Monitoring > Events window (Figure 8-31). A panel opens that lists items to display. Select the items you want to view.
.
Figure 8-31 Change events view
Ordering events
To change the order of the data that is listed in the Monitoring > Events window, click any column header (Figure 8-32). For example, click the Status column to display the order by event status.
Figure 8-32 Events ordering example
Events Actions menu
Use the Actions menu (Figure 8-33) to select any of these actions, depending on the
view choice:
•Run Fix Procedure
This starts the Directed Maintenance Procedure (DMP), which can help you correct the error. See “Directed Maintenance Procedure” on page 282.
•Mark as Fixed
This marks the event as fixed without running the DMP (force mode).
•Filter by Date
Filters events by date and time stamp.
•Show entries within
Shows only events from the last minutes, hours, or days.
•Reset Date Filter
Resets filtering by date when set.
•Clear Log
Clears the displayed events, but events are still in the support package if needed.
•Properties
Displays the details for one event, same as clicking the event.
Figure 8-33 shows that we select to view only events that are newer than 2 hours.
Figure 8-33 Actions menu
Search string
If you want to see a specific string within the events, click Filter (Figure 8-34).
Figure 8-34 Filter menu
You are then prompted for the search string. Matched data is highlighted (Figure 8-35).
Figure 8-35 Filter result
Save data to CSV
To save any event data as a CSV file (even after filtering), click the Save icon (Figure 8-36).
Figure 8-36 Save event data to local disk
Directed Maintenance Procedure
Various ways are available to discover that your system needs attention in a warning or error situation. If call home is configured on your system, which is advised, IBM Support is notified directly from the system, and IBM contacts the system administrators for corrective actions.
The system administrator might also be in the list of email recipients and therefore is notified directly and immediately from the system as soon as an alert is sent. Another way of getting alert notifications is through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) alerts.
When the system administrator logs in to the FlashSystem V9000 GUI, a Status Alerts window opens in the lower-right corner. Hover over the Status Alerts icon (X) to see the unresolved alerts (Figure 8-37 on page 283). Information also indicates approximately how long the alert has existed (for example 33 minutes).
 
Note: Proactively remove all alerts.
Figure 8-37 Status Alerts
By clicking the alert number, you are redirected to the event window, and can run the fix for the error. To do that, click Run Fix, or you can right-click the alert event and select Run Fix Procedure (Figure 8-38).
Figure 8-38 Two choices to fix the alerts
The fix procedure begins. Follow the procedure, as shown in Figure 8-39.
Figure 8-39 Fix procedure example
8.3.3 Performance
This section highlights several performance monitoring techniques, using the GUI or the CLI.
Real-time performance monitoring with the GUI
To open the Performance window (Monitoring > Performance), select Performance from the Monitoring menu as shown in (Figure 8-40).
Figure 8-40 Performance menu selection
The Performance Monitoring window (Figure 8-41 on page 285) is divided into four sections that provide utilization views for the following resources:
•CPU Utilization. Shows CPU usage for the following items:
 – System %
 – Compression (when enabled) %
•Volumes. Shows the overall volume utilization with the following fields:
 – Read
 – Write
 – Read latency
 – Write latency
• Interfaces. Shows the overall statistics for each of the available interfaces:
 – Fibre Channel
 – iSCSI
 – SAS
 – IP Replication
•MDisks. Shows the following overall statistics for the mdisks:
 – Read
 – Write
 – Read latency
 – Write latency
Figure 8-41 Real time performance graph
You can also select to view performance statistics for each of the available nodes of the system, as shown in Figure 8-42.
Figure 8-42 Change statistics from all nodes to one specific node
Another possibility is to change the metric between MBps or IOPS (Figure 8-43).
Figure 8-43 Change data from IOPS to MBps
On any of these views, you can hover the cursor at any point in the timeline (Figure 8-44) to see the exact value and when it occurred. As soon as you place your cursor over the timeline, a dotted line with the various values gathered are displayed.
Figure 8-44 How to get details
For each resource, you can view various values by selecting the check box next to a value. For example, for the mdisks view (Figure 8-45 on page 287), the four available fields are selected:
•Read
•Write
•Read latency
•Write latency
Figure 8-45 All curves selected
Of interest with regards to performance is especially the latency numbers. Mdisk latency is latency between the FlashSystem V9000 controller nodes and its flash memory devices. Volume latency is latency between a connected host and the FlashSystem V9000 controller nodes. If a system administrator of a connected host experiences slow disk connectivity, that is reflected in the volume latency.
FlashSystem V9000 shows system overall performance in terms of IOPS, MBps, and latency numbers in a time frame of 5 minutes. If there is a need for additional information, for example to monitor if a specific volume has latency, or to investigate why a connected host experienced performance problems at a given time, IBM offers advanced performance and capacity management and monitoring tools using IBM Spectrum Control (formerly IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center).
For more information about IBM Spectrum Control, see the following website:
 
Note: In the home window (Figure 8-16 on page 271) you still have a high-level view of the performance in the performance pod:
Real-time performance monitoring with the CLI
The following commands are available for monitoring the statistics through the CLI:
lsnodestats and lssystemstats
We show you examples of how to use them.
The lsnodestats command provides performance statistics for the nodes that are part of the system, as shown in Example 8-2 (note that the output is truncated and shows only part of the available statistics). You can also specify a node name in the command to limit the output for a specific node.
Example 8-2 The lsnodestats command output
IBM_FlashSystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lsnodestats
node_id node_name stat_name stat_current stat_peak stat_peak_time
1 BB1N1_NODE_01 compression_cpu_pc 8 8 150305140356
1 BB1N1_NODE_01 cpu_pc 1 2 150305140251
1 BB1N1_NODE_01 fc_mb 0 29 150305140251
1 BB1N1_NODE_01 fc_io 225 685 150305140156
This example shows statistics for the node BB1N1_NODE_01 members of system ITSO_V9000; the following columns are displayed:
node_id ID of the current node.
node_name Name of the node.
stat_name Provides the name of the statistic field.
stat_current The current value of the statistic field.
stat_peak The peak value of the statistic field in the last 5 minutes.
stat_peak_time The time that the peak occurred.
The lssystemstats command (Example 8-3) lists the same set of statistics as the lsnodestats command lists, but represents all nodes in the system.
Example 8-3 The lssystemstats command output
IBM_FlashSystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lssystemstats
stat_name stat_current stat_peak stat_peak_time
compression_cpu_pc 0 8 150305141858
cpu_pc 1 2 150305141843
fc_mb 0 9 150305141718
fc_io 437 657 150305141843
The values for these statistics are calculated from the node statistics values as follows:
Bandwidth Sum of bandwidth of all nodes.
Latency Average latency for the cluster, which is calculated using data from the whole cluster, not an average of the single node values.
IOPS Total IOPS of all nodes.
CPU percentage Average CPU percentage of all nodes.
Table 8-1 describes each of the statistics presented by the lsnodestats and lssystemstats commands.
Table 8-1 The lssystemstats and lsnodestats statistics field name descriptions
Field name
Unit
Description
cpu_pc
Percentage
Utilization of node CPUs
fc_mb
MBps
Fibre Channel bandwidth
fc_io
IOPS
Fibre Channel throughput
sas_mb
MBps
SAS bandwidth
sas_io
IOPS
SAS throughput
iscsi_mb
MBps
IP-based Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) bandwidth
iscsi_io
IOPS
iSCSI throughput
write_cache_pc
Percentage
Write cache fullness. Updated every 10 seconds.
total_cache_pc
Percentage
Total cache fullness. Updated every 10 seconds.
vdisk_mb
MBps
Total VDisk bandwidth
vdisk_io
IOPS
Total VDisk throughput
vdisk_ms
Milliseconds
Average VDisk latency
mdisk_mb
MBps
mdisk (SAN and RAID) bandwidth
mdisk_io
IOPS
mdisk (SAN and RAID) throughput
mdisk_ms
Milliseconds
Average mdisk latency
drive_mb
MBps
Drive bandwidth
drive_io
IOPS
Drive throughput
drive_ms
Milliseconds
Average drive latency
vdisk_w_mb
MBps
VDisk write bandwidth
vdisk_w_io
IOPS
VDisk write throughput
vdisk_w_ms
Milliseconds
Average VDisk write latency
mdisk_w_mb
MBps
mdisk (SAN and RAID) write bandwidth
mdisk_w_io
IOPS
mdisk (SAN and RAID) write throughput
mdisk_w_ms
Milliseconds
Average mdisk write latency
drive_w_mb
MBps
Drive write bandwidth
drive_w_io
IOPS
Drive write throughput
drive_w_ms
Milliseconds
Average drive write latency
vdisk_r_mb
MBps
VDisk read bandwidth
vdisk_r_io
IOPS
VDisk read throughput
vdisk_r_ms
Milliseconds
Average VDisk read latency
mdisk_r_mb
MBps
mdisk (SAN and RAID) read bandwidth
mdisk_r_io
IOPS
mdisk (SAN and RAID) read throughput
mdisk_r_ms
Milliseconds
Average mdisk read latency
drive_r_mb
MBps
Drive read bandwidth
drive_r_io
IOPS
Drive read throughput
drive_r_ms
Milliseconds
Average drive read latency
 
8.4 Pools menu
Storage pools consist of managed disks (mdisks) that are grouped into what is called storage pools. An mdisk consists of physical flash modules, which are grouped in RAID-5 sets forming a fault tolerant raid set.
An mdisk can also be a disk volume, which is presented to FlashSystem V9000 by an external storage device, for example the IBM Storwize V7000.
The tasks that you do with Pools are creating new storage pools and managing existing storage pools.
The Pools menu has five menu options:
Pools Review, create, and manage storage pools.
Volumes by Pool Review and manage volumes based on which pool they reside in.
Internal Storage Review internal storage flash modules.
MDisks by Pool Review managed disks (MDisks) based on which pool they are associated with.
System Migration Perform storage migration actions for data from externally virtualized storage.
8.4.1 Opening the pools menu
Navigate to the Pools → Pools menu from the home window, as shown in Figure 8-46.
Figure 8-46 Pools menu
8.4.2 Storage Pools
The default storage pools in FlashSystem V9000 are created by the flash modules that are discovered during system initialization and setup. Additional storage pools can be created from the GUI, and mdisks can be assigned or unassigned from these pools from the GUI.
The creation of storage pools can be omitted during setup. In that case, there will be unused flash modules available for additional mdisks. However, Mdisks in FlashSystem V9000 can only be created using the command-line interface (CLI).
Storage pools can also be deleted from the configuration. That however requires that no volumes are dependent of the storage pool to be deleted.
From the Pools → Pools menu, as shown in Figure 8-47, we can review the existing storage pools. This example has a single storage pool called mdiskgrp0.
Figure 8-47 Pools menu
You can right-click any storage pool and select properties, as shown in Figure 8-48.
Figure 8-48 Mdisk pool properties
Figure 8-49 shows the properties for the mdisk pool mdiskgrp0. An important thing to remember about mdisk pools is that volumes can only be migrated between mdisk pools with the same extent size. In the following example, the extent size is 1.00 gibibytes (GiB).
Figure 8-49 Mdisk pool properties
If mdisk pools have different extent sizes, and a volume need to be migrated from one to the other, as an alternative to migrating volumes a mirrored volume copy can be created. When the mirror copies are in sync, the original mirror copy can be deleted, and then the volume moved to the other mdisk pool.
 
Important: Volumes can only be migrated between mdisk pools with the same extent size.
Create mdisk and add to storage pool
In the following section, we demonstrate how to create one additional mdisk and how to add it to a storage pool.
As mentioned previously mdisks can only be created using the CLI. Before doing so, we open Pools > Internal Storage to see if any available flash modules exist, as shown in Figure 8-50.
Figure 8-50 Internal storage with candidate modules
From the output shown in Figure 8-50, we see that flash modules 0 - 7 in enclosure ID 1 are available as candidate drives. Other flash modules in enclosure ID 2 is already in use by mdisk0.
We now open CLI to configure the new array. We log in as a user with admin rights for example superuser (Example 8-4).
Example 8-4 Create mdisk from candidate drives in enclosure ID 1
IBM_FlashSystem:PE_V9K-2_Cluster:superuser>svctask mkarray -enclosure 1
mdisk, id [1], successfully created
 
IBM_FlashSystem:PE_V9K-2_Cluster:
Arrays in FlashSystem V9000 are built from whole flash module enclosures and all available drives are used to create one RAID-5 array. One flash module is configured as a spare drive.
We now check the result from the array creation process (Example 8-5).
Example 8-5 Check drives and mdisks (output shortened for clarity)
IBM_FlashSystem:PE_V9K-2_Cluster:superuser>lsdrive
id status error_sequence_number use tech_type capacity mdisk_id mdisk_name member_id enclosure_id slot_id node_id node_name
0 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 0 1 3
1 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 1 1 4
2 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 2 1 5
3 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 3 1 6
4 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 4 1 7
5 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 5 1 8
6 online member sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 mdisk2 6 1 9
7 online spare sas_ssd 1.0TB 1 10
8 online member sas_ssd 960.0GB 0 mdisk0 0 2 4
9 online member sas_ssd 960.0GB 0 mdisk0 1 2 5
10 online member sas_ssd 960.0GB 0 mdisk0 2 2 6
11 online member sas_ssd 960.0GB 0 mdisk0 3 2 7
12 online member sas_ssd 960.0GB 0 mdisk0 4 2 8
13 online spare sas_ssd 960.0GB 2 9
 
IBM_FlashSystem:PE_V9K-2_Cluster:superuser>lsmdisk
id name status mode mdisk_grp_id mdisk_grp_name capacity ctrl_LUN_# controller_name UID tier encrypt enclosure_id
0 mdisk0 online array 0 mdiskgrp0 3.7TB ssd
1 mdisk2 online unmanaged_array 6.2TB ssd
 
IBM_FlashSystem:PE_V9K-2_Cluster:superuser>
Back to the GUI and in Pools > Internal Storage we now see that what were previously candidate drives are now member drives of mdisk2, as shown in Figure 8-51.
Figure 8-51 Mdisk2 has been created.
To add the newly created mdisk to an existing storage pool, navigate to Pools > MDisks by Pools, as shown in Figure 8-52.
Figure 8-52 Mdisks by Pools showing one unassigned mdisk
The next step is to select the unassigned mdisk, mdisk2. Either select mdisk2 and click Actions, or right-click mdisk2 and then select Assign, as shown in Figure 8-53.
Figure 8-53 Select mdisk2 and assign to storage pool
Using the Actions option, it is also possible to see more properties of the mdisk, and additional settings can be applied.
 
Tip: It is a good practice to rename the mdisk so that the name reflects the source of the mdisk, for example Enclosure1_1TB.
Next, select the pool that you want to expand. In our example, we only have a single mdisk pool. We select this and click Assign, as shown in Figure 8-54.
Figure 8-54 Assign mdisk2 to the pool
Mdisk pool mdiskgrp0 has now expanded and it contains two mdisks, including the newly created mdisk2, as shown in Figure 8-55.
Figure 8-55 mdisk pool has been expanded
8.4.3 Volumes by Pool
To view the volumes by storage pools (Figure 8-56), click Pools → Volumes by Pool.
Figure 8-56 Viewing the volumes by storage pools
To retrieve more information about a specific storage pool, select any storage pool in the Name column. The upper-right corner of the panel (Figure 8-57 on page 297) contains the following information about this pool:
•Status
•Number of mdisks
•Number of volume copies
•Whether Easy Tier is active on this pool
•Site assignment
•Volume allocation
•Capacity
Figure 8-57 Detailed information about a pool
Change the view to show the mdisks by selecting Pools → Mdisks by Pools (Figure 8-58).
Figure 8-58 Mdisks by pools
Select the pool that you want to work with and click the Plus sign (+) icon, which is the “expand” button. Because we already clicked the plus sign to expand the view, Figure 8-59 shows a minus sign, which is the “collapse” button. This panel displays the mdisks that are present in this storage pool.
Figure 8-59 Mdisks present in a storage pool
8.4.4 Creating storage pools
Complete the following steps to create a storage pool:
1. Click Pools → MDsks by Pools. The MDisks by Pools panel opens. Click Create Pool, as shown in Figure 8-60.
Figure 8-60 Selecting the option to create a new storage pool
2. The Create Pool dialog opens. Specify a name for the storage pool. If you do not provide a name, the system automatically generates the name Poolx, where x is the ID sequence number that is assigned by the FlashSystem V9000 internally. We type in the name V7000_SAS_10K, because the available mdisks comes from external storage Storwize V7000.
 
Storage pool name: You can use letters A - Z (uppercase), a - z (lowercase), numbers 0 - 9, and the underscore (_) character. The name can be 1 - 63 characters in length and is case-sensitive. It cannot start with a number or the pattern mdiskgrp because this prefix is reserved for FlashSystem V9000 internal assignment only.
3. Optionally, you can specify the extent size (the default is 1 GiB), and then click Create, as shown in Figure 8-61.
Figure 8-61 Create Pool
As mentioned previously volumes can only be migrated between mdisk pools with the same extent size, so it is good practice to keep the same extent size in all volumes when possible.
4. Now that the storage pool has been created it is still empty, and we need to assign disks to it. From the Pools > MDisks by Pool window with no mdisk pool selected, click Actions and Discover Storage, as shown in Figure 8-62.
Figure 8-62 Discover storage
For the purpose of this demonstration we mapped four external volumes originating from Storwize V7000 and configured for our FlashSystem V9000. Storwize V7000 to our FlashSystem V9000. These are now discovered as unassigned mdisks.
Next, complete the following steps to specify the mdisks that you want to associate with the new storage pool:
1. Select the mdisks that you want to add to this storage pool.
 
Tip: To add multiple mdisks, press and hold the Ctrl key and click selected items.
2. Click Assign to complete the creation process, as shown in Figure 8-63.
Figure 8-63 Assign mdisks to storage pool
3. Next we select the newly created pool called V7000_SAS_10K and click Assign, as shown in Figure 8-64.
Figure 8-64 Select pool and assign disks
4. Close the task completion window.
In the storage pools panel, (Figure 8-65), the new storage pool is displayed containing four mdisks and has a capacity of 1.95 TiB.
Figure 8-65 Mdisks added successfully to new storage pool
Additional disks can be added to the pool at any time. With regards to adding more disks to a pool containing disks from external storage devices, only include disks from the same storage device in the pool. The exception is when IBM EasyTier is needed to control automatic tiering, then FlashSystem disks can be added to the pool and tier level can be selected for the disks.
The Modify Tier dialog can be selected from the Pools > MDisks by pool window (see Figure 8-63 on page 299). The Modify Tier dialog (Figure 8-66) can be used to control tier level within a storage pool.
Figure 8-66 Modify Tier for Mdisks
When EasyTier is enabled and a storage pool contains mdisks with different tier levels, then FlashSystem V9000 runs analysis daily and moves data to the appropriate tier depending on load levels for the data. Most accessed data is moved to faster disks, and less used data to slower disks.
8.4.5 Renaming a storage pool
To rename a storage pool, complete the following steps:
1. Select the storage pool that you want to rename and then click Actions → Rename (Figure 8-67).
Figure 8-67 Renaming a storage pool
2. Enter the new name that you want to assign to the storage pool and click Rename, (Figure 8-68). A good practice is to name the pools so that the source of the pool is reflected in the name. We type V9000_internal_1 because the storage pool exists of FlashSystem V9000 internal drives in enclosure 1.
Figure 8-68 Changing the name for a storage pool
Storage pool name: You can use letters A - Z (uppercase), a - z (lowercase), numbers 0 - 9, the hyphen (-), and the underscore (_) character. The name can be 1 - 63 characters in length. However, the name cannot start with a number, hyphen, or underscore.
8.4.6 Deleting a storage pool
A storage pool can only be deleted if no volumes are dependent of the pool, so if a pool is to be deleted, first all volumes must be migrated to other pools.
To delete a storage pool, select the pool that you want to delete and then click Actions → Delete (Figure 8-69). Alternatively, you can right-click directly on the pool that you want to delete and get the same options from the menu.
Figure 8-69 Delete Pool option
The storage pool deletes without the need for confirmation, and the mdisks within it become unassigned, as shown in Figure 8-70.
Figure 8-70 Disk pool is deleted, and mdisks within it are now unassigned
 
Note: FlashSystem V9000 does not allow you to delete pools that contain any active volumes.
8.4.7 System Migration
IBM FlashSystem V9000 offers powerful migration tools. External storage devices in non-virtualized environments can be unmapped from the host that uses them. They can be mapped to FlashSystem V9000 and migrated into FlashSystem V9000 storage.
The only downtime needed for the host using the external storage device is a single restart during which the volume is remapped to FlashSystem V9000, which imports the volume and maps it to the host as an image mode disk. FlashSystem V9000 then starts migrating the data in the external volume and meanwhile the host can continue operation.
When FlashSystem V9000 has completed the migration the administrator finalizes the process, the connection to the external storage volume is disconnected, and the migration is complete.
To enter the migration wizard, go to Pools → System Migration, as shown in Figure 8-71.
Figure 8-71 Enter System Migration wizard
The procedure for migrating external storage into FlashSystem V9000 is similar to the procedure for IBM SAN Volume Controller, and is described in greater detail in the following IBM Redbooks publication:
Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V7.4, SG24-7933
Before attaching any external storage systems to FlashSystem V9000, always check for supported hardware and driver versions at the IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC):
8.5 Volumes menu
This topic provides information about managing volumes.
You can use the GUI or use the CLI svctask mkvdisk command to create a volume. After volumes are created, they can be mapped to a host by using the mkvdiskhostmap command.
The volumes are built from extents in the RAID 5 flash module arrays, and the volumes are presented to hosts as logical units that the host sees as external disks. We describe the Volumes menu and its options.
The Volumes menu has three options:
•Volumes
•Volumes by Pools
•Volumes by Host
8.5.1 Opening the Volumes menu
Move the cursor over the Volumes function icon to open the Volumes menu (Figure 8-72).
Figure 8-72 Navigate to the Volumes menu
8.5.2 Volumes window
Click Volumes to open the window shown in Figure 8-73. You can create, expand, rename, and delete volumes, or you can review the properties of the volume.
Figure 8-73 Volumes window that shows all volumes
Multiple selections
You can select multiple items by using a combination of the Shift keys or Ctrl keys. To select a range of items in a display, click the first item in the range, press and hold the Shift key, and click the last item in the range. All the items in between those two items are selected.
Figure 8-74 shows multiple selections in a range. This page is displayed after you select Pools → Volumes by Pool.
Figure 8-74 Multiple selections (in a range) by using the Shift key
To select multiple items that are not in a range, click a first item, press and hold the Ctrl key, and click the other items that you want (Figure 8-75).
Figure 8-75 Multiple selections (not in a range) by using the Ctrl key
Creating a volume by using the GUI
To create a volume, select Create Volumes from the Volumes menu. Select the relevant volume type (preset). The presets are Generic, Thin-Provision, Mirror, Thin Mirror, and Compressed volume for creation. After you select volume type, the window expands, as shown in Figure 8-76.
Figure 8-76 Selecting a volume type
Next, select the relevant mdisk group to which the volume will be associated. Make sure that the mdisk group has enough capacity available for the planned new volumes.
The window is presented, as shown in Figure 8-77.
Figure 8-77 Entering volume details
In this example, we specify a quantity of 4 volumes, the requested capacity (80 GiB), and a name of ITSO. Click Create.
The Create Volumes task window opens (Figure 8-78).
Figure 8-78 Create Volumes task window
The wizard creates four volumes of 80 GiB each. The resulting volumes can be reviewed on the volumes menu, as shown in Figure 8-79.
Figure 8-79 Four FlashSystem V9000 volumes created
The newly created volumes have no host mappings at the time of their creation. Host mapping can be done from the Volumes → Volumes by Host window. For the instructions to map volumes to a host, see “Mapping volumes” on page 313.
Creating a volume by using the CLI
The CLI can be used for creating volumes. CLI commands run faster than GUI commands, and administrators might prefer using the CLI.
Example 8-6 shows volume creation by using the CLI. More or fewer parameters can be applied to the mkvdisk command. This example specifies the minimum required.
Example 8-6 Create a volume by using the CLI
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>mkvdisk -size 15 -unit gb -name ITSO_4
Virtual Disk, id [7], successfully created
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lsvdisk
id name IO_group_name status capacity vdisk_UID
0 WIN2008_1 io_grp0 online 40.00GB 0020c24000000000
1 WIN2008_2 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24001000000
2 WIN2008_3 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24002000000
3 WIN2008_4 io_grp0 online 39.99GB 0020c24003000000
4 ITSO_1 io_grp0 online 15.00GB 0020c24004000000
5 ITSO_2 io_grp0 online 15.00GB 0020c24005000000
6 ITSO_3 io_grp0 online 15.00GB 0020c24006000000
7 ITSO_4 io_grp0 online 15.00GB 0020c24007000000
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>
Performing actions on volumes
Various actions can be done with volumes from the Volumes window. Click Actions to access these operations (Figure 8-80), or you can right-click the volume name, which opens a list of operations that can be performed to the volume.
Figure 8-80 Actions of a single volume
Figure 8-81 shows the volume’s properties, such as volume name and its capacity. Each volume has a unique ID (UID), which can be discovered from the host side as a property of the logical unit. The volume is currently not mapped to a host.
Figure 8-81 Properties of a volume
A volume can be expanded while it is online, therefore maintaining full functionality to the connected hosts. However, not all operating systems allow concurrent expansion of their disks, so always be sure that the operating system supports it. An alternative to expanding the disk is to create and map a new disk for the host.
Expanding a volume that is mapped to an AIX host
When more than one volume is selected, the actions available for the volumes are reduced to only Expand and Delete (Figure 8-82).
Figure 8-82 Expand a volume
Figure 8-83 shows that we expanded the volume to a size of 110 GiB.
Figure 8-83 Expand to 110 GB
The resulting Volumes window displays the new capacity (Figure 8-84).
Figure 8-84 Four volumes expanded
The IBM FlashSystem V9000 supports dynamically expanding the size of a virtual disk (vdisk) if the AIX host is using AIX version 5.2 or later.
The AIX chvg command has options to expand the size of a physical volume that the Logical Volume Manager (LVM) uses without interruptions to the use or availability of the system. For more information, see the documentation, under AIX 7.1 System management, about AIX 7.1 Operating System and Device Management at the following address:
Expanding a volume that is mapped to a Microsoft Windows host
You can use the GUI and the CLI to dynamically expand the size of a volume that is mapped to a Microsoft Windows host.
After expanding the volume, using the same procedure as shown in the previous examples (Figure 8-82 on page 310 and Figure 8-83 on page 310) for Windows, start the Computer Management application and open the Disk Management window under the Storage branch.
If the Computer Management application was open before you expanded the volume, use the Computer Management application to issue a rescan command. You see the volume that you expanded now has unallocated space at the right side of the disk:
•If the disk is a Windows basic disk, you can create a new primary or extended partition from the unallocated space.
•If the disk is a Windows dynamic disk, you can use the unallocated space to create a new volume (simple, striped, or mirrored) or add it to an existing volume.
Shrinking a volume
Volumes can be reduced in size, if necessary. The shrink volume option is provided through only the CLI, not the GUI.
 
Attention: If the volume contains data, do not shrink the size of the disk. Shrinking a volume destroys the data.
When shrinking a volume, consider the following information:
•Shrinking a volume removes capacity from the end of the volume’s address space. If the volume was used by an operating system or file system, predicting what space was used might be difficult. The file system or OS might depend on the space that is removed, even if it is reporting a high amount of free capacity.
•If the volume contains data that is used, do not attempt under any circumstances to shrink a volume without first backing up your data.
You can use the shrinkvdisksize CLI command to shrink the physical capacity that is allocated to the particular volume by the specified amount.
The shrinkvdisksize command uses this syntax:
shrinkvdisksize -size capacitytoshrinkby -unit unitsforreduction vdiskname/ID
Example 8-7 shows the shrinking of a volume. The volume is called a vdisk in the CLI.
Example 8-7 Shrink a volume (vdisk)
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lsvdisk
id name IO_group_name status capacity vdisk_UID
0 WIN2008_1 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24000000000
1 WIN2008_2 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24001000000
2 WIN2008_3 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24002000000
3 WIN2008_4 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24003000000
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>shrinkvdisksize -size 10 -unit gb WIN2008_1
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lsvdisk
id name IO_group_name status capacity vdisk_UID
0 WIN2008_1 io_grp0 online 40.00GB 0020c24000000000
1 WIN2008_2 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24001000000
2 WIN2008_3 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24002000000
3 WIN2008_4 io_grp0 online 50.00GB 0020c24003000000
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>
 
Attention: Shrinking a volume is a data destructive action. Only shrink volumes that are not in use and that do not contain data.
Mapping volumes
Click Volumes to open the Volumes view window.
In our example, we have four volumes named ITSO_1, ITSO_2, ITSO_3, and ITSO_4 that we want to map to our host ITSO. We highlight all four volumes and click Actions → Map to Host (or right-click), as shown in Figure 8-85.
Figure 8-85 Map Volumes to Host
The Modify Host Mapping window opens (Figure 8-86). Select the ITSO host and click Map Volumes.
Figure 8-86 Map Volumes: Select the host ITSO
Figure 8-87 shows the Modify Mappings window and that the CLI commands for mapping the volumes are being run.
Figure 8-87 Map Volumes: CLI commands display
The Volumes by Host window now shows that our four ITSO volumes are mapped and online (Figure 8-88).
Figure 8-88 Volumes mapped to host ITSO
Mapping a volume by using the CLI
Mapping volumes is faster when you use the CLI, which is useful for administrators. Volumes can be mapped by using the svctask mkvdiskhostmap command.
Example 8-8 shows how a volume is mapped to a host by using the CLI.
Example 8-8 Map volume by using the CLI
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>svctask mkvdiskhostmap -force -host 0 4
Virtual Disk to Host map, id [4], successfully created
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lsvdiskhostmap 4
id name SCSI_id host_id host_name vdisk_UID IO_group_id IO_group_name
4 ITSO_5 4 0 ITSO 0020c24004000000 0 io_grp0
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>
For mapping volumes by using the CLI, we use the logical number for the host and we use the logical number for the volume. These logical numbers can be discovered by using the following commands:
•lshost: Shows defined hosts and their status.
•lsvdisk: Shows defined volumes and their preferences.
Unmapping volumes
When deleting a volume mapping, you are not deleting the volume itself, only the connection from the host to the volume. For example, if you mapped a volume to a host by mistake or if you want to reassign the volume to another host, click Volumes → Volumes by Host. Select the volume or volumes that you want to unmap, and then right-click and select Unmap from Host (Figure 8-89).
Figure 8-89 Unmap volumes from host
The Unmap from Hosts window opens to indicate that the two selected volumes will be unmapped (Figure 8-90).
Figure 8-90 Unmapping volumes final step
By unmapping the volumes as shown in these windows, the volumes are made unavailable to the host. If data on the volumes is to be preserved, the host must unmount the disk before the volume is unmapped so that the connection to the disk is closed correctly by the host.
 
Note: Before unmapping a volume from a host, the host must unmount the connection to the disk or I/O errors occur.
Migrating volumes
Volumes can be migrated from one storage pool to another if the storage pool has the same extent size. Volume migration is a nondisruptive action and has no effect on connected hosts.
Volume migration is feasible in many situations. For example, if a volume needs higher performance, it can be moved to a storage pool with faster mdisks. Also, when storage is being decommissioned, simply move volumes away from that storage pool, after which the pool can be deleted and the storage device decommissioned.
To migrate a volume to another storage pool, select one or more volumes and click Actions (or right-click and then click Migrate to Another Pool), as shown in Figure 8-91.
Figure 8-91 Migrate to another pool
FlashSystem V9000 now provides a list of possible target pools. We have only a single pool available, which we select and then click Migrate, as shown in Figure 8-92.
Figure 8-92 Select new target pool
The volume migrates without any interruption to the hosts that are using the volume. Volume migration is a background task that might take considerable time, depending on the size of the volume, the performance of the storage pools, and the load on the volume.
Figure 8-93 shows running tasks, which can be viewed from anywhere in the FlashSystem V9000 GUI. Our volume migrated quickly and it now appears as a Recently Completed Task.
Figure 8-93 Running tasks
Click the completed task to get more information (Figure 8-94).
Figure 8-94 Migration completed
8.5.3 Volumes by Pool
Selecting Volumes → Volumes by Pool is functionally identical to selecting Volumes → Volumes by Host, as explained in more detail in 8.5.1, “Opening the Volumes menu” on page 304. See Figure 8-95 for a view of the window.
Figure 8-95 Volumes by Pool view
8.5.4 Volume by Host
Selecting Volumes → Volumes by Host is functionally identical to selecting Volumes → Volumes by Pool, as explained in more detail 8.5.1, “Opening the Volumes menu” on page 304. See Figure 8-96 for a view of the window.
Figure 8-96 Volume by Hosts view
8.6 Hosts menu
Host objects associate one or more host bus adapter (HBA) worldwide port names (WWPNs) or InfiniBand IDs with a logical object. You can use the GUI or the mkhost CLI command to create a logical host object.
You can then use the created host to map volumes (also called virtual disks or vdisks) to hosts by using the GUI or the mkvdiskhostmap CLI command.
The Hosts menu has four options:
•Hosts
•Ports by Host
•Host Mappings
•Volumes by Host
8.6.1 Opening the Hosts menu
In the GUI, use the Hosts menu to manage hosts. Navigate to the hosts menu from the GUI selecting Hosts → Hosts, as shown in Figure 8-97.
Figure 8-97 Navigate to Hosts
Adding a host
The process of creating a host object includes specifying the host name and selecting ports for the host.
The FlashSystem V9000 models are capable with Fibre Channel (FC), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and iSCSI.
The FlashSystem V9000 detects which type of interface cards are installed, and the Add Host wizard automatically adjusts to request the host port type for the actual model. For example, this can be the FC worldwide port name (WWPN) or the iSCSI initiator name or iSCSI qualified name (IQN).
Figure 8-98 shows the Hosts panel where the configured hosts are displayed. In this example, we have one defined host, ITSO.
Figure 8-98 Hosts panel showing already configured hosts
Each connected host initiator port must be zoned to all AC2 control enclosure connections that are on the SAN fabric, enabling multipathing on the same fabric. If not, the host reports as Degraded. The risk of having a host with degraded paths is that the host might loose access to storage if a canister fails or a reboot which then can cause unplanned downtime.
The FlashSystem V9000 uses redundant AC2 control enclosures. These might reboot because of system failure. Control enclosure reboot also occurs during firmware update.
Hosts in a FlashSystem V9000 configured with FC interface cards
To create a host object, click Add Host in the upper-left of the Hosts panel. The Add Host window opens (Figure 8-99). We type the name Exchange01 of our new host. For our Exchange service, we then select a WWPN in the Fibre Channel Ports area to select the host port (WWPN). Any WWPNs that are zoned to the system, but not already in use by a configured host appears, as shown in Figure 8-99.
Figure 8-99 Add ports to the new host
If no WWPNs are displayed, the No candidate HBA ports were found message is displayed. In that case, either the WWPN is already used for another host object or the host has not been zoned correctly to the FlashSystem V9000.
Up to four WWPNs for each host can be selected. We want only two configured WWPNs for the Exchange server. We click Add Port to List (Figure 8-100).
Figure 8-100 Add new host
Our newly created host Exchange01 is now online with our newly defined ports.
All WWPNs in a host object are mapped to the virtual disks.
You can now manage and examine the newly created host. These are the choices when you click the Actions menu for a host (Figure 8-101):
•Add Host
•Modify Mappings (add or remove WWPNs
•Unmap all Volumes (unmap volumes from host)
•Duplicate Mappings (duplicate volume mappings to another host)
•Rename
•Remove host (possible only when no host mappings exist)
•Properties (view properties of the host)
Figure 8-101 View status of host ports
Creating a host by using the CLI
To create a host through the CLI, use the svctask mkhost and svctask addhostport commands (Example 8-9).
Example 8-9 Create host and add one more port
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>svctask mkhost -fcwwpn 5005076801300004 -force -name ITSO
Host, id [1], successfully created
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>svctask addhostport -fcwwpn 50050768013A0004 -force ITSO
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lshost
id name port_count iogrp_count status
0 test 1 1 offline
1 ITSO 2 1 offline
 
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>lshost ITSO
id 1
name ITSO
port_count 2
type generic
mask 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
iogrp_count 1
status offline
WWPN 50050768013A0004
node_logged_in_count 0
state offline
WWPN 5005076801300004
node_logged_in_count 0
state offline
IBM_Flashsystem:ITSO_V9000:superuser>
The svctask addhostport command must be run one time for every host port that you want to define for your host object.
Hosts in a FlashSystem V9000 configured with iSCSI interface cards
To determine which iSCSI hosts already exist, open the Hosts menu and click Hosts (described in 8.6.1, “Opening the Hosts menu” on page 319).
Review the hosts (Figure 8-102). To create a new host click Add Host.
Figure 8-102 Review iSCSI hosts from the Hosts panel
In the Add Host dialog (Figure 8-103), specify the host name and the iSCSI IQN name obtained from the iSCSI hosts iSCSI initiator software at the host to be connected. Click Add to create the host.
Figure 8-103 Create iSCSI host
Figure 8-104 shows the hosts, including the newly created Win2008_File_SRV host.
Figure 8-104 New iSCSI host created
The new host does not yet have any host mappings. Host mappings for iSCSI hosts can be created in the same way as host mappings for FC and FCoE systems, which is demonstrated in “Mapping volumes” on page 313.
As described in “Creating a host by using the CLI” on page 322, any single host must be able to communicate with both FlashSystem V9000 AC2 control enclosures. If not, hosts are not able to perform path failover in case of a FlashSystem V9000 AC2 control enclosure reboot, which might cause unplanned downtime because the iSCSI host loses access to storage.
That means that an iSCSI-attached host must have its iSCSI initiator software configured so that each of its iSCSI initiators connects to at least one iSCSI target port on each FlashSystem V9000 AC2 control enclosure.
For more information about how to configure host connectivity, see Chapter 7, “Host configuration” on page 213.
8.6.2 Host Mappings
The Hosts → Host Mappings selection is functionally identical to mapping volumes as explained in “Mapping volumes” on page 313. Figure 8-105 shows the window.
Figure 8-105 Hosts Mapping
8.6.3 Ports by Hosts
The Hosts → Ports by Hosts selection is functionally identical to Volumes → Volumes by Host as explained in 8.5.1, “Opening the Volumes menu” on page 304. Figure 8-106 shows the window.
Figure 8-106 Ports by Hosts
8.6.4 Volumes by Host
The Hosts → Volumes by Host selection is functionally identical to the Volumes → Volumes by Host, as explained in 8.5.1, “Opening the Volumes menu” on page 304. See Figure 8-107 on page 325.
Figure 8-107 Volumes by Host
8.7 Copy Services menu
IBM FlashSystem V9000 provides Copy Services functions so that you can copy data from one system to another system.
Figure 8-108 shows the options in the Copy Services menu.
Figure 8-108 Copy Services menu
The Copy Services functions are as follows:
•IBM FlashCopy
You can either create point-in-time copies on a system, or create a point-in-time data copy on another system.
•Metro Mirror
Provides a consistent copy of a source volume on a target volume. Data is written to the target volume synchronously after it is written to the source volume, so that the copy is continuously updated.
•Global Mirror
Provides a consistent copy of a source volume on a target volume. Data is written to the target volume asynchronously, so that the copy is continuously updated, but the copy might not contain the most recent updates if a disaster recovery operation is performed.
•Consistency groups
A consistency group is a container for FlashCopy mappings, Global Mirror relationships, and Metro Mirror relationships. You can add many mappings or relationships to a consistency group, but FlashCopy mappings, Global Mirror relationships, and Metro Mirror relationships cannot be in the same consistency group. When you use a consistency group, you can complete copy operations on the entire group rather than the individual mappings.
Valid combinations of FlashCopy and Metro Mirror or Global Mirror functions
You can have both the FlashCopy function and either Metro Mirror or Global Mirror operating concurrently on the same volume. However, constraints exist regarding how these functions can be used together.
The next section provides an overview of the following Copy Services functions:
•FlashCopy
•Consistency Groups
•FlashCopy Mappings
•Remote Copy
•Partnerships
For more details about specific Copy Services functions and menus, see these resources:
•Chapter 10,“SAN Volume Controller operations using the GUI” in Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V7.4, SG24-7933
8.7.1 FlashCopy
The FlashCopy function creates a point-in-time copy of data, stored on a source volume, to a target volume.
In its basic mode, the IBM FlashCopy function copies the contents of a source volume to a target volume. Any data that existed on the target volume is lost and is replaced by the copied data. After the copy operation completes, the target volumes contain the contents of the source volumes as they existed at a single point in time, unless target writes have been processed.
The FlashCopy function is sometimes described as an instance of a time-zero copy (T 0) or point-in-time copy technology. Although the FlashCopy operation takes some time to complete, the resulting data on the target volume is presented so that the copy appears to have occurred immediately, and all data is available immediately. If needed, data that is still in the process of being copied can be accessed from the source.
Although a difficult task is to make a consistent copy of a data set that is constantly updated, point-in-time copy techniques help solve this problem. If a copy of a data set is created using a technology that does not provide point-in-time techniques and the data set changes during the copy operation, the resulting copy might contain data that is not consistent. For example, if a reference to an object is copied earlier than the object itself and the object is moved before it is copied, the copy contains the referenced object at its new location, but the copied reference still points to the previous location.
More advanced FlashCopy functions allow operations to occur on multiple source and target volumes. FlashCopy management operations are coordinated to provide a common, single point-in-time for copying target volumes from their respective source volumes. This creates a consistent copy of data that spans multiple volumes. The FlashCopy function also enables multiple target volumes to be copied from each source volume. This can be used to create images from different points in time for each source volume.
In its basic mode, the IBM FlashCopy function copies the contents of a source volume to a target volume. Any data that existed on the target volume is lost and is replaced by the copied data
Incremental FlashCopy mappings
In an incremental FlashCopy, the initial mapping copies all of the data from the source volume to the target volume. Subsequent FlashCopy mappings only copy data that has been modified since the initial FlashCopy mapping. This reduces the amount of time that it takes to re-create an independent FlashCopy image. You can define a FlashCopy mapping as incremental only when you create the FlashCopy mapping.
FlashCopy partner mappings
You can create a mapping to mirror an existing incremental FlashCopy mapping. The resulting pair of mappings is called partners. A mapping can have only one partner. For example, if you have volume A and volume B with two mappings (mapping 0 from volume A to volume B and mapping 1 from volume B to volume A), mapping 0 and mapping 1 are partners.
Incremental FlashCopy mappings share the metadata for recording changes. Therefore, if one mapping in a mirrored pair (partnership) is incremental, the other mapping becomes incremental automatically and remains incremental until it is deleted.
For more details, see the FlashSystem V9000 web pages in the IBM Knowledge Center:
8.7.2 Consistency Groups
A consistency group is a container for FlashCopy mappings, Global Mirror relationships, and Metro Mirror relationships. You can add many mappings or relationships to a consistency group, but FlashCopy mappings, Global Mirror relationships, and Metro Mirror relationships cannot appear in the same consistency group. When you use a consistency group, you can complete copy operations on the entire group rather than the individual mappings.
FlashCopy consistency groups
The consistency group is specified when the mapping is created. You can also change the consistency group later. When you use a consistency group, you prepare and start that group rather than the individual mappings. This process ensures that a consistent copy is made of all the source volumes. Mappings to control at an individual level are known as stand-alone mappings. Do not place stand-alone mappings into a consistency group because they become controlled as part of that consistency group.
When you copy data from one volume to another, the data might not include all that you need to use the copy. Many applications have data that spans multiple volumes and requires that data integrity is preserved across volumes. For example, the logs for a particular database are usually on a different volume than the volume that contains the data.
Consistency groups address the problem of applications having related data that spans multiple volumes. In this situation, IBM FlashCopy operations must be initiated in a way that preserves data integrity across the multiple volumes. One requirement for preserving the integrity of data being written is to ensure that dependent writes are run in the intended sequence of the application.
You can set the autodelete attribute for FlashCopy consistency groups. If this attribute is set to on, the consistency group is automatically deleted when the last mapping in the group is deleted or moved out of the consistency group.
Metro Mirror and Global Mirror consistency groups
You can group Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships into a consistency group so that they can be updated at the same time. A command that is issued to the consistency group is simultaneously applied to all of the relationships in the group.
Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships can be based on loose or tight associations. A more significant use arises when the relationships contain volumes with a tight association. A simple example of a tight association is the spread of data for an application across more than one volume. A more complex example is when multiple applications run on different host systems. Each application has data on different volumes, and these applications exchange data with each other. In both examples, specific rules exist as to how the relationships can be updated. These rules ensure that the set of secondary volumes contain usable data. The key property is that these relationships are consistent.
Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships can belong to only one consistency group; however, they do not have to belong to a consistency group. Relationships that are not part of a consistency group are called stand-alone relationships. A consistency group can contain zero or more relationships. All relationships in a consistency group must have matching primary and secondary systems, which are sometimes referred to as master and auxiliary systems. All relationships in a consistency group must also have the same copy direction and state.
Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships cannot belong to the same consistency group. A copy type is automatically assigned to a consistency group when the first relationship is added to the consistency group. After the consistency group is assigned a copy type, only relationships of that copy type can be added to the consistency group. Global Mirror relationships with different cycling modes cannot belong to the same consistency group. The type and direction of the relationships in a consistency group must be the same.
The system supports the following types of relationships and consistency groups:
•Metro Mirror
•Global Mirror without change volumes (cycling mode set to None)
•Global Mirror with change volumes (cycling mode set to Multiple)
If necessary, you can change the copy type of a remote-copy relationship or consistency group without re-creating the relationship or consistency group with the different type. For example, if the latency of the long-distance link affects host performance, you can change the copy type to Global Mirror to improve host performance over high latency links. Change volumes are available for only Global Mirror relationships and consistency groups and are created when Global Mirror operates with the multiple cycling mode. With the multiple cycling mode, changes are tracked and copied to intermediate change volumes. Changes are transmitted to the secondary site periodically to lower bandwidth requirements.
Possible relationship directions are as follows:
•Intrasystem
•From local system to remote system
•From remote system to local system
For more details see the “Consistency groups” topic in the FlashSystem V9000 web pages of the IBM Knowledge Center:
8.7.3 FlashCopy mappings
A FlashCopy mapping defines the relationship between a source volume and a target volume.
The FlashCopy feature makes an instant copy of a volume at the time that it is started. To create an instant copy of a volume, you must first create a mapping between the source volume (the disk that is copied) and the target volume (the disk that receives the copy). The source and target volumes must be of equal size.
A mapping can be created between any two volumes in a system. The volumes do not have to be in the same I/O group or pool. When a FlashCopy operation starts, a checkpoint is made of the source volume. No data is actually copied at the time a start operation occurs. Instead, the checkpoint creates a bitmap that indicates that no part of the source volume has been copied. Each bit in the bitmap represents one region of the source volume. Each region is called a grain.
After a FlashCopy operation starts, read and write operations to the source volume continue to occur. If new data is written to the source or target volume, the existing data on the source is copied to the target volume before the new data is written to the source or target volume. The bitmap is updated to mark that the grain of the source volume has been copied so that later write operations to the same grain do not recopy the data.
During a read operation to the target volume, the bitmap is used to determine if the grain was been copied. If the grain was copied, the data is read from the target volume. If the grain was not copied, the data is read from the source volume.
For more details, search for the “FlashCopy mappings” topic in the FlashSystem V9000 web pages of the IBM Knowledge Center:
8.7.4 Remote copy
Metro Mirror and Global Mirror are two types of remote-copy operations that you can use to set up a relationship between two volumes, where updates made to one volume are mirrored on the other volume. The volumes can be on either the same system (intrasystem) or on two different systems (intersystem).
Although data is written to only a single volume, the system maintains two copies of the data. If the copies are separated by a significant distance, the Metro Mirror and Global Mirror copies can be used as a backup for disaster recovery. A prerequisite for Metro Mirror and Global Mirror operations between systems over Fibre Channel connections is that the SAN fabric to which they are attached provides adequate bandwidth between the systems. SAN fabrics are not required for IP-only connections.
For both Metro Mirror and Global Mirror copy types, one volume is designated as the primary and the other volume is designated as the secondary. Host applications write data to the primary volume, and updates to the primary volume are copied to the secondary volume. Normally, host applications do not run I/O operations to the secondary volume.
The system supports the following types of relationships and consistency groups:
•Metro Mirror
•Global Mirror without change volumes (cycling mode set to None)
•Global Mirror with change volumes (cycling mode set to Multiple)
If necessary, you can change the copy type of a remote-copy relationship or consistency group without re-creating the relationship or consistency group with the different type. For example, if the latency of the long-distance link affects host performance, you can change the copy type to Global Mirror to improve host performance over high latency links. Change volumes are only available for Global Mirror relationships and consistency groups and are created when Global Mirror operates with the multiple cycling mode. With the multiple cycling mode, changes are tracked and copied to intermediate change volumes. Changes are transmitted to the secondary site periodically to lower bandwidth requirements.
The Metro Mirror and Global Mirror functions support the following operations:
•Intrasystem copying of a volume, in which both volumes belong to the same system and I/O group within the system.
•Intersystem copying of a volume, in which one volume belongs to a system and the other volume belongs to a different system.
 
Note: A system can participate in active Metro Mirror and Global Mirror relationships with itself and up to three other systems.
•Intersystem and intrasystem Metro Mirror and Global Mirror relationships can be used concurrently on the same system.
•Bidirectional links are supported for intersystem relationships. This means that data can be copied from system A to system B for one pair of volumes while copying data from system B to system A for a different pair of volumes.
•The copy direction can be reversed for a consistent relationship.
•You can change the copy type for relationships and consistency groups between Metro Mirror and Global Mirror with or without change volumes.
•Consistency groups are supported to manage a group of relationships that must be kept synchronized for the same application. This also simplifies administration, because a single command that is issued to the consistency group is applied to all the relationships in that group.
•The system supports a maximum of 8192 Metro Mirror and Global Mirror relationships per system.
Consider the following terms and their definitions:
•Metro Mirror
Metro Mirror is a type of remote copy that creates a synchronous copy of data from a primary volume to a secondary volume. A secondary volume can either be on the same system or on another system.
•Global Mirror
The Global Mirror function provides an asynchronous-copy process. When a host writes to the primary volume, confirmation of I/O completion is received before the write operation has completed for the copy on the secondary volume.
•Global Mirror change volume
Global Mirror change volumes are copies of data from a primary volume or secondary volume that are used in Global Mirror relationships. Using change volumes lower bandwidth requirements by only addressing the average throughput and not the peak.
•Remote-copy consistency groups
You can group Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationships into a consistency group so that they can be updated at the same time. A command that is issued to the consistency group is simultaneously applied to all of the relationships in the group.
•Remote-copy relationships
Metro Mirror and Global Mirror relationships define the relationship between two volumes: a master volume and an auxiliary volume.
For more details see the FlashSystem V9000 IBM Knowledge Center, under the topic about Metro Mirror and Global Mirror:
8.7.5 Partnerships
Partnerships can be used to create a disaster recovery environment or to migrate data between systems that are in different locations. Partnerships define an association between a local system and a partner system.
Before a Metro Mirror or Global Mirror relationship or consistency group can be created with a remote system, a partnership between the two systems must be established. If Global Mirror or Metro Mirror relationships or consistency groups exist between two remote systems, those systems must maintain their partnership. Each system can maintain up to three partnerships, and each partnership can be with a single partner system. As many as four systems can be directly associated with each other.
Systems also become indirectly associated with each other through partnerships. If two systems each have a partnership with a third system, those two systems are indirectly associated. A maximum of four systems can be directly or indirectly associated.
The nodes within the system must know not only about the relationship between the two volumes but also about an association among systems.
To establish a partnership between two systems, you must create the partnership using the Create Partnership dialog on both systems. For example, to establish a partnership between system A and system B, run the dialog from system A and specify system B as the partner system. At this point, the partnership is partially configured and is sometimes described as one-way communication. Next, run the dialog on system B and specify system A as the partner system. When this operation completes, the partnership is fully configured for two-way communication between the systems.
For details about system partnership states, creating remote-copy partnership over an IP connection, and also establishing Metro Mirror and Global Mirror partnerships over Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connections, see the FlashSystem V9000 IBM Knowledge Center.
For more details see the “CLI Metro Mirror and Global Mirror partnership tasks” topic in the IBM Knowledge Center:
Backing up data: IBM lab-services based task
Data must be backed up in the following scenarios:
•If an existing fixed building block is being added to one or more new scaled building blocks to create a scaled system, all customer data must be backed up before the installation process begins, to prevent loss of all data.
•If an existing scaled system is being upgraded to add more scalable building blocks, and a new level of software will be loaded, all customer data must be backed up before the software update.
For more details about backing up data and Copy Services, see the “Copy Services functions” topic in the FlashSystem V9000 web pages at the IBM Knowledge Center:
 
8.8 Access menu
Several roles of user access to the FlashSystem V9000 are managed through the Access menu (Figure 8-15 on page 270). The access levels are divided by role. You can also assign multiples users to a user group, then a role can be assigned to the user group.
The Access function has two menu options:
• Users: Select this to define users, group users, and user roles.
•Audit log: Tracks action commands that are issued through an SSH session or through the management GUI.
8.8.1 Users
Select Users from the Access menu (Figure 8-109).
Figure 8-109 Navigate to Users menu
Figure 8-110 shows the Users menu. Here, you can create and delete users, change and remove passwords, and add and remove SSH keys. You can also add a user group to the predefined groups. Predefined user groups are named with the user role in the group.
Figure 8-110 Users window
At any time, you can get help by clicking the question mark (?), as shown in Figure 8-111. The help is contextual.
Figure 8-111 Help example
Click Create User to open the window shown in Figure 8-112. You can enter the name of the user and the password, and load the SSH key (if the SSH key was generated). You can choose to use either SSH or a password for CLI authentication. Without a password defined, the user is unable to use the GUI.
 
Note: You must have superuser authority to create users.
Figure 8-112 Create User window
You can assign the following roles to your user groups:
•Security administrator
Users can manage all functions of the system, including managing users, user groups, and user authentication. Users who have the security administrator role can run any system commands from the CLI, but cannot run the sainfo and satask commands from the CLI. Only the superuser ID can run the sainfo and satask commands.
•Administrator
Users can manage all functions of the system except those that manage users, user groups, and authentication. Users who have the administrator role can run the system commands that the security administrator users can run from the CLI, except for commands that deal with users, user groups, and authentication.
•Copy operator
Users can start and stop all existing FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, and Global Mirror relationships. Users who have the copy operator role can run the system commands that administrator role users can run that deal with FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, and Global Mirror relationships.
•Monitor
Users have access to all system viewing actions. Users who have the monitor role cannot change the state of the system or change the resources that the system manages. Monitor role users can access all information-related GUI functions and commands, back up configuration data, and change their own passwords.
•Service
Users can set the time and date on the system, delete dump files, add and delete nodes, and shut down the system.
Figure 8-113 shows that we create a local user Tom and configure a password that the user uses to authenticate to the system. When user Tom opens his SSH client and points it to the IP address of the system to which he is granted access, he is prompted for the user name and password. If the user is required to authenticate by using an SSH key pair, we instead enter the path for the public key in the field SSH Public Key.
.
Figure 8-113 User with password and SSH key
 
Note: The Password and Verify Password fields are used for GUI access. If a password is not configured, the user is not able to log in to the GUI. For a demonstration of how to create a public/private key by using PuTTy, see 13.3.2, “Creating connections” on page 525.
8.8.2 Audit log
An audit log documents actions that are submitted through the management GUI or the CLI. You can use the audit log to monitor user activity on your system.
The audit log entries provide the following information:
•The sequence of the command
•The date and time when the action or command was submitted on the system
 
Note: When logs are displayed in the CLI, the time stamps for the logs are the system time. However, when logs are displayed in the management GUI, the time stamps are translated to the local time where the web browser is running.
•The name of the user who performed the action or command
•The IP address of the system where the action or command was submitted
•The results of the command or action
•Parameters and command submitted
•The object identifier that is associated with the command or action
The main window of the audit log supports navigation (Figure 8-114). By clicking any column, you can order the full log.
Figure 8-114 Different navigation options
 
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