This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8880 family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8880 systems.

The IBM DS8000® family is a high-performance, high-capacity, highly secure, and resilient series of disk storage systems. The DS8880 family is the latest and most advanced of the DS8000 offerings to date. The high availability, multiplatform support, including IBM z Systems™, and simplified management tools help provide a cost-effective path to an on-demand world.

The IBM DS8880 family includes the new high-performance all-flash model (DS8888 Model 982, with its associated DS8888 Expansion Unit Model 98F), and two high-performance hybrid models (DS8884 Model 980 with its associated DS8884 Expansion Unit Model 98B, and DS8886 Model 981 with its associated DS8886 Expansion Unit Model 98E).

Two powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers manage the cache to streamline disk I/Os, maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFEs). A major change with the introduction of the DS8880 is the reduction of the footprint to a 19-inch rack.

Like its predecessors, the DS8880 supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8880 storage system include the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8880 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives and flash cards, through the IBM Easy Tier® feature. The DS8880 now includes the Copy Services Manager code and allows for easier integration in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) infrastructure.

This book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the International Technical Support Organization, San Jose Center.

Bertrand Dufrasne is an IBM Certified IT Specialist and Project Leader for IBM System Storage® disk products at the ITSO, San Jose Center. He has worked at IBM in various IT areas. He has written many IBM Redbooks publications and has developed and taught technical workshops. Before Bert joined the ITSO, he worked for IBM Global Services as an Application Architect. He holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Jeff Cook joined IBM in 1979 as a large systems Customer Engineer. Before he joined the DS8000 Product Engineering team in 2011, he worked as a storage systems regional Top Gun for the western United States. He has developed and taught DS8000 and IBM XIV® Storage System courses in the United States and South America.

Geno DeCarlo began his IBM DS8000 Product Field Engineering (PFE) career in 2004 in Tucson, Arizona. From 1998 through 2004, he worked in IBM IT Support and became the Technical Lead. He is currently a Product Engineer and continues to work with World Wide Support Teams to improve product quality and service efficiency.

Jean Iyabi is a Certified IT Specialist and an active member of the IBM European Storage Competence Center in Mainz, Germany since 2001. As a Product Field Engineer, he acted as last level support for High End storage disk and Copy Service manager. Jean has extensive experience in DS8000 support, and focuses on Copy Services Functions. He was assigned for two years as the EMEA field support interface with the DS8000 development and test teams in Tucson, AZ. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences of Wiesbaden (Germany).

Andreas Reinhardt is an IBM Certified Specialist for high-end disk systems. He is located in Mainz, Germany, and has worked in various IT areas at IBM for 15 years. Andreas works for IBM Global Technology Services® and started as a System Service Representative. He is now a member of the DS8000 and FlashSystem PFE teams with key role in DS8000 fast recovery for DS8000, FlashSystem, and DS8000 encryption implementation team in EMEA.

Christian Ryan joined IBM in 1996 as a System Services Representative based in Sydney, Australia. Christian provided technical and implementation support to the region's largest IBM Power Systems™ accounts before turning his attention to Enterprise Storage with the release of the DS8000. In 2008, Christian became the Regional Technical Specialist for DS8000 and XIV. His focus is on providing support, and education development and delivery, to IBM System Services Representatives and clients across Australia and New Zealand.

Roland Wolf is a Senior Systems Engineer with IBM Business Partner SVA System Vertrieb Alexander GmbH in Germany. He has worked at IBM for 28 years, with the last 23 years in storage with a background of mainframe high-end storage, but also covering all disk storage products. For two years he has worked for an IBM Business Partner in Germany. Roland has co-authored many IBM Redbooks covering ESS, DS8000, XIV, and copy services. Roland holds a PhD in Physics.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Nick Clayton, Justin Cripps, John Elliott, Denise Luzar, Stephen Manthorpe, Greg McBride, Brian Rinaldi, Hank Sautter, Jacob Sheppard, Paul Spagnolo, Jeff Steffan, Kong Weng Lim, Teena Werley, Allen Wright.
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