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 now offers business-critical, all-flash, and hybrid data systems that span a wide range of price points:

The DS8884 and DS8886 are available as either hybrid models, or can be configured as all-flash. Each model represents the most recent in this series of high-performance, high-capacity, flexible, and resilient storage systems. These systems are intended to address the needs of the most demanding clients.

Two powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers manage the cache to streamline disk I/O, maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of the second generation of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFEs Gen-2).

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 also 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:

Kerstin Blum is a Senior Product Service Specialist at the ESCC (European Storage Competence Center) in Kelsterbach, Germany. She joined IBM in 1999 and since then has worked as a Product Field Engineer (last level support) for the DS8000 product line. She was assigned for 18 months as the EMEA field support interface with the ESS/DS8000 development and test teams in Tucson, AZ. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering, with a specialization in Communications Engineering, from the University of Applied Sciences of Wiesbaden (Germany).

Sherry Brunson joined IBM in March of 1985 and worked as large system IBM service representative before becoming a Top Gun in 1990. Sherry is a Top Gun in the Eastern US for all storage products, power systems, and IBM z Systems®. She has supported and implemented DS8000 and Scaled out Network Appliance storage products globally as well as developing and teaching educational classes. She also has taught z System classes in the United States.

Andre Coelho is a Consulting IT Storage Specialist in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He works for Internal Accounts (US and EMEA). He has over 30 years of experience in IBM z/OS® and predecessor operating systems. His areas of expertise include DFSMS, DFSMShsm, DFSMSrmm, DS8000, and Hydra. He has contributed to several IBM Redbooks publications.

Jeffery Cook joined IBM in 1979 as a large systems IBM service representative. 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.

Bert 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 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.

Peter Kimmel is an IT Specialist and ATS team lead of the Enterprise Storage Solutions team at the EMEA Storage Competence Center (ESCC) in Kelsterbach, Germany. He joined IBM Storage in 1999 and since then worked with all the various IBM Enterprise Storage Server® and System Storage DS8000 generations, with a focus on architecture and performance. He was involved in the Early Shipment Programs (ESPs) of these early installs, and co-authored several DS8000 IBM publications. Peter holds a Diploma (MSc) degree in Physics from the University of Kaiserslautern.

Bjoern Wesselbaum has been a Senior Product Services Specialist for IBM Germany since 1998. He has worked as a Product Field Engineer for IBM Storage Systems within the EMEA Advanced Technical Support and Product Field Engineering support team at the Storage Competence Center in Kelsterbach. Since 2007, Bjoern has also taught IBM DS8000 Implementation and DS8000 Copy Services classes for IBM Learning Services. His areas of expertise include IBM AIX® and other UNIX-like operating systems, storage attachment, Copy Services Solutions for open systems, and DS8000 management and operations, including Remote Support Connectivity Solutions for the DS8000.

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
Allen Wright.
IBM

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