IBM FlashSystem 7300 Family Product Guide
This IBM® Redpaper Product Guide describes the IBM FlashSystem® 7300 solution, which is a next-generation IBM FlashSystem control enclosure. It combines the performance of flash and a Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)-optimized architecture with the reliability and innovation of IBM FlashCore® technology and the rich feature set and high availability (HA) of IBM Spectrum® Virtualize.
To take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced applications, real-time big data analytics, and cloud architectures that require higher levels of system performance and storage capacity, enterprises around the globe are rapidly moving to modernize established IT infrastructures.
However, for many organizations, staff resources, and expertise are limited, and cost-efficiency is a top priority. These organizations have important investments in existing infrastructure that they want to maximize. They need enterprise-grade solutions that optimize cost-efficiency while simplifying the pathway to modernization.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 is designed specifically for these requirements and use cases. It also delivers a cyber resilience without compromising application performance.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 provides a rich set of software-defined storage (SDS) features that are delivered by IBM Spectrum Virtualize, including the following examples:
•Data reduction and deduplication
•Dynamic tiering
•Thin-provisioning
•Snapshots
•Cloning
•Replication and data copy services
•Cyber resilience
•Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT)
•IBM HyperSwap® including 3-site replication for high availability
•Scale-out and scale-up configurations further enhance capacity and throughput for better availability
With the release of IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.5, extra functions and features are available, including support for new third-generation IBM FlashCore Modules Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) type drives within the control enclosure, and 100 Gbps Ethernet adapters that provide NVMe Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) options. New software features include GUI enhancements, security enhancements including multifactor authentication and single sign-on, and Fibre Channel (FC) portsets.
Flash for less than the cost of disk
Integral to the IBM FlashSystem 7300 solution is the IBM FlashCore technology. The recent evolution of this technology saw enhanced compression technology that enables up to 116 TB to be stored in a single drive.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system with IBM FlashCore Modules features built-in hardware data compression, and this data reduction is always on. This compression is implemented in hardware by using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) within each module and uses a modified dynamic GZIP algorithm. With this approach, the solution can deliver the level of performance that you expect without compression, with the added benefit of better use of the physical storage.
IBM FlashCore Modules implement hardware-based compression without any performance penalty, and performance scales linearly with the number of instances.
In addition, IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure supports data reduction pool compression and deduplication that can increase the effective capacity of your flash memory up to 5x, which decreases the cost of storing data up to 80%. Data reduction pools support active data, unlike other data reduction solutions.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure offers several features for data reduction pool compression workloads. These features include two 10 Intel core processors with up to 768 TB of memory per node, and a built-in compression accelerator for hardware-assisted compression. In addition, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system with IBM FlashCore Modules NVMe-type drives applies compression to any data that is not already compressed.
Agile integration
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes the following agile characteristics:
•Fully integrated system management.
•Application-aware data services.
•Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), data-at-rest encryption with all NVMe type drives, and IBM FlashCore Modules drives with FIPS 140-3.
•In-line hardware compression with IBM FlashCore Module.
•Tiering or mirroring to existing and Public Cloud storage.
•Mixed workload consolidation.
•Nondisruptive data migrations.
•Concurrent code load.
By accelerating physical and virtual applications, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system can help organizations reduce costs, increase revenue, and improve customer satisfaction for all types of applications, including the following categories:
•Transactional
•Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management
•Big data and analytics
•Server and desktop virtualization
•Cloud native
•Hybrid and multicloud
AI-empowered
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes the following AI characteristics:
•AI-based data placement for optimal data center performance and zero-downtime data migration.
•IBM Storage Insights: AI-empowered predictive analytics, storage resource management, and a support platform delivered over the cloud.
Multicloud enabled
IBM Spectrum Virtualize on-premises and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud together support mirroring between on-premises and cloud data centers or between cloud data centers. These functions can be used to perform the following tasks:
•Migrate data between on-premises and public cloud data centers or between public cloud data centers. Enjoy consistent data management between on-premises storage and the public cloud.
•Implement disaster recovery strategies between on-premises and public cloud data centers.
•Enable cloud-based DevOps with easy replication of data from on-premises sources.
•Improve cyber resilience with copies on Amazon Web Services (AWS) by using air gap snapshots to S3 and IBM Safeguarded Copy on Microsoft Azure.
Customers can create hybrid multicloud solutions for their traditional block data and workloads by using built-in IP replication capabilities.
Deploy IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud on AWS directly from AWS Marketplace through a predefined Cloud Formation Template that automatically and securely installs the software, and deploys a high availability two-node cluster on selected EC2 instances. Any Amazon EBS block storage can be attached.
On Azure, deploy directly from the Azure Apps Marketplace through predefined Azure Resource Manager templates that automatically and securely install the software, and deploy an HA two-node cluster on selected Azure VMs. Attach shared Azure Managed Disk solid-state drives (SSDs) to the cluster for HA.
On IBM Cloud®, automated installation scripts assist deployment of the software on bare metal servers. IBM Performance or Endurance block storage is supported behind the cluster. This setup enables clients to create clustered configurations (such as on-premises) while bringing the optimization and virtualization capabilities of IBM Spectrum Virtualize to public cloud infrastructures.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize on-premises and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud together enable a hybrid multicloud deployment with a single data management layer between on-premises systems and the cloud across heterogeneous storage pools that might exist in the data center.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize provides the following functions:
•Storage pooling and automated allocation with thin provisioning.
•Easy Tier® automated tiering.
•Deduplication and compression to reduce cloud storage costs.
•FlashCopy® and remote mirror for local snapshots and remote replication.
•IBM Safeguarded Copy for Cyber Resiliency.
•Support for virtualized and containerized server environments, including:
 – VMware
 – Microsoft Hyper-V
 – IBM PowerVM®
 – Red Hat OpenShift
 – CRI-O
 – Kubernetes
For more information about IBM FlashSystem systems and Hybrid Multicloud, see Embracing Hybrid Cloud: Storage Edition.
Rock solid data resilience
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 provides advanced capabilities that can help maximize data protection, security, and HA to significantly reduce the risk of disruption and financial losses because of user errors, malicious destruction, or ransomware attacks. The FlashSystem 7300 delivers the capability to enable this level of protection while also delivering high performance for applications.
With Safeguarded Copy, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 adds a line of defense against cyberthreats by protecting your valued data from cyberattacks with immutable and isolated copies that are hidden, nonaddressable, and cannot be altered. If an attack occurs, these copies can be quickly restored to support recovery. Customized to your specific application mix, IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault builds on IBM Safeguarded Copy to help reduce cyberattack recovery times.
A Cyber Vault solution runs continuously and monitors snapshots as they are created automatically by Safeguarded Copy. By using standard database tools and automation software, Cyber Vault checks Safeguarded Copy snapshots for corruption. If Cyber Vault finds such changes, that is an immediate sign that an attack might be occurring.
When preparing a response, knowing the last snapshots with no evidence of an attack speeds determining which snapshot to use. Because Safeguarded Copy snapshots are on the same FlashSystem storage as operational data, recovery is fast by using the same snapshot technology. With these advantages, Cyber Vault is designed to help reduce cyberattack recovery time from days to just hours.
Advanced data services
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system provides the following advanced data services:
•Business continuity with replication services across up to three sites
•Data protection with IBM FlashCopy services
•HA with IBM HyperSwap
•Higher storage efficiency with thin provisioning
•Data reduction pools that provide compression with deduplication
•Data-at-rest AES-XTS 256 encryption
•IBM Easy Tier
•External virtualization
•Data migration
•IP quorum support
•N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) support
•VMware vSphere Virtual Volume (VVOL) support and space-efficient copies
•TCT
•Data and cyber resilience with IBM Safeguarded Copy
•Container support with the IBM block storage CSI driver
•Capacity and performance scaling through clustering
IBM FlashSystem 7300 enclosure overview
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes the following types of enclosures:
•A control enclosure manages your storage systems, communicates with the host, and manages interfaces. It also can house up to 24 NVMe-capable flash drives. These drives can be industry-standard NVMe types or the exclusive IBM FlashCore Module NVMe type and up to 12 optional Storage Class Memory (SCM) type class drives.
•An expansion enclosure increases the available capacity of an IBM FlashSystem 7300 cluster. It communicates with the control enclosure through a dual pair of 12 Gbps SAS connections. These expansion enclosures can house many flash (SSD) and hard-disk drive (HDD) serial-attached SCSI (SAS) type drives, depending on which enclosure model is ordered.
Figure 1 shows the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure front view with an NVMe drive partially removed.
Figure 1 IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure with one NVMe drive partially removed
Control enclosures
Each control enclosure can have multiple attached expansion enclosures, which expand the available capacity of the entire system. The IBM FlashSystem 7300 solution supports up to four control enclosures and up to two chains of SAS expansion enclosures per control enclosure.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure supports up to 24 NVMe-capable flash drives in a 2U high form factor and consists of one machine type: 4657. The 4657 is available in two models: 924 and U7D.
 
Note: The 4657-U7D model is an IBM FlashSystem 7300 solution with a 1-year warranty, with optional Storage Expert Care service offerings, and is intended for the Storage Utility Offering space. This model is physically and functionally identical to the IBM FlashSystem 4657-924 model, except for target configurations and variable capacity billing. The variable capacity billing uses IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights to monitor the system usage, which allows allocated storage use that is greater than a base subscription rate to be billed per terabyte per month. Allocated storage is identified as storage that is allocated to a specific host (and unusable to other hosts), whether data is written. For thin-provisioning, the data that is written is considered used; for thick-provisioning, the total allocated volume space is considered used.
Expansion enclosures
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 expansion enclosures consist of one machine type and three 4657 models: 12G, 24G, and 92G.
The new SAS-based small form factor (SFF) and large form factor (LFF) expansion enclosures support various flash and SSD MDisks in a storage pool, which can be used for IBM Easy Tier.
Consider the following points:
•IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure Model 12G offers drive options with SAS drives. Up to 240 drives of SAS expansions are supported per
IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure. The expansion enclosure is 2U high.
•IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure Model 24G offers drive options with SSD flash and SAS drives. Up to 480 drives of SAS expansions are supported per
IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure. The expansion enclosure is 2U high.
•IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure Model 92G offers drive options with SSD flash and SAS drives. Up to 784 drives of SAS expansions are supported per
IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure. The expansion enclosure is 5U high.
 
Note: Attachment and intermixing of IBM Storwize® V7000 Expansion Enclosures Models 12F, 24F, and 92F with FlashSystem 7300 Expansion Enclosure Models 12G, 24G, and 92G is not supported.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure can be recognized by the nomenclature
“IBM FlashSystem 7300” on the left side of the bezel cover, which covers the rack-mounting screws.
Figure 2 shows the IBM FlashSystem 7300 bezel and NVMe drive.
Figure 2 IBM FlashSystem 7300 bezel and IBM FlashCore Module description
Labeling on the NVMe drive provides the drive type, capacity, type of drive, and FRU number. The example that is shown in Figure 2 is the IBM FlashCore Module NVMe 19.2 TB type.
Placing your IBM FlashSystem 7300 in your infrastructure
Various use cases exist for the IBM FlashSystem 7300, all of which can address many technical and business requirements. In addition, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 can be used to simplify the overall storage architecture.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 can be used to in the following scenarios:
•First tier storage repository for production data.
•Primary or target system for Data Replication or Disaster Recovery (DR).
•HA storage within a HyperSwap configuration (where two IBM FlashSystem 7300s are in a synchronous replication relationship).
• Externally virtualizing IBM or non-IBM storage by using IBM Spectrum Virtualize, which extends advanced functions (such as data reduction, encryption, and replication) to those storage subsystems.
•Data migration from IBM or non-IBM storage with IBM Spectrum Virtualize.
• Hybrid cloud storage by:
 – Enabling communication between an on-premises deployment of IBM Spectrum Virtualize and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud.
 – Deploying the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to provide persistent storage for on-premises or cloud-based containerized applications.
 – Using TCT to convert data into an object store for back up to specific available cloud instances.
• Support and interoperability within the IBM Spectrum Storage Software Suite, including:
 – IBM Spectrum Scale where the IBM FlashSystem 7300 can be used as the back-end storage repository for metadata, primary data or in initial microprogram load (IML) processing.
 – IBM Spectrum Protect and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus where the IBM FlashSystem 7300 can be used as cache or data repository.
 – IBM Copy Data Management where the IBM FlashSystem 7300 can be used as cache or as a copy services target.
Figure 3 shows an IBM FlashSystem 7300 that is fully deployed in a hybrid multicloud environment where it is also externally virtualizing various on-premises storage subsystems.
Figure 3 Fully deployed IBM FlashSystem 7300 sample scenario
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 can support multiple Open System hosts and interoperability with all the software from the IBM Spectrum Suite of products.
In this scenario, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 provides the following benefits:
•Investment protection of older storage by using IBM Spectrum Virtualize to enable migration from older storage and external virtualization of heterogeneous storage.
•A hybrid mutlicloud architecture by connecting to IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, which is available in AWS, Azure, and IBM public cloud.
•Data protection by extending HA and DR to externally virtualized heterogeneous storage.
•Support for containerized workloads by interfacing with Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes in on-premises and off-premises infrastructures.
•Ease of management and seamless integration with the IBM Storage Insights and all of the products in the IBM Spectrum Software Suite.
Did you know?
IBM FlashSystem 7300 runs on IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.5 Licensed Machine Code, which provides the following features:
•Control enclosure supports for SSDs, including up to 24 industry 2.5-inch Small Form Factor (SFF) standard NVMe drives and IBM FlashCore Modules and up to 12 SCM drives.
The following NVMe drives are supported:
 – 2.5-inch SFF 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, 19.2 TB, or 38.4 TB IBM FlashCore Modules
 – 1.92 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB, or 30.72 TB industry-standard drives
 – A mixture of both
The 1.6 TB SCM drives also are supported
•Autonomic tiering through Easy Tier, which enables workload data to be placed on the most suitable storage media (various classes of NVMe for the control enclosure and HDDs and commodity SSDs for the expansion enclosures and externally virtualized storage).
•Hardware-based data reduction and encryption from the IBM FlashCore Modules with negligible effect on system performance.
•Scale out capacity options with the 12 Gb SAS-attached model 12G, 24G, and 92G expansion enclosures.
•Software-based AES-256 data-at-rest encryption and key management through IBM Security™ Key Lifecycle Manager or USB key encryption. Up to four Security Key Lifecycle Manager key servers are supported.
•Remote Support Assistance (RSA), which enables IBM support personnel to access the system to complete troubleshooting tasks.
•Multiple data-protection solutions such as FlashCopy (point-in-time-copy), Metro Mirror (synchronous replication), and Global Mirror (asynchronous replication).
•Cyberresiliency with Safeguarded Copy, which provides rapid ransomware recovery by using immutable, untouchable snapshots that are based on FlashCopy technology.
•Multiple management modes by using a graphical user interface (GUI) or a Linux-based command-line interface (CLI).
•Performance throttling that allows control of used resources when the system is processing host I/O, advanced functions, or copy services.
•TCT, which enables a FlashCopy volume that can be backed up to an S3 object store, such as AWS or IBM Cloud.
•Support for 32 Gb FC and 10/25 GBE or 100 GbE iSCSI and NVMe RDMA connectivity. The ability to intermix these port options also is supported.
•Simplified connectivity by using portsets, which enable host connectivity ports to be grouped for more effective zoning and management.
•Easy access and compatibility with IBM Storage Insights, which offers advanced performance monitoring for one or more IBM FlashSystem 7300s.
•Extra access security through multi-factor authentication.
In addition to the base warranty, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 offers IBM Storage Expert Care with three levels of support options. For more information, see “IBM Storage Expert Care” on page 15.
Current release functions
This section describes several new functions and features that are available in the current IBM FlashSystem 7300 release.
New in IBM FlashSystem 7300 Software V8.5.0
The following functions are included in IBM FlashSystem 7300 Software V8.5.0:
•3-Site Data Replication for HyperSwap
3-Site Data Replication for HyperSwap supports the following use cases:
 – Disaster scenarios
 – Site maintenance
 – Link failure cases
•Security updates:
 – A new set of options that allows a security administrator to create policies for passwords, account lockout, session timeout.
 – Create a single system-wide policy that applies to all local accounts (session timeouts also apply to remote accounts).
 – Configurable CLI timeout.
 – HTTP proxy server for Cloud Call Home and IBM Spectrum Virtualize Family Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) log upload.
 – NVME drive security updates (new events and sense data to better identify and resolve NVMe drive encryption errors) and secure data deletion.
•UI modernization updates:
 – Modernized syslog servers window
 – New host dialog
 – New Add Storage experience
 – Modernized remote copy experience (2-site and 3-site)
•DRAID-1:
 – 2 member drives per array (0 rebuild area)
 – 3 - 16 member drives per array (1 rebuild area)
 – System recommendation is to create DRAID-1 in arrays up to 6 drives
•Data reduction child pools:
 – User can create child pools in data reduction parent pools.
 – Data reduction child pools are created without a quota and can use entire parent capacity.
•Data reduction pool (DRP) updates:
 – Redirect-on-write for DRP snapshots adds a redirect-on-write (RoW) alternative to the existing copy-on-write (CoW) capabilities.
 – Comprestimator always on.
 – RAID Reconstruct Read (3R) by using RAID capabilities; DRP asks for a specific data block reconstruction when detecting a potential corruption.
•Miscellaneous:
 – Updates to max configuration limits. For more information, see this IBM Support web page.
 – 8.5.0 mirrored vDisks fast format enhancements.
 – 8.5.0 FC-NVMe enhancements.
 – 8.5.0 improved handling of memory errors.
 – SCM restrictions lifted. For more information, see “Storage Class Memory” on page 13.
•Support for IBM FlashSystem 7300 enclosures with new larger NVMe drives.
•Secure remote access provides a secure connection for remote support with audit logging.
•Management GUI enhancements.
•Ownership groups
An ownership group defines a subset of users and objects within the system. You can create ownership groups to further restrict access to specific resources that are defined in the ownership group.
•Priority flow control
Priority flow control (PFC) is an Ethernet protocol that supports the ability to select the priority of different types of traffic within the network.
•Support for expanding distributed arrays (DRAID).
•Support for pool-level volume protection
Volume protection prevents active volumes or host mappings from being deleted inadvertently if the system detects recent I/O activity.
•Support for SNMP protocol version 3 enhanced security features.
•Support for enhanced auditing features for syslog servers.
•Enhanced password security
The user must change the default password to a different password on first login or system setup.
•Improvements to the terms and definitions that relate to capacity were updated.
•Support for the new SCM technology with implementation by using new drives from Intel and Samsung, which can enchain workload throughput, with or without the use of Easy Tier.

•Three-site replication:
 – Three-site replication provides enhanced disaster tolerance for IBM Spectrum Virtualize systems, which allows coordination of data between three disparate sites for failover and failback.
 – At the time of this writing, three-site replication requires the submission of a request through the SCORE system to help manage and ensure that the requirements and configuration details are met.
•Secure Drive Erase, which is the ability to completely erase any customer data from a NVMe, SAS SSD, or HDD before it is removed from the control and expansion enclosure.
Highlights
IBM FlashSystem 7300, machine type 4657, offers IBM Storage Expert Care service and support options in combination with IBM Spectrum Virtualize software, IBM FlashCore Modules, IBM Storage Insights, and storage-class memory to deliver a NVMe accelerated, hybrid cloud-enabled storage system.
IBM FlashCore Modules and the use of storage-class memory as a higher-level storage tier enables IBM FlashSystem 7300 to deliver the highest available performance with the lowest latencies in its class.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 is the replacement for IBM FlashSystem 7200. It is a 2U, 24 NVMe, dual controller drawer that uses the second release from Intel of the Cascade Lake processor for greater performance.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 utility model U7D delivers a variable capacity system, where billing is based on provisioned space that is greater than the base. The base subscription is covered by a three-year lease that entitles you to use the base capacity at no extra cost. If storage needs increase beyond the base capacity, usage is billed based on the average daily provisioned capacity per terabyte, per month, on a quarterly basis.
IBM FlashCore technology
At the heart of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system is IBM FlashCore technology (if the IBM FlashCore Module NVMe type drives are ordered), which consists of the following key elements:
•Hardware-accelerated architecture that is engineered for flash, with a hardware-only data path.
•The IBM FlashSystem data compression and decompression algorithm is a modified dynamic GZIP algorithm. Because it is implemented completely in hardware, no processor intervention is required.
•IBM FlashCore Modules, which are designed for low latency, density, and reliability.
•IBM Advanced Flash Management, which improves flash endurance over standard implementations without sacrificing latency.
Figure 4 shows IBM FlashCore technology.
Figure 4 IBM FlashCore technology
For more information about IBM FlashCore technology, see this IBM Documentation web page.
Storage Class Memory
SCM is an industry-wide statement for nonvolatile memory devices that perform faster (~10 µs) than traditional Not And (NAND) SSDs (100 µs), but slower than DRAM (100 ns).
The technology pricing sits between dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and traditional NAND. Price is significantly more expensive than traditional NAND drives.
At the time of this writing, the following vendors are most prevalent in the marketplace:
•Intel (3D Xpoint memory technology in Optane drives)
•Samsung (zNAND memory technology in zSSD drives)
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system supports the new low-latency, high-speed SCM drives in any of the slots of the control enclosure. The control enclosure can contain up to 12 SCM drives.
 
 
Note: SCM and other NVMe drive types can be installed in any drive slot. However, the highest capacity drives must be installed in the lowest available drive slots.
 
SCM with Easy Tier
SCM with Easy Tier is measured to improve latency and in some cases, improve IOPS. If you want to realize the full benefit of SCM across all of your capacity, Easy Tier continually and automatically moves the hottest data onto the SCM tier and leaves the rest of the data on the lower tiers. This autonomic tiering can also benefit DRPs where the metadata is moved to the SCM drives.
If you have a specific workload that requires the best performance and lowest latency, and it fits in the limited SCM capacity available, use SCM as a separate pool and decide which workloads use that pool. Because of their faster speed, SCM drives are placed in a new top tier of Easy Tier. This new tier is ranked higher than the existing tier0_flash that is used for NVMe NAND drives that are supported today.
The following Easy tier levels are available:
•SCM
This tier exists when the pool contains drives that use persistent memory technologies that improve endurance and speed of current flash storage device technologies.
•Tier 0 flash
This tier exists when the pool contains high-performance flash drives.
•Tier 1 flash
This tier exists when the pool contains tier 1 flash drives. Tier 1 flash drives typically offer larger capacities, but slightly lower performance and write endurance characteristics.
•Enterprise tier
This tier exists when the pool contains enterprise-class MDisks, which are disk drives that are optimized for performance.
•Nearline tier
This tier exists when the pool contains nearline-class MDisks, which are disk drives that are optimized for capacity.
Hot data is placed in the SCM tier when Easy Tier is enabled. DRP and VG extent allocation was tuned to use SCM drives, specially for metadata (directory volume lookups). This use case is one of the main use cases for SCM drives with an IBM FlashSystem 7300 system.
SCM and RAID configurations
SCM drives feature the following rules about RAID supported configurations:
•Distributed DRAID 1 with two drives (including distributed spare capacity) or more and is the best practice recommendation and configuration.
•Distributed DRAID 5 with four drives (including distributed spare capacity) or more is supported.
•Distributed DRAID 6 with six drives (including distributed spare capacity) or more is supported.
•Traditional TRAID 1 and 10 with two drives is supported; however, no spare is available, and performance might be limited.
•SCM drives have their own SCM technology type and drive class.
•SCM and Standard NVMe (or SAS) cannot intermix in the same array.
•Easy Tier tier_scm arrays can take lower tech types as spare drives when no tier_scm drives are available.
•Lower tier arrays can accept tier_scm drives as superior drives.
SCM drive formatting and UNMAPS
Because of its media technology, SCM drive formats take much longer to format a drive than a typical NVMe drive. Because the drive formats can take up to 15 minutes, the user must be patient and wait until the process completes.
SCM drive formats occur when one of the following conditions exists:
•A drive is replaced.
•An enclosure is managed.
•An array or MDisk is removed.
 
Note: Intel Optane drives do not support UNMAPs because it is not beneficial for these drives. Instead, the system writes zeros to deallocate drive sectors.
IBM Storage Expert Care
IBM FlashSystem 7300 is a client-installed product and is being released with a one-year warranty and the ability to include IBM Storage Expert Care Basic, Advanced, or Premium.
Figure 5 shows IBM Storage Expert Care levels.
Figure 5 IBM Storage Expert Care levels
The IBM Storage Expert Care tiers are described next.
IBM Storage Expert Care BASIC
The IBM Storage Expert Care BASIC option includes the following support features:
•Duration: 1 - 5 years
•IBM On-Site Repair, which coverage includes 9 - 5 and Next Business Day Support that is based on the duration that you choose
•Licensed Machine Code subscription and support
•IBM Storage Expert Care services:
 – Installation (physical installation is chargeable), usage, and configuration support line
 – Predictive alerting
 – Automated ticket management
IBM Storage Expert Care ADVANCED
The IBM Storage Expert Care ADVANCED option includes the following support features:
•Duration: 1 - 5 years
•IBM On-site Repair coverage includes 24x7, Same Day Support that is based on the duration that you choose
•Licensed Machine Code subscription and support
•IBM Storage Expert Care services:
 – Installation (physical installation is chargeable), usage, and configuration support line
 – Proactive issue resolution
 – Predictive alerting
 – Automated ticket management
IBM Storage Expert Care PREMIUM
The IBM Storage Expert Care PREMIUM option includes the following support features:
•Duration: 1 - 5 years
•IBM On-Site Repair coverage includes 24x7 Same Day Support that is based on the duration that you choose
•Enhanced response time for defect support:
 – Response time is defined as the elapsed time between technical support receipt of the client problem submission and the acknowledgment of the submission.
 – 30-minute targeted response time objectives for Severity 1 and Severity 2 problem reports.
•Licensed Machine Code subscription and support
•IBM Storage Expert Care services:
 – Installation (physical installation is chargeable), usage, and configuration support line
 – Proactive issue resolution
 – Predictive alerting
•Automated ticket management.
•IBM Storage Insights Pro with more detailed reports and planning
•Remote Code Load
Code upgrades are provided by IBM remote support representatives up to twice per year to keep your systems updated.
•On-site code load services that are available by ordering feature code #AHY2 - Remote code load exception when required.
•Dedicated Technical Account Manager.
 
Note: Technical Account Manager serves as the key client interface for in-scope hardware and software. It delivers partnership and consultancy, and direct engagement on high-priority support cases.
IBM FlashWatch overview
IBM FlashWatch is a new offering from IBM to complement the purchase of the IBM FlashSystem 7300. It features three main focus areas:
•Acquisition:
 – High availability guarantee:
 • Proven 99.9999% availability.
 • Optional 100% commitment when using HyperSwap.
 – Data reduction guarantee:
 • 2:1 self-certified.
 • Up to 5:1 with workload profiling.
 – All-inclusive licensing
All storage functions included in licensing cost for internal storage.
•Operation:
 – Cloud analytics
Storage Insights included at no extra cost to proactively manage your environment.
 – Flash endurance guarantee
Flash media is covered for all workloads while under warranty or maintenance.
•Migration:
 – IBM Flash Momentum - Storage Upgrade Program
Replace your controller and storage every three years with full flexibility.
 – Cloud-like pricing
Storage Utility pricing features monthly payments for only the storage that you use.
 – No cost migration
A total of 90 days no-cost data migration from over 500 storage controllers, IBM, and non-IBM.
For more information about the IBM FlashWatch offering, see IBM Support’s IBM FlashWatch FAQ.
The IBM FlashWatch offering is applicable across the IBM Spectrum Virtualize family, with the Product Matrix in the FAQ detailing the elements that are applicable against which product.
IBM Storage Insights
IBM Storage Insights is an IBM Cloud Software as a Service offering that can help you monitor and optimize the storage resources in the system and across your data center.
IBM strongly recommends that all customers install and use this no-charge, cloud-based IBM application because it provides a single dashboard that gives you a clear view of all your IBM block storage. You can make better decisions by seeing trends in performance and capacity.
With storage health information, you can focus on areas that need attention, and when IBM support is needed. IBM Storage Insights simplifies uploading logs, speeds resolution with online configuration data, and provides an overview of open tickets all in one place.
IBM Storage Insights includes the following features:
•A unified view of IBM systems:
 – Provides a single view to see all your system’s characteristics.
 – Displays all of your IBM storage inventory.
 – Provides a live event feed so that you know in real time what is going on with your storage so that you can act fast.
•IBM Storage Insights collects telemetry data and Call Home data and provides real-time system reporting of capacity and performance
•Overall storage monitoring, which provides the following information:
 – The overall health of the system.
 – Monitoring of the configuration to see whether it meets preferred practices.
 – System resource management to determine which system is overtaxed and provides proactive recommendations to fix it.
•IBM Storage Insights provides advanced customer service with an event filter that you can use to accomplish the following tasks:
 – You and IBM Support can view, open, and close support tickets, and track trends.
 – You can use the autolog collection capability to collect the logs and send them to IBM before IBM Support looks into the problem. This capability can save as much as 50% of the time to resolve the case.
In addition to the no-charge version of IBM Storage Insights, IBM offers IBM Storage Insights Pro, which is a subscription service that provides longer historical views of data, more reporting and optimization options, and supports IBM file and block storage with EMC VNX and VMAX.
Customer dashboard
Figure 6 shows a view of the IBM Storage Insights main dashboard and the systems that it monitors.
Figure 6 IBM Storage Insights dashboard
For more information about dashboard displays, see “IBM Storage Insights: Information and registration” on page 19.
For more information about the architecture and design overview of IBM Storage Insights, see Implementation Guide for IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.5, SG24-8520.  
IBM Storage Insights: Information and registration
For more information about IBM Storage Insights, see the following resources:
•Product demonstration (log in required)
•IBM Storage Insights Security Guide, SC27-8774
•Product registration (used to sign up and register for this no-charge service)
IBM Spectrum Control Connect
IBM FlashSystem 7300 Software V8.5.0 supports integrating VASA and VAAI by using IBM Spectrum Control Connect V3.2.5 (formally known as IBM Spectrum Control Base) or later. This centralized server system consolidates a range of IBM storage provisioning, virtualization, cloud, automation, and monitoring solutions through a unified server platform. For more information about this feature, see this IBM Documentation web page.
IBM Spectrum Control Connect provides insight and awareness about the configuration capabilities, storage health, and events of a storage system regarding VMware and vSphere. With this capability, VMware administrators can independently and centrally manage their storage resources on IBM storage systems.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 GUI
Because IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures cluster to form a system, which is a single management interface is used for IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures. Each IBM FlashSystem 7300 node canister is an individual server in an IBM FlashSystem 7300 clustered system, on which the IBM FlashSystem 7300 software runs.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes an easy-to-use management GUI that runs on the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure to help you monitor, manage, and configure your system. You can access the GUI by opening any supported web browser and entering the management IP addresses.
You can connect from any workstation that can communicate with the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system. The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure is delivered in a 2U 19 inch rack-mount enclosure.
Figure 6 shows the IBM FlashSystem 7300 GUI dashboard.
Figure 7 IBM FlashSystem 7300 GUI showing the dashboard
Figure 8 shows the control enclosure window. You can open this window by selecting Monitoring → System Hardware from the left side menu.
Figure 8 IBM FlashSystem 7300 system overview of the control enclosure
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes a CLI, which is useful for scripting, and an intuitive GUI for simple and familiar management of the product. The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system supports Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), email forwarding that uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and syslog redirection for complete enterprise management access.
With the GUI, you can quickly deploy storage and manage it efficiently. The GUI runs on the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure, so a separate console is not needed. Point your web browser to the system IP address and then, you can manage all of the expansion enclosures from one place.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure node canisters are configured for active-active redundancy. The node canisters run a highly customized Linux-based operating system that coordinates and monitors all significant functions in the system.
The node canisters provide a web interface, Secure Shell (SSH) access, and SNMP connectivity through external Ethernet interfaces. With the web and SSH interfaces, administrators can monitor system performance and health metrics, configure storage, and collect support data, among other features.
The storage configuration includes defining logical units with capacities, access policies, and other parameters. No software must be installed on host computers to administer the
IBM FlashSystem 7300 system beyond a web browser or a standard SSH client.
Supported platforms
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system features extensive interoperability with support for a wide range of operating systems (including Microsoft Windows Server, Linux, and IBM AIX® and IBM i), hardware platforms (IBM Power Systems, and x86 & x86_64 servers), host bus adapters (HBAs), and SAN fabrics. For more information, see this IBM Support web page and the IBM System Storage Interoperation Center.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 hardware component overview
The following sections provide an overview of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 hardware components.
Control enclosure
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure is a 2U rack-mounted NVMe flash memory enclosure that is based on IBM flash technology and provides the primary management interface (GUI) and the host interface configuration. The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures support FC Protocol (FCP and NVMeOF on FC) and iSCSI interfaces. RoCE and iWARP protocols are supported by iSCSI and NVMe RDMA.
The IBM FlashSystem provides the following NVMe technologies:
•Supports unique world class IBM FlashCore Module drives with inline compression
•Supports industry-standard NVMe drives
•Option for Intel Optane or Samsung zSSD SCM type drives
•NVMe-oF on FC
•The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system is offered as two models:
 – 4657 Model 924 - IBM FlashSystem 7300 SFF NVMe Control Enclosure
 – 4657 Model U7D - IBM FlashSystem 7300 SFF NVMe Control Enclosure
 
Note: The U7D utility-based model uses fixed configurations because they are Capacity on Demand (CoD)-based offerings.
•Macroefficiency with up to 920 TB of raw maximum protected capacity with inline hardware data compression if you use IBM FlashCore Module NVMe types.
•Support for industry-standard NVMe drives with up to 368 TB of maximum raw capacity.
•Extreme performance with IBM MicroLatency® FlashCore Modules.
•Optional expansion enclosures provide tiering options with SSD flash drives.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 configuration includes the following components:
•A total of 1 - 4 IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures.
•A total of 1 - 12 IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF or Large Form Factor (LFF) 2U expansion enclosures.
•A total 1 - 4 IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF High Density (LFF HD) expansion enclosures per 7300 control enclousre.
The control enclosure includes integrated AC power supplies and battery units inside each of the node canisters. These batteries supply power to the control enclosure during a sudden power loss or failure so that the system can correctly commit all transactions to the storage medium.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure includes the following features:
•Full internal redundancy:
 – Redundant and hot-swappable node canisters
 – Redundant and hot-swappable batteries within each node canister
 – Hot-swappable PCIe adapters
 – Redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, DIMMs, and fans
•The control enclosure support up to 24 NVMe 2.5-inch drives, which can be the
IBM FlashCore Module NVMe type drives or the industry-standard NVMe drives:
 – The following 2.5-inch (SFF) IBM FlashCore Module NVMe types are supported in IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures:
 • 4.8 TB 2.5-inch NVMe FlashCore Module
 • 9.6 TB 2.5-inch NVMe FlashCore Module
 • 19.2 TB 2.5-inch NVMe FlashCore Module
 • 38.4 TB 2.5-inch NVMe FlashCore Module
Distributed RAID 6 (recommended), Distributed RAID 1(supported).
 – The following 2.5-inch (SFF) NVMe industry-standard drives are supported in IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures:
 • 1.92 TB 2.5-inch NVMe flash drive
 • 3.84 TB 2.5-inch NVMe flash drive
 • 7.68 TB 2.5-inch NVMe flash drive
 • 15.36 TB 2.5-inch NVMe flash drive
Distributed RAID 6 (recommended), Distributed RAID 1 (supported).
 – It also supports up to 12 1.6 TB NVMe Storage Class Memory Drives.
Distributed RAID 6, or DRAID 1 with fewer than 4 drives.
 – All drives are dual-port and hot-swappable. Drives of the same form factor and connector type can be intermixed within an enclosure.
 – All flash modules must be the same type and capacity within the same DRAID6 array.
•Some other considerations for DRAID:
 – Distributed RAID 1 is recommended for array configurations of three drives.
 – Distributed RAID 1 is recommended for array configurations of four or five drives depending on capacity and performance requirements, with Distributed RAID 5 as an alternative.
 – Distributed RAID 1 and 6 are recommended for array configurations of 6 drives depending on capacity and performance requirements.
 – Distributed RAID 6 is recommended for array configurations with seven or more drives.
 – Distributed RAID 5 is available through a SCORE request for array configurations of three to eight drives.
•Each IBM flash memory module contains IBM enhanced flash chips, FPGA chips, an IBM PowerPC® processor, and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices that are connected to the flash controllers and processor.
•Total 40 cores (Two node canisters, each with two 10-core processors).
•Cache options from 256 GB (128 GB per canister) to 1.5 TB (768 GB per canister).
•Eight on-board 10 Gb Ethernet ports standard for iSCSI connectivity.
•32 Gb FC, 10/25 Gb Ethernet, and 100 Gb Ethernet ports for FC and iSCSI connectivity.
•12 Gb SAS ports for expansion enclosure attachment (by way of a PCIe adapter card).
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure supports FCP with point to point (FC-P2P), arbitrated loop (FC-AL), and switched fabric (FC-SW) topologies. FC interfaces can be configured as N_port or NL_port types.
The FC ports are configured in NPIV mode; therefore, the user must check that this configuration is preferred for their installation. If not, this configuration must be changed from the default when you set up the SAN infrastructure.
Full active-active multipathing across all interfaces is supported, although host software support for this function can vary.
Figure 9 shows the front view of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure.
Figure 9 IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure front view
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure also includes the following expansion features:
•Capability for adding into clustered systems with more IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures.
 
Note: Machine type 4657 FlashSystem 7300 systems can be clustered with other FlashSystem 7300 systems only. Clustering with machine types 2076, 4664, 4666, 9846, or 9848 is not supported.
•Up to 12 SAS attached expansion enclosures are supported per IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure, which provides up to 144 SAS HDD type drives with expansion Model 12G and up to 288 SSD/SAS type drives with expansion Model 24G.
•Up to 4 HD LFF exp enclosures per 7300 controller which provides up to 368 SAS HDD type drives with expansionModel 92G.
 
Figure 10 shows the components of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure from the rear. You can see the interface cards, power supply units, and the various USB and Ethernet ports. All components are concurrently maintainable, except for the passive mid-plane and power interposer board. All external connections are from the rear of the system.
 
Figure 10 Rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure
 
Note: The upper node canister is mounted upside down in the expansion enclosure. Therefore, the port numbering must be read right to left.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 Utility Model U7D
The IBM 4657 Model U7D is the FlashSystem 7300 hardware component that is used in the Storage Utility Offering space. It is physically and functionally identical to the FlashSystem 7300 Model 924, except for target configurations and variable capacity billing.
The variable capacity billing uses IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights to monitor the system usage, which allows allocated storage usage that is greater than a base subscription rate to be billed per TB, per month. Allocated storage is identified as storage that is allocated to a specific host (and unusable to other hosts), whether data is written.
For thin-provisioning, the data that is written is considered used; for thick provisioning, the total allocated volume space is considered used.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 Utility Models U7D provide a variable capacity storage offering. These models offer a fixed capacity, with a base subscription of approximately 35% of the total capacity.
IBM Storage Insights is used to monitor system usage, and capacity that is used. This usage is billed on a capacity-used basis. With this billing structure, you can grow or shrink usage, and pay for the configured capacity only.
IBM FlashSystem utility models are provided for customers who can benefit from a variable capacity system, where billing is based only on provisioned space. The hardware is leased through IBM Global Finance on a three-year lease, which entitles the customer to use approximately 30 - 40% of the total system capacity at no extra cost (customer individual contract dependent). If storage needs increase beyond that initial capacity, usage is billed based on the average daily provisioned capacity per terabyte per month, on a quarterly basis.
Example: A total system capacity of 115 TB
A customer has an IBM FlashSystem 7300 utility model with 4.8 TB NVMe drives for a total system capacity of 115 TB. The base subscription for such a system is 40.25 TB. During the months where the average daily usage is less than 40.25 TB, no extra billing occurs.
The system monitors daily provisioned capacity and averages those daily usage rates over the month. The result is the average daily usage for the month.
If a customer uses 45 TB, 42.5 TB, and 50 TB in three consecutive months, IBM Storage Insights calculates the overage as listed in Table 1 (rounding to the nearest terabyte).
Table 1 Billing calculations based on customer usage
Average daily
Base
Overage
To be billed
45 TB
40.25 TB
4.75 TB
5 TB
42.5 TB
40.25 TB
2.25 TB
2 TB
50 TB
40.25 TB
9.75 TB
10 TB
The total capacity that is billed at the end of the quarter is 17 TB per month in this example.
Flash drive expansions can be ordered with the system in all supported configurations. Table 2 lists the feature codes that are associated with the U7D utility model billing.
Table 2 7300 U7D utility model billing feature codes
Feature code
Description
#AE00
Variable Usage 1 TB/month
#AE01
Variable Usage 10 TB/month
#AE02
Variable Usage 100 TB/month
These features are used to purchase the variable capacity that is used in the utility models. The features (#AE00, #AE01, and #AE02) provide terabytes of capacity beyond the base subscription on the system. Usage is based on the average capacity that is used per month. The total of the prior three months’ usage should be totaled, and the corresponding number of #AE00, #AE01, and #AE02 features ordered quarterly.
Billing
The local project office compiles the usage information from IBM Storage Insights on a quarterly basis. This data is compared to the base system capacity subscription. Any provisioned capacity beyond that base subscription is billed per terabyte per month on a quarterly basis.
The calculated usage is based on the average use over a month. In a highly variable environment, such as managed or cloud service providers, this subscription enables the system to be use only as much as is necessary during any month. Usage can increase or decrease, and is billed.
Provisioned capacity is considered capacity that is reserved by the system. In thick-provisioned environments, this capacity is allocated to a host, whether it has data that is written. For thin-provisioned environments, the data that is written is used because of the different ways in which thick- and thin-provisioning use flash drive space.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 expansion enclosures
IBM FlashSystem 7300 expansion enclosures are 2U or 5U rack-mounted units. The expansion enclosures are offered in the following models with several drive features:
•FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure (4657 Model 12G):
Supports up to 12 LFF 3.5-inch HDD drives that can be formatted as DRAID 1or DRAID.
High-capacity, archival-class, nearline 7,200 rpm drives in: 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, 16 TB, and 18 TB.
•FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure (4657 Model 24G)
Supports up to 24 SFF 2.5-inch drives that can be formatted as DRAID 1or DRAID 6:
 – 800 GB 3DWPD 2.5-inch drives
 – High-performance, enterprise class disk 10,000 rpm drives in: 1.2 TB, 1.8 TB, and 2.4 TB
 – Flash drives in: 1.92 TB, 3.2 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB, and 30.72 TB
•FlashSystem 7000 HD LFF Expansion Enclosure (4657 Model 92G)
Supports up to 92 LFF 2.5-inch High-Density Drives in a 3.5-inch carrier, and can be formatted as DRAID 1or DRAID 6:
 – High-capacity, archival-class, nearline 7,200 rpm drives in: 6 TB, 8 TB, 10 TB, 12 TB, 14 TB, and 18 TB.
 – High-performance, enterprise class disk 10,000 rpm drives in: 1.2 TB, 1.8 TB, and 2.4 TB (these are 2.5-inch drives in 3.5-inch carriers)
 – Flash drives in: 1.92 TB, 3.2 TB, 3.84 TB, 7.68 TB, 15.36 TB, and 30.72 TB (these are 2.5-inch drives in 3.5-inch carriers)
Multiple expansion enclosures are supported per IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure, which provides:
 – Up to 144 drives with expansion enclosure 4657 Model 12G (12 X 12 expansion enclosures)
 – Up to 288 drives with expansion enclosure 4657 Model 24G (24 X 12 expansion enclosures)
 – Up to 368 drives with expansion enclosure 4657 Model 92G
On each SAS chain, the systems can support up to a SAS chain weight of 6:
•Each 4657-12G or 4657-24G expansion enclosure adds a value of 1 to the SAS chain weight.
•Each 4657-92G expansion enclosure adds a value of 2.5 to the SAS chain weight.
For example, each of the following expansion enclosure configurations has a total SAS weight of 6 or less:
•Two 4657-92G enclosures per SAS chain
•Two 4657-92G enclosures and one 4657 12G or 24G exclosure per SAS chain
Figure 11 shows the front view of the IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure Model 12G.
Figure 11 Front view of the IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure Model 12G
The 12G model of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF expansion enclosure includes the following features:
•Two expansion canisters
•12 Gb SAS ports for attachment to the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures
•2U 19 inch rack-mount enclosure with AC power supplies
Figure 12 shows the rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure Model 12G.
Figure 12 Rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure Model 12G
Figure 13 shows the front view of the IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure Model 24G.
Figure 13 Front view of the IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure Model 24G
The 24G model of IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure includes the following features:
•Two expansion canisters
•12 Gb SAS ports for attachment to the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures
•2U 19 inch rack-mount enclosure with AC power supplies
Figure 14 shows the rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure Model 24G.
Figure 14 Rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure Model 24G
IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF HD Expansion Enclosure Model 92G delivers the following features:
•Up to 92 drives are top-loaded into drive slots of the expansion enclosure
•5U 19 inch rack-mount enclosure with slide rail and cable management assembly
•Redundant 200 - 240 V AC power supplies (new C19/C20 PDU power cord required)
Figure 15 shows the front view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF HD Model 92G Expansion Enclosure.
Figure 15 Front view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Model 92G Expansion Enclosure
Figure 16 shows the rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF model 92G Expansion Enclosure.
Figure 16 Rear view of IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF model 92G Expansion Enclosure
Scalability and performance
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system includes the following scalability and performance features:
•Up to 806 TB usable and 1.62 PB effective flash capacity in only 2U with 2:1 compression.
•Up to 3.2 PB usable and 15.8 PB maximum flash capacity in only 8U with 5:1 compression.
•Extra scalability through expansion enclosures models 12G, 24G, and 92G, and increased raw capacity of up to a maximum of 32 PB.
•IBM FlashSystem 7300 can deliver up to 2.3 million IOPS, with latency down to 70 microseconds (µs) and bandwidth up to 35 GBps from a single system.
•A clustered FlashSystem 7300 can scale linearly and delivers 9.2 million IOPS and 140 GBps on a fully configured 4x IBM FlashSystem 7300 cluster.
Advanced functions
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system provides the following advanced functions:
•HyperSwap for IBM FlashSystem 7300
•Safeguarded copy
•IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault
•Increased security features
•NVMe over Fabrics
•Portsets
•IP quorum base support
•Data reduction tools
•N-Port ID virtualization support
•VMware integration
•External virtualization
HyperSwap for IBM FlashSystem 7300
HyperSwap for IBM FlashSystem 7300 is available with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software V8.5.0 and later. You can use HyperSwap to present each volume to two I/O groups. The configuration tolerates combinations of node and site failures by using the same flexible choices of host multipathing driver interoperability as are currently available for the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system. The use of FlashCopy helps maintain a golden image during automatic resynchronization.
 
Important: Because remote mirroring is used to support the HyperSwap capability, remote mirroring licensing is required for HyperSwap. For more information, see “Software and licensing” on page 57.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize software V8.5.0 or higher includes remote mirroring of control enclosures and expansion enclosures. IBM Spectrum Virtualize is used to provide functions for externally virtualized storage.
The HyperSwap function uses a HyperSwap topology to spread the nodes of the system across two sites, with storage at a third site that acts as a tie-breaking quorum device.
Consider the following points:
•The HyperSwap topology locates both nodes of an I/O group in the same site. Therefore, to get a volume that is resiliently stored on both sites, at least two I/O groups are required.
•The HyperSwap topology uses extra system resources to support a fully independent cache on each site. This configuration provides full performance, even if one site is lost. In some environments, a HyperSwap topology provides better performance than a stretched topology.
•The HyperSwap function can now be configured through a new CLI that greatly simplifies the setup process to a handful of commands. The HyperSwap function also adds the ability to configure and manage local HyperSwap through the GUI for simpler configuration and operation.
•Hosts, IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures, and IBM FlashSystem 7000 expansion enclosures are in one of two failure domains or sites.
•Volumes are visible as a single object across both sites (I/O groups).
Figure 17 shows how the HyperSwap function works.
Figure 17 HyperSwap function
Each primary volume (“p” in Figure 17) has a secondary volume (“s” in Figure 17) on the opposite I/O group. The secondary volumes are not mapped to the hosts. The dual-write to the secondary volumes is handled by the IBM FlashSystem 7300 HyperSwap function, and is transparent to the hosts.
HyperSwap features the following characteristics:
•The HyperSwap function is available on IBM Spectrum Virtualize software V8.5.0 and later, and with two or more I/O groups.
•You can design a multiple-step CLI-based configuration on a single system by performing simple object creation through the GUI and CLI.
•Data is stored on two sites in parallel.
•The maximum distance between sites is 300 km (186.4 miles).
•Two independent copies of data are maintained (four if you use extra volume mirroring to two pools in each site).
•HyperSwap uses a standard host multipathing driver.
•Cache data is retained if only one site is online.
•Automatically synchronizes and resynchronizes copies.
•Automatic host-to-storage-system path optimization, based on the host site (requires Asymmetric Logical Unit Access (ALUA) and Target Port Groups Support (TPGS) support from the multipathing driver).
•Consistent state data is retained during resynchronization for DR.
•The maximum number of highly available volumes is 2000.
•Requires a remote mirroring license for volumes. Exact license requirements can vary by product.
Safeguarded Copy
IBM Safeguarded Copy regularly creates isolated (separated from servers) immutable (unable to be changed) snapshots of data to help protect against cyberattacks, malware, acts of disgruntled employees, and other data corruption. Because Safeguarded Copy snapshots are on the same FlashSystem storage as operational data, recovery is faster than restoring from copies stored separately.
The system integrates with IBM Copy Services Manager to provide automated backup copies and data recovery.
The Safeguarded child-pool capability on the IBM Spectrum Virtualize family of products (IBM FlashSystems, IBM SAN Volume Controller, and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud) was introduced in version 8.4.2.0.
HA configurations mitigate against physical component failure and provide small Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recover Time Objective (RTO). Continuous protection and operation occur if a component fails. IBM Spectrum Virtualize HA configurations, such as HyperSwap and Stretch Cluster, provide such protection.
DR is designed to have a slightly higher RPO and RTO. Therefore, DR is in a position to provide an airgap to protect against corruption to the data that is replicated immediately in an IBM Spectrum Virtualize HA configuration, such as HyperSwap or Stretch Cluster.
However, because DR solutions at the storage layer are replicating only data, any logical corruption eventually is replicated to the DR site as well.
One way to provide adequate protection against logical data corruption is to take periodic snapshots of the data and to have that data stored in a nonmodifiable state that is inaccessible to administrators, servers, and applications. These Safeguarded copies can then serve as recovery points from which the data can be restored to a pre-corruption state, whether that corruption occurred as a result of an errant batch job, a disgruntled employee, or a ransomware attack.
For more information about Safeguarded Copy, see IBM FlashSystem Safeguarded Copy Implementation Guide, REDP-5654.
IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault
The IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault solution complements IBM Safeguarded Copy. IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault automatically scans the copies that are created regularly by Safeguarded Copy, looking for signs of data corruption that are introduced by malware or ransomware. This scan serves two purposes: It can help identify a classic ransomware attack rapidly after an attach begins; and it is designed to help identify which data copies were unaffected by an attack.
Armed with this information, customers are positioned to more quickly identify that an attack is underway and more rapidly identify and recover a clean copy of their data.
IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault features the following highlights:
•Detect cyberattacks early to minimize damage
•Speed recovery from an attack
•Reduce recovery time from days or weeks to just hours
•Enable forensic analysis of attack
The IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault solution is a blueprint that is implemented by IBM Lab Services or IBM Business Partners that is designed to help speed cyberattack detection and recovery.
For more information about IBM FlashSystem Cyber Vault, contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner.
Increased security features
With IBM Spectrum Virtualize software V8.5.0 and newer, administrators can enable Multifactor Authentication (MFA) to increase security.
Single-factor authentication methods alone (such as username and password combinations) do not provide the level of protection and security that is required in cloud and hybrid-cloud environments. With multifactor authentication support, security administrators can reinforce account protection, create granular access for users and user groups, and monitor access more efficiently at a system level.
Multifactor authentication requires users to provide multiple pieces of information when they log in to the system to prove their identity. Multifactor authentication uses any combination of two or more methods, called factors, to authenticate users to your resources and protect those resources from unauthorized access. The system integrates with IBM Security Verify to provide multifactor authentication for system users.
Also, available with IBM Spectrum Virtualize software V8.5.0 and newer is single-sign on (SSO). With SSO, users must provide their credentials only once when they sign in to more systems, rather than repeatedly providing the credentials for every individual system. The system supports Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) to provide single sign-on.
For more information, see IBM Spectrum Virtualize, IBM FlashSystem, and IBM SAN Volume Controller Security Feature Checklist, REDP-5678.
NVMe over Fabrics
The NVMe protocol is an open collection of standards and interfaces that fully uses the benefits of nonvolatile memory in all types of computing environments, from mobile to data center. It is designed to deliver high bandwidth and low latency storage access.
This section describes the NVMe protocol and interface as it relates particularly to flash-based architectures.
The NVMe protocol is an interface specification for communicating with storage devices and it is functionally the same as other protocols, such as SATA and SAS. However, the NVMe interface was designed from the ground up for fast storage media, such as flash-based SSDs and low-latency nonvolatile storage technologies.
 
NVMe storage devices are typically directly attached to a host system over a PCI Express (PCIe) bus and the NVMe controller is contained in the storage device, which alleviates the need for another I/O controller between the CPU and the storage device. This architecture results in lower latency, throughput scalability, and simpler system designs.
This design was implemented in the IBM FlashSystem 7300, with its dual ported PCIe-based NVMe drives.
However, the PCIe bus has a limit to the number of NVMe drives that can be attached to a host over the bus to a few tens of devices. Because the maximum length of PCIe cabling is also only a few meters, the flexibility of deploying PCIe NVMe drives outside the host server is severely limited and data center level scalability is not feasible.
NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) overcomes the limitations of the SCSI protocol and the limited number of concurrent queues by extending the benefits of low latency and high efficiency of the NVMe technology across network fabrics. This feature supports sharing of NVMe storage at a large scale (100s or 1000s of devices) and over distance.
Figure 18 shows that the NVMe architecture supports many different network fabric technologies.
Figure 18 NVMe technology support options
The NVMe transport layer can be mapped to different network fabric technologies.
As of this writing, the NVMe transport layer supports the NVMe over Fabrics by using Fibre Channel (referred to as FC-NVMe of NVMeFC) main fabric transport.
FC-NVMe uses Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) as its transport mechanism, which places the data transfer in control of the target and transfers data direct from host memory, which is similar to RDMA. In addition, FC-NVMe allows for a host to send commands and data together (first burst), which eliminates the first data “read” by the target and provides better performance at distances.
The NVMe over Fabrics interface uses the same model of submission and completion queues as PCIe NVMe. As such, it maintains the same asynchronous submission and completion model and achieves similar benefits in terms of latency, efficiency, and scalability as the NVMe technology because of the shortened code paths and lockless concurrency in multi-core environments.
IBM FlashSystem 7300 supports NVMe protocols by way of the various PCIe adapters that can be ordered and installed in the control enclosure. For more information about these options, see “Host I/O connectivity and expansion enclosure adapters” on page 50.
For more information about NVMeoF protocols and architecture, see IBM Storage and the NVM Express Revolution, REDP-5437.
Portsets
IBM FlashSystem 7300 is designed for multi tenancy where multiple clients can share storage resources. In multitenancy environments, it might be a requirement that clients use storage ports that are connected to different networks to isolate traffic from other clients.
Portsets are groupings of logical addresses that are associated with the specific traffic types. The system supports IP portsets for host attachment, back-end storage connectivity, and IP replication traffic. In addition, FC portsets can be configured for host attachment.
After you create portsets and assign IP addresses, you can assign hosts, host clusters, and IP partnerships to the portset for those traffic types.
IP quorum base support
For lower implementation and operation costs for a HA solution, you can use IP quorum base support to use lower-cost IP network-attached hosts as a quorum disk. HyperSwap implementations require FC storage on a third site to cope with tie-breaker situations if the intersite link fails, and when connectivity between sites 1 and 2 is lost. In a HyperSwap setup, a quorum disk at the third site is needed. The quorum disk on the third site must be the active quorum disk. Only the active quorum disk acts as a tie breaker.
A quorum device is also used to store a backup copy of important system configuration data. Just over 256 MB is reserved for this purpose on each quorum device.
A system can have only one active quorum device that is used for a tie-break situation. However, the system uses up to three quorum devices to record a backup of system configuration data to be used if a disaster occurs. The system automatically selects one quorum device to be the active quorum device.
For more information about configuring quorums disks within two or three sites, see this IBM Documentation web page.
Note: Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity is not supported between nodes when a HyperSwap system is configured without the use of inter-switch links (ISLs).
Data reduction tools
Compression and de-duplication are a key part of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system. IBM Comprestimator and Data Reduction Estimator Tool is the key sizing tool that is used to estimate how much capacity savings that a client can expect. IBM Comprestimator and Data Reduction Estimator Tool can recognize the patterns of the client data and estimate the compressibility of data per volume.
IBM FlashSystem models are supported by the IBM Comprestimator (which is available as a stand-alone tool and found in the IBM FlashSystem 7300 GUI) and the stand-alone Data Reduction Estimator Tool (DRET). This DRET tool is a host-based application that is used to estimate the amount of compression and de-duplication on the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system for specific workloads.
Choose your data reduction approach and use the tools to estimate the amount of usable storage that is required by reviewing the following tools.
Figure 19 shows how to start the Estimate Compression Saving option from the GUI.
From the main menu, click Volumes → Volumes and select one volume. Then, right-click to open get the pop-up menu. From this menu, select Capacity Savings → Estimate Compression Saving.
Figure 19 Estimate Compression Saving from the GUI
The following methods can be used to estimate compression and savings on FCM and DRP approaches:
•IBM FlashCore Module - IBM FlashCore Module Compression:
 – Use the FCM option.
 – Do not use the Estimate Compression Saving option in the GUI to calculate the
IBM FlashCore Module savings.
•Data Reduction Pool compression:
 – Use the DRP option.
 – Workloads that are on any IBM Spectrum Virtualize platforms can use the Estimate Compression Saving option in the GUI.
•Data Reduction Pool compression and deduplication:
 – IBM Comprestimator and Data Reduction Estimator Tool shows the savings for thin-provisioning, compression, and deduplication.
 – IBM Comprestimator and Data Reduction Estimator Tool reads entire volumes to identify de-duplicated data, so it takes longer to run.
For more information about data reduction pool compression and setup, see Introduction and Implementation of Data Reduction Pools and Deduplication, SG24-8430.
N-Port ID virtualization support
IBM Spectrum Virtualize software offers NPIV support. Use NPIV to virtualize WWPNs, which increases redundancy during firmware updates and scheduled maintenance where WWPNs transparently move to the controller that is not being maintained. As a consequence, FC-attached hosts experience zero path reduction during controller outages.
 
Important: The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system has NPIV enabled by default; therefore, if the customer does not want to use it, they must turn it off before configuring FC ports for host communications.
VMware integration
IBM Spectrum Virtualize software V8.5.0 and higher includes the following features, which enable tight integration with VMware:
•vCenter plug-in: Enables monitoring and self-service provisioning of the system from within VMware vCenter.
•vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI) support: This function supports hardware-accelerated virtual machine (VM) copy and migration and hardware-accelerated VM initiation, and accelerates VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS).
•Microsoft Windows System Resource Manager (SRM) for VMware Site Recovery Manager: Supports automated storage and host failover, failover testing, and failback.
•VVOL integration for better usability: The migration of space-efficient volumes between storage containers maintains the space efficiency of volumes. Cloning a VM achieves a full independent set of VVOLs. Resiliency also is improved for VMs if volumes start running out of space.
Before the availability of VVOLs, a VM in a VMware environment was presented as a VMware disk that was called a VMware Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK). This file represented a physical disk to the VM, which can be accessed by the operating system that is installed on the VM in the same way that a physical volume on a regular server was installed.
The VMDK file was placed in a file system that is called VMFS, which is hosted by a standard volume (LUN). For example, it can be implemented on an external storage system, such as the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system. With the availability of the VVOL technology, each VM disk can now be mapped to an external storage volume (for example, an IBM FlashSystem 7300 volume).
With VVOL, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 solution recognizes individual VMDK files. Therefore, data operations, such as snapshot and replication, can be performed directly by the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system at the VMDK level rather than the entire VMFS data store.
 
 
 
 
 
Note: The integration of VVOL with the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system is based on the VMware APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA). IBM support for VASA is delivered as part of IBM Spectrum Connect. VASA V2 is required to use the VVOL capability.
For more information about WMware integration, see IBM FlashSystem and VMware Implementation and Best Practices Guide.
External virtualization
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system offers external virtualization technology that helps you manage other IBM or third-party storage arrays with thin-provisioning, space-efficient copies, and DR tools, such as Data Replication. External virtualization also makes the migration of data from one storage device to another easier.
You can use the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system to manage the capacity of other disk systems with external storage virtualization. When the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system virtualizes a storage system, its capacity becomes part of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system and is managed in the same manner as the capacity on internal flash modules within the
IBM FlashSystem 7300 system. Capacity in external storage systems inherits all the rich functions and ease of use of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system.
You can use IBM FlashSystem 7300 to preserve your investments in storage, centralize management, and make storage migrations easier with storage virtualization and Easy Tier. IBM FlashSystem 7300 system provides nondisruptive operations because of storage virtualization. Virtualization helps insulate applications from changes that are made to the physical storage infrastructure. For example, when you add storage capacity or a new tier of storage, the changes are transparent to applications, which results in minimal downtime.
Any externally virtualized storage needs extra licenses to be purchased and are charged on a capacity basis of the storage added.
Scaling up and scaling out
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system has a scalable architecture that enables flash capacity to be added (scaled up) to support multiple applications by adding expansion enclosures. Scale out expands NVMe capacity, with the processing power to use that capacity to linearly scale IOPS and bandwidth. As a result, your organization can gain a competitive advantage through a more flexible, responsive, and efficient storage environment.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system has the following flexible scalability configuration options:
•Base configuration
•Scale up: Add capacity
•Scale out: Add control enclosures and capacity
Each IBM FlashSystem 7300 has two canisters (sometimes also known as nodes or controllers). Each canister contains the CPUs, cache memory, PCIe adapters, and other hardware to communicate to the NVMe drives and connected hosts systems. These canisters are housed in a chassis that is known as a control enclosure.
It is possible to connect up to a maximum of four control enclosures to form a cluster.
Table 3 lists the values of the CPUs, cache memory, raw NVMe drive size, and PCIe adapters for each number of control enclosures.
Table 3 Maximum values for each canisters and control enclosure n
Element
Number
of CPUs
Maximum cache memory (GiB)
Maximum NVMe 24 drive capacity raw (TiB)
Inclusive onboard Ethernet ports
Max PCIe ports (FC or Ethernet)
 
One Canister
2
768
N/A
4
12
One Enclosure
4
1536
922
8
24
Two Enclosures
8
3072
1844
16
48
Three Enclosures
12
4608
2766
24
72
Four Enclosures
16
6144
3688
32
96
A basic configuration of an IBM FlashSystem 7300 storage platform consists of one
IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure. For a balanced increase of performance and scale, up to four IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures can be clustered into a single storage system, which multiplies performance and capacity with each addition.
The clustered IBM FlashSystem 7300 system can include dedicated internal FC switches for internal communications. However, other methods are available to configure the switches and ports to provide performance improvements.
For more information about how to restrict the FC ports for control enclosure inter-node connections and host connections, see this IBM Documentation web page.
With the scalable IBM FlashSystem 7300 configurations, you can add up to three IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures to the storage system.
A single IBM FlashSystem 7300 enclosure can provide up to 663 TiB in usable capacity while leveraging all recommended settings (DRAID6 and a 10+P+Q stripe layout). These default settings are used when an array is set up by using the GUI wizard.
The following RAID types are available on the IBM FlashSystem 7300:
•DRAID-1
•DRAID-5
•DRAID6
All RAID types are now distributed RAID, which was developed to support larger arrays and especially arrays of larger drive modules. The technology significantly  shortens the rebuild time by distributing data, parity, and spare capacity over all member drives of an array. DRAID arrays allow the dynamically expansion with newly added drives to the system.
IBM FlashCore Modules provide a hardware compression at no extra cost. It is integrated into the drive module and is always enabled. The compression effectiveness depends on the type and structure of user data. Overall, IBM expects a compression ratio up to 3:1, which achieves an effective capacity in a single enclosure of 1989 TiB.
When incorporating DRPs with deduplication and compression, potentially an even higher data reduction ration is achievable; that is, up to 5:1 depending on the data structure.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system is expandable to 32 PB by using SSDs and HDDs in expansion enclosures as tiered capacity. More FlashSystem expansion enclosures are attached through the optional SAS Expansion Enclosure Attach card (FC# ADBA).
Maximum capacity configurations
Table 4 lists the maximum raw capacity, usable capacity, and maximum effective capacity for scalable configurations that are built on the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures.
Table 4 IBM FlashSystem 7300 maximum usable and effective capacity.
Number of
control enclosures
Maximum usable capacity by using DRAID6 with 24 drives (TiB)
Maximum effective capacity (TiB) with inline FCM Drive compression
at 3:1 ratio
Maximum effective capacity (TiB) with software data reduction
5:1 ratio
 
One
663
1989
3315
Two
1326
3978
6630
Three
1989
5967
9945
Four
2652
7956
13260
 
Note: IBM FlashCore Module inline compression is hardware-based and operates at line speed, having no effect on the performance.
Capacity expansion through expansion enclosures
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system supports the addition of expansion enclosures to extend capacity.
The list of available drive module options to be installed in expansion enclosures can be found in “IBM FlashSystem 7300 hardware component overview” on page 22.
High-density (HD) Enclosure Model 92G accepts SAS SSDs and HDDs. With these tiering options, you can have four enclosures per control enclosure, with a maximum capacity of 998 TB each leveraging 30.72 TB flash drives.
Note: To support SAS-attached expansion enclosures, an ADBA - SAS Enclosure Attachment adapter must be installed in the control enclosure of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system.
Figure 20 shows the maximum enclosure configuration with 92G expansions.
Figure 20 Maximum configuration for model 92G enclosures
IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF Expansion Enclosure Model 12G offers new tiering options with HDDs. Each LFF expansion enclosure supports up to 12 3.5-inch HDDs.
IBM FlashSystem 7000 SFF Expansion Enclosure Model 24G offers new tiering options with HDD or SSD flash drives. Each SFF expansion enclosure supports up to 24 2.5-inch flash SSD or HDDs.
Up to 12 expansion enclosures are supported per IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure, which provides up to 288 drives of SAS SSD and HDD capacity.
Figure 21 shows the maximum configuration of 20 expansion enclosures in the 12G or 24G models.
Figure 21 Maximum configuration for model 12 G / 24 G enclosures
 
Note: The IBM Spectrum Virtualize maximum storage limit is 32 PB.
RAID types
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system supports the following main DRAID types (traditional RAID is not supported).
The following rules apply for RAID building:
•DRAID6 is used for all drive types: SCM Class drives, FlashCore Modules and Industry-standard flash drives.
•DRAID1 is used if in any drive class 6 or fewer drives are present.
•All drives in a single array must be of the same type, technology, and size.
•Only one DRAID array is used per pool.
For more information about the types of supported RAID configurations, see this IBM Documentation web page.
Manageability and security
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system offers many improvements on the manageability and security features as compared to previous models.
In general, the manageability and security of the new range of systems and latest version of the software were greatly improved. The changes that were implemented in this code and on these systems include the following examples:
•Safeguarded copy, which a technology that is derived from the technology that is used in the IBM DS8000® line. It consists of a copy that cannot be changed or deleted after it is created. Also, storing sensitive copies in immutable storage, cloud environments, or offline write-once read many (WORM) tape devices is an option to provide physical air-gap protection.
•Advanced security for data at rest with hardware-accelerated AES-XTS 256 encryption.
•IBM has applied for FIPS 140-3 Level 1 certification for IBM FlashCore Modules generation 3 in the IBM FlashSystem 7300. The application is currently on the NIST modules-in-progress list.
•A GUI and a CLI are available to manage the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures and the IBM FlashSystem 7000 expansion enclosures.
The GUI is supported in any supported browser.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 CLI supports a collection of commands that you can use to manage the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system.
In the 7300 system, the GUI and the command-line support MFA for increased security.
•The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system running IBM Spectrum Virtualize 8.5.0 software supports the Representational State Transfer (REST ) model API. The REST API consists of command targets that are used to retrieve system information and to create, modify, and delete system resources.
•Secure Remote Access (SRA) provides secure connection for IBM Remote Support, which can perform remote troubleshooting and code load, and obtain diagnostic logs.
•Email and SNMP alerts are part of the standard alerting options.
•Syslog redirect to send system log messages to another host.
•Combined password and SSH key authentication is now supported as a first factor for local users.
•Methods of access to the system are restricted at a user group level. GUI, CLI, and REST API access can now be restricted (Role Based Access Control).
•The log in grace time and session timeout duration can now be configured according to the customer’s policies.
•The following MFA options can be used:
 – Cloud based IBM Security Verify Integration. This option supports a wide range of secondary authentication factors because it uses an industry-standard protocol OpenID Connect. It also aligns with other products that support this solution, such as IBM Spectrum Scale.
 – Single sign-on support by using Microsoft’s Active Directory Federation Services (on-premises). The advantage of this technology is that it supports access cards, dark sites, and various other security features in the future.
•Cyber Vault solution
IBM Cyber Vault is a combination of hardware and software to provide a comprehensive approach to cyberresiliency and includes the following features:
 – Immutable copies of data can be created by IBM Safeguarded Copies,
 – Pro-active monitoring: By using IBM Storage Insights, a recommended service from IBM, early warnings of a possible attack are sent out. Integration with IBM’s QRadar® is also recommended.
 – Rapid Recovery: The monitoring of the Cyber Vault snapshots that are created by Safeguarded copies is a continuous process. Monitoring is done by using standard database tools and other software. In this way, Cyber Vault checks Safeguarded Copy snapshots for corruption. If any corruption is found, it is considered a sign of a possible attack.
 – Data Copy Test and Validation: Data copies are in an isolated environment to check whether they are corruption free and recovery procedures are in place. Also, forensics and diagnostics services are available to check the validity of the data copies.
All of these features can be implemented by IBM Lab services or an IBM Business Partner by using the IBM Frameworks for IT Cyber Resiliency. However, more software (IBM QRadar, IBM Security Guardium® Data Protection, and so on) might be required.
•An interactive management GUI is included with excellent management and monitoring features.
•For native scheduler for snapshots, external software is no longer required to create and manage crash-consistent copies of data. You can now schedule taking snapshots.
For application-consistent copies, an external (third-party) orchestrator with application awareness is still needed.
Encryption
Like its predecessors, IBM FlashSystem 7300 data encryption is based on the industry standard AES-XTS 256 encryption, as defined in the IEEE 1619-2007 standard and NIST Special Publication 800-38E as XTS-AES-256.
The data encryption key is protected by a 256-bit AES key wrap of a key that is derived from the access key that is stored on the USB flash drive. The wrapped key is stored in the system in nonvolatile form.
Encryption on the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system requires the following feature codes:
•Encryption Enablement (#ACE8)
This feature enables the encryption function. A single instance of this feature enables the function on the entire IBM FlashSystem 7300 system (IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure and all attached IBM FlashSystem 7300 expansion enclosures) and on externally virtualized storage subsystems.
•USB flash drives (#ACEA)
IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager or Gemalto Safenet Keysecure are required for encryption key management.
•Encryption USB Flash Drives (Four Pack) Optional (#ACEA)
This feature provides four USB flash drives for storing the encryption master access key.
Unless IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager or Gemalto Safenet Keysecure is used for encryption keys management, a total of three USB flash drives are required per IBM FlashSystem 7300 cluster when encryption is enabled in the cluster, regardless of the number of systems in the cluster. If encryption is used in a cluster, this feature should be ordered on one IBM FlashSystem 7300 system, which results in a shipment of four USB flash drives.
Encryption can be applied to virtualized storage arrays, even if the virtualized array does not include encryption capabilities. In this scenario, the encryption is done by using IBM Spectrum Virtualize software. Encrypted volumes are transparent to applications, which eases implementation and operation.
In addition, the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system features the following functions:
•Encryption Activation: Adding an encryption license to a system is not concurrent and must be done at array initialization time.
•Encryption Deactivation: Removing encryption is not concurrent and destroys any data that is on the array.
•Encryption Rekey: Changing the encryption key on a previously initialized system is concurrent and can be done while array is in use.
These operations require that you purchase Encryption Enablement Pack (#ACE9).
Self-encrypting drives
The IBM FlashCore Modules and NVMe drives, including the SCMs, in the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure are self-encrypting drives (SEDs). With SEDs, you can encrypt the data on the drive within the hardware.
These types of flash drives include the following features:
•Encryption of data is done in the electrical circuit of the drive; therefore, it is not affected by performance issues from software encryption.
•Data Encryption Keys never leave the confines of the SED, and are never loaded into CPU or memory.
•You can perform a fast cryptographic erasure of a SED by using a single CLI command to replace the DEK or revert the entire device to factory settings.
•Supports a security feature that is called auto-lock, which protects against someone plugging your drive into another system and accessing your data.
•Drives automatically lock themselves on power loss and require an access key at start time to unlock and allow I/O operations.
•If an SED is taken from a system with encryption and placed in another system, the drive data is not readable. The system posts an error message that indicates that it is locked. The only way to use the drive is to format it. This formatting also performs a cryptographic erase by removing any encryption keys; therefore, all of the data on the drive is destroyed.
Combining system encryption with self-encrypting drives
For control enclosures that support NVMe architecture, NVMe-attached drives are self-encrypting and self-compressing. With SEDs that use NVMe architecture, data encryption is completed in the drive. Data encryption keys remain on the drive without being stored in system memory.
In addition, the system supports automatic locks of encrypted drives when the system or drive is powered down. When the drive or system restarts, a master key is required to unlock the drive and continue I/O operations.
Because the encryption of data is done in the electrical circuit of the drive, it is not affected by any potential performance issues from software encryption.
 
If SEDs are encrypting the data, why do you need to enable system encryption in IBM Spectrum Virtualize?: You can use SEDs without enabling encryption on the system, but SEDs are unlocked by default at start time, unless configured with extra protection.
System level encryption in IBM Spectrum Virtualize allows you to use USB flash drives or IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager to manage access to encrypted objects on the system. This feature ensures that when a system is powered, this extra encryption key is required to read the data on the drives.
Consider the following points:
•SEDs are always encrypting, and you cannot stop them from being encrypted.
•You can use SEDs without enabling encryption on the system; however, SEDs are unlocked by default unless they are configured with extra protection.
•With system encryption in IBM Spectrum Virtualize, you can use USB flash drives or IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager to manage access to encrypted objects on the system.
•Software in the operating system is required to manage an access key that can be used to lock and unlock the SEDs and bring them online for I/O.
Therefore, the best solution is to use the SEDs with the Encryption Enablement Pack and USB or IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager type encryption, or a mixture of both. This configuration ensures the maximum level of encrypting for your data that is on the system.
Transparent Cloud Tiering and encryption
TCT is a licensed function that enables volume data to be copied and transferred to cloud storage. The system supports creating connections to cloud service providers to store copies of volume data in private or public cloud storage.
With TCT, administrators can move older data to cloud storage to free up capacity on the system. Point-in-time snapshots of data can be created on the system and then copied and stored on cloud storage.
An external cloud service provider manages the cloud storage, which reduces storage costs for the system. At the time of this writing, IBM supports the OpenStack Swift and Amazon S3 cloud service providers.
The following considerations apply to TCT and encryption:
•When a cloud account is created, it must continue to use the same encryption type throughout the life of the data in that cloud account. Even if the cloud account object is removed and remade on the system, the encryption type for that cloud account might not be changed while back up data for that system exists in the cloud provider.
•When performing rekeying operations on a system that has an encryption-enabled cloud account, perform the commit operation immediately after the prepare operation. Retain the previous system master key (on a USB or in the keyserver) because this key might be needed to retrieve your cloud backup data when performing a T4 recovery or an import.
•The restore_uid option is not used when the backup is imported to a new cluster.
•Importing TCT data is supported from only systems whose backup data was created at V7.8.0.1 or later.
•TCT uses Sig V2 when connecting to Amazon regions, and does not currently support regions that require Sig V4.
For more information, see this IBM Documentation web page.
Secure drive erasure process
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system running IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.5.0 or higher provides methods to securely erase data from a drive or boot drive when a control enclosure is decommissioned or before a drive is removed from the system during a repair activity.
Secure data deletion effectively erases or overwrites all traces of data from a data storage device. The original data on that device becomes inaccessible and cannot be reconstructed. You can securely delete data on individual drives and on a boot drive of a control enclosure. The methods and commands that are used to securely delete data enable the system to be used in compliance with European Regulation EU2019/424.
The following types of drives can be used for this process:
•Expansion enclosure SAS SSDs
•NVMe drives (IBM FlashCore Modules and industry standard)
•Control enclosure node canister SSD boot drives
The methods that the system uses to securely delete data from the drives varies according to the CLI commands that each type of drive can support. The completion time for the erase procedure also varies, depending on the amount of data and the method that is used to delete the data. In each case, when the operation completes, the result is that the data on the drive effectively becomes impossible to access.
Table 5 lists the types of erasure, methods used, and time taken to securely delete data from drives.
Table 5 Comparison of methods to securely delete data from drives
Priority
Deletion type
Method
Completion time
1
Cryptographic erase
Changes the encryption key and makes the data inaccessible.
Instant
2
Block erase
Quickly raises and lowers the voltage level of the storage element. Physical blocks are altered with a vendor-specific value.
Fast
3
Data Overwrite
Replaces data with random data.
Slow
The methods that are used to securely delete data vary according to manufacture, drive type, and drive firmware. For more information, see the documentation that is provided by the drive manufacturer.
If a drive supports more than one data deletion method, the system uses the highest-priority method.
For more information about the CLI commands that are used to run this secure erase function, see this IBM Documentation web page.
Reliability, availability, and serviceability
IBM FlashSystem 7300 delivers the following enterprise-class reliability features, much like its predecessors:
•IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures support concurrent code load. O0nsite and remote code upgrades are supported. However, for Onsite code loads, an extra feature #AHY2 must be purchased. For code loads to the FCM drives, you also must purchase #AHY2.
•The components of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 are one of the following configurations:
 – Hot-swappable: All system functions remain the same.
 – Concurrently replaceable: All functions remain, but elements might be offline; therefore, performance or availability might be affected.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure includes two clustered node canisters that contain hot-swappable and concurrently replaceable components:
 – Hot-swappable:
 • Secure boot drives
 • Batteries
 • PSUs (2 per canister)
 • NVMe or FCM drives
 – Concurrently replaceable:
 • Fan modules
 • Memory DIMMs
 • Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
 • PCIe adapters
 • Node canister
If an IBM FlashCore Module failure occurs, critical customer applications can remain online while the defective module is replaced because a spare module is available. IBM Variable Stripe RAID is a patented IBM technology that provides an intra-module RAID stripe within each flash module. Variable Stripe RAID technology helps reduce downtime, and maintains performance and capacity during partial or full flash chip failures.
•IBM enhanced technology in the SCM drives for higher storage density and improved performance can coexist with FCM3 drives in the IBM FlashSystem 7300 for even more demanding workloads.
•By using 3-site data copies with synchronous and asynchronous data copies, greater flexibility is available in creating DR and HA solutions.
Options and feature codes
This section describes the options and feature codes of the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure.
Memory options
Table 6 lists the various memory option feature codes.
Table 6 IBM FlashSystem 7300 memory options per control enclosure
Base memory (GB)
#ACGJ Plant or Field Upgrade (GB)
#ACGB Plant or Field Upgrade (GB)
 
Total memory (GB)
256
N/A
N/A
256
256
512
N/A
768
256
512
768
1536
The following feature codes are available:
•(#ACGJ) - 512 GB Cache upgrade.
This feature indicates that the base machine is configured with 512 GB (256 GB for each node canister). Selecting this feature determines the cache upgrade paths of the machine.
•(#ACGB) - 768 GB Cache upgrade.
This feature provides another 768 GB of cache (384 GB for each node canister) to increase the total system cache by 768 GB.
 
Note: A quantity of one ACGJ must be ordered with this feature if not already fitted.
Mandatory feature: Boot Drive Pair
The (#ACGV) - 240 GB M.2 Boot drive Pair feature is mandatory and indicates that the base machine is configured with dual of 240GB M.2 boot drives (two per canister).
Host I/O connectivity and expansion enclosure adapters
Six PCIe slots are available for port expansions in the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure. Each canister has three PCIe adapter slots and both canisters must have the same configuration. The PCIe adapter feature codes offer a pair of adapters to ensure that they are supplied symmetrically in each canister.
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure can be configured with three I/O adapter features to provide up to 24 x 32 Gb FC ports or up to 12 x 10/25 Gb or 12 x100 Gb Ethernet ports. The control enclosure also includes eight 10 Gb Ethernet ports as standard for iSCSI connectivity and two 1 Gb Ethernet ports for system management. A feature code also is available to include the SAS expansion adapter if the user wants to implement the optional expansion enclosures.
 
Note: The SAS Expansion adapter does not support SAS hosts.
Figure 22 shows the connectivity options for the different adapters that are available at time of this writing.
Figure 22 Connectivity options
For more information about the limits and rules for adapter placement to ensure correct best practices, see IBM Spectrum Virtualize FAQ: IBM Spectrum Virtualize with the IBM FlashSystemfamily and IBM SAN Volume Controller.
Table 7 lists the maximum host port count per building block configuration (1, 2, 3, or 4 control enclosures.)
Table 7 Maximum host port count per control enclosure
Number of controls
enclosures
32 Gb FC
Onboard iSCSi
10 Gb ports
25 Gb iSCSI (RoCE)
25 Gb iSCSI (iWARP)
 
100 Gb iSCSI
(RoCE)
One
24
8
12
12
12
Two
48
16
24
24
24
Three
72
24
36
36
36
Four
96
32
48
48
48
 
Note: All connectivity ports are NVMe-oF hardware-ready.
Table 8 lists the current features for host connectivity for the IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure 4657-924 and 4657-U7D machine types.
Table 8 Supported expansion enclosure and interface components MTMs 4657-924 and 4657-U7D
Item
Feature code
Description
Ports
32 Gb FC 4 Port Adapter (Pair)
#ADBE
This feature provides two I/O adapters. It is used to add 32 Gb FC connectivity.
Each adapter has four 32 Gb FC ports and shortwave SFP transceivers.
25 GbE (RoCE) Adapter (Pair)
#ADBB
This feature provides two I/O adapters. It is used to add 25 Gb Ethernet connectivity. Supports RoCE V2.
Each adapter has two 25 Gb Ethernet ports without SFP28 transceivers.
25 GbE (iWARP) Adapter (Pair)
#ADBC
This feature provides two I/O adapters. It is used to add 25 Gb Ethernet connectivity. Supports RDMA with iWARP.
Each adapter has two 25 Gb Ethernet ports without SFP28 transceivers.
100GbE (RoCE) Adapter Cards (Pair)
#ADB8
This feature provides two I/O adapter cards, each with two 100 Gb Ethernet ports. It is used to add 100 Gb Ethernet connectivity to the FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure and are designed to support RDMA with RoCE 2.
Each Adapter has two 100 Gb Ethernet Ports. Supplied without optics or cables.
SAS Expansion Enclosure Attach Card (Pair)
#ADBA
This feature provides two 4-port
12 Gb SAS expansion enclosure attachment adapters. This feature is used to attach up to 12 expansion enclosures.
Each adapter has two active out of the four SAS ports.
25 GbE SW SFP28 Transceivers (Four)
#ACHP
This feature provides four 25 Gb shortwave SFP28 transceivers to populate a pair of 25/10 GbE host interface cards. These transceivers are used to set the card ports to 25 Gb.
Requires feature ADBB, or ADBC.
10 GbE SW SFP+ Transceivers (Four)
#ACHQ
This feature provides four 10 Gb shortwave SFP+ transceivers to populate a pair of 25/10 GbE host interface cards. These transceivers are used to set the card ports to 10 Gb.
Requires feature ADBB or ADBC.
32 Gb FC LW SFP Transceivers (Pair)
 
#ACHV
 
This feature provides two 32 Gb longwave SFP transceivers for use with 32 Gb FC I/O ports.
 
Feature ADBE is a prerequisite. The maximum allowed is eight for each instance of #ADBE.
100 GbE QSFP28 SR4 Transceivers (Four)
#ACHX
This feature provides four 100GbE QSFP28 SR4 transceivers; enough for 1 pair of 100 GbE cards.
Requires feature ADB8.
10 GbE SFP+ RJ45 Transceivers (Four)
#ACJ2
This feature provides four 10Gbe SFP+ to RJ45 transceivers; enough for 1 pair of GbE cards.
Requires feature ADBB or ADBC.
Cables
The following cables are available:
•(#ACSQ): 1 m OM3 Fibre Cable (LC)
•(#ACSR): 5 m OM3 Fibre Cable (LC)
•(#ACSS): 10 m OM3 Fibre Cable (LC)
•(#ACST): 25 m OM3 Fibre Cable (LC)
•(#ACUA): 0.6 m 12 Gb SAS Cable (mSAS HD)
•(#ACUB): 1.5 m 12 Gb SAS Cable (mSAS HD)
•(#ACUC): 3 m 12 Gb SAS Cable (mSAS HD)
•(#ACUD): 6 m 12 Gb SAS Cable (mSAS HD)
IBM Storage Class Memory, FlashCore Modules, and industry-standard NVMe drive options
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 system supports SCM drives, IBM FlashCore modules, industry-standard flash drives, and an intermix of all three.
IBM FlashCore Modules combine IBM MicroLatency technology, advanced flash management, and reliability into a 2.5-inch SFF NVMe with built-in, performance-neutral hardware compression and encryption.
For improved flexibility, IBM FlashSystem 7300 systems also support various industry-standard self-encrypting NVMe flash drives.
The available NVMe flash drive uses the following feature codes:
•(#ADSA): 4.8 TB NVMe FlashCore Module
•(#ADSB): 9.6 TB NVMe FlashCore Module
•(#ADSC): 19.2 TB NVMe FlashCore Module
•(#ADSD): 38.4 TB NVMe FlashCore Module
•(#ADT2): 1.92 TB NVMe Flash Drive
•(#ADT3): 3.84 TB NVMe Flash Drive
•(#ADT4): 7.68 TB NVMe Flash Drive
•(#ADT5): 15.36 TB NVMe Flash Drive
•(#ADT6): 30.72 TB NVMe Flash Drive
•(#ADTC): 1.6 TB NVMe Storage Class Memory Drive
Consider the following limitations and points about drives:
•IBM FlashCore Modules:
 – Distributed RAID 6 (minimum 6, maximum 128)
 – Distributed RAID 5 (minimum 4, maximum 128) RPQ only
 – Distributed RAID 1 (minimum 2, maximum 16)
 – In the case of FlashSystem 7300, only DRAID1 and DRAID6 are supported for compressed drives
 – IBM FlashCore Modules in the same RAID array must be of the same capacity
 
Note: DRAID5 is supported only by way of RPQ.
•Industry-standard NVMe drives:
 – Distributed RAID 6 (minimum 6, maximum 128)
 – Distributed RAID 5 (minimum 4, maximum 128) RPQ only
 – Distributed RAID 1 (minimum 2, maximum 16)
 – Industry-standard NVMe drives in the same RAID array must be of the same capacity
•SCM NVMe drives:
 – Two drive minimum (varies by RAID type), 12 drives maximum
 – Distributed RAID 6 (minimum 6, maximum 12)
 – Distributed RAID 5 (minimum 4, maximum 12) RPQ only
 – Distributed RAID 0 (minimum 2, maximum 12)
 – SCM NVMe drives in the same RAID array must be of the same capacity
IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure options (Models 12G, 24G, and 92G)
The following SAS flash SSD and HDD drive feature codes are available:
•Supported on Model 12G only (maximum of 12):
 – (#AHD4): 6 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch HDD
 – (#AHD5): 8 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AHD6): 10 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AHD7): 12 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AHD8): 14 TB 7,2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AHD9): 16 TB 7,2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AHDA): 18 TB 7,2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
•Supported on Model 24G only (maximum of 24):
 – (#AHF3): 1.2 TB 10K 2.5-inch HDD
 – (#AHF4): 1.8 TB 10K 2.5-inch HDD
 – (#AHF5): 2.4 TB 10K 2.5-inch HDD
 – (#AHH9): 800 GB 3DWPD 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AHHG): 1.92 TB 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AHHH): 3.84 TB 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AHHJ): 7.68 TB 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AHHK): 15.36 TB 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AHHL): 30.72 TB 12 Gb SAS 2.5-inch Flash Drive
•Supported on Model 92G only (maximum of 92):
 – (#AH73): 1.2 TB 10K 3.5-inch HDD
 – (#AH74): 1.8 TB 10K 3.5-inch HDD
 – (#AH75): 2.4 TB 10K 3.5-inch HDD
 – (#AH77): 6 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AH78): 8 TB 7.2 K 3.5 NL HDD
 – (#AH79): 10 TB 7.2 K 3.5 NL HDD
 – (#AH7A): 12 TB 7.2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AH7B): 14 TB 7,2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AH7C): 16 TB 7,2 K 3.5-inch NL HDD
 – (#AH7J): 1.92 TB 12 Gb SAS 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AH7K) 3.84TB 12 Gb SAS 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AH7L): 7.68 TB 12 Gb SAS 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AH7M): 15.36 TB 12 Gb SAS 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AH7N): 30.72 TB 12 Gb SAS 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 – (#AH7X): 18 TB 7.2k 12 Gb SAS NL 3.5-inch Flash Drive
 
Note: For more information about Expert Care Features, see the IBM Sales Manual for the IBM FlashSystem 7300 under Sales Manual FS7300.
Physical and electrical specifications
Specifications for the control and expansion enclosures are listed in the following sections.
IBM FlashSystem 7000 control enclosure (4657-924 and 4657-U7D)
The IBM FlashSystem 7000 control enclosure features the following specifications:
•Physical:
 – Height: 8.8 cm (3.5 in.)
 – Width: 48.3 cm (19.0 in.)
 – Depth: 85.0 cm (33.5 in.)
 – Approximate weight:
 • Empty: 38.5 kg (84.7 lb.)
 • Fully configured: 44 kg (97 lb.) without rails
•Air temperature:
 – Operating: 5 - 35° C (41 - 95° F) 0 - 3048 m (0 - 10,000 ft.). Greater than 900 m, de-rate maximum air temperature 1° per 300 m
 – Nonoperating: 1 - 50° C (34 - 122° F)
•Relative humidity:
 – Operating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
 – Nonoperating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
•Electrical power:
 – Voltage range: 200 - 240 V AC
 – Frequency: 50 - 60 Hz
 – Power: 2000 W (power varies with configuration and system usage; the maximum is shown)
 – Heat dissipation (BTU per hour): 6825
 – Acoustical noise emission: 8.1 bels (idling), 8.1 bels (operating)
IBM FlashSystem 7000 LFF and SFF Expansion Enclosure (4657 Model 12G and 4657 Model 24G)
The IBM FlashSystem 7000 Expansion Enclosure 12G/24G features the following specifications:
•Physical:
 – Height: 8.7 cm (3.4 in.)
 – Width: 48.3 cm (19.0 in.)
 – Depth: 55.6 cm (21.9 in.)
 – Approximate weight:
 • Empty: 16.7 kg (36.8 lb)
 • Fully configured: 25.0 kg (55.1 lb)
•Air temperature:
 – Operating: 5 - 35° C (41 - 95° F) 0 - 3048 m (0 - 10,000 ft). Greater than 900 m, de-rate maximum air temperature 1° per 175 m
 – Nonoperating: 1 - 50° C (34 - 122° F)
•Relative humidity:
 – Operating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
 – Nonoperating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
•Electrical power:
 – Voltage range: 100 - 240 V AC
 – Frequency: 50 - 60 Hz
 – Power: 800 W
 – Heat dissipation (BTU per hour): 1,037
 – Acoustical noise emission: 6.2 bels (idling), 6.2 bels (operating)
IBM FlashSystem 7000 High Density LFF Expansion Enclosure (4657 Model 92G)
The IBM FlashSystem 7000 High Density Expansion Enclosure 92G has the following specifications:
•Physical specifications:
 – Height: 22.2 cm (8.75 in.)
 – Width: 48.3 cm (19.0 in.)
 – Depth: 96.8 cm (38.1 in.)
 – Approximate weight:
 • Empty: 67.0 kg (147.7 lb)
 • Fully configured: 135.0 kg (297.0 lb)
•Air temperature:
 – Operating: 5 - 35° C (41 - 95° F) 0 - 3048 m (0 - 10,000 ft). Greater than 900 m, de-rate maximum air temperature 1° per 300 m
 – Nonoperating: 1 - 50° C (34 - 122 degrees F)
•Relative humidity:
 – Operating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
 – Nonoperating: 8 - 80% noncondensing
•Electrical power:
 – Voltage range: 180 - 264 V AC
 – Frequency: 47 - 63 Hz
 – Power: 2400 W
 – Heat dissipation (BTU per hour): 8,189
 – Acoustical noise emission: 8.5 bels (idling), 8.5 bels (operating)
 
Note: All noise emission levels that are stated are the declared (upper limit) sound power level in bels, for a random sample of machines. All measurements are made in accordance with ISO 7779 and reported in conformance with ISO 9296.
Software and licensing
All IBM FlashSystem 7300 systems feature IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software V8.5 or later preinstalled. The IBM FlashSystem 7300 is now licensed machine code. All features are inclusive except for encryption, which is a feature code that is enabled for those countries that allow it, and external virtualization.
Any connected storage that is not an IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosure requires the External Virtualization license per storage capacity unit (SCU) that is based on the tier of storage that is available on the external storage system. In addition, if you use FlashCopy and Remote Mirroring on an external storage system, you must purchase a per-tebibyte license to use these functions.
Consider the following points:
•IBM FlashSystem 7300 control enclosures support external storage virtualization. The use of the external virtualization capability is entitled through the acquisition of IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software for SAN Volume Controller (PID 5641-VC8 in AAS and PID 5725-M19 in Passport Advantage®).
•With the IBM FlashSystem 7300 system, a license also is needed for the hardware-assisted encryption if it is purchased [Encryption Enablement Pack (#ACE8]). This feature code is needed if you want to use USB-Key encryption, Security Key Lifecycle Manager-based encryption, or both on the control enclosure.
It is recommended to use the Encryption USB Drive Pack feature (#ACEA). This feature provides four USB flash drives for storing the encryption master access key. A total of three USB flash drives are required per FlashSystem cluster when encryption is enabled in the cluster, regardless of the number of systems in the cluster. If encryption is to be used in a cluster, this feature is ordered on one FlashSystem, which results in a shipment of four USB flash drives.
•External virtualization licenses from the IBM SAN Volume Controller can be used for the IBM FlashSystem 7300.
•A storage system that is used only as a quorum device does not require a software license.
To set these licenses, use the Licensed Function page in the System Setup wizard. If you are adding these licenses to a system, select Settings → System → Licensed Function in the management GUI. You can also use the chlicense CLI command to update current license settings on the system.
For more information about IBM Spectrum Virtualize licensing, see this IBM Documentation web page.
IBM Spectrum Virtualize External Licensing
The IBM FlashSystem 7300 supports differential, capacity, and key-based licensing. For example, with external virtualization, differential licensing charges different rates for different types of storage. This paradigm provides cost-effective management of capacity across multiple tiers of storage. Licensing for these functions is based on the number of storage capacity units (SCUs) that are purchased.
With other functions, such as remote mirroring and FlashCopy, the license grants a specific number of terabytes of capacity for that function. Key-based licenses require an authorization code and key to be downloaded to the system before the function can be used.
 
Note: SCUs are needed only for virtualized storage that does not have the 5641-VC8 license.
The SCU is defined in terms of the category of the storage capacity, as listed in Table 9.
Table 9 SCU category definitions
License
Drive class
SCU ratio
SCM
Storage Class Memory (SCM) devices
SCU equates to 1.00 TB usable of Category 1 storage
Flash
All flash devices, other than SCM drives
SCU equates to 1.18 TB usable of Category 1 storage
Enterprise
10 K or 15 K RPM drives
SCU equates to 2 TB usable of Category 2 storage
Nearline
Nearline Serial ATA (SATA) drives
SCU equates to 4.00 TB usable of Category 3 storage
Table 10 shows an example of calculating SCUs. The example is a customer who virtualizes external disk arrays with 5 TB SCM devices, 30 TB SSD flash drives, 400 TB Enterprise drives, and 800 TB Nearline capacity.
Table 10 Example of calculating SCUs
Category
Type
Capacity
Rule
Number of SCUs
Category 1
SCM
5
/ 1
5
Category 1
SSD
30
/ 1.18
26
Category 2
Enterprise
400
/ 2
200
Category 3
Nearline
800
/ 4
200
Total
 
1235
 
431
As shown in Table 10, 431SCUs are required for the example. When you calculate the number of SCUs per category, fractions must be rounded up to the next higher integer number.
For more information about IBM Spectrum Virtualize Differential Licensing, search for “7X00 licensed functions” at this IBM Documentation web page.
IBM Global Financing
IBM Global Financing offers competitive financing to credit-qualified customers and
IBM Business Partners to assist them in acquiring IT solutions. The offerings include financing for IT acquisition (including hardware, software, and services) from IBM and other manufacturers or vendors. Also included is commercial financing (revolving lines of credit, term loans, acquisition facilities, and inventory financing credit lines) for IBM Business Partners.
Offerings (for small, medium, and large enterprise customer segments), rates, terms, and availability can vary by country. For more information, contact your local IBM Global Financing organization or see the IBM Global Financing website.
Ordering information
For more information about ordering IBM FlashSystem 7300 expansions, see “Scaling up and scaling out” on page 39.
For more information about ordering hardware features, see “IBM FlashSystem 7300 GUI” on page 20.
For more information about ordering software licenses, see “Software and licensing” on page 57.
Related information
For more information, see the following resources:
•Implementation Guide for IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.5, SG24-8520:
•Introduction and Implementation of Data Reduction Pools and Deduplication, SG24-8430:
•IBM Documentation for IBM FlashSystem:
•IBM FlashSystem 7300 product page:
https://www.ibm.com/products/flashsystem-7300
•IBM Offering Information page (announcement letters and sales manuals):
•IBM Spectrum Virtualize FAQ
Details about the IBM Spectrum Virtualize products, covering IBM FlashSystem family and SAN Volume Controller:
•IBM FlashSystem Family Overview FAQ
Overview of the IBM FlashSystem family with guidance on how to select the product that is right for you:
•IBM FlashWatch FAQ
Guidance about the IBM FlashWatch programs:
•Sales Accelerator Tools Portal for IBM Storage (IBMers only):
Authors
Carsten Larsen is an IBM Certified Senior IT Specialist who works for the Technical Services Support organization at IBM Denmark, where he delivers consultancy services to IBM clients within the storage arena. Carsten joined IBM in 2007 when he left Hewlett Packard, where he worked with storage arrays and UNIX for 10 years. While working for IBM, Carsten obtained several Brocade and NetApp certifications. Carsten is the author of several IBM Redbooks® publications.
Corne Lottering is a Storage Client Technical Specialist in the US, focusing on technical sales in Texas and Louisiana within the Public Sector industry. He has been with IBM for more than 20 years, and has experience in various storage technologies, including the IBM System Storage DS5000, IBM DS8000, IBM Storwize, XIV®, IBM FlashSystems, IBM SAN switches, IBM Tape Systems, and Software Defined Storage software. Since joining IBM, he has fulfilled roles in support, implementation, and pre-sales support across various African and Middle Eastern countries. Corne is the author of several IBM Redbooks publications that are related to the midrange IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager range of products, and FlashSystem products.
Douwe van Terwisga is an IBM Technical Advisor for Storage in the ESCC Project Office based in Frankfurt, Germany. Before his current position, he held different positions at IBM and an IBM Business Partner as Technical Pre-sales for IBM Power Systems. Currently, his main focus is on Enterprise class storage systems as IBM DS8000, IBM Flash (9000 series) and IBM SAN Volume Controller.
Hartmut Lonzer is the IBM Storwize Territory Account Manager for DACH. In addition, he covers the SAN portfolio as Offering Manager DACH. Before this position, he was OEM Alliance Manager for Lenovo in IBM Germany. His main focus belongs is on the IBM FlashSystem Family and the IBM SAN Volume Controller. His experience with these products goes back to the beginning of these products. Hartmut has been with IBM in various technical and sales roles for 44 years.
Jon Herd is an IBM Executive Technical Advocate working for the European Storage Competency Center (ESCC), Germany. He covers the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Europe, and advises customers about a portfolio of IBM storage products, including IBM FlashSystem products. He also leads special projects for senior and executive management and is the SME lead for new product introduction in the ESCC. Jon has been with IBM for more than 47 years, and has held various technical roles, including Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) level support on mainframe servers and technical education development. He has written many IBM Redbooks publications about IBM FlashSystem products and is an IBM Redbooks Platinum level author. He holds IBM certifications in Product Services at a Thought Leader L3 level, and Technical Specialist at an experienced L1 level. He is also a certified Chartered Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS - CITP), a Certified Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET), and a Certified Technical Specialist of the Open Group (TOG).
Kendall Williams is a SME and Project Field Engineer working with the IBM Spectrum Virtualize Storage Support Family. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology, with a concentration in DB Management Systems and Architecture from Florida State University. His areas of expertise include complex client performance analysis and copy services support for production environments. Kendall joined IBM in 2012, and has since become an advocate for some premier IBM clients.
Konrad Trojok is responsible for the technical team lead for the IBM Storage team at SVA since 2011. The role includes an active part in the daily IBM storage business: design, implementation, and care of storage solutions. Also, it includes strategic advisory regarding storage solutions. The beginning of his IT career included IBM Power solutions around SP systems and SSA storage. Konrad switched his technical focus with the emerging of SAN and SAN storage.
Shu Mookerjee is a certified technology consultant and degreed engineer who is experienced in many stages of solution design and development from concept through manufacture to implementation and support. He has a strong ability to understand, educate, and articulate information about various levels of technology.
Vasfi Gucer is works as the Storage Team Leader on the IBM Redbooks Team. He has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of systems management, networking hardware, and software. He writes extensively and teaches IBM classes worldwide about IBM products. His focus has been primarily on storage, cloud computing, and cloud storage technologies for the last 8 years. Vasfi is also an IBM Certified Senior IT Specialist, Project Management Professional (PMP), IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V2 Manager, and ITIL V3 Expert.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Evelyn Perez
James Whitaker
Paul Edmonds
IBM UK
Luis F Lopez
Edgar Daniel Gutierrez Haro
IBM Mexico
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