The rapid spread and adoption of production storage area networks (SANs) has fueled the need for multiprotocol routers. The routers provide improved scalability, security, and manageability by enabling devices in separate SAN fabrics to communicate without merging fabrics into a single, large SAN fabric. This capability enables clients to initially deploy separate SAN solutions at the departmental and data center levels. Then, clients can consolidate these separate solutions into large enterprise SAN solutions as their experience and requirements grow and change. Alternatively, multiprotocol routers can help to connect existing enterprise SANs for a variety of reasons. For instance, the introduction of Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) provides for the connection of low-end, low-cost hosts to enterprise SANs. The use of an Internet Protocol (IP) in the Fibre Channel (FC) environment provides for resource consolidation and disaster recovery planning over long distances. And the use of FC-FC routing services provides connectivity between two or more fabrics without having to merge them into a single SAN. This IBM® Redbooks® publication targets storage network administrators, system designers, architects, and IT professionals who sell, design, or administer SANs. It introduces you to products, concepts, and technology in the IBM System StorageTM SAN Routing portfolio, which is based on Brocade products and technology. This book shows the features of these products and examples of how you can deploy and use them.

"Do everything that is necessary and absolutely nothing that is not." This IBM® Redbooks® publication, written at a Data Center Fabric Manager v10.1.4 and Fabric Operating System v6.4 level, consolidates critical information while also covering procedures and tasks that you are likely to encounter on a daily basis when implementing an IBM b-type SAN. The products that we describe in this book have more functionality than we can possibly cover in a single book. A storage area network (SAN) is a powerful infrastructure for consolidation, distance solutions, and data sharing. The quality applications that the IBM SAN portfolio provides can help you take full advantage of the benefits of the SAN. In this book, we cover the latest additions to the IBM b-type SAN family and show how you can implement them in an open systems environment. In particular, we focus on the Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) environment. We address the key concepts that these products bring to the market and, in each case, we provide an overview of the functions that are essential to building a robust SAN environment.

Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors; yet, 72 percent of them have not started or are only planning big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity it already has. A member of the IBM® Storwize® family, IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Data Platform is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources to help support improved business application availability and greater resource utilization. The objective is to manage storage resources in your IT infrastructure and to make sure they are used to the advantage of your business, and do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs. Virtualizing storage with SVC Data Platform helps make new and existing storage more effective. SVC Data Platform includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these in a virtualization system, SVC Data Platform standardizes functions across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs. SVC Data Platform functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash storage. And IBM Real-time CompressionTM enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into SVC Data Platform also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort. In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we discuss the latest features and functions of the SVC 2145-DH8 and software version 7.3, implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication represents a compilation of best practices for deploying and configuring the IBM System Storage® DS5000 Series family of products. This book is intended for IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, and customers responsible for the planning, deployment, and maintenance of the IBM System Storage DS5000 Series family of products. We realize that setting up DS5000 Storage Servers can be a complex task. There is no single configuration that will be satisfactory for every application or situation. First, we provide a conceptual framework for understanding the hardware in a Storage Area Network. Then, we offer our guidelines, hints, and tips for the physical installation, cabling, and zoning, using the Storage Manager setup tasks. Next, we provide a quick guide to help you install and configure the DS5000 using best practices. After that, we turn our attention to the performance and tuning of various components and features, including numerous guidelines. We look at performance implications for various application products such as IBM DB2®, Oracle, IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager, Microsoft SQL server, and in particular, Microsoft Exchange server. Then we review the various tools available to simulate workloads and to measure, collect, and analyze performance data. We also consider the IBM AIX® environment, including IBM High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMPTM) and IBM General Parallel File System (GPFSTM). This edition of the book also includes guidelines for managing and using the DS5000 with the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM Storwize® V7000.

Booting servers from a storage area network (SAN) is being used increasingly in complex data center environments today, due to its significant benefits over the traditional method of booting from local disks. SAN Boot enables organizations to maximize consolidation of their IT resources, minimize their equipment costs, and realize the considerable management benefits of centralizing the boot process. In SAN Boot, you can deploy diskless servers in an environment where the boot disk is located on (often RAID-capable) storage connected to the SAN. The server (initiator) communicates with the storage device (target) through the SAN using the Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA). The system downtime is greatly minimized in case a critical component such as a processor, memory, or host bus adapter fails and needs to be replaced. The system administrator needs to swap only the hardware and reconfigure the HBA's BIOS, switch zoning, and host-port definitions on the storage server. The system image still exists on the logical drive, therefore the server is fully operational after the hardware swap and configuration change is completed. This IBM® Redbooks® publication can help you with the SAN Boot implementation. We present various SAN Boot scenarios using IBM System Storage® products that include DS5000, DS8000®, XIV®, and SVC. The operating systems that are covered include Windows 2008, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, and VMware.

The superabundance of data that is created by today's businesses is making storage a strategic investment priority for companies of all sizes. As storage takes precedence, the following major initiatives emerge: Flatten and converge your network: IBM® takes an open, standards-based approach to implement the latest advances in the flat, converged data center network designs of today. IBM Storage solutions enable clients to deploy a high-speed, low-latency Unified Fabric Architecture. Optimize and automate virtualization: Advanced virtualization awareness reduces the cost and complexity of deploying physical and virtual data center infrastructure. Simplify management: IBM data center networks are easy to deploy, maintain, scale, and virtualize, delivering the foundation of consolidated operations for dynamic infrastructure management. Storage is no longer an afterthought. Too much is at stake. Companies are searching for more ways to efficiently manage expanding volumes of data, and to make that data accessible throughout the enterprise. This demand is propelling the move of storage into the network. Also, the increasing complexity of managing large numbers of storage devices and vast amounts of data is driving greater business value into software and services. With current estimates of the amount of data to be managed and made available increasing at 60% each year, this outlook is where a storage area network (SAN) enters the arena. SANs are the leading storage infrastructure for the global economy of today. SANs offer simplified storage management, scalability, flexibility, and availability; and improved data access, movement, and backup. Welcome to the cognitive era. The smarter data center with the improved economics of IT can be achieved by connecting servers and storage with a high-speed and intelligent network fabric. A smarter data center that hosts IBM Storage solutions can provide an environment that is smarter, faster, greener, open, and easy to manage. This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides an introduction to SAN and Ethernet networking, and how these networks help to achieve a smarter data center. This book is intended for people who are not very familiar with IT, or who are just starting out in the IT world.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the new features that have been added with the release of the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM System Storage Storwize® V7000 6.4.0 code, including Replication Family Services. Replication Family Services refers to the various copy services available on the SVC and Storwize V7000 including IBM FlashCopy®, Metro Mirror and Global Mirror, Global Mirror with Change Volumes, Volume Mirroring, and Stretched Cluster Volume Mirroring. The details behind the theory and practice of these services are examined, and SAN design suggestions and troubleshooting tips are provided. Planning requirements, automating copy services processed, and fabric design are explained. Multiple examples including implementation and server integration are included, along with a discussion of software solutions and services that are based on Replication Family Services. This book is intended for use by pre-sales and post-sales support, and storage administrators. Readers are expected to have an advanced knowledge of the SVC, Storwize V7000, and the SAN environment. The following publications are useful resources that provide background information: Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V6.3, SG24-7933 Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3, SG24-7938 IBM SAN Volume Controller and Brocade Disaster Recovery Solutions for VMware, REDP-4626 IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller Upgrade Path from Version 4.3.1 to 6.1, REDP-4716 Real-time Compression in SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000, REDP-4859 SAN Volume Controller: Best Practices and Performance Guidelines, SG24-7521 Implementing the Storwize V7000 and the IBM System Storage SAN32B-E4 Encryption Switch, SG24-7977

This IBM® Redbooks® publication consolidates, in one document, detailed descriptions of the hardware configurations and options offered as part of the IBM System Storage DS5000 families of products. This edition covers updates and additional functions available with the IBM System Storage DS® Storage Manager Version 10.77 (firmware level 7.77). This book presents the concepts and functions used in planning and managing the storage servers, such as multipathing and path failover. The book offers a step-by-step guide to using the Storage Manager to create arrays, logical drives, and other basic (as well as advanced) management tasks. This publication also contains practical information about diagnostics and troubleshooting, and includes practical examples of how to use scripts and the command-line interface. This publication is intended for customers, IBM Business Partners, and IBM technical professionals who want to learn more about the capabilities and advanced functions of the DS5000 series of storage servers with Storage Manager Software V10.77. It also targets those who have a DS5000 storage subsystem and need detailed advice about how to configure it. This book is designed specifically to address the hardware features and configuration of the IBM System Storage DS5000 family and can be used in conjunction with the following IBM Redbooks publications: IBM System Storage DS5000 Series Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-8024 IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Copy Services Guide, SG24-7822

This IBM® Redbooks® publication captures several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storwize® V7000 powered by IBM Spectrum VirtualizeTM V8.2.1. These practices are based on field experience. This book highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools and managed disks, volumes, remote copy services, and hosts. Then it provides performance guidelines for SAN Volume Controller, back-end storage, and applications. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. It also provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000. This book is intended for experienced storage, SAN, and SAN Volume Controller administrators and technicians. Understanding his book requires advanced knowledge of the SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 and SAN environments. Important: On 11th February 2020 IBM announced the arrival of SAN Volume Controller SA2 and SV2, and IBM FlashSystem® 7200 to the family. This book was written specifically for prior versions of SVC and Storwize V7000; however, most of the general principles will apply. If you are in any doubt as to their applicability then you should work with your local IBM representative. This book will be updated to comprehensively include SAN Volume Controller SA2 and SV2 and FlashSystem 7200 in due course.

This IBM Redbooks publication supersedes both: IBM TotalStorage: Introduction to SAN Routing, SG24-7119-00 Implementing the IBM TotalStorage Multiprotocol Routers, SG24-7246-00 The rapid spread and adoption of production storage area networks (SANs) has fuelled the need for multiprotocol routers. The routers provide improved scalability, security, and manageability by enabling devices in separate SAN fabrics to communicate without merging fabrics into a single, large SAN fabric. This capability enables clients to initially deploy separate SAN solutions at the departmental and data center levels. Then, clients can consolidate these separate solutions into large enterprise SAN solutions as their experience and requirements grow and change. Alternatively, multiprotocol routers can help to connect existing enterprise SANs for a variety of reasons. For instance, the introduction of Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) provides for the connection of low-end, low-cost hosts to enterprise SANs. The use of an Internet Protocol (IP) in the Fibre Channel (FC) environment provides for resource consolidation and disaster recovery planning over long distances. And the use of FC-FC routing services provides connectivity between two or more fabrics without having to merge them into a single SAN. This book targets storage network administrators, system designers, architects, and IT professionals who sell, design, or administer SANs. It introduces you to the products, concepts, and technology in the IBM System Storage SAN Routing portfolio. This book shows the features of each product and examples of how you can deploy and use them.