Implementing IBM FlashSystem 840

Implementing IBM FlashSystem 840

Released September 2014
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

Almost all technological components in the data center are getting faster; central processing units, network, storage area networks (SAN), and memory. All of them have improved their speed by a minimum of 10X; some of them by 100X, for example, data networks. However, spinning disk performance has only increased by 1.2 times.

The IBM FlashSystem™ 840 closes this gap. The FlashSystem 840 is optimized for the data center to enable organizations of all sizes to strategically harness the value of stored data. It provides flexible capacity and extreme performance for the most demanding applications, including virtualized or bare-metal online transaction processing (OLTP) and online analytical processing (OLAP) databases, virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI), technical computing applications, and cloud environments. The system accelerates response times with IBM® MicroLatency™ access times as low as 90 µs write latency and 135 µs read latency to enable faster decision making.

The introduction of a low capacity 1 TB flash module allows FlashSystem 840 to be configured in capacity points as low as 2 TB in protected RAID 5 mode. Coupled with 10 GB iSCSI, FlashSystem is positioned to bring extreme performance to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and growth markets.

Implementing the IBM FlashSystem 840 provides value that goes beyond those benefits that are seen on disk-based arrays. These benefits include better user experience, server and application consolidation, development cycle reduction, application scalability, data center footprint savings, and improved price performance economics.

This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces clients to the IBM FlashSystem. It provides in-depth knowledge of the product architecture, software and hardware, its implementation, and hints and tips. Also illustrated are use cases that show real-world solutions for tiering, flash-only, and preferred read, as well as examples of the benefits gained by integrating FlashSystem storage into business environments.

Also described are product integration scenarios running the IBM FlashSystem 840 with the IBM SAN Volume Controller, the IBM PureFlex® System, and the IBM Storwize® V7000, as well as considerations when integrating with the IBM FlashSystem 840. The preferred practice guidance is provided for your FlashSystem environment with IBM 16 Gbps b-type products and features, focusing on Fibre Channel design.

This book is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators, and for anyone who wants to understand and learn how to implement this new and exciting technology.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  3. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  4. Summary of changes
    1. September 2014, Second Edition
  5. Chapter 1. FlashSystem storage introduction
    1. 1.1 FlashSystem storage overview
    2. 1.2 Why Flash matters
    3. 1.3 IBM FlashSystem family: Product differentiation
    4. 1.4 Technology and architectural design overview
      1. 1.4.1 IBM Variable Stripe RAID and two-dimensional flash RAID overview
    5. 1.5 Variable Stripe RAID
    6. 1.6 How VSR works
    7. 1.7 Two-dimensional (2D) Flash RAID
  6. Chapter 2. IBM FlashSystem 840 architecture
    1. 2.1 Introduction to the IBM FlashSystem 840
      1. 2.1.1 IBM FlashSystem 840 capacity
      2. 2.1.2 IBM FlashSystem 840 performance and latency
      3. 2.1.3 IBM FlashSystem 840 power requirements
      4. 2.1.4 IBM FlashSystem 840 physical specifications
      5. 2.1.5 IBM FlashSystem 840 reliability and serviceability
      6. 2.1.6 IBM FlashSystem 840 scalability
      7. 2.1.7 IBM FlashSystem 840 protocol support
      8. 2.1.8 IBM FlashSystem 840 encryption support
      9. 2.1.9 IBM FlashSystem models 820 and 840 comparison
      10. 2.1.10 IBM FlashSystem 840 management
    2. 2.2 IBM FlashSystem 840 architecture
      1. 2.2.1 IBM FlashSystem 840 architecture overview
      2. 2.2.2 IBM FlashSystem 840 hardware components
      3. 2.2.3 IBM FlashSystem 840 canisters
      4. 2.2.4 IBM FlashSystem 840 interface cards
      5. 2.2.5 IBM FlashSystem 840 flash modules
      6. 2.2.6 IBM FlashSystem 840 battery modules
    3. 2.3 IBM FlashSystem 840 administration and maintenance
      1. 2.3.1 IBM FlashSystem 840 serviceability and software enhancements
      2. 2.3.2 IBM FlashSystem 840 system management
    4. 2.4 IBM FlashSystem 840 support matrix
    5. 2.5 IBM FlashSystem 840 IBM product integration overview
      1. 2.5.1 IBM SAN Volume Controller
      2. 2.5.2 IBM Storwize V7000 storage array
      3. 2.5.3 IBM PureFlex System and PureSystems
      4. 2.5.4 IBM DB2 database environments
      5. 2.5.5 IBM General Parallel File System
      6. 2.5.6 IBM TS7650G ProtecTIER
  7. Chapter 3. Planning
    1. 3.1 Installation prerequisites
      1. 3.1.1 General information
      2. 3.1.2 Completing the hardware location chart
    2. 3.2 Planning cable connections
      1. 3.2.1 Management port connections
      2. 3.2.2 Interface card connections
    3. 3.3 Planning for Power
    4. 3.4 Planning for configuration
    5. 3.5 Call Home option
    6. 3.6 TCP/IP requirements
    7. 3.7 Checking your web browser settings for the management GUI
    8. 3.8 Licensing
    9. 3.9 Supported hosts and operating system considerations
  8. Chapter 4. Installation and configuration
    1. 4.1 First-time installation
      1. 4.1.1 Installing the hardware
    2. 4.2 Cabling the system
      1. 4.2.1 Cabling for Fibre Channel
      2. 4.2.2 Cabling for FCoE
      3. 4.2.3 Cabling for iSCSI
      4. 4.2.4 Cabling for QDR InfiniBand
      5. 4.2.5 FC cable type
      6. 4.2.6 Ethernet management cabling
      7. 4.2.7 Power requirements
      8. 4.2.8 Cooling requirements
      9. 4.2.9 Cable connector locations
    3. 4.3 Initializing the system
      1. 4.3.1 About encryption
      2. 4.3.2 Prepare for initialization using InitTool
      3. 4.3.3 Initializing the system through the web management interface
    4. 4.4 RAID storage modes
      1. 4.4.1 Changing RAID modes
    5. 4.5 Connectivity guidelines for improved performance
      1. 4.5.1 Interface card configuration guidelines
      2. 4.5.2 Host adapter guidelines
      3. 4.5.3 Cabling guidelines
      4. 4.5.4 Zoning guidelines
  9. Chapter 5. IBM FlashSystem 840 client host attachment and implementation
    1. 5.1 Host implementation and procedures
    2. 5.2 Host connectivity
      1. 5.2.1 Fibre Channel SAN attachment
      2. 5.2.2 Fibre Channel direct attachment
      3. 5.2.3 General Fibre Channel attachment rules
    3. 5.3 Operating system connectivity and preferred practices
      1. 5.3.1 FlashSystem 840 sector size
      2. 5.3.2 File alignment for the best RAID performance
      3. 5.3.3 IBM AIX and FlashSystem 840
      4. 5.3.4 FlashSystem 840 and Linux client hosts
      5. 5.3.5 FlashSystem 840 and Microsoft Windows client hosts
      6. 5.3.6 FlashSystem 840 and client VMware ESX hosts
      7. 5.3.7 FlashSystem 840 and IBM SAN Volume Controller or Storwize V7000
      8. 5.3.8 FlashSystem iSCSI host attachment
      9. 5.3.9 FlashSystem iSCSI configuration
      10. 5.3.10 Linux iSCSI attachment
    4. 5.4 FlashSystem 840 preferred read and configuration examples
      1. 5.4.1 FlashSystem 840 deployment scenario with preferred read
      2. 5.4.2 Implementing preferred read
      3. 5.4.3 Linux configuration file multipath.conf example
      4. 5.4.4 Example of a VMWare configuration
    5. 5.5 FlashSystem 840 and Easy Tier
    6. 5.6 Troubleshooting
      1. 5.6.1 Troubleshooting Linux InfiniBand configuration issues
      2. 5.6.2 Linux fdisk error message
      3. 5.6.3 Changing FC port properties
      4. 5.6.4 Changing iSCSI port properties
  10. Chapter 6. Using the IBM FlashSystem 840
    1. 6.1 Overview of IBM FlashSystem 840 management tools
      1. 6.1.1 Access to the graphical user interface
      2. 6.1.2 Graphical user interface layout
      3. 6.1.3 Navigation
      4. 6.1.4 Multiple selections
      5. 6.1.5 Status indicators
    2. 6.2 Monitoring menu
      1. 6.2.1 Monitoring System menu
      2. 6.2.2 Monitoring events
      3. 6.2.3 Monitoring performance menu
    3. 6.3 Volumes
      1. 6.3.1 Navigating to the Volumes menu
      2. 6.3.2 Volumes menu
      3. 6.3.3 Volumes by Host menu
    4. 6.4 Hosts
      1. 6.4.1 Navigating to the Hosts menu
      2. 6.4.2 Volumes by Host
    5. 6.5 Access menu
      1. 6.5.1 Navigating to the Access menu
      2. 6.5.2 Users menu
      3. 6.5.3 Access CLI using PuTTY
      4. 6.5.4 User groups
      5. 6.5.5 Audit log menu
  11. Chapter 7. Configuring settings
    1. 7.1 Settings menu
      1. 7.1.1 Navigating to the Settings menu
      2. 7.1.2 Event Notifications menu
      3. 7.1.3 Security menu
      4. 7.1.4 Network menu
      5. 7.1.5 Support menu
      6. 7.1.6 System menu
    2. 7.2 Service Assistant Tool
      1. 7.2.1 Accessing Service Assistant Tool
      2. 7.2.2 Log in to Service Assistant Tool
  12. Chapter 8. Product integration
    1. 8.1 Running the IBM FlashSystem 840 with the SAN Volume Controller
      1. 8.1.1 IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller introduction
      2. 8.1.2 SAN Volume Controller hardware and software updates
      3. 8.1.3 SAN Volume Controller advanced storage functionality
      4. 8.1.4 Configuring the IBM FlashSystem 840 for the SAN Volume Controller
    2. 8.2 IBM PureFlex System and IBM Storwize V7000 considerations
      1. 8.2.1 FlashSystem running in a PureFlex System environment
      2. 8.2.2 IBM Storwize V7000
  13. Chapter 9. Use cases and solutions
    1. 9.1 Introduction to the usage cases
    2. 9.2 Tiering
      1. 9.2.1 Easy Tier or block-level tiering
      2. 9.2.2 Information Life Management or file-level tiering
    3. 9.3 Preferred read
      1. 9.3.1 Implementing preferred read
    4. 9.4 Flash only
    5. 9.5 Comparison
  14. Chapter 10. Hints and tips
    1. 10.1 Host attachment hints
      1. 10.1.1 Fibre Channel link speed
      2. 10.1.2 Host is in a degraded state
      3. 10.1.3 FlashSystem port status
      4. 10.1.4 AIX multipathing
      5. 10.1.5 Direct attach hints
    2. 10.2 General guidelines for testing a specific configuration
      1. 10.2.1 Save the default configuration
      2. 10.2.2 Test scenarios
      3. 10.2.3 Data center environment
      4. 10.2.4 Secure erase of data
      5. 10.2.5 Enabling or disabling encryption
      6. 10.2.6 Restoring the FlashSystem
      7. 10.2.7 Performance data gathering basics
    3. 10.3 Troubleshooting
      1. 10.3.1 Troubleshooting prerequisites
      2. 10.3.2 User interfaces for servicing your system
      3. 10.3.3 Event reporting
      4. 10.3.4 Resolving a problem
    4. 10.4 IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC)
  15. Appendix A. SAN preferred practices for 16 Gbps
    1. Sixteen Gbps Fibre Channel benefits
    2. IBM System Storage b-type Gen 5 SAN product overview
    3. SAN design basics
    4. Implementation
  16. Appendix B. Unsupported host attachment and implementation
    1. FlashSystem 840 and Solaris client hosts
    2. FlashSystem 840 and HP-UX client hosts
  17. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  18. Back cover
  19. IBM System x Reference Architecture for Hadoop: IBM InfoSphere BigInsights Reference Architecture
    1. Introduction
    2. Business problem and business value
    3. Reference architecture use
    4. Requirements
    5. InfoSphere BigInsights predefined configuration
    6. InfoSphere BigInsights HBase predefined configuration
    7. Deployment considerations
    8. Customizing the predefined configurations
    9. Predefined configuration bill of materials
    10. References
    11. The team who wrote this paper
    12. Now you can become a published author, too!
    13. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  20. Notices
    1. Trademarks

Product information

  • Title: Implementing IBM FlashSystem 840
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2014
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None