IBM Storage solutions Redbooks

IBM DS8000 Easy Tier (Updated for DS8000 R9.0)
Storage hardware

Redpaper, published 4 Dec 2018, last updated 23 Feb 2022

This IBM® Redpaper™ publication describes the concepts and functions of IBM System Storage® Easy Tier®, and explains its practical use with the IBM DS8000® series and License Machine Code 7.9.0.xxx (also known as R9.0).. Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the storage system disks pool. It enables the system to (automatically and without disruption to applications) relocate data (at the extent level) across up to three drive tiers. The process is fully automated. Easy Tier also automatically rebalances extents among ranks within the same tier, removing workload skew ... [more]

Electronic Health Records with Epic and IBM FlashSystem 9500 Blueprint Version 2 Release 4
Storage solutions

Blueprint, published 23 Feb 2022

This information is intended to facilitate the deployment of IBM© FlashSystem© for the Epic Corporation electronic health record (EHR) solution by describing the requirements and specifications for configuring IBM FlashSystem 9500 and its parameters. This document also describes the required steps to configure the server that hosts the EHR application. To complete these tasks, you must be knowledgeable of IBM FlashSystem 9500 and Epic applications. This Blueprint provides the following information:
- A solutions architecture and the related solution configuration information for ... [more]

Highly Efficient Data Access with RoCE on IBM Elastic Storage Systems and IBM Spectrum Scale
Storage hardware

Redpaper, published 7 Feb 2022, last updated 18 Feb 2022

With Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), you can make a subset of a host’s memory directly available to a remote host. RDMA is available on standard Ethernet-based networks by using the RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) interface. The RoCE network protocol is an industry-standard initiative by the InfiniBand Trade Association. This IBM® Redpaper publication describes how to set up RoCE to use within an IBM Spectrum® Scale cluster and IBM Elastic Storage® Systems (ESSs). This book is targeted at technical professionals (consultants, technical support staff, IT Architects, and IT ... [more]

A Hybrid Cloud Cyber Security Solution using IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud on Azure and IBM Spectrum Virtualize Safeguarded Copy
Storage solutions

Blueprint, published 31 Jan 2022

The document describes the configuration and end-to-end architecture for configuring the logical air-gap solution for cyber resiliency using IBM® Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud (SV4PC) on Azure, IBM Spectrum® Virtualize Safeguarded Copy, and IBM FlashSystem®. This blueprint guide provides the following information: • A solutions architecture and related solution configuration workflows, with the following essential software and hardware components: – IBM FlashSystem – IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud on Azure – IBM Copy Services Manager • Detailed technical configuration ... [more]

SAN and Fabric Resiliency Best Practices for IBM b-type Products
Storage hardware

Redpaper, published 5 Jan 2022

This IBM® Redpaper® publication describes best practices for deploying and using advanced Broadcom Fabric Operating System (FOS) features to identify, monitor, and protect Fibre Channel (FC) SANs from problematic devices and media behavior. Note that this paper primarily focuses on the FOS command options and features that are available since version 8.2 with some coverage of new features that were introduced in 9.0. This paper covers the following recent changes:
- SANnav
- Fabric Performance Impact Notification ... [more]

Multi-Factor Authentication Using IBM Security Verify for IBM Spectrum Fusion
Security

Redpaper, published 21 Dec 2021

  (based on 2 reviews)

Data is the new crown jewel of any organization. The use of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to safeguard the most critical asset of any organization (the data) became a high-priority need. MFA verifies the identity of the consumers by applying multiple methods that provide an extra layer of security in addition to the login credentials. Regulatory compliances exist that require MFA, such as PCI DSS v3.2, NIST SP 800-171, and DFS 23 NYCRR 500. Implementation of MFA reduces the risk and increases the security posture of your deployments. Storage is where the data resides. Compute is where ... [more]

Securing IBM Spectrum Scale with QRadar and IBM Cloud Pak for Security
Storage solutions

Blueprint, published 17 Dec 2021, last updated 20 Dec 2021

Cyberattacks are likely to remain a significant risk for the foreseeable future. Attacks on organizations can be external and internal. Investing in technology and processes to prevent these cyberattacks is the highest priority for these organizations. Organizations need well-designed procedures and processes to recover from attacks. The focus of this document is to demonstrate how the IBM® Unified Data Foundation (UDF) infrastructure plays an important role in delivering the persistence storage (PV) to containerized applications, such as IBM Cloud® Pak for Security (CP4S), with IBM ... [more]

IBM Cloud Pak for Data with IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native
Cloud

Redpaper, published 17 Dec 2021

This IBM® Redpaper® publication describes configuration guidelines and best practices when IBM Spectrum® Scale Container Native Storage Access is used as a storage provider for IBM Cloud® Pak for Data on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. It also provides the steps to install IBM Db2® and several assemblies within IBM Cloud Pak® for Data, including Watson Knowledge Catalog, Watson Studio, IBM DataStage®, Db2 Warehouse, Watson Machine Learning, Watson OpenScale, Data Virtualization, Data Management Console, and Apache Spark. This IBM Redpaper publication was written for IT architects, IT ... [more]

IBM DS8900F Performance Best Practices and Monitoring
Storage hardware

Redbooks, published 17 Dec 2021

  (based on 2 reviews)

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is intended for individuals who want to maximize the performance of their DS8900 storage systems and investigate the planning and monitoring tools that are available.

Implementation Guide for IBM Elastic Storage System 3200
Storage solutions

Redbooks, published 30 Nov 2021

This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces and describes the IBM Elastic Storage® Server 3200 (ESS 3200) as a scalable, high-performance data and file management solution. The solution is built on proven IBM Spectrum® Scale technology, formerly IBM General Parallel File System (IBM GPFS). IBM Elastic Storage System 3200 is an all-Flash array platform. This storage platform uses NVMe-attached drives in ESS 3200 to provide significant performance improvements as compared to SAS-attached flash drives. This book provides a technical overview of the ESS 3200 solution and helps you to plan the ... [more]

IBM HyperSwap and Multi-site HA/DR for IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R
Storage solutions

Redpaper, published 4 Feb 2019, last updated 15 Nov 2021

IBM® HyperSwap® is the high availability (HA) solution that provides continuous data availability in case of hardware failure, power failure, connectivity failure, or disasters. The HyperSwap capability is available for IBM FlashSystem® A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R, starting with software version 12.2.1. Version 12.3 introduces a function that combines HyperSwap and Asynchronous replication, which creates a solution that entails HA and Disaster Recovery (DR). One side of the HyperSwap pair has an active async link to the third system, and the other side has a standby link. Known as ... [more]

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Protecting Database Applications
Storage solutions

Redpaper, published 22 Jul 2021, last updated 15 Oct 2021

IBM® Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection solution that provides near-instant recovery, replication, retention management, and reuse for virtual machines, databases, and application backups in hybrid multicloud environments. This IBM Redpaper publication focuses on protecting database applications. IBM Spectrum® Protect Plus supports backup, restore, and data reuse for multiple databases, such as Oracle, IBM Db2®, MongoDB, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft SQL Server. Although other IBM Spectrum Protect Plus features focus on virtual environments, the database and application support ... [more]

Enhanced Cyber Resilience Threat Detection with IBM FlashSystem Safeguarded Copy and IBM QRadar
Storage hardware

Blueprint, published 13 Aug 2021, last updated 15 Oct 2021

The focus of this document is to demonstrate an early threat detection by using IBM® QRadar® and the Safeguarded Copy feature that is available as part of IBM FlashSystem® and IBM SAN Volume Controller. Such early detection protects and quickly recovers the data if a cyberattack occurs. This document describes integrating IBM FlashSystem audit logs with IBM QRadar, and the configuration steps for IBM FlashSystem and IBM QRadar. It also explains how to use the IBM QRadar’s device support module (DSM) editor to normalize events and assign IBM QRadar identifier (QID) map to the events. Post ... [more]

IBM FlashSystem Best Practices and Performance Guidelines
Storage software

Redbooks, published 13 May 2021, last updated 13 Oct 2021

  (based on 1 review)

This IBM Redbooks publication captures several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM FlashSystem® products. 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. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. It also provides preferred practices for ... [more]

Securing Data on Threat Detection by Using IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM QRadar: An Enhanced Cyber Resiliency Solution
Storage solutions

Redpaper, published 13 Sep 2021

Having appropriate storage for hosting business-critical data and advanced Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software for deep inspection, detection, and prioritization of threats has become a necessity for any business. This IBM® Redpaper publication explains how the storage features of IBM Spectrum® Scale, when combined with the log analysis, deep inspection, and detection of threats that are provided by IBM QRadar®, help reduce the impact of incidents on business data. Such integration provides an excellent platform for hosting unstructured business data that is subject to ... [more]

Cloudera Data Platform Private Cloud Base with IBM Spectrum Scale
Storage solutions

Redpaper, published 29 Jan 2021, last updated 27 Aug 2021

This IBM® Redpaper publication provides guidance on building an enterprise-grade data lake by using IBM Spectrum® Scale and Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Private Cloud Base for performing in-place Cloudera Hadoop or Cloudera Spark-based analytics. It also covers the benefits of the integrated solution and gives guidance about the types of deployment models and considerations during the implementation of these models. August 2021 update added CES protocol support in Hadoop ... [more]

Cyber Resiliency Solution using IBM Spectrum Virtualize
Storage solutions

Blueprint, published 20 Aug 2021

  (based on 1 review)

This document is intended to facilitate the solution for Safeguarded Copy for cyber resiliency and logical air gap solution for IBM FlashSystem and SAN Volume Controller. The document showcases the configuration and end-to-end architecture for configuring the logical air-gap solution for cyber resiliency by using the Safeguarded Copy feature in IBM FlashSystem and IBM SAN Volume Control storage. The information in this document is distributed on an “as is” basis without any warranty that is either expressed or implied. Support assistance for the use of this material is limited to ... [more]

IBM Spectrum Scale as a Persistent Storage for Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Z Quick Installation Guide
Red Hat

Redpaper, published 6 Aug 2021

IBM® Spectrum Scale, formerly named IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS), is a high-performance clustered file system software, that allows concurrent access to a single filesystem or set of filesystems from multiple nodes. IBM Spectrum® Scale Container Native Storage Access (CNSA) is the containerized version of IBM Spectrum Scale that provides a persistent file system for the latest generation of applications (called "containerized applications"), which takes advantage of high performance and benefits of IBM Spectrum Scale in a cloud containerized application world. IBM Spectrum Scale ... [more]

Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.4
Storage hardware

Redbooks, published 28 Jan 2021, last updated 6 Aug 2021

  (based on 1 review)

Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM FlashSystem® solution that is powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.4. This innovative storage offering delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies that are typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, which raises the standard for storage efficiency in ... [more]

IBM Security Guardium Key Lifecycle Manager
Security

Redbooks, published 2 Aug 2021

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the installation, integration, and configuration of IBM Security Guardium® Key Lifecycle Manager.