IBM XIV Storage System: Architecture, Implementation, and Usage

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM XIV® Storage System, which is designed to be a scalable enterprise storage system based upon a grid array of hardware components. It can attach to both Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) and iSCSI capable hosts.

Although the focus of this edition is on the new XIV Gen3 hardware, running Version 11 of the XIV Storage Software, it still includes details relevant to the Second Generation systems.

In the first few chapters of this book, we provide details about many of the unique and powerful concepts that form the basis of the logical and physical architecture of the XIV Storage System. We explain how the system was designed to eliminate direct dependencies between the hardware elements and the software that governs the system.

In subsequent chapters, we explain the planning and preparation tasks that are required to deploy the system in your environment. This explanation is followed by a step-by-step procedure of how to configure and administer the system. We provide illustrations of how to perform those tasks by using the intuitive, yet powerful, XIV Storage Manager GUI or the Extended Command-Line Interface (XCLI).

This book contains comprehensive information about how to integrate the XIV Storage System for authentication in an LDAP environment and outlines the requirements and summarizes the procedures for attaching the system to various host platforms.

We also describe performance characteristics of the XIV Storage System and present options available for alerting and monitoring, including an enhanced Secure Remote Support capability.

This book is intended for those individuals who want an understanding of the XIV Storage System, and also targets readers who need detailed advice about how to configure and use the system.

Chapter 1. IBM XIV Storage System overview
Chapter 2. IBM XIV Storage System logical architecture and concepts
Chapter 3. IBM XIV Storage System architecture, components, and planning
Chapter 4. IBM XIV Storage Management software and configuration
Chapter 5. Security
Chapter 6. Performance
Chapter 7. Monitoring
Appendix A. Thin provisioning conceptual examples
Appendix B. Additional LDAP information

Publish Date
11 January 2012

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Author(s)

Bertrand Dufrasne is an IBM Certified Consulting I/T Specialist and Project Leader for System Storage disk products at the International Technical Support Organization, San Jose Center. He has worked at IBM in various IT areas. He has authored many IBM Redbooks publications and has also developed and taught technical workshops. Before joining the ITSO, he worked for IBM Global Services as an Application Architect. He holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering.

• Bertrand Dufrasne

Markus Oscheka is an IT Specialist for Proof of Concepts and Benchmarks at the Disk Solution Europe team in Mainz, Germany. His areas of expertise include setup and demonstration of IBM System Storage and IBM TotalStorage solutions in various environments, such as AIX, Linux, Windows, VMware ESX, and Solaris. He has worked at IBM for 10 years. He has performed many Proof of Concepts with Copy Services on IBM System Storage DS6000, IBM System Storage DS8000, and XIV, as well as Performance-Benchmarks with IBM System Storage DS4000, DS6000, DS8000, and XIV. He has written extensively in various IBM Redbooks and acts as the co-project lead for these Redbooks, including DS6000/DS8000 Architecture and Implementation, DS6000 and DS8000 Copy Services, IBM XIV Storage System: Architecture, Implementation, and Usage, SG24-7659, IBM XIV Storage System: Copy Services and Migration, SG24-7759, and XIV Storage System: Host Attachment and Interoperability, SG24-7904. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Darmstadt.

• Markus Oscheka

Andrew Greenfield is an IBM Field Technical Sales Engineer, based in Phoenix, Arizona, and covering the Southwest United States. He holds numerous technical certifications, notably from Cisco, Microsoft, and IBM. He has over 18 years of IT experience at the Fortune 50 and their data centers. Recently, Andrew has been working in the areas of consulting, proof of concepts, and education, mainly with the IBM XIV product line involving clients and various IBM teams globally. He graduated Magna Cum Laude, Honors College, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a degree in Multimedia Interactive applications, which is an inter-discipline approach to both Computer Science and traditional Film and Video studies.

• Andrew Greenfield

Suad Musovich is a XIV Technical Advisor at the IBM Systems and Technology Group in New Zealand. He has over 12 years experience working on IBM Storage systems and has been involved with the planning, design, implementation, management, and problem analysis of IBM storage solutions. His areas of expertise are the SAN infrastructure, disk storage, disk virtualization, and IBM storage software.

• Suad Musovich

Rainer Pansky is an IT Specialist at IBM Germany. He works in Integrated Technology Services as a certified specialist for SAP Technical Core and infrastructure services for SAP on Microsoft Cluster Server. He has 11 years of experience working with SAP on the IBM System x platform as a certified system eXpert and seven years of experience working with storage. He has a diploma in Physics from the University of Mainz in Germany.

• Rainer Pansky

Paul Rea is an IBM Field Technical Sales Specialist in Littleton, Massachusetts, and covers the North East New England Territory. He has been part of the IBM storage team since March 2008, focusing primarily on the XIV product. He has over 13 years of experience in the storage field, focusing on Engineering, Project Management, Professional Services. He is also a WorldWide Solution Architect.

• Paul Rea

Jim Sedgwick is an IT Specialist in the United States. He has more than 20 years of experience in the storage industry. He spent five years with IBM as a printer design engineer after receiving his Mechanical Engineering degree from NCSU. His current area of expertise includes enterprise storage performance and Copy Services. He writes and presents on both subjects

• Jim Sedgwick

Anthony Vandewerdt works for IBM Australia as a Storage Solutions Specialist. He has over 22 years of experience in pre- and post-sales technical support. Anthony has extensive hands-on experience with nearly all of IBM storage products, especially DS8000, IBM Storwize V7000, IBM SAN Volume Controller, and XIV, and Brocade and Cisco SANs. He has worked in a wide variety of post-sales technical support roles, including National and Asia Pacific storage support. Anthony has also worked as an instructor and presenter for IBM STG Education.

• Anthony Vandewerdt

Peter Wendler is a Software Engineer for IBM Systems and Technology Group, Storage Platform, located in Tucson, Arizona. In his 10 years of working for IBM, Peter has worked in client support for enterprise storage products, solutions testing, and development of the IBM DR550 archive appliance. He currently holds a position in technical marketing at IBM. Peter received a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University in 1999.

• Peter Wendler

ISBN

073843633X

IBM Form Number
SG24-7659-03

Number of pages
416