Cloud Storage Solutions

It's raining new releases here at IBM HSG, the latest software released from our team is the IBM XIV HAK v2.1.0.

The HAK is already a well known, widely used toolkit, therefore in this post we will focus on what's new in this latest release, and what will you gain by installing or upgrading to this version.

The first feature to note is the added support for version 11.3.0 of XIV microcode and more importantly for the Online Volume Migration (OLVM) feature. Now the "good old" xiv_devlist utility also presents the OLVM state of each and every volume exposed to the server, providing the host and storage administrators an easily accessible tool to stay updated with the migration state of the volumes under their responsibility, without the need to access the XIV Management GUI.

In addition, the recently introduced host diagnostic utility, the XIV Host Profiler , can now be defined as a scheduled task right from the Host Attachment Kit Wizard - xiv_attach. No need to remember to set it separately, the user will be asked during host configuration if a task should be scheduled to run the utility periodically.

We've also improved the xiv_devlist and xiv_syslist commands' CSV file format output utilities. From this release, by adding the  --no-headers argument, the column headers will be omitted from the generated CSV file.

On top of the above-mentioned features and enhancements several stability issues were also fixed. The detailed list of those issues can be found in the Release Notes document coupled with the software package.

To download the IBM XIV Host Attachment Kit v2.1.0 and the related documentation , please visit IBM Fix Central. You will need an IBM ID to download the files.

Regards,

The IBM Host Software Group

A few days ago we have a released a new version of our VASA Provider for the XIV Storage System.

For those unfamiliar with VMware VASA or with the previous version of  IBM Storage Provider for VMware VASA , here is some background:

VASA stands for vStorage API for Storage Awareness,  and it is an API specified by VMware and implemented by storage vendors to standardize communication between the various storage systems and the vCenter Server. The Storage Provider is a web server that handles requests from the vCenter Server in which it is registered.

The IBM Storage Provider provides a standard interface for any connected VMware vCenter Server using VMware APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA), delivering information about XIV storage topology, capabilities and state, as well as storage events and alerts to vCenter Server in real time. VMware administrators can view this information on the vSphere Client management station, and can configure storage-related operations accordingly

For example an IBM VASA Provider registered in a VMware vCenter will provide the following information in the "Storage View" tab of the vShpere Client (both web and c#)

Screenshot from vShpere Client 5.1

In version 1.1.5 several major enhancements and changes were introduced:

• This version runs only on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 x64, as opposed to the previous one that ran on Windows Server platform. The provider and the required software packages are distributed in standard Linux RPM packages.

• We also added support for Storage Capabilities, so now VMware administrators can assign Storage Capabilities to volumes and use that information when creating or working with Datastores and VMs.

• The VASA Provider management CLI has been streamlined and redesigned,  IBM VASA Provider Version 1.1.5 introduces the following new CLI management utilities:

  • ibmvp_storage_credentials – For setting, removing, and listing XIV access credentials.

  • ibmvp_admin_commands – For adding, removing, and listing IBM Storage Integration Server users.

  • ibmvp_storage_array – For adding, removing, and listing connected XIV storage systems.

  • ibmvp_capabilities – For defining storage capabilities.

  • ibmvp_volume – For listing the available storage volumes and assigning storage capabilities to these volumes.

  • ibmvp_configuration – For backing up or restoring a specific configuration of

The IBM Storage Provider for VMware v1.1.5 and the associated documentation can be downloaded from IBM Support Fix Central here (You'll need an IBM ID to download the files).

Your comments are always welcome,

IBM HSG Team