Cloud Storage Solutions

Yossi Siles, a Senior Offering Manager at IBM, published this article on the new software version for our all-flash IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R storage systems with IBM HyperSwap support.

You may ask: version 3.2.0 is already available so soon? Our answer: yes. Although earlier this month we released IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition version 3.1.1, version 3.2.0 is a genuine breakthrough, bringing support for the Microsoft PowerShell automation tool, in addition to our already well-established VMware cloud integration offerings. The new IBM Storage Automation Plug-in for PowerShell provides 'cmdlets' for automated storage management, including provisioning, host mapping, volume expansion, and other storage-related tasks.

For the first time, you can download the plug-in from the Microsoft PowerShell Gallery website at: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/SpectrumControlBase-Client. For further details about this new version, including fixes and an experimental Flocker feature (might not be included in future versions), check out the IBM Spectrum Control Base Edition 3.2.0 release notes on IBM Knowledge Center at: https://ibm.biz/Bds7gK.

We are happy to announce that we have released several drivers to support the new version of the OpenStack Cinder project: Ocata. This, however, is not an ordinary release, and here's why: previously, the drivers for IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Storwize Family, and IBM FlashSystem V9000 storage systems were the only ones included in the OpenStack community source code. Now, this latest release is a huge step forward aimed to include IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R, IBM XIV, IBM Spectrum Accelerate (deployable software), and IBM DS8000 Family systems in the community source code as well, moving from proprietary code to being fully open-source. So henceforth, the IBM Storage Driver for OpenStack is part of the OpenStack Cinder repository. Accordingly, the driver documentation has also migrated from IBM Knowledge Center to the OpenStack community website: https://docs.openstack.org/ocata/config-reference/block-storage/drivers/ibm-storage-volume-driver.html

This release was developed in accordance with the OpenStack Ocata specifications, emphasizing our continuous commitment for providing IBM storage customers with cutting-edge OpenStack capabilities. In addition to the aforementioned integration in the community source code, this driver version includes enhancements in replication functionality (also known as "cheesecake") of the supported IBM systems, as well as improvements in multipath support, and auto-selection of I/O groups for Storwize storage systems.

As always, we are here to help with deployment and operation of our OpenStack drivers. Your feedback is important to us, and we'll be happy if you let us know what you think about this milestone release.

A new version of Spectrum Control Base Edition software (3.1.1) has been released. It replaces version 3.1.0 and brings support for the IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R (12.0.3) storage capacity feature. In addition, it introduces a full compatibility with the current VMware vSphere Web Client Server requirements. For details about this new version, see the Spectrum Control Base Edition release notes on IBM Knowledge Center at  https://ibm.biz/BdswcP.

Kia ora  everyone.
 
Here you have my newest IBM publication, it is called:
 
Using the IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family in VMware Environments: IBM XIV, IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and IBM Spectrum Accelerate

Spectrum Control Base is becoming our main weapon against Nutanix, Nexenta and others SDS vendors.
 
It allows system administrators to have a single point of view of Computing and Storage.
 
This "Receipt book" is a project from Bertrand Dufrasne, from ITSO and my participation was sponsored by my manager and mentor Eric Wong, whom I thank for supporting this initiative.
 
So, want to know more? Give me a call or download the redpaper!
 
It is available at:
https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/redp5425.html?Open

I invite you to talk to your Business Partner about Spectrum Control Base, it is NO COST for IBM storage customers, so no excuse on trying it! :P
 
PS: Don't forget to review it please! ;)

Information about supplementary storage integration solutions has been added to IBM Knowledge Center for the IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family products (FlashSystem A9000, FlashSystem A9000R, Spectrum Accelerate and XIV). It details the non-CSS software products available from IBM and independent software vendor (ISV) on the host side for storage provisioning, storage management, disaster recovery etc, and IBM storage systems supported by them.

For example, the information for IBM FlashSystem A9000 storage systems is located here.

The IBM Flash Centers of Competency has posted a very good blog about our latest SCB version

You can read the blog here

In continuation to my previous post about our YouTube channel (see below), we've just created our public list of favorite videos, which can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfTWe2jOFaY-vyXdaL0YpwFvlY3InRn4W

You can also view the official IBM channels to which we are subscribed on YouTube, and we invite you to subscribe to these channels as well:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBAYe06sIh3jfspciGrfPw/channels?view=56&shelf_id=0

As I noted in my previous post, please feel free let us know which kind of videos you'd like to see produced and posted on our channel. Whether it's how to use Spectrum Control Base Edition, Host Attachment Kit, or any of our Cloud Storage Solutions, you can post a comment to let us know :-)  In the meantime, we're working on an introduction video for Spectrum Control Base Edition, which will focus more on why is it needed, as opposed to how to use it.

On behalf of the CSS team - thanks for your time!

To all our blog followers,

It may have slipped your radar (mostly because we haven't advertised it yet...), so we're happy to let you know about the YouTube channel of the Cloud Storage Solutions developer teams in Tel Aviv and Shanghai:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRIw6cXxi--bHnMWG45VgNw

The content of this YouTube channel is produced and brought directly by the group developers themselves, so just be aware that the videos are provided on "as-is" basis.

At this point, the channel contains videos about IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family Provider for Microsoft Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (applies to IBM XIV, IBM Spectrum Accelerate, and IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R), and about IBM Storage Support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and Virtual Disk Service (applies to the Spectrum Virtualize family storage systems).

We strive for improvement and enhancement, so please feel to post your comments on any particular video, and if you would like to see videos on solutions that are not yet on the channel, please let us know.

The Cloud Storage Solutions team

We are glad to announce the release of  Spectrum Control Base Edition (SCBE) 3.1.

This new version introduces the following improvements:

• Improved handling of VMware virtual volumes (VVols), allowing for multiple VVol-enabled services to reside on a single storage space. Also, a new resource attachment method is used to attach several storage resources from different storage systems to one service.
• Added the availability capability for a storage service, enabling the use of stretched clusters on IBM Virtualize Family systems.
• Added the Quality of Service (QoS) capability for the Spectrum Accelerate Family storage services, enabling the use of volumes or storage resources according to predefined service levels.
• VMware currency for vCenter, vWC, vRO, vROps
• Bug fixes

Spectrum Control Base Edition 3.1 can be downloaded from Fix Central:

https://www-945.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/selectFixes?parent=Software%20defined%20storage&product=ibm/StorageSoftware/IBM+Spectrum+Control&release=3.1.0&platform=All&function=all

We'd be glad to hear your feedback!

Hi guys, we have a surprise for you!

We have just released a Python library for our XCLI client.  It's an open-source project and free for use by everyone under the Apache 2 license. It enables connecting to the storage and managing all its operations. It supports all XCLI managed storage types:

• IBM XIV Gen2 and Gen3 
• IBM Spectrum Accelerate 
• IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R

This is the first open-source version of the Python XCLI client library ever. This may not sound like such a big deal, but it actually is. It enables users to tailor the way they use the Spectrum Accelerate Family storage. 

The XIV GUI is great, and so is the new IBM Hyper-Scale Manager and they let users to do almost anything with the storage. But there are cases that you would rather have specific functionality that is suitable just for you. The flexibility and power of Python and XCLI enables you to tailor it to your exact needs.

Let's take two simple examples:

1. You want to take snapshots for the production volumes in pool FOO every day. Just create a scheduled task and run the following script:

from pyxcli.client import XCLIClient

xcli = XCLIClient.connect_ssl('admin', 'adminadmin', 'mystorage.comp.com')

volumes = xcli.cmd.vol_list(pool='FOO).as_list

for volume in volumes:

    if volume.startwith('production'):

        xcli.cmd.snapshot_create(vol=volume.name)

2. You'd like to clean up your system and remove all empty volumes. Here is how you create a list of unused volumes:

from pyxcli.client import XCLIClient

xcli = XCLIClient.connect_ssl('admin', 'adminadmin', 'mystorage.comp.com')

volumes = [volume for volume in xcli.cmd.vol_list().as_list if volume.used_capacity == '0']

for volume in volumes:

    print volume.name

The combined power of Python and XCLI management has been unleashed! 

You are welcome to use it! 

Download the package from:

- GitHub: https://github.com/IBM/pyxcli

- PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyxcli

or simply run 'pip install pyxcli' from your command prompt.

Have fun,

Tzur and Alon

As promised, a new version of IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), 2.6.0, is out. This release brings support for the newest releases of the following IBM storage products:

• IBM FlashSystem™ V9000 7.7
• IBM FlashSystem A9000/A9000R 12.0.x

Install and enjoy!

Good news, everyone! Our IBM XIV Storage Replication Adapter (SRA), version 2.3.0 is fully certified to operate with the following releases of the VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager: 5.5, 5.5 Update1, 5.8, 6.0 and 6.1. In addition, this release brings support for synchronous mirroring, using the newest IBM's all-flash storage offerings: ultra-fast IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R.

Details are in the VMware Compatibility Guide at https://ibm.biz/Bdrby2. The product documentation is available on IBM Knowledge Center at https://ibm.biz/BdrpBb.