Storage consolidation

When you use a storage system, you can consolidate data and workloads from different types of independent hosts into a single shared resource.

You might mix production and test servers in an open systems environment or mix open systems, System z® and S/390® hosts. In this type of environment, servers rarely, if ever, contend for the same resource.

Although sharing resources in the storage system has advantages for storage administration and resource sharing, there are more implications for workload planning. The benefit of sharing is that a larger resource pool (for example, disk drives or cache) is available for critical applications. However, you must ensure that uncontrolled or unpredictable applications do not interfere with critical work. This requires the same workload planning that you use when you mix various types of work on a server.

If your workload is critical, consider isolating it from other workloads. To isolate the workloads, place the data as follows:

On separate RAID disk groups. Data for open systems, System z or S/390 hosts are automatically placed on separate arrays, which reduce the contention for disk use.
On separate device adapters.
In separate storage system clusters, which isolate use of memory buses, microprocessors, and cache resources. Before you decide, verify that the isolation of your data to a single cluster provides adequate data access performance for your application.