Monitoring Storage as a Service

Monitor and get insights into the devices, capacity, and details of your STaaS environments. Analyze your upcoming storage needs and compare it to the current base capacity of your STaaS environment and any overages that occurred. Use this information to help determine if more storage might be needed to avoid unexpected shortages.

Availibility: You must subscribe to IBM Storage Insights Pro or IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control to view and modify STaaS environments and their dashboards. This functionality is not available in IBM Storage Insights. For a list of functions that are available in each version, see IBM Storage Insights free vs IBM Storage Insights Pro.
What you can expect:

The Storage as a Service dashboard is included with IBM Storage Insights Pro. After you purchase a STaaS performance plan, select the IBM Storage FlashSystem and DS8000 storage systems for that plan. Then, simply add the storage systems for monitoring in IBM Storage Insights Pro and access the dashboard to view information your STaaS environment.

An IBM Technical Account Manager (TAM) can assist you with get started viewing the dashboard and monitoring your STaaS environment.

Storage as a Service environments

The STaaS gives your critical applications direct access to secure, high-performance storage on a proven platform. Monitoring the IBM Storage FlashSystem and DS8000 storage systems that provide the storage and getting key insights into capacity usage, potential shortages, and billing overages can help you keep your operations running smoothly.

To access the STaaS dashboard, click Dashboards > Storage as a Service. A list of STaaS environment is displayed. Double-click the environment that you want to view.

With IBM Storage Insights Pro, you can use the STaaS dashboard to get those key insights at a glance:
  • Get a birds-eye view of your STaaS environments. For each of environment, you can quickly see its storage system family, tier (performance plan), committed base capacity, total usable capacity, month-to-date usage and overages, and number of storage systems.
  • Dive down into the details of an environment to complete the following tasks:
    • View easy-to-understand charts that visualize your capacity usage, base capacity, and any overages that require additional billing during the current and previous months.
    • Identify any spikes in capacity usage or overages and see when they occurred.
    • View your used and remaining available capacity to help forecast your storage needs.
    • View your 75% (IBM Storage FlashSystem) or 85% (DS8000) of your usable capacity.
    • Analyze your upcoming storage needs, the current base capacity of your STaaS environment, and any overages that occurred to help determine if more storage is required.
    • Verify the performance plan of the environment and the names of the storage systems that are providing its storage.
    • Check the start and end subscription dates of your storage as a service so that you can avoid interruptions to your operations.
  • View a list of storage systems that provide storage to a STaaS environment. With a click, view the details of each storage system, including its configuration, status, capacity, and performance.
  • Use the dashboard to analyze your upcoming storage needs and compare it to the current base capacity of your STaaS environment and any overages that occurred. Then, check your used capacity to see if exceeds 75% (IBM Storage FlashSystem) or 85% (DS8000) of your usable capacity. Use this information to help determine if more storage might be needed to avoid unexpected shortages.
  • Define alerts so that you are automatically notified when your capacity meets certain thresholds. Use these notifications to be made aware of STaaS environments that require your attention.
  • Create reports to easily share information about your STaaS environments with colleagues.

Storage as a Service Dashboard

Use the dashboard to analyze your upcoming storage needs and compare it to the current base capacity of your STaaS environment and any overages that occurred. Then, check your used capacity to see if exceeds 75% (IBM Storage FlashSystem) or 85% (DS8000) of your usable capacity. Use this information to help determine if more storage might be needed to avoid unexpected shortages.

Overview
Use the visualized charts on the overview to view your capacity usage, base capacity, and any overages that require additional billing during the current and previous months.
Table 1. Monitoring key capacity usage charts of STaaS environment
Capacity usage chart Purpose
Current Month Usage

Use the Current Month Usage chart to track your daily capacity usage and overages up to the current day for the month. Used capacity is shown for each day of the month. Daily Overage represents the amount of capacity that you used above the base capacity for your plan (represented by a horizontal line) each day.

The monthly averages of the daily capacity usage and overage determine the values Month-to-Date Average Usage and Month-to-Date Variable Usage values. These values are then used to determine your service bill for the month.

Important: The Month-to-Date Average values on the STaaS dashboard might vary slightly with the values on chart and the values that are used for your actual billing. Your billing is based on the capacity usage that is derived by the IBM® iERP system. Because of this possible variation, use the values on the chart as a general indicator of your upcoming billing.
Monthly Usage

Use the Monthly Usage chart to track your average capacity usage for previous months and any overages that occurred. Overages represent the amount of capacity that you used above the base capacity for your plan (represented by a horizontal line) during each month. This chart can help you identify trends and plan for future capacity needs in the upcoming months and during high-volume times of the year.
Properties
View the attributes of the STaaS, including general information about the STaaS performance plan, its key capacity information, subscription start and end dates, and its associated storage devices.
Alerts
View, evaluate, and manage the alert notifications for the STaaS environment. Alert notifications occur when the conditions that you specify in alert definitions and policies are detected.
An alert policy is automatically assigned to STaaS environments that are added to IBM Storage Insights Pro. Each alert policy has a default set of alert definitions that help keep you notified when conditions in an environment require your attention. For example, if your used capacity reaches 75% (IBM Storage FlashSystem) or 85% (DS8000) of your usable capacity or if your used capacity reaches 100% of your base capacity, an alert notification is generated for the environment.
Members
View a list the storage systems that provide storage to a STaaS environment. With a click, view the details of each storage system, including its configuration, status, capacity, and performance.