IBM Storage FlashSystem family

Add IBM Storage FlashSystem storage systems to get performance and asset, capacity, and configuration metadata analyzed so that you can detect performance issues, changes in storage usage, and plan for future storage needs.

Use the following information to add storage systems so that they can be monitored and that metadata can be collected, analyzed, and presented in the GUI.
Host names or IP addresses
The host names or IP addresses that are used to connect to the storage systems. Use host names if your IP addresses change regularly. Depending on what is supported in your environment, you can enter an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) or IPv6 address. If you enter an IPv6 address, the preferred representation is written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. Example: 2001:DB95:0000:1234:0000:0000:5678:ABCD.
Authentication Type
The user name and password or the private Secure Shell (SSH) key that is used to connect to the storage system.
You can use an SSH key to authenticate with IBM Storage FlashSystem devices that run IBM Storage Virtualize, and IBM Storage FlashSystem 900 devices.
User Name and Password
The user name and password for logging in to the storage system.
The user role that is required to collect metadata for the storage system depends on the device type and the firmware version.
IBM Storage FlashSystem 900, IBM FlashSystem A9000, and IBM FlashSystem A9000R

The user must have a Monitor role or a role that includes monitoring privileges.

IBM Storage FlashSystem devices that run IBM Storage Virtualize

  • For IBM Storage Virtualize 8.3.1.2 or later, the user must have the Monitor role or a role that includes monitoring privileges.

    If the collection of performance metadata is stopped on the storage system, the role of the storage system user determines whether the collection can be automatically restarted. For example, if the storage system user has the Monitor role and your administrator has stopped the collection on the storage system, the collection must be manually restarted by your administrator before IBM Storage Insights can collect performance metadata. Learn more.

  • For versions earlier than 8.3.1.2, the user must have the Administrator, or SecurityAdmin role.

Authenticate with SSH key

When you upload the SSH private key, you must add the SSH user who is associated with that SSH private key when it was created.
SSH key
Upload the new SSH private key that was generated to authenticate with the storage system. The valid file formats for SSH keys are PEM and PuTTY. If the key is in another format such as OpenSSH, it must be converted to PEM or PuTTY before it can be used.
Restriction: PuTTY Private Key version 3 files are not supported. If you use PuTTYgen 0.75 or later to generate keys, ensure that you choose the option to generate version 2 keys. In PuTTYgen, click 2 for PPK file version on the Private Key File Parameters window before you generate the key.

For more information about PuTTYgen, see https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html.

Passphrase
The passphrase that is associated with the SSH key pair. If a passphrase was not created for the SSH key pair, leave the field blank. For SSH keys that use the PuTTY file format, you cannot use a passphrase to protect the private key.
SSH User
For IBM Storage FlashSystem devices that run IBM Storage Virtualize, the user that was associated with the SSH key when it was created must have an Administrator role so that the metadata for the storage systems can be collected.
For IBM Storage FlashSystem 900, the user must have a monitor role or higher so that the metadata for the storage system can be collected.
SSH Password
The password is associated with the SSH user. If the password was not created, leave this field blank.
Performance monitoring: To monitor the performance of IBM FlashSystem 900 storage systems, you must enable the SNMP agent on each of those storage systems. IBM Storage Insights communicates with the SNMP agent on port 161 (UDP) to collect performance metadata.
To enable the SNMP agent:
  1. On the Block Storage Systems page, right-click the storage system and select Launch Storage System GUI.
  2. In the management GUI of the FlashSystem 840 or 900, go to Settings > Notifications > SNMP, click Agent, and enter a community name.