Adding storage devices

Storage devices can only be selected for use with Db2 Analytics Accelerator on Z if these storage devices are "visible" to your accelerator LPARs.

Before you begin

Take a flash-copy backup of all the disks involved before you extend storage.

About this task

Consider the following points:

  • The formatting of ECKD (DASD) devices can take a long time.
  • You can continue to use the accelerator while a storage formatting process is ongoing. The slowing impact on the accelerator is minimal. However, reading from or writing to a disk might take longer if ECKD devices are being formatted.
Attention:
  • In newer product versions, it is checked whether a storage device is "visible" to the LPAR. I you are adding a storage device to an older version that does not have this check, and the storage device cannot be found, your system will hang in the 'Configuring storage' phase. The check is available for:
    • zFCP devices on a single-node accelerator starting with product version 7.5.14.0
    • zFCP devices on a multi-node accelerator starting with product version 8.1.0
    • ECKD devices on single-node or multi-node accelerators starting with product version 8.1.0.1

    The following messsage window comes up if the added storage device is "invisible":

    Figure 1. Message window that appears if a storage device is not "visible" to the LPAR
    Message window that appears if a storage device is not "visible" to the LPAR
  • Never restart the accelerator by resetting it or by activating, updating, or stopping the LPAR while storage is being added. If a restart happened by accident, contact IBM support.

Procedure

To make storage devices "visible" to your accelerator LPARs:

  1. Add the new storage devices to the input/output definition file (IODF).
  2. Restart the Secure Service Container (SSC) LPAR (accelerator LPAR).
    Note: This causes an outage of the accelerator. The duration of the outage is hard to estimate because it depends on the scope of your environment. Expect an outage of several minutes.
  3. To verify that an accelerator LPAR has access to the added devices, follow these steps:
    1. Open the Admin UI of the accelerator.
    2. Click the Storage tab on the left.
      You see a window that lists the available disk devices:
      Figure 2. The Storage window
      The Storage window. The visible storage devices are listed in the Disk ID column.
    3. Depending on the type of the storage devices you want to use, click one of the following links in the upper right corner of the window:
      • Available DASD devices (ECKD). Example:
        Figure 3. Available DASD devices
        List of available DASD devices
      • Available ZFCP devices (SCSI). Example:
        Figure 4. Available zFCP devices
        List of available zFCP devices
    4. Make sure that the disk IDs of your storage devices are listed.
  4. Continue with an update of your Db2 Analytics Accelerator on Z configuration as described in Updating an existing configuration.
    Alternatively, you can:
    1. Download the currently active configuration file of the accelerator.
    2. Edit the JSON configuration file and add one or more volumes to the storage _environment sections.
    3. Run the Upload, validate and apply an updated configuration file for the Accelerator function from the Accelerator Components Health Status page of the Admin UI:
      Figure 5. Uploading, validating, and applying an updated JSON configuration file
      The image shows the Upload, validate and apply an updated configuration file for the Accelerator function in the Accelerator Components Health Status page. The function is surrounded by a red rectangle.