Connectivity

The Connectivity section displays connectivity resources associated with a storage system. The Connectivity section contains the details about chassis, fabrics, switches, and back-end storage systems associated with a storage system in your storage environment.

The following pages are available under the Connectivity section.

Chassis

A chassis is a physical container or hardware in which all the switches are defined. Each chassis can be logically partitioned as more than one switch. The Chassis page displays the configuration and status information that is collected about the chassis in your storage environment.

The Name, Condition, Data Collection, Fabrics, Ports, Connected Ports, Links, Firmware, and Location are the default columns in the Chassis tab. For more information. see Chassis.

Fabrics

A fabric is a network of hubs, switches, adapter endpoints, and connecting cables that support a communication protocol between devices. The Fabrics page displays the configuration and status information that is collected about the fabrics in your storage environment.

The Name, Condition, Switches, Switch ports, Connected ports, NPV switches, Links, Active zone set, and Location are the default columns in the Fabrics tab. For more information, see Fabrics.

Switches

A switch is component in a SAN fabric that sends and receives FC requests from host servers to storage systems. The Switch page displays the configuration and status information that is collected about the switches in your storage environment. The page displays the Switches and Performance tabs.

The Name, Condition, Data collection, Connected ports, Links, Firmware, and Location are the default columns in the Switches tab. For more information, see Switches.

Back-end storage systems

Related resources are resources that are connected to the storage system or are assigned storage from its volumes. Related resources that you can view include file systems, back-end storage systems for storage virtualizers, and object storage systems. The page displays the information about the back-end storage systems in your storage environment. The page displays the Back-end storage systems, Performance, and Capacity tabs.

The Name, Condition, Events, Data Collection, Assigned Data Collector, Usable Capacity (GiB), Used Capacity (%), Total Compression Ratio, Data Reduction Ratio, Data Reduction (GiB), Available Capacity (GiB), Capacity-to-Limit (GiB), Recent Fill Rate (%), Shortfall (%), Pools, Volumes, Volume Groups, ADDITIONAL_IP_ADDRESSES, Firmware, Location, File System Capacity (%), File System Capacity (GiB), and THIRD_PARTY_INTERFACE_TYPE are the default in the Back-end storage systems tab. For more information, see Storage system related resources.

Virtualizer storage systems

As part of ongoing UI modernization, IBM Storage Insights now includes a dedicated Virtualizer storage systems page. This new overview page enhances the management and visibility of storage systems, tailored for IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) devices.

How to navigate?

To access the Virtualizer storage systems overview page, navigate through Connectivity > Virtualizer storage systems from the storage system details page.

What will you see upon landing?

When you land on the Virtualizer storage systems overview page, you can see three key tabs:
  1. Virtualizer storage systems: This tab provides comprehensive details about the storage system, including components, overall capacity, and capacity usage forecasts.
  2. Performance: Here, you can view performance charts based on selected metrics over a specified duration. For more information, see Performance views.
  3. Capacity: This tab displays capacity charts for selected performance metrics over a defined time frame. For more information, see Capacity views.

Key Features

The new Virtualizer storage systems overview page includes several important features:
  • Health status indicators: These indicators are prominently displayed at the top of the grid, offering quick access to critical health information of your storage systems.
  • User-friendly actions: Similar to the block storage system overview page, you can use search, filter, column chooser, settings, and export report options for enhanced data management.

Actions available in the vertical dots menu

In addition to viewing information directly on the page, you can perform following actions by clicking the vertical dots menu that is located at the end of each IBM SAN Volume Controller system row:
  • View properties: Access detailed properties of the IBM SAN Volume Controller system, including condition, events, data collection details, and a dedicated section for capacity-related information.
  • View performance: Display performance charts for selected metrics over a specified duration. For more information, see Performance views.
  • View capacity: Access capacity charts for selected metrics over a defined time frame. For more information, see Capacity views.

With the new Virtualizer storage systems overview page, IBM Storage Insights enhances your ability to monitor and optimize virtualized storage systems with an updated, streamlined experience.