What's new in IBM Storage Insights

Check out the new features and enhancements that are available in the Q1 2026 update of IBM Storage Insights and IBM Storage Insights Pro.

IBM® is constantly updating the infrastructure, security, and stability of IBM Storage Insights to improve your experience. Enhanced analytics, troubleshooting capabilities, and more robust data collection are built into this update, so that the IBM Support team can better assist you in monitoring your storage environment.

Also, the following key features are included:
What's New IBM Storage Insights IBM Storage Insights Pro
Monitoring zHyperLink ports of DS8000 storage systems No Yes
Alerting enhancements No Yes
Simplifying onboarding for Call Home enabled IBM Storage FlashSystem devices Yes Yes
Analyzing two years of capacity data No Yes
Introducing Call Home with cloud services option to add a new IBM Storage FlashSystem device Yes Yes
Enhancements in Security posture dashboard No Yes
New port level metrics for IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware 9.1.2.0 or higher No Yes
User preference to select the capacity unit Yes Yes
Enclosure and Node serial number Yes Yes
Enhanced API support No Yes

Agentic AI framework to support Flashsystem.ai

Support for AI‑powered autonomous storage is now available for IBM Storage FlashSystem through FlashSystem.ai, enabled by intelligent observability provided by IBM Storage Insights. FlashSystem.ai uses an Agentic AI framework to interpret natural‑language requests, retrieve system insights, and assist with supported administrative actions. The assistant operates with built‑in context awareness, approval workflows, and safety guardrails, ensuring that automation is controlled, transparent, and human‑approved.

For more information, see FlashSystem.ai in the IBM Storage FlashSystem documentation.

Monitoring zHyperLink ports of DS8000 storage systems

You can now monitor zHyperLink ports of DS8000 storage systems in IBM Storage Insights to gain deeper visibility into port performance, alerting, and overall storage system health. The following enhancements made in the IBM Storage Insights:

  • View zHyperLink ports as internal components in the modern UI: zHyperLink ports are displayed under Hardware component in the Summary tile in the individual device dashboard and storage system details page for DS8000 systems allowing you to monitor them like other internal components. For more information, see Summary section in the Individual device dashboard page. In IBM Storage Insights free version, you can view the zHyperLink ports count on individual device dashboard only.
  • Monitor zHyperLink performance metrics at port and volume levels: You can view performance metrics for zHyperLink ports and analyze zHyperLink ports related activity at both the port level and the associated volume level to better understand performance behavior. For more information, see zHyperLink port metrics and Volume metrics on the Performance metrics for DS8000 page.
  • Set alerts for zHyperLink port and its performance metrics: You can define alerts for the status of the zHyperLink port and its performance metrics. The zHyperLink I/O intensity metric is included in the default alert policy to help you proactively detect abnormal activity. For more information, see Viewing and administering alert definitions.
  • zHyperLink status in storage system health determination: The status of zHyperLink ports is now considered when determining DS8000 storage system health, similar to other internal components. for more information, see determining the storage system health.
  • Generate inventory reports for zHyperLink ports: You can create predefined inventory reports to view configuration details of zHyperLink ports across your monitored DS8000 systems. For more information, see Creating predefined inventory reports
  • Export zHyperLink performance metrics: When you export performance data for a storage system, zHyperLink performance metrics are included in the exported bundle for further analysis. For more information, see Exporting performance data for storage systems.

Alerting enhancements

You can now identify capacity risks sooner, view storage system–specific advisories and alerts more easily, and choose to include alerts to determine storage systems health.

Including alerts in storage system health
You can choose to include critical and warning alerts when determining storage system health. This added flexibility helps you evaluate health in a way that aligns with your operational priorities. For more information, see Including alerts in storage system health determination.
Storage system–specific advisories and alerts
You can now view advisories and alerts that are specific to a storage system directly from its details page. For more information, see alerts and Advisory.
Proactive out-of-space visibility
To help you address capacity risks early and prevent out-of-space conditions, a red banner notifies you on the storage system details page when a critical severity alert is generated for used capacity.
Updated switch alert policies
Default switch alert policies have been refined to help you focus on the issues that matter most:
  • Credit Recovery Link Reset Rate ≥ 0.02 cnt/s is now a critical severity alert (previously warning).
  • The following alerts have been removed from the default policy:
    • Port congestion index
    • Credit Recovery Link Reset Rate < 0.04 cnt/s
    • Deleted Port

Simplifying onboarding for Call Home enabled IBM Storage FlashSystem devices

You no longer need to sign up separately to get an IBM Storage Insights tenant. When you configure Call Home for an IBM Storage FlashSystem running firmware version 9.1.0 or later by using an email address, whether or not it is associated with an IBM ID, an IBM Storage Insights tenant is automatically created for you if no tenant already exists for that email address.

After the tenant is created, you receive a welcome email with your IBM Storage Insights URL and instructions to complete your IBM ID registration, if you have not already done so, and sign in. This enhancement streamlines onboarding and ensures that all Call Home enabled IBM Storage FlashSystem devices running firmware version 9.1.0 or later are automatically onboarded to IBM Storage Insights.

For more information about getting the IBM Storage Insights, see Before you begin checklist

Analyzing two years of capacity data

You can now analyze up to two years of capacity data using weekly granularity in capacity charts. For more information about how aggregation and retention affect historical data, see Aggregation and retention periods of capacity data.

Introducing Call Home with cloud services option to add a new IBM Storage FlashSystem device

You can now add a new IBM Storage FlashSystem device by using two data collection options, Call Home with cloud services or Data collector. Call Home with cloud services is a recommended option for supported IBM Storage FlashSystem devices. For more information, see Adding IBM Storage FlashSystem and IBM Storage Virtualize.

Enhancements in Security posture dashboard

Following enhancements are done in the Security posture dashboard:
  • You can now create a custom security posture policy that enables you to set the security parameters based on your requirements. Compliance monitoring is then performed on the storage systems assigned to that policy based on the defined security parameters.
  • You can now create and download reports for tenant level security posture, system level security posture, and security posture policy. These reports provide the compliance overview of the storage systems in PDF, HTML, and CSV format.
  • You can now exclude systems from monitoring and include them back at any time.
  • Mini probe support is added.
  • REST APIs are created for security posture dashboard. For more information, see Enhanced API support.

For more information, see Security dashboard policies and Creating security posture reports.

New port level metrics for IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware 9.1.2.0 or higher

There are 12 new IP workload metrics added under iSCSI Host Attach Port category for iSCSI support.

The new metrics are Port to Host Data Rate(Send), Port to Host Data Rate (Receive), Port to Host Data Rate(Total), Port to Host I/O Rate(Send), Port to Host I/O Rate (Receive), Port to Host I/O Rate (Total), Port to Host Slow I/O (Send), Port to Host Slow I/O (Receive), Port to Host Slow I/O (Total), Port to Host Abort I/O (Send), Port to Host Abort I/O (Receive), and Port to Host Abort I/O (Total).

For IP Ports, the new metrics are visible under iSCSI Host Attach Port category of the new Port Performance tab. For nodes, I/O groups, and storage system, the new metrics are visible under iSCSI Host Attach Port category of Performance tab.

For IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware 9.1.2.0 or higher, new port level metrics will be populated. For IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware below 9.1.2.0, existing node level metrics will be populated.

Table 1. Port level metrics based on IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware version and device status in tenant
IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware version Device in tenant Scenario
IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware 9.1.2.0 or higher Already added device in tenant
  • Both iSCSI Host Attach and iSCSI Host Attach Port metrics will be visible for nodes, I/O groups, IP ports, and storage system.
  • iSCSI Host Attach metrics will display historical node level metrics.
  • New node level metrics will not be populated from 1Q2026 onwards.
Newly added device in tenant Only iSCSI Host Attach Port metrics will get populated for nodes, I/O groups, IP ports, and storage system.
IBM Storage FlashSystem firmware below 9.1.2.0 Already added or newly added device in tenant If the device is already added or a new device is added, then iSCSI Host Attach metrics will only be visible for nodes, I/O groups, IP ports, and storage system.

For more information, see Port performance and Table 28.

If you export the performance data by using Export option, then these metrics are also displayed in the exported CSV file.

User preference to select the capacity unit

You can now choose to display the capacity values in either binary or decimal units across all dashboards and pages of IBM Storage Insights. Binary option displays the capacity values in MiB, GiB, TiB, and PiB. Decimal option displays the capacity values in MB, GB, TB, and PB. For more information, see Unit settings on Overview dashboard (Carbon) page.

You can also select the unit for capacity values while exporting the reports in CSV, HTML, and PDF format. First, select binary or decimal option and then the corresponding unit of that option. It displays the capacity values in your chosen unit in the exported report. For more information, see Export report, Hardware, and Host resources.

Enclosure and Node serial number

Now, Enclosure serial number will be displayed for all IBM Storage FlashSystem devices and Node serial number for all the SVC devices across all dashboards and storage system pages of IBM Storage Insights. For more information, see Individual device dashboard.

Enhanced API support

API support is added for iSCSI host and Security posture dashboard:

iSCSI host

Some of the metric APIs are modified to include new Type parameter values. The new values added are:
  • iscsi_port_host_kb_send
  • iscsi_port_host_kb_recv
  • iscsi_port_host_kb_total
  • iscsi_port_host_io_send_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_io_recv_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_io_total_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_slow_io_read_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_slow_io_write_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_slow_io_total_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_abort_read_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_abort_write_cnt
  • iscsi_port_host_abort_total_cnt

The following metric APIs are modified:

Table 2. List of modified APIs
Modified API Description
io-groups/metrics Returns performance metric values for io-groups in a storage system for a particular tenant.
nodes/metrics Returns performance metric values for nodes in a storage system for a particular tenant.
ip-ports/metrics Returns performance metric values for IP ports in a storage system for a particular tenant.
Metrics for general-groups Returns details of a general group internal component (storage system) for a particular tenant.
Metrics for general-groups Returns details of a general group internal component (nodes and io-groups) for a particular tenant.
storage-systems/metrics Returns capacity and performance metric values for all storage system for a particular tenant.
metrics Returns capacity and performance metric values for a specified storage system for a particular tenant.
Security posture dashboard
  • Get details of all the security posture category for a particular tenant.
  • Get details of all the security posture category for a particular category ID.
  • Get details of all the security posture parameters for a particular tenant.
  • Get details of all the security posture parameters for a particular parameter ID.
  • Get details of all the security posture policies for a particular tenant.
  • Get details of a single security posture policy for a particular tenant.
  • Get details of the storage systems security posture for a particular tenant.
  • Get details of the single storage system security posture for a particular tenant.

For more information about request and response formats, see the Swagger documentation.