What's new in IBM Storage Insights

Enhancing ransomware alert accuracy: New user feedback mechanism on false alerts

IBM Storage Insights now includes a dedicated feature to address false ransomware alerts, enabling you to provide feedback directly within the interface. This enhancement is part of the ongoing effort to improve the accuracy of ransomware detection and to refine alerting mechanisms based on real-world usage data.

Why this feature is introduced?

Ransomware detection is critical for safeguarding data integrity, but not all alerts are accurate. False positives cause unnecessary concern and can lead to inefficiencies in managing storage environments. To address this issue, IBM Storage Insights introduced a feedback mechanism that allows you to report false positives directly from the alert details page. This feedback helps to understand the context behind these alerts, enabling the refinement of detection algorithms and the reduction of the occurrence of false positives over time.

How it Works

When you encounter a ransomware alert in IBM Storage Insights, you can now indicate whether it is a false positive. If so, you can provide more details about the potential cause, such as compression activities or other system events. IBM Storage Insights captures this feedback and analyzes the data to improve the potential ransomware threat detection capabilities.

To submit feedback on a false positive alert, you can do the following actions:

• In classic UI: select one or multiple alerts, right-click on the selection, and click Resolve as False Positive on the alert details page. Select the reasons why this alert is incorrect and optionally, you can type other relevant information. Click Submit.
• In modern UI: On the overview page, click the bell icon in the Resources tile. Click the Potential Ransomware Detected alert and then click Resolve as False Positive. Select the reasons why this alert is incorrect and optionally you can type other relevant information. Click Submit.

What happens after submitting the feedback?

1. The ransomware threat alert is acknowledged if not done already. The severity of the alert is marked as Critical - Acknowledged
2. For volumes affected with ransomware alert, the status is changed from Online (Threat Detected) to Online (Threat Detected, Acknowledged). After the next full probe, the status is shown as Online.

Key features

• Multiple alert feedback: You can submit feedback on multiple false positive alerts simultaneously.
• Audit logging: All actions related to marking alerts as false positives are logged for auditing and compliance purposes. For more information, see Audit logs
• Multiple feedback: You can provide multiple false positive feedback for a single ransomware alert.

The ransomware false positives feedback survey feature is designed to empower you by providing a direct voice in improving the accuracy of ransomware alerts and thus reducing the chance of getting more false ransomware alerts. By capturing and analyzing feedback on false positives, IBM Storage Insights continues to enhance its detection capabilities, providing you with more reliable and actionable alerts.

For more information, see Submitting feedback for ransomware false positives

Integrating IBM Storage Insights with Slack for ransomware alerts

IBM Storage Insights now offers enhanced security capabilities with the integration of Slack. This new integration enables you to receive real-time ransomware alerts directly in your Slack channel, providing immediate visibility and facilitating faster response times.

Integration Process:

1. Create a Slack application and private Channel: Start by setting up a Slack application and a private Slack channel to receive alerts. For more information, see Creating a Slack application and a private Slack channel.
2. Configure the webhook in IBM Storage Insights: Next, configure a webhook for Slack within IBM Storage Insights. This step connects the two platforms, ensuring seamless delivery of ransomware alerts to your designated Slack channel. For more information, see Creating a webhook for Slack.

By integrating IBM Storage Insights with Slack, you can significantly enhance your organization's security posture and protect your valuable data from ransomware threats. For more information about the complete Slack integration process, see Integrating IBM Storage Insights with Slack

Introducing the new sections and sub-menus to the Main menu in the modern UI

IBM Storage Insights, a powerful storage monitoring and analytics solution, is undergoing a significant transformation with its new modern UI. With this update, there is a revamped Main menu structure that aims to provide a more intuitive and efficient way to access key storage management functions.

The modern UI introduces several new menus and sections within the existing Main menu. The following table outlines the detailed changes in the Main menu:

Expanding the modern UI: New resource overview pages in IBM Storage Insights

Introducing the newly modernized resource overview pages in IBM Storage Insights, featuring dedicated pages for switches, fabrics, hosts, and virtual machines. This enhancement is part of the ongoing commitment to provide you with a modern and intuitive interface that improves the management of storage resources.

As organizations increasingly rely on complex storage environments, the need for streamlined monitoring and management tools becomes paramount. IBM Storage Insights is at the forefront of addressing these needs, offering you comprehensive visibility and control over your storage infrastructure. The new resource overview pages are designed to enhance this experience, ensuring that you can efficiently access and manage critical information.

The previous interface, while functional, often required you to switch back to the classic UI to access detailed information and perform specific tasks. The goal of these updates is to streamline your workflow by integrating a unified, modern design that eliminates the need to revert to the classic UI. The new pages offer improved visibility, ease of use, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities.

Key features across resource overview pages:

• Consistent modern interface: Each overview page features a contemporary design that aligns with the overall IBM Storage Insights aesthetic, ensuring a seamless user experience.
• Health status indicators: Critical health information is prominently displayed at the top of each page, allowing you to quickly assess the status of their resources.
• Detailed resource management: You can easily access performance details and properties specific to each resource type, enhancing their ability to monitor and manage configurations effectively.
• Integrated navigation: Each page allows straightforward navigation to related details and performance metrics, minimizing the need to revert to the classic UI.
• Enhanced filtering and sorting: You can sort, filter, and reorder columns on each overview page, making it easier to find relevant information tailored to your needs.
• Contextual links: Each resource page includes links to detailed views in the classic UI when necessary, ensuring continuity of access to comprehensive data.

Accessing the new resource overview pages

To access these resource overview pages from the modern view of IBM Storage Insights, click the left Main menu, expand Inventory to view resources such as Switches, Fabrics, Hosts, or Virtual machines.

For more information about the specific resource overview pages, see the following pages:

• Switches overview page
• Fabrics overview page
• Hosts overview page
• Virtual machines overview page

Enhanced user experience with a new block storage system details page in the modern UI

Introducing the newly designed block storage system details page within the modern UI of IBM Storage Insights. This upgraded user-friendly interface enhances your ability to manage and monitor your storage systems.

Previously, you often needed to switch back to the classic UI for detailed insights and specific operations. With the introduction of block storage system details page, your workflow is streamlined by offering a cohesive, modern design that presents all necessary information in one place. The updated pages enhance clarity, usability, and monitoring capabilities.

Accessing the new block storage system detail page

To access the block storage system details page from the modern view of IBM Storage Insights, click Main menu, expand Inventory, and then click Storage Systems. The storage system overview page is displayed. Click any block storage system name to access its details page.

When you navigate to the block storage details page, a left navigation panel with various sections and menus are displayed. The following table outlines the details of the sections and menus available in the block storage system details page.

Key features in the block storage system details page:

• Storage system detail page navigation: When you click any block storage system name on the storage systems overview page, it opens the storage system detail page specific to that storage system. This view includes a left navigation panel displaying various menu options relevant to your selected system.

• Component health and status: The left navigation panel on the storage system detail page shows the number of components, their health status, and a status count. Parent menus reflect the overall health status, prioritizing the statuses in the order: error, warning, unreachable, unconfigured, and unknown statuses.

• Pinned menus: You can now pin menus for easy access. On mouse hover, an option to pin the menu appears. When pinned, these menus are displayed under a new Pinned menu.

• Collapsible sidebar: The left navigation panel on the storage system detail page is collapsible, allowing you to expand or collapse it based on your workspace needs. A simple click in the black area of the navigation panel when collapsed expands the sidebar.

• Device-specific menus:

  • Host adapters and Device adapters options under the Hardware menu are available only for DS8000 devices.
  • Modules option under the Hardware menu are available only for XIV devices.
  • Volume groups option under the Storage menu is available only for IBM Storage FlashSystem added through Call Home with cloud services.

• Default menu state: The Hardware menu and any pinned menus are shown expanded by default for easy access.

• Data protection: This menu is visible only if the device is having replication data or policies. Clicking Data protection opens the Copy Data page.

• Free tenant restrictions: For IBM Storage Insights free tenants, the storage system detail page is not been accessible. Clicking a storage system link opens the individual device overview page.

• File, Object, Unified storage systems view: When you click any File, Object, or Unified storage system name on the storage system overview page, the classic UI of storage system detail page opens in a new browser window.
• Storage partitions: This menu is visible in the left navigation panel only for IBM Storage FlashSystem devices added to IBM Storage Insights using Call Home with cloud services.

For more information about the storage system details page, see Block storage system details page.

Introducing Host connections column and multiple selections in the modern UI of IBM Storage Insights

IBM Storage Insights is now enhanced with significant features: The new Host connections column and the multiple selections of storage systems in the storage systems overview page. These enhancements are designed to provide you greater visibility and control over your storage systems.

These updates offer enhanced functions for managing and interacting with your storage data. The Host connections column allows you to easily access and manage host connections information, while the multiple selection feature enables bulk actions, streamlining operations within the storage systems overview page.

These enhancements are tailored for the modern UI of IBM Storage Insights, offering a more efficient and user-friendly experience for managing storage systems.

For more information about the storage systems overview page, see Storage systems tabular view.

Downloading audit logs from the modern UI of IBM Storage Insights

IBM Storage Insights now enables you to download audit logs of user actions directly from the modern UI. You can access and review the logs for various activities that are performed within the last 15 days, available in a CSV format for easy analysis.

To download the audit logs from the modern UI, click the Settings icon in the top-right corner of the menu bar and then select Export audit log. The audit log file will be downloaded to your system in CSV format.

For more information about the audit log feature, including the tracked user actions and the REST API for programmatic access, see Audit logs.

Introducing the logs upload feature for existing IBM Storage Ceph support tickets

IBM Support has always aimed to provide efficient resolutions for hardware and software issues. By allowing you to update support tickets, the process for troubleshooting and issue resolution is more streamlined. With the integration of IBM Storage Ceph systems into IBM Storage Insights, we recognized the need for a more effective way to assist you in resolving issues that are related to your IBM Storage Ceph environments.

This new logs upload feature addresses a critical gap in the support process. When you report issues with your IBM Storage Ceph systems, the support team requires detailed logs to diagnose and resolve these problems effectively. Previously, gathering and submitting these logs could be cumbersome, potentially delaying the resolution times. With the introduction of this feature, you can now easily upload new log packages directly to your existing support tickets, ensuring that the support team has the necessary information to expedite the troubleshooting.

Key benefits of uploading log packages to your existing support ticket:

How to upload the log packages to your existing support ticket?

A task is created automatically to upload the logs to the ticket. You can track the task status by clicking the Running and Completed tasks icon that is located to the right in the top menu bar.

With this new logs upload feature, you can effortlessly provide the necessary logs for your IBM Storage Ceph support tickets, leading to a faster issue resolution and improved overall experience with your IBM Storage Insights.

For more information, see Uploading the new log package to the existing IBM Storage Ceph support ticket.

Enhanced overflow menu in the modernized UI

Earlier, users needed to use the classic IBM Storage Insights view, to perform storage systems specific operations, such as test and modify connection and data collection operations. Users can now test and modify storage system connections, and manage data collection operations directly from the overflow menu in the IBM Storage Insights modernized UI, eliminating the need to switch to the classic UI.

For more information, see Storage systems tabular view.

Switching and managing user roles

IBM Storage Insights supports role-based access to its features. Users in IBM Storage Insights are assigned specific roles, such as Administrator and Monitor. The role of a user determines the level of access that the user has to complete certain actions. A user can have more than one user roles that are assigned to them. Now, a user in IBM Storage Insights can switch to another available role to by selecting it on the profile card. In addition, the administrator users can manage IBM Storage Insights users. When a user switches role, the IBM Storage Insights features are filtered based on the selected role and become available to the user.

For more information, see User profile.

Support to view user navigation history

IBM Storage Insights now includes a navigation history feature, offering a trail of clickable links on each page to easily retrace and navigate through previous locations.

Column reordering and sorting in storage systems tabular view

Earlier, users were not able to reorder the columns for the storage systems tabular view and columns were displayed based on a fixed order. Now, IBM Storage Insights supports reordering of columns and allows users to reorder columns of the storage systems tabular view. All selected columns appear under the Selected columns section. User can drag columns to change their order as per the requirements. Now user can also sort data table by clicking the name of the column in the tabular view.

For more information, see Storage systems tabular view.

Enhanced API support to query storage system-specific details

IBM Storage Insights supports the following new APIs to query storage system-specific details, such as:

Don't forget to upgrade your data collectors

If the automatic upgrade option for data collectors is enabled, no action is required after updating IBM Storage Insights.

If the automatic upgrade is not enabled, you will receive a notification to upgrade your data collectors to benefit from new features and improvements. To upgrade, ensure you have the Administrator role, then click the link in the notification message or go to the Configuration > Data Collector and click Upgrade.