Introduction to IBM Storage Scale GUI

You can configure and manage various features that are available with the IBM Storage Scale system by using the IBM Storage Scale management GUI.

You can complete the following important tasks through the IBM Storage Scale management GUI:

Monitoring the performance of the system based on various aspects.
Monitoring system health.
Creating and managing file systems.
Creating filesets and snapshots.
Managing Object, NFS, and SMB data exports.
Creating administrative users and defining roles for the users.
Creating object users and defining roles for them.
Defining default, user, group, and fileset quotas.
Creating and manage node classes.
Monitoring the capacity details at various levels, such as file system, pools, filesets, users, and user groups.
Monitoring and managing various services that are available in the system.
Monitoring remote clusters.
Configuring call home.
Configuring and monitoring thresholds.
Creating and managing user-defined node classes.
Configuring user authentication for NFS and SMB users.

The following table provides an overview of the features that are associated with each GUI page.

Table 1. Features associated with IBM Storage Scale GUI pages
GUI Page	Function
Home	Provides an overall summary of the IBM Storage Scale system configuration, status of its components, and services that are hosted on it.
Monitoring > Dashboards	Provides a dashboard to display the predefined performance charts and the customized charts that are marked as favorite charts in the Monitoring > Statistics page.
Monitoring > Events	Monitor and troubleshoot the issues that are reported in the system.
Monitoring > Tips	Monitor events of type tips. The tip events give recommendations to the user to avoid certain issues that might occur in the future.
Monitoring > Statistics	View performance and capacity data in customizable charts.
Monitoring > Thresholds	Configure various thresholds based on the performance monitoring metrics. You can also monitor the threshold rules and the events that are associated with each rule.
Monitoring > Command Audit Log	Logs the commands that are issued and tasks that are completed by the users and administrators. These logs can also be used to troubleshoot issues that are reported in the system.
Monitoring > Event Notifications	Configure event notifications to notify administrators when events occur in the system.
Nodes	Monitor the performance and health status of the nodes that are configured in the cluster. You can also create and manage user-defined node classes from the Nodes page.
Cluster > Network	Monitor the performance and health status of various types of networks and network adapters.
Cluster > Remote Connections	Request access to the GUI node of the remote cluster to establish communication between the local and remote clusters. You can also use the Remote Connections page to grant access to the remote clusters when an access request is received.
Files > File Systems	Create, view, and manage file systems.
Files > Filesets	Create, view, and manage filesets.
Files > Snapshots	Create snapshots or snapshot rules to automate snapshot creation and retention.
Files > User Capacity	Monitor the capacity details of users and user groups.
Files > Quotas	Create and manage default, user, group, and fileset quotas at the file system level.
Files > Information Lifecycle	Create, manage, and delete policies that manage automated tiered data storage.
Files > Transparent Cloud Tiering	Provides both a summarized and attribute-wise details of the Transparent Cloud Tiering service, which is integrated with the IBM Storage Scale system. The Transparent Cloud Tiering page is displayed if the feature is enabled on the cluster.
Files > Active File Management	Helps to monitor the performance, health status, and configuration aspects of AFM, AFM DR, and gateway nodes. You can see the Active File Management page in the GUI that is part of the AFM cache cluster with at least one AFM-enabled fileset.
Files > File System ACL	Define ACL templates and apply ACLs on files and directories.
Files > Clustered Watch Folder	Provides the list of the clustered watch folders that are configured in the system. You can also view the details of each watch folder and the events that are raised against each record from the detailed view.
Files > Fileset tiering	Helps to run AFM policy to tier MU filesets for a specific file system.
Storage > Pools	Helps to monitor the performance, health status, and configuration aspects of all available pools in the IBM Storage Scale cluster.
Storage > NSDs	Helps to monitor the performance, health status, and configuration aspects of all the network shared disks (NSD) that are available in the IBM Storage Scale cluster.
Protocols > NFS Exports	Create and manage NFS exports. Protocols pages are displayed in the GUI only when the protocol feature is enabled on the cluster.
Protocols > SMB Shares	Create and manage SMB shares. Protocols pages are displayed in the GUI only when the protocol feature is enabled on the cluster.
Protocols > Data access service	Configure, edit and delete Data Access Service (DAS) accounts, services and exports.
Object > Accounts	Create and manage accounts and containers in the object storage. Object pages are displayed in the GUI only when the object feature is enabled on the cluster.
Object > Users	Create object users.
Object > Roles	Define roles for the object users.
Services	Monitor and manage various services that are hosted on the system.
Support > Diagnostic Data	Download diagnostic data to troubleshoot the issues that are reported in the system.
Support > Call Home	Configure call home feature that automatically notifies the IBM® Support personnel about the issues that are reported in the system. You can also manually upload diagnostic data files and associate them with a PMR through the GUI.

Note: After installing the system and GUI package, you need to create the first GUI user to log in to the GUI. This user can create other GUI administrative users to perform system management and monitoring tasks. When you launch the GUI for the first time after the installation, the GUI welcome page provides options to create the first GUI user from the command line prompt by using the /usr/lpp/mmfs/gui/cli/mkuser <user_name> -g SecurityAdmin command.

Assistance for understanding the features associated with a GUI page

The following three levels of assistance are available for the GUI users:

Hover help: A brief description of a feature that is associated with a field. It appears when you hover the mouse over the tiny question mark that is placed next to the field label. Hover help is available only for the important and complex fields.
Context-sensitive help: A detailed explanation of the features that are associated with the page. The context-sensitive help files are available in the help menu, which is placed on the header bar of the GUI page.
IBM Docs: The third-level of information helps users to find entire details of the product. You can also access the IBM Storage Scale documentation from the help menu, which is placed on the header bar of the GUI page.