IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control
IBM® Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is an IBM Cloud service that can help you predict and prevent storage problems before they impact your business. It is complementary to IBM Spectrum Control and is available at no additional cost if you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Virtual Storage Center, IBM Spectrum Storage Suite, or any edition of IBM Spectrum Control.
As an on-premises application, IBM Spectrum Control doesn't send the metadata about monitored devices offsite, which is ideal for dark shops and sites that don't want to open ports to the cloud. However, if your organization allows for communication between its network and the cloud, you can use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control to transform your support experience for IBM block storage.
Why use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Spectrum
Control work hand in hand to monitor your storage
environment. Here's how
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control can transform
your monitoring and support experience:
- Open, update, and track IBM Support tickets easily for your IBM block storage devices.
- Get hassle-free log collection by allowing IBM Support to collect diagnostic packages for devices so you don't have to.
- Use Call Home to monitor devices, get best practice recommendations, and filter events to quickly isolate trouble spots.
- Leverage IBM Support's ability to view the current and historical performance of your storage systems and help reduce the time-to-resolution of problems.
To compare the features of IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, check out the Feature comparison.
Important: To monitor the devices that you already monitor
in IBM Spectrum
Control, you must add them separately to
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control. You must also deploy a data collector
in
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control to collect advanced metadata about
devices.
Alerting tip: Alerts are a good way to be notified of conditions and
potential problems that are detected on your storage. If you use IBM Spectrum
Control and
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control together to enhance your monitoring
capabilities, it's recommended that you define alerts in one of the offerings and not both. By
defining all your alerts in one offering, you can avoid receiving duplicate or conflicting
notifications when alert conditions are detected.
How to get IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control
To register for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, go to https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/storage/storage-insights/registration and follow the directions for current IBM Spectrum Control customers.
To see how easy it is to sign up and deploy a data collector, check out Before you begin checklist for IBM Storage Insights.
Questions and answers
Find answers to other questions about IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.
- What's the difference between IBM Storage Insights, IBM Storage Insights Pro, and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?
-
- IBM Storage Insights is an off-premises, IBM Cloud service that is available free of charge if you own IBM block storage systems. It provides a unified dashboard for IBM block storage systems with a diagnostic events feed, a streamlined support experience, and key capacity and performance information.
- IBM Storage Insights Pro is an off-premises, IBM Cloud service that is available on subscription and expands the capabilities of IBM Storage Insights. You can monitor IBM file, object, and software-defined storage (SDS) systems, and non-IBM block and file storage systems such as Dell EMC storage systems. It also includes configurable alerts and predictive analytics that help you to reduce costs, plan capacity, and detect and investigate performance issues. You get recommendations for reclaiming unused storage, recommendations for optimizing the placement of tiered data, capacity planning analytics, and performance troubleshooting tools.
- IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is similar to IBM Storage Insights Pro in capability and is available for no additional cost if you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Virtual Storage Center, IBM Spectrum Storage Suite, or any edition of IBM Spectrum Control.
- I already have a paid subscription to IBM Storage Insights Pro, does this service apply to me?
- Yes! When your next renewal date for IBM Storage Insights Pro approaches, contact your IBM Sales representative to see if a move to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is right for you.
- If I already have IBM Storage Insights (the free service), can I upgrade it to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?
- Yes, if you have an active license for IBM Spectrum Control, you can upgrade IBM Storage Insights to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control. Just go to https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/storage/storage-insights/registration, choose the option for IBM Spectrum Control, and follow the prompts.
- Because IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is similar to IBM Storage Insights Pro in capability, does it use the same Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
- No, IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control doesn't include the service level agreement for IBM Storage Insights Pro. Terms and conditions for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control are available at http://www.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/sla/sd-8410-01.
- Do IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control share the metadata that they collect about storage?
- No, metadata cannot be shared between the offerings or exported from one offering to the other.
- Are the devices that I monitor in IBM Spectrum Control automatically monitored by IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?
- To monitor the devices that you already monitor in IBM Spectrum Control, you must also add them to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.
- If I use IBM Storage Insights Pro or IBM Storage Insights and switch to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, is my existing metadata migrated?
- Yes, the metadata that you collected in IBM Storage Insights Pro and IBM Storage Insights is automatically available in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.
- How is licensing handled?
- IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control uses the same licensing that you already have in place for IBM Spectrum Control. IBM Spectrum Control can be licensed by capacity, by storage capacity units (SCU), or by number of slots in enclosures.
- How long can I use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?
- You can use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control for as long as you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Spectrum Control license. If your subscription and support lapses, you're no longer eligible for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.
- Because IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is a cloud service, I'm concerned about security. Where can I find out more information about its security measures?
- IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control runs in IBM Cloud and adheres to IBM's rigorous security standards. For more information, check out the IBM Storage Insights Security Guide.
- Where can I learn more about IBM Storage Insights?
- Explore these links for more detailed information about IBM Storage Insights:
- How do I get support for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?
- To contact IBM Support for help and report issues that you encounter in IBM Storage
Insights for IBM Spectrum
Control, follow these steps:
- Open a support case against IBM Storage Insights.
- Describe the problem. To help us troubleshoot, include the URL of your IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control instance.
- Submit the case.
Feature comparison
Compare the features of IBM Spectrum
Control and
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.
| Resource Management | Features | IBM Spectrum Control (Advanced edition) | IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | Inventory | IBM and non-IBM block storage, file storage, object storage, hypervisors, fabrics, and switches | IBM and non-IBM block storage, file storage, and object storage |
| Call Home events |  |
||
| Performance |
(1-minute intervals)
|
(5-minute intervals)
|
|
| Capacity | |
|
|
| Drill down performance workflows to troubleshoot bottlenecks | |
|
|
| Explore virtualization relationships | Storage and Server virtualization | Storage virtualization | |
| Explore replication relationships | |
|
|
| Retain performance data |
Customizable
|
1 year | |
| Service | Deployment method | On-premises | Off-premises (in IBM Cloud) |
| Filter Call Home events to quickly isolate trouble spots | |
||
| Hassle-free log collection | |
||
| Simplified ticketing | |
||
| Show active PMRs and ticket history | |
||
| Active directory and LDAP integration for managing users | |
||
| Reporting | Inventory, capacity, performance, and storage consumption reports | |
|
| Rollup reporting | |
||
| REST API | |
||
| Alerting | Predictive Alerts | |
|
| Customizable, multi-conditional alerting, including alert policies | |
|
|
| Analytics | Performance planning | |
|
| Capacity planning | |
|
|
| Business impact analysis (applications, departments, and groups) | |
|
|
| Provisioning with service classes and capacity pools | |
||
| Balance workload across pools | |
||
| Optimize data placement with tiering | |
|
|
| Optimize capacity with reclamation | |
|
|
| Transform and convert volumes | |
||
| Pricing | On-premises licensing | No charge for IBM Spectrum Control customers |