Planning for IBM Storwize family storage

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Before using IBM Storwize family storage devices with PowerVC, ensure that you understand all requirements and restrictions.

For supported models, requirements, and restrictions, refer to OpenStack support summary.

You can add data reduction pool for thin-provisioned and compressed volumes while using the Storwize Cinder driver.

NPIV connected Storwize devices and zoning

When using NPIV connectivity, the initiator and target WWPNs that are logged in to the fabrics are the candidates used for zoning. With NPIV connectivity on a Storwize device, each physical Fibre Channel port has an associated virtual Fibre Channel port. The SVC fctargetmode property on an IO group determines the NPIV behavior of an IO group. Therefore, the value for this property also determines the candidates for zoning as described below. For instructions to set the mode on the IO group, see N_Port ID Virtualization configuration in the Storwize Knowledge Center. If you change the mode on the IO group, you must restart Cinder services on PowerVC.

disabled: Only the physical Fibre Channel ports are logged in to the connected fabrics. If you change the mode to disabled from enabled or transitional, any virtual machines or Virtual I/O Servers that are using the virtual ports will lose access to their volumes.
transition: Both the physical and the virtual Fibre Channel ports are logged in to the connected fabrics. If you want only the virtual ports to be used, add the physical ports' WWPNs to powervc-config storage powervc_target_wwpn_blacklist. This command maintains a list of ports that will not be used for zoning.
enabled: Both the physical and virtual Fibre Channel ports are logged in to the fabrics. However, the IO group only services IO requests on the virtual Fibre Channel ports. After changing the mode to enabled, any virtual machines or Virtual I/O Servers that are using physical Fibre Channel ports will lose access to their volumes.