IBM Support

5.2.16 Limitations and known issues for IBM Spectrum Control

Preventive Service Planning


Abstract

This document provides information about limitations and known issues that you might encounter when you use IBM® Spectrum Control™ V5.2.16

Content

This document contains the following sections:

Support links and documentation
Installation, upgrade, and configuration
General IBM Spectrum Control issues
EMC support issues
Language-related issues
Other monitoring products
Cognos Analytics
Documentation updates and corrections
Browser issues
VMware vSphere

Support links and documentation

  • To access all of the support documentation, including alerts and APARs, go to the IBM Support Portal.

Product licenses for IBM Spectrum Control

IBM Spectrum Control V5.2.16 offers product licenses with differing functionality to meet your storage management needs. For information about these licenses, see http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS5R93_5.2.16/com.ibm.spectrum.sc.doc/fqz0_r_product_packages.html

Installation, upgrade, and configuration


SSLv3 disabled by default

Before you upgrade to IBM Spectrum Control 5.2.16 or later, read and understand the information in this security bulletin: Security Bulletin: Multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK affect Tivoli Storage Productivity Center October 2014 CPU

SSLv3 (the legacy SSL protocol) has been disabled by default once you upgrade to Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center 5.2.5 and later releases. To maintain compatibility between Tivoli Storage Productivity Center and storage systems or devices that support only SSLv3, you must upgrade the storage systems and devices to a level that provides TLS support (if available) or manually enable SSLv3 in Tivoli Storage Productivity Center using a script after you upgrade. Information about using the script to enable SSLv3 is provided in the link in the security bulletin.

The Supported Hardware, Products and Platforms Interoperability Matrix Links support pages have been updated to reflect known compatibility considerations related to this security update.

Related Information: Security Bulletin: Multiple vulnerabilities impact DS8000 HMC

IBM Spectrum Control V5.2.16 installation may appear to hang at Database component upgrade while database tables are cleaned up and migrated 
When upgrading Spectrum Control V5.2.11 or earlier to 5.2.16 or later, some customers may experience a long duration of the upgrade where it appears to hang while database tables are cleaned up and migrated. This is a known limitation, and is a required migration step that (depending on your database size) may take a long time to complete. It is a one-time only clean up process, and will not be experienced at the next upgrade of Spectrum Control.

You can review the log files to determine if your upgrade is undergoing this database clean and migration process: In traceTPCInstall.log look near the end of the log file, there would be an executing SQL statement similar to one of these:
"SET INTEGRITY FOR T_RPT_HOST_KEYS ..." or "REFRESH TABLE T_RPT_HOST_KEYS ..."
And the last lines in the log file during the process would be similar to this:
"... INFO com.ibm.tpc.install.frontend.ia.actions.ProgressBarUpdater setPercentageComplete Seconds complete = ..."

IBM Spectrum Control V5.2.16 installation might fail during the Storage Resource agent installation 

During the IBM Spectrum Control installation, the Storage Resource agent installation might time out, causing the product installation to fail.

To resolve this issue:
1. Edit the tpcsra.xml file in the  installation directory.  The default installation directories are
  • Windows™: C:\Program Files\IBM\TPC\config\install\tpcsra.xml
  • Unix: /opt/IBM/TPC/config/install/tpcsra.xml

2. Change <property name="sra.timeout" value="600000" /> to <property name="sra.timeout" value="1200000" />.
3. Save your changes.
3. Start the IBM Spectrum Control installation program again and resume the Storage Resource agent installation.

A generic Storage Resource agent probe error may be a registration problem / GUID mismatch

A generic Storage Resource agent (SRA) probe error may occur when sending data to the server, with the following in the SRA probe log:

STA0109I Probe completed successfully
STA0249I Sending results to server
AGT0306E Failed to send Probe complete status to server, for Agent in /opt/IBM/TPC
STA0251E Results not saved

To check if this problem is caused by a registration problem or GUID mismatch, review the Data Server logs (TPC\data\log\TPCD_0000xx.log) for the following:

SRV0040E: No agent is registered under machine identifier XX.XX.X.XX (GUID: XXXxxXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXX)
GEN0100E: Error processing request from host <XX.XX.X.XX >, for service <Scheduler>, request(3, 1)

To resolve this issue manually register the SRA again so the GUID matches. Register the SRA by running this command on the SRA host:
<SRA_install_location>/agent/bin/Agent -notify register -serverName <server_name>

LDAP authentication may not work for TPC Replication in a Windows Domain environment after upgrading IBM Spectrum Control.

In Tivoli Storage Productivity Center Version 5.2 (or later) that contains Replication Server, if you have duplicate Windows domain users and LDAP users, you may experience login issues with LDAP users in the Replication GUI (error IWNR4006E)
following the upgrade to IBM Spectrum Control 5.2.14 or later. In the Replication GUI you can still map roles to Windows domain groups or users and you can login with the Windows domain users prefixed with "Domain_name\\" in the Replication GUI, but not with the duplicate unprefixed LDAP users. You should ensure that the duplicated users (or groups) are not used during the configuration or to manage IBM Spectrum Control, i.e. you should check for the duplicate users that you use with IBM Spectrum Control that exist as both LDAP users belonging to the LDAP server defined in ldapregistry.xml of IBM Spectrum Control Web Server as well as Windows domain users in the Active Directory server in the Windows domain where the IBM Spectrum Control server belongs to.

General IBM Spectrum Control issues

APAR IT21955: SVC stats record an incomplete picture of the port activity


 
In Spectrum Control, the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller (SVC) subsystem port zero buffer credit value is received directly from the SVC storage device and has certain limitations in terms of what traffic it measures. Due to the limitations Spectrum Control customers may notice a difference between the switch port metric value & the SVC port metric value. This is the result of SVC being unable to measure the raw traffic through the ports as some of it is hidden by the Emulex hardware.

You can see the status of this APAR here: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT21955

Submitting 2 Tiering jobs concurrently may not complete

When submitting 2 tiering jobs to run at the same time or overlap, they may stall and fail to complete. Some optimization tasks may complete correctly, but at some point the tasks may hang. There are no errors displayed, and the logs indicate that the jobs are still running, however once they stall no further tasks are updated or completed. This can happen for the first tiering job or for both.

The work around is submitting one tiering job at a time, and waiting for it to complete before submitting another tiering job.

Information about resources that use the iSCSI protocol is not shown in IBM Spectrum Control

IBM Spectrum Control does not collect iSCSI port information for storage systems and servers. Information about resources that connect to monitored storage systems using the iSCSI protocol is not shown in the web-based GUI. For example, information about iSCSI mapped volumes is not shown.

In Metro Mirror or Global Copy relationship, if a Peer to Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) is terminated and then deleted on one of the storage systems, the other storage system retains the relationship

If a storage system is not aware of the termination due to the loss of the PPRC path, volumes on that system might be counted as both unprotected and protected.

To correct the reporting, take one of the following actions:

  • Issue a terminate to the storage system, which retains the relationships.
  • Reestablish the PPRC paths and the relationship by using the dscli command or another copy services management tool (such as the CSM product).

Provisioning fails with ADD_PORTS_TO_HOST message on XIV 11.5.0 when modifying host

When trying to provision storage from an IBM XIV® 11.5.0 system, the provisioning task fails with an "ADD_PORTS_TO_HOST task failed" message when trying to provision storage to a host that is already defined on the XIV subsystem. This can happen when the host definition does not contain all the Fibre Channel ports that IBM Spectrum Control is trying to assign the volume to.

For example, if you try to provision storage to a host that has 2 Fibre Channel ports and the host is
already defined on the XIV 11.5.0 system but with only one of the Fibre Channel ports, the assign job will fail and the second port will not be added to the host.

This condition does not occur when IBM Spectrum Control is creating the host definition, or when an existing host definition already has all ports defined. This issue does not occur with XIV 11.4 systems, and 11.5.1 or later systems.

Workaround: modify the host definition on the XIV 11.5.0 system to contain all the Fibre Channel ports, then run a probe of the XIV 11.5.0 system in IBM Spectrum Control or upgrade to XIV 11.5.1 or later.

Enabled ethernet port that is not connected to a switch can cause the GUI to hang

On some IBM servers running Windows 2012, an enabled ethernet port can cause the IBM Spectrum Control web-based GUI to stop responding if the port is not connected to a switch. This condition causes a DB2 SQL -911 error and also causes the IBM Spectrum Control GUI to stop responding.

To prevent this, disable the ethernet port or configure the port by using the instructions here: https://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/bladectr/documentation/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.bladecenter.hs22.doc/dw1iu_t_lan_over_usb_install_windows_driver_install.html

In Cognos Analytics, not all data for GPFS/GSS/Spectrum Scale systems is represented correctly
  • GPFS™/GSS/Spectrum Scale™ file systems are not correctly represented in Cognos® Analytics reports that are included with IBM Spectrum Control.
  • Information is not collected about NFS and CIFS exports that are defined on a GPFS/GSS/Spectrum Scale clusters.

The probe fails for an IBM Spectrum Scale storage system that is configured for object storage

To probe an IBM Spectrum Scale storage system that is configured for object storage, the IBM Spectrum Control server must be able to connect to the OpenStack Swift and Keystone endpoints that are used to access object services.

If any of the object service endpoints are unreachable by the IBM Spectrum Control server, the probe of the object storage system might fail. For example, you might see the following error message in the probe log:

    HWNEP0287E Error when collecting Accounts information from Object Storage Service using REST protocol.

To resolve this problem, complete the following steps:
1. To list the URLs for the Keystone and Swift services, run the following commands as user root on one of the GPFS cluster nodes that are configured for object storage.
. ~/openrc
openstack endpoint list

2. Ensure that the IBM Spectrum Control server can connect to the IP addresses and host names that are included in the URLs for the Keystone and Swift services.
For example, the URL for the Keystone service might be http://gpfs420proto1:5000/v3 
In this case, the IBM Spectrum Control server must be able to connect to the gpfs420proto1 host name.

Spectrum Scale probe fails with timeout due to lengthy SSH-login banner

Probe of IBM Spectrum Scale storage fails with timeout (CANCELLED_ON_TIMEOUT status)
indicating that it isn't able to collect the data. This occurs in environments where the the ssh-login banner for the Spectrum Scale is quite long. If you experience this timeout failure then shorten (or remove) the ssh-login banner if possible, until a fix is available.
You can follow the progress of the APAR related to this issue here:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT21270


Configuring the collection of performance data for IBM Spectrum Scale

Before you can collect performance data for IBM Spectrum Scale, the IBM Spectrum Control server must be able to connect to port 9084 on the node where the collector component of the IBM Spectrum Scale performance monitoring tool is running. This condition applies to IBM Spectrum Control Version 5.2.8 or later.

If the collector node is unreachable by the IBM Spectrum Control server, you might see the following message when you add IBM Spectrum Scale for monitoring:

    HWNPM0281I Performance monitoring is unavailable for resource <resource_name>because an agent for monitoring the resource was not defined. 

To resolve this problem, complete the following steps:
1. Determine the node that is configured as the collector node by viewing the /opt/IBM/zimon/ZIMonSensors.cfg file on one of the sensor nodes. The collector node is set in the host property of the collectors section in this file. For example:
      collectors =
      {
             host = "node3"
             port = "4739"
      }
2.  Ensure that the host property is set to one of the following options:
- An IP address that can be reached by the IBM Spectrum Control server
- A host name that can be resolved to a reachable IP address by the IBM Spectrum Control server

For more information about configuring the collection of performance data for IBM Spectrum Scale, see
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS5R93_5.2.16/com.ibm.spectrum.sc.doc/tpch_t_configuring_pm_scale.html

Switches from a subordinate server with Unknown condition are seen as Normal on the rollup master server

If a subordinate server is at a level lower than Spectrum Control 5.2.10, switches in an Unknown condition will be seen as Normal on the rollup master server.
Upgrade the subordinate server to get the correct status shown on the master server.

Fabrics on master server are not displayed under Rollup Fabrics reports after upgrade from Tivoli Storage Productivity Center or Spectrum Control to Spectrum Control 5.2.10 or later

When Tivoli Storage Productivity Center or Spectrum Control 5.2.9 or lower is upgraded to Spectrum Control 5.2.12 or higher, fabrics on the master server are not displayed under Rollup Fabrics reports. Once fabrics have been probed on the upgraded master server, they will appear in the Rollup Fabrics reports.

Unassigned Volume Space and Assigned Volume Space values are slightly different between the subordinate server and the rollup server.

Due to differences in the methods used to calculate Unassigned Volume Space and Assigned Volume Space, there may be minor variations between the rollup and subordinate servers. The value recorded in the subordinate server resource list panel is the definitive one.

Disable Windows User Account Control to edit configuration files

On Windows installations, if you installed IBM Spectrum Control by using a domain user account, you must disable User Account Control to edit the IBM Spectrum Control configuration files.

Incorrect roles-to-group mappings in Tivoli Storage Productivity Center Version 5.1 (or later) result in login issues after you upgrade to IBM Spectrum Control 5.2.8 or later.

In Tivoli Storage Productivity Center Version 5.1 (or later), if you did not complete a correct roles-to-group mapping, you can experience login issues in the web-based GUI after you upgrade to Version 5.2. These issues occur because there was no roles-to-group mapping validation in previous Tivoli Storage Productivity Center versions.

Tip: Role-to-group mapping is defined as one group that is mapped to one role and this group is declared at the operating system level.

To avoid this issue, after you upgrade IBM Spectrum Control (version 5.2.8 or later), log in to the web-based GUI by using one of the following credentials:
  • A valid root ID (on UNIX operating systems)
  • A valid administrator ID (on Windows operating systems)
The Administrator role in Version 5.2 was the superuser role in Version 5.1.

To correct the previous role-to-group mapping, after you log in to the web-based GUI, click Settings > User management.

Cannot report detailed back-end storage information for a DS5000 or a DS4000 system

If a SAN Volume Controller uses back-end storage from a DS5000 system or a DS4000 system, some information about the back-end storage might be missing. If you did not create explicit host connections for the back-end disks on the DS5000 or DS4000 system, the following problems might occur:
  • The CIM agent for the DS5000 or DS4000 system does not report any detailed information about the back-end storage.
  • IBM Spectrum Control cannot provide other information about the back-end storage for the consuming disk system. For example, IBM Spectrum Control cannot provide RAID information.

Therefore, you must create explicit host connections for the back-end disks on the DS5000 or DS4000 system. It is not sufficient to associate the back-end disks with the default host group.

IBM Spectrum Control cannot detect the mount status of file systems on Scale Out Network Attached Storage and Storwize V7000 Unified storage systems

If a file system is manually unmounted from an IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS) or Storwize® V7000 Unified storage system, IBM Spectrum Control cannot detect that the file system was unmounted. Because of this limitation, information that is displayed in the IBM Spectrum Control GUIs is not accurate and some storage-related actions on the file system might fail.

For example, when you provision storage, a file system on a Storwize V7000 Unified storage system might be recommended for provisioning. However, if that file system was manually unmounted after it was first detected by IBM Spectrum Control, the provisioning action will fail. An unmounted file system cannot be used for provisioning. To avoid this issue, ensure that the monitored file systems on the Storwize V7000 Unified storage system are mounted before you run the provisioning action.

A new IBM SONAS fileset might be mistakenly deleted

The fileset information was deleted in the other system before the new fileset with the existing ID was created.

If IBM Spectrum Control discovers a new IBM SONAS fileset, the ID of a deleted file set might be reused for the new file set. If you delete the older fileset in IBM Spectrum Control, the new file set is deleted instead. This issue occurs in the following circumstances:
  • A file set that is known to IBM Spectrum Control is deleted in a system other than IBM Spectrum Control.
  • IBM Spectrum Control retained the deleted file set information, either because the probe was not run after the file set was deleted or because the retention period of the file set has not expired.

The file set information was deleted in the other system before the new fileset with the existing ID was created.

The change password tool cannot restart the Device server

When you run the change password tool, the following message is displayed:
There was an error restarting the Device server. Restart the server manually.

To manually start the Device server, follow these steps:

On Windows operating systems:
  1. At the command prompt, go to the TPC_installation_directory\scripts directory.
  2. Run the stopTPCDevice.bat command.
  3. Run the startTPCDevice.bat command.

On AIX® or Linux operating systems:
  1. At the command line, go to the TPC_installation_directory/scripts directory.
  2. Run the ./stopTPCDevice.sh command.
  3. Run the ./startTPCDevice.sh command.

Running multiple optimization recommendations at the same time results in a Pool Exhaustion Exception error

In some cases, running more than 15 optimization recommendations at the same time can cause one or more of the individual recommendation executions to result in a Pool Exhaustion Exception error. This can be caused by a lack of available resources in the operating system thread pool. You can manually complete the failed recommendations.

If this situation occurs frequently, contact IBM Support for assistance in reducing the number of concurrently running optimization recommendations.


Changing an existing NetApp filer that uses a Storage Resource agent to use NAPI 

You cannot change an existing NetApp filer that is managed by using a Storage Resource agent to be directly managed by using NetApp NAPI-based management. If you want to change from using a Storage Resource agent to NAPI for your existing NetApp filers, you must add the filers to IBM Spectrum Control again. Specify the NetApp credentials when you add the filer.

IBM Spectrum Control determines that the NetApp resource is already monitored. IBM Spectrum Control modifies the data source information so that the NetApp filer data is retrieved directly from the NetApp itself rather than from the Storage Resource agent.

Changing the synchronization rate for volumes on SAN Volume Controller or Storwize family systems 

The synchronization rate on a SAN Volume Controller is the rate at which the volume copies synchronize again after synchronization is lost. 

IBM Spectrum Control can do tasks that significantly alter the structure of storage. For example, IBM Spectrum Control can add a mirrored volume copy, or migrate volumes from one pool to another by using storage optimization functions. When IBM Spectrum Control performs these tasks, a default synchronization rate of 100% is set. 

This synchronization rate can cause performance problems on all SAN Volume Controller volumes. However, you can use the tpctool command to change the synchronization rate. 

For more information about how to change the synchronization rate, see the "Changing the synchronization rate for volumes on SAN Volume Controller or Storwize family systems" technote at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21972452.

You can follow the progress of the APAR related to this issue here:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT11274.

Linux SRA Probes hang and remain "In Progress" forever

SRA probes run Logical Volume Manager (LVM) commands and these can hang causing the entire SRA to hang and appear to be "In Progress" indefinitely.

To verify that this is the situation causing the hang, view the SRA trace log on the SRA Deployment and verify that the last command was an LVM one.

To recover from this:
  1. Kill the hung SRA process
  2. Kill the hung LVM command
  3. From a command line, retry the LVM command and verify that it runs successfully. If it does not, use the LVM documentation to repair the LVM so that it does.
  4. Restart the SRA

You can follow the progress of the APAR related to this issue here:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT15105


Export Performance Data Tool  

The output format from the exportPerformanceData Script has changed with this release. To minimize the impact of this and all future output format changes, users of the CSV files are encouraged to parse the column headers they are interested in.

EMC support issues

In 5.2.14 and later, you can view more information about the capacity, space usage, and performance of EMC™ storage systems. However, keep in mind the following issues for EMC support:


  • On the details page for an EMC storage system, duplicate NAS nodes might be displayed if the EMC's NAS Servers support both NFS and CIFS protocols. This issue occurs because each protocol represents a node. For example, on the same NAS server, if nas1451 supports NFS and NAS1451 supports CIFS protocols, two node entries are displayed on the details page for the storage system.
  • Information about both FC and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) ports are returned when FC ports are probed.
  • VNXe:
    • Thin-provisioned volumes: The value for allocated space is incorrect.
    • Total or available capacity values of each storage tier in a storage pool are incorrect.
  • VNX:
    • Thin pools: The value for physical allocated space is incorrect.
    • File system pools are not displayed.
    • Total or available capacity values of each storage tier in a storage pool are incorrect.
    • Disk and volume response times and utilization percentages: The displayed values for these metrics are higher than their actual value.
  • VMAX3:
    • Available pool space or any allocated capacity values are always 0.
    • All aggregated volume capacity values are 0 because of the missing relationship between pools and volumes.
    • Mappings of volume to pool and volume to disk are not displayed.
  • Reporting: In Cognos Analytics, pre-defined reports might not be available for EMC storage systems.

Language-related issues



Changing language in web browser doesn't change the entire Spectrum Control GUI


When the WebSphere Liberty Profile (WLP) is running in another language, other than English, the user can not change the Spectrum Control GUI to English. However, it can be changed to any language other than English (the default language) and some fields in the Spectrum Control GUI are displayed in an incorrect language.

The work around is to modify the WLP language to English:

1. Stop the Spectrum Control web server
2. Navigate to:
<TPC_install_location>\wlp\usr\servers\webServer\
3 Edit jvm.options file, and add these lines:
-Duser.language=en
-Duser.region=GB
4. Start the web server
5. Open the web browser, set the language in the browser, and open the Spectrum Control GUI.
6. (optional) Confirm the changes were made by viewing log file.
Navigate to <TPC_install_location>\wlp\usr\servers\webServer\logs\
Open the console.log file, the content should be in English.

On AIX operating systems, if the language is set to FR_FR, text might not appear correctly on some installation pages

On AIX operating systems, if the language is set to FR_FR, the Welcome page and the Single Server Installation Information page may not display correctly. For example, text might be truncated or there might not be enough space between sentences.

Some characters might not be displayed correctly in reports in PDF format

Characters from the Mongolian, Tibetan, or Yi languages are displayed as square boxes in reports in PDF format. To resolve this problem, you must enable IBM Cognos Analytics to display Chinese characters correctly. For more information about how to enable IBM Cognos to display Chinese characters correctly, see the IBM Cognos Business Analytics 11.0 knowledge center. Search for Chinese characters.

PDF files do not export correctly in languages and locations with non-Latin 1 code pages

In the IBM Spectrum Control web-based UI, PDF files do not export correctly in some languages and locations.
The affected languages are:
  • Chinese (Simplified)
  • Chinese (Traditional)
  • Czech
  • Hungarian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Polish
  • Russian

When you export to CSV and HTML, the correct output is generated in all languages and locations.

You must use Cognos Analytics to generate reports and export these reports as PDF files. For more information about exporting reports as PDF files, see IBM Cognos Analytics knowledge center Version 11.0. Search for Export Data in PDF Format.

Other monitoring products



Running an ITM Agent with Spectrum Control 5.2.16

The IBM Spectrum Control ITM Agent fails with:
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ibm.tpc.authorization.data.DBOperationFailedException at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381) when trying to run test_tpc_servers.bat

1) Ensure a IBM Java 1.8 Java Runtime Environment is installed and locate the installation folder.
2) Install the Spectrum Control ITM agent.
3) Configure the path to the IBM Java 1.8 Java Runtime Environment:

Linux:
Go to the ITM installation folder (usually /opt/IBM/ITM). In the following files uncomment and replace the line starting with:
'#export JAVA_HOME=###JRE 1.8####'
with:
export JAVA_HOME=<path to locally installed IBM Java 1.8 Java Runtime Environment>:
lx8266/p1/bin/tpcagent.sh
lx8266/p1/bin/test_tpc_servers.sh

AIX:
Go to the ITM installation folder (usually /opt/IBM/ITM). In the following files uncomment and replace the line starting with:
'#export JAVA_HOME=###JRE 1.8####'
with:
export JAVA_HOME=<path to locally installed IBM Java 1.8 Java Runtime Environment>:
aix523/p1/bin/tpcagent.sh
aix523/p1/bin/test_tpc_servers.sh

Windows:
Go to the ITM installation folder (usually C:\IBM\ITM). In the following files uncomment and replace the line starting with:
'#export JAVA_HOME=###JRE 1.8####'
with:
export JAVA_HOME=<path to locally installed IBM Java 1.8 Java Runtime Environment>:
TMAITM6\tpcagent.bat
TMAITM6\test_tpc_servers.bat

4) Configure and start the Spectrum Control ITM agent

When reconfiguring a running monitoring agent, the agent cannot be restarted to use the new configuration

The IBM Spectrum Control Monitoring Agent can be used by the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server to monitor systems in your enterprise. This monitoring agent is an optional program that you can install and use in your enterprise. You can reconfigure a monitoring agent, if necessary, by using the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Services Console. If the monitoring agent is running when you reconfigure an agent, the agent must be restarted for the new configuration to take effect. If the agent is running, you are asked if you want to restart it. However, the restart operation fails. If errors are returned that indicate the agent was not stopped and started, use the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Services Console to manually stop and then start the monitoring agent.

IBM Spectrum Control data is not displayed on IBM Tivoli Monitoring: Tivoli Enterprise Portal desktop client in a distributed configuration

In some cases, the workspaces of the IBM Tivoli Monitoring Agent for IBM Spectrum Control do not display in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP) desktop client when the Tivoli Monitoring Agent is installed on the same server as the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Services, and the Tivoli Enterprise Portal server is installed on a different server. To resolve this, install the TEP user interface extension from the Tivoli Monitoring Agent package on the same machine that the TEP server is installed on.

Linux file system capacity is reported differently by IBM Spectrum Control and TADDM

The capacity of Linux file systems is reported differently by IBM Spectrum Control and Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager. The capacity value reported by IBM Spectrum Control is similar to the value reported by the Linux operating system.

Data displayed in other Tivoli products uses older data type labels

When IBM Spectrum Control data is displayed in other Tivoli products, such as Tivoli Business Service Manager and Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager, those applications use incorrect labels for some data types. The incorrect labels are from Tivoli Storage Productivity Center version earlier than V5.2.

Other Tivoli applications might also use GB or MB capacity values rather than GiB or MiB, which IBM Spectrum Control V5.2 and later use.

Examples:
Pre-TPC 5.2.x LabelTPC 5.2.x Label
Volume Group CapacityPool Capacity
Volume Group Freespace Available Pool Space
Allocated CapacityAssigned Volume Space
Available CapacityUnassigned Volume space


Cognos Analytics

Performance reports are not available in Cognos Analytics reports for FlashSystem™ 840, FlashSystem 900, and IBM Spectrum Scale



To view performance metrics for those storage systems, use the IBM Spectrum Control GUI. For more information, see Monitoring the performance of resources.

GPFS/GSS/Spectrum Scale is not supported in Cognos Analytics
  • GPFS/GSS/Spectrum Scale™ file systems are not correctly represented in Cognos reports and are not supported in Cognos.

Cognos predefined volume capacity reports do not show mirrored volumes
Capacity of mirrored volumes of SVC/Storwize is not correctly reported in Cognos predefined reports.

You can follow the progress of the APAR related to this issue here:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT20741

Links to icons in Spectrum Control 5.2.16 predefined reports are broken when reports are deployed in Cognos Analytics 11.x
When you go to generate one of the Spectrum Control predefined reports in Cognos Analytics 11.x, you should notice that there are 1 or more broken links to icons. This is happening because the icon image files that were used previously in the JazzSM/TCR environment are not present or are not in the same location in the Cognos Analytics 11.x environment.

Links to Help in Spectrum Control 5.2.16 predefined reports launch the public Spectrum Control Knowledge Center
When using the Cognos Analytics User Interface to generate Spectrum Control predefined reports, the Help link will launch the public Spectrum Control Knowledge Center. The system running Cognos Analytics will need access to the internet in order to get to the Knowledge Center. Alternatively you can open the Knowledge Center installed on the Spectrum Control server and navigate to the reporting topics.

Documentation updates and corrections


Replacing a CIM agent for block storage systems, fabrics, and switches
You can replace the Common Information Model (CIM) agent for storage resources without
interrupting the collection of performance data or losing historical data.

Attention: Depending on your environment, the procedure for replacing a CIM agent takes
approximately 30 minutes. Before you begin, check whether a probe job is already in progress for
the resource or is scheduled to occur while you replace the CIM agent. Plan the replacement during
a time when the probe job is not occurring.

About this task
You might want to replace a CIM agent for a storage resource for the following reasons:
- The CIM agent might need to be upgraded to support data collection for the storage resource.
- The CIM agent might run on a different operating system, network, or with a different IP address.

You can replace a CIM agent on IBM System Storage DS4000®, IBM System Storage DS5000™, and IBM System Storage DS6000™. You can also replace a CIM agent on a third-party block storage system, such as an EMC storage system. You cannot replace a CIM agent on IBM System Storage DS8000** (the DS8000 uses a native API (NAPI) connection, rather than a CIMOM).

To replace a CIM agent, follow these steps:

Procedure
1. Using the instructions that came with your CIM agent software, install the new CIM agent and
add the storage resource that it manages. The procedure varies, depending on the type of storage
resource.
2. Choose one of the following procedures:

Type of storage resource
Procedure for adding a storage resource to the CIM agent configuration
- To add a storage system See https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS5R93_5.2.16/com.ibm.spectrum.sc.doc/fqz0_t_wz_adding_storage_systems.html
- To add a fabric or a switch See https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS5R93_
5.2.15/com.ibm.spectrum.sc.doc/fqz0_t_wz_adding_fabrics_switches.html

3. In IBM Spectrum Control, run the Add Device Wizard for the new CIM agent. After the wizard
discovers the storage resource, a message is displayed to confirm that the data source (CIM agent)
was added for monitoring. Close the window.
4. In the IBM Spectrum Control web GUI, right-click the storage resource and click Connections >
Test Connection > [IP address of the new CIM agent]. Verify that the test was successful.
5. Remove the storage system or fabric switch from the old CIM agent.
6. Optional: Shut down the old CIM agent services or the device that runs the old CIM agent.
7. Restart the probe to continue the collection of asset, capacity, and configuration data for the
resource.
8. Check the status of the probe and performance monitor to ensure that the data is being collected
for the storage resource.

Results
The CIM agent is replaced. Depending on your resource or CIM agent, the old association of
storage resource and CIM agent might continue to display with the new association in the
Connections menu. The old CIM agent does not interfere with operation. It cannot be selected as a
CIM agent for the storage resource.

Instructions for adding customized text to the logon page are not correct.

On the logon page for IBM Spectrum Control, you can show customized text when users access the GUI.



Important: Depending on the specific operating system, there might be a jar command in the path. Otherwise, use the jar command that comes in the <DB2 install dir>/java/ directory.

Procedure
  1. Log on to the machine where you installed the IBM Spectrum Control server.
  2. Change the directory to <installation_dir>/lib/, where <installation_dir> is the directory is where you installed IBM Spectrum Control.
  3. Copy the TPC_GUI.jar file to a temporary directory.
  4. Change to the directory where you copied the TPC_GUI.jar file.
  5. Run the following command: jar xvf TPC_GUI.jar customization/LoginText.html
  6. In the customization directory, open the LoginText.html file in a text editor:
    1. Type the text that you want to show to the user before they log on to the GUI.
      Tip:       To format the text that you want to add, you can use HTML tags, such as paragraph tags <p>, list tags <ol>, bold tags <b>, and italic tags <i>.
    2. Save the LoginText.html file.
  7. Change the directory back one level and run the following command: jar uvf TPC_GUI.jar customization/LoginText.html
  8. Change the directory to <installation dir>/lib/.
  9. Copy the TPC_GUI.jar file that you updated in Step 7 to the <installation dir>/lib/ directory.
  10. Stop and then start the Web server.
  11. Open the GUI.

Results
The customized text that you added is shown below the logon page.

Instructions for Installing Cognos Analytics.

If you install IBM Cognos Analytics that comes with the IBM Spectrum Control package, on the Product installation page in the IBM Cognos Analytics installation program, select IBM Cognos Analytics (IBM Bundler Edition).



Browser Issues

Browser displays a security certificate error



Some browsers will display: "There is a problem with this website's security certificate." when logging on. To continue to the web-based GUI, click "Continue to this website" and you will be returned to the previous page. This behavior does not occur on all browsers.

Limitations and known issues when using IBM Spectrum Control with VMware vSphere


The following limitations and known issues can occur when you use IBM Spectrum Control with VMware® vSphere®:

Registering an IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider fails because the URL is not available

Attempting to register the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider in VMware fails and is not available to be registered.
The Spectrum Control URL https://full_qualified_hostname:9569/vasa/services/tpc does not operate as expected, and registration fails, and one or both of these errors are encountered:

BTAVM2240E
The registration of the vSphere Web Client extension for IBM Spectrum Control did not complete
while updating the VASA web archive file, vasa.war, with the IBM Spectrum Control server
configuration.

BTAVM2248E
The registration of IBM Spectrum Control as a VASA provider did not complete.

This is a current limitation and VASA provider registration is unavailable until a Spectrum Control fix is provided.

You can follow the progress of the APAR related to this issue here:  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IT23498

Following redeployment, the IBM Spectrum Control build version does not match the version number of the vSphere Web Client extension

After you redeploy the vSphere Web Client extension, the IBM Spectrum Control build version might not match the version number of the vSphere Web Client extension. To resolve this issue, complete the following steps to redeploy the extension:

1. On the vSphere Web Client computer that connects to the vCenter Server system where the extension is installed, go to the plug-in directory:
  • On Windows operating systems:
      • C:\ProgramData\VMware\vSphere Web Client\vc-packages\vsphere-clientserenity
  • On Linux operating systems:
      • /var/lib/vmware/vsphere-client/vc-packages\vsphere-client-serenity

2. Delete the packages for the vSphere Web Client extension. Package files use the following naming convention: com.ibm.tpc-TPC-build-number.

3. Delete the TPCServerConfiguration.properties file. The file is stored in the following location:
  • On Windows operating systems:
      %PROGRAMDATA%\IBM\TPC

      For example, C:\ProgramData\IBM\TPC\ or %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\IBM\TPC
      For example, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\IBM\TPC\
  • On Linux operating systems:
      /opt/IBM/TPC

4. Redeploy the vSphere Web Client extension.

5. Restart the VMware vSphere Web Client service.

6. Log in to the vSphere Web Client. From the vSphere Web Client Home tab, in the Administration section, click the IBM Spectrum Control icon. Confirm that the IBM Spectrum Control build version matches the version number of the vSphere Web Client extension.

Alerts omit the storage provider name

In the vSphere Client, the Events tab shows the Storage provider name that is associated with an alert. In the vSphere Web Client, the Events Console omits the Storage provider name.

The vSphere Web Client extension recovery after the vSphere Web Client server restarts

A vCenter Server provisioning task might stay in a Queued state during the approval process by the IBM Spectrum Control administrator. During this time, the vSphere Web Client server or the host machine might be restarted.

The vSphere Web Client can close a connection to the vCenter Server after a time-out. The default for this time-out is 120 minutes.

If a time-out occurs, the vSphere Web Client extension for IBM Spectrum Control restores the connectivity to the vCenter Server and IBM Spectrum Control when a user logs in to the vSphere Web Client. The status of the provisioning task is updated based on the status of the task in IBM Spectrum Control.

To start the recovery process, log in to the vSphere Web Client and go to one of the following panels in the vSphere Web Client extension:
  • IBM Spectrum Control provisioning
  • IBM Spectrum Control saving configuration information
  • IBM Spectrum Control storage system metrics

The All IBM Spectrum Control Actions string is not translated in some locales

Due to an error in the translation process, the All Spectrum Control Actions string is not translated in double-byte locales.

Deploying the vSphere Web Client extension on vCenter Server 5.5 fails on Windows 2008 or Linux

If you deploy the vSphere Web Client extension from a IBM Spectrum Control server onto a vCenter Server 5.5 that is installed on Windows 2008 or Linux, the deployment fails. The following message is displayed:
BTAVM2244E The remote registration of the vSphere Web Client extension for IBM Spectrum Control did not complete.

The deployment fails due to a handshake issue with the vSphere Client, vSphere PowerCLI, and vCenter Server 5.5.

To learn how to resolve this issue, go to the VMware Knowledge Base at
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice. Search for vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI
may fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.5 due to a Handshake failure (2049143).

Limitations when using vCenter 5.1
The following are limitations when using vCenter 5.1. They are resolved in vCenter 5.5.

Provisioning with VMware datastore creation to a clustered ESX 5.1 is partially complete
If you provision storage with datastore creation to two clustered ESX 5.1 hypervisors by using the vSphere Web Client extension, the datastore is not assigned to the second hypervisor. The datastore is not assigned because of a LUN snapshot issue in VMware vCenter Server.

To learn how to resolve this issue, go to the VMware Knowledge Base at http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice. Search for vSphere handling of LUNs detected as snapshot LUNs (1011387).

Storage DRS calls fail for datastore clusters with file system storage

When a IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider is added to the vCenter 5.1 Server, a datastore cluster that contains a NetApp datastore and an IBM Scale Out Network Attached Storage datastore fails to log Storage DRS calls.

vCenter 5.1 Server does not send a storage DRS request to the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider

In a datastore clustered NFS environment, vCenter 5.1 Server does not send a Storage DRS request to the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider. System Capability and Storage Provider Namespace values are populated correctly.

IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider alarms might be displayed in the Events panel

IBM Spectrum Control alerts that are sent as alarms to the vCenter 5.1 Server from the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider might be displayed in the Events panel, instead of the Alarms panel.

IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider SpaceCapacity alarm might behave inconsistently

If a VASA SpaceCapacity alarm is return to a LUN that does not belong to a datastore, an event is displayed in the vCenter 5.1 Server. If the LUN belongs to a datastore, two non-relevant events are displayed.

vCenter 5.1 Server does not display events from the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider

The SMS log might show that events were received from the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider and an attempt was made to post them to the vCenter 5.1 Server.

In the vSphere Client, click Home > Management > Events. The event from the VASA provider is not logged. In the vSphere Web Client, click Home > Monitoring > Event Console. The event from the VASA provider is not displayed.

vCenter 5.1 Server does not send a storage DRS request to the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider

In a datastore clustered NFS environment, vCenter 5.1 Server does not send a Storage DRS request to the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider. System Capability and Storage Provider Namespace values are populated correctly.

IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider alarms might be displayed in the Events panel

IBM Spectrum Control alerts that are sent as alarms to the vCenter 5.1 Server from the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider might be displayed in the Events panel, instead of the Alarms panel.

IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider SpaceCapacity alarm might behave inconsistently

If a VASA SpaceCapacity alarm is returned to a LUN that does not belong to a datastore, an event is displayed in the vCenter 5.1 Server. If the LUN belongs to a datastore, two non-relevant events are displayed.

Alarms with the StorageFileSystem entity type are flagged as unknown

For the IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider alarms on StorageFileSystem objects that are returned to the vCenter 5.1 Server, an unknown vCenter identifier is displayed.
Delay in refreshing IBM Spectrum Control VASA provider data in Storage Reports after synchronization

VASA provider data can take some time to be displayed in Storage Reports after a successful synchronization.

The Volume Not Found alert might not be displayed in vCenter Server

The vCenter Server SMS log shows a generated alert, but the alert is not displayed on the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client.

[{"Product":{"code":"SS5R93","label":"IBM Spectrum Control"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Component":"--","Platform":[{"code":"PF002","label":"AIX"},{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"},{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"5.2.16","Edition":"All Editions","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
22 February 2022

UID

swg22011604

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