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Monitoring IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud with IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights

Product Documentation


Abstract

Configure IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud for monitoring with IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights.

Content

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is a software-defined storage solution that has been proven for years in SAN Volume Controller and the IBM Storwize family. IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud extends that solution to a hybrid-cloud or cloud-based model, where servers, storage, and network infrastructure are delivered in a public cloud environment. It can be deployed on either IBM® Cloud or Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructures.

With IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights, you can view the capacity, space usage, and performance of your IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems. Other monitoring features, such as alerting, health checking, advanced analytics, and reporting are also supported. For more information about the supported features, see the following knowledge centers:

Before you can add an IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage system for monitoring, you must ensure that IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights can connect to it. To enable a connection, you can use the following methods:

  • Method 1: (IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights) Use the site-to-site VPN IPSec tunnel that exists between the on-premises environment and the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems. Use this method if there are security or operations constraints related to controlling outbound internet connections in your cloud environment.
  • Method 2: (IBM Storage Insights) Install the data collector directly on the Linux bastion host in Amazon Web Services (AWS).  Use this method if you have access to the bastion host and want to implement off-premises metadata collection.

Method 1: Monitoring IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud with on-premises data collection (Site to Site VPN IPsec)

Overview

To enable a secure connection between IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, you can use the site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) IPSec tunnel that exists between the on-premises environment and the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud instances.

The VPN IPSec site-to-site tunnel is a secure communication network between the cloud infrastructure and the on-premises environment. Network communication between the private subnets is controlled by the access control list (ACL) that is populated when you create the VPN IPSec site-to-site tunnel.

What to do

Typically, a bi-directional, IPsec site-to-site tunnel is limited to the subnets that contain the following IP addresses:

  • On-premises IBM Spectrum Virtualize cluster and replication target
  • Cloud-based IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud cluster and replication target

For IBM Spectrum Control: To use the IPsec site-to-site tunnel for communication between IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, you must include the IP addresses of your IBM Spectrum Control servers (or the subnet in which they reside) in the tunnel definition as one of the on-premises endpoints.

For IBM Storage Insights: To use the IPsec site-to-site tunnel for communication between IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, you must include the IP address of the server or virtual machine where the data collector is installed in the tunnel definition as one of the on-premises endpoints.

For example, in the AWS Management Console, you can define the following:

  • The external (internet-routable) IP address of the on-premises IPsec tunnel endpoint.
  • The subnet / IP addresses for the on-premises IBM Spectrum Control servers, IBM Spectrum Virtualize cluster, and replication target that will communicate through the tunnel.
  • The IP addresses of the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud cluster and replication target in AWS that will communicate through the tunnel.

When defined, you can export a configuration file that can be used in different IPsec VPN devices, such as  Vyatta and Juniper (Junos VPN Site Secure).

Contact your network and firewall administrators to help set up this communication between IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud.

What's next

To complete the setup for monitoring your IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage with IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Storage Insights, complete the following steps:

  1. In IBM Spectrum Control, go to Storage > Block Storage Systems. In IBM Storage Insights, go to Resources > Block Storage Systems.
  2. Click Add Storage Systems.
  3. Click the SVC or Spectrum Virtualize icon.
  4. Specify the IP address and authentication credentials for the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud instance in AWS that you want to monitor.
  5. Click Connect.

The storage system is added for monitoring and is automatically added to the default alert policy for the storage system type. A probe is automatically run to collect status, configuration, and capacity information about the storage system.

Method 2: Monitoring IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud with off-premises data collection (in AWS and installed on the bastion host)

Overview

You can use IBM Storage Insights to monitor IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems in AWS by installing the data collector on AWS. Install the data collector on AWS if your IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems only support applications that are hosted on AWS.

Tip: If an IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage system is being used as a replication target from an on-premises environment, there should already be an existing VPN or dedicated link in place. In this case, install a data collector on-premises or use an existing data collector if one is currently monitoring the storage system.
What to do
To enable a secure connection between IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems, install the IBM Storage Insights data collector on the Linux bastion host in AWS. The bastion host is provisioned by default in the AWS CloudFormation template. Therefore, the bastion host already has outbound internet access and has access to the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems.
Prerequisites
The IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage systems are deployed in AWS.
What's next

To complete the setup for monitoring your IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage with IBM Storage Insights, complete the following steps:

  1. Identify the external IP address of the bastion host.
  2. Connect to the bastion host by using the private key. Enter a command like this:
    ssh -i <path_to_key>/privateKey.pem centos@<external_ip_of_bastion>
  3. Run the enable-sv-cloud-management-gui command on the bastion host to activate the GUI proxy.
  4. Complete the postinstallation configuration of the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage system.  On the Storage Insights page, register for IBM Storage Insights.
  5. Create a new public and private key pair for use with IBM Storage Insights. Use the PEM file format for the key pair.
  6. Create an IBM Storage Insights user with security administrator (secadmin) role authority in the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage system in AWS.
  7. Associate the public key that you created in step 5 with the IBM Storage Insights user with security administrator role authority.
  8. After the IBM Storage Insights instance is created, download the Linux data collector.
  9. Use the Linux scp command to copy the data collector securely to the bastion host. Use the key pair whose private key you used in step 2.
  10. Install the data collector on the bastion host.
  11. Log in to your IBM Storage Insights instance with the IBM ID you used during the registration process. Click Configuration > Data Collectors, then confirm that the data collector is communicating.
  12. In the IBM Storage Insights GUI, go to Resources > Block Storage Systems.
  13. Click Add Storage Systems.
  14. Click the SVC or Spectrum Virtualize icon.
  15. Enter the IP address for the cluster for the IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud storage system. You can get this IP address from any of the following locations:
    • In the IBM Spectrum Virtualize GUI, click Settings > Network > Management IP Addresses.
    • On the bastion host, from the /etc/ssh/ssh_config configuration files.
    • The AWS CloudFormation postinstallation output.
  16. Select SSH as the authentication type, select the private key from step 5 as the SSH key. Enter the IBM Storage Insights user ID from step 6 as the SSH user.
  17. Click Connect.

For your reference

Want to learn more about IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud? No problem. IBM provides the following documentation for your reference:

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
22 February 2022

UID

ibm11088194

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