IBM Support

IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights Support for IBM FlashSystem 5000/7000/9000/C200, and V840, V9000 families

Product Documentation


Abstract

Support of IBM FlashSystem 5000/7000/9000/C200 families, and IBM FlashSystem V840 and IBM FlashSystem V9000 with IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Control 5.4 (all versions).

Content

IBM FlashSystem supported software/firmware levels:

Storage systemsSupported Software
IBM FlashSystem 5000  8
  
IBM FlashSystem 5100  
 
IBM FlashSystem 5200   § 1 

IBM FlashSystem 5300   § 1, 6 
 
Tested firmware levels:  
  • 8.7.0  7
  • 8.6.0.1
  • 8.5.3
  • 8.5.1
  • 8.5 *
  • 8.4
  • 8.3 *
IBM FlashSystem 7200   § 1 
 
IBM FlashSystem 7300   § 1 
 
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.7.0  7
  • 8.6.0.1
  • 8.5.3
  • 8.5.1
  • 8.5 *
  • 8.4
  • 8.3.1 *
IBM FlashSystem 9100   § 1  
 
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.7.0  7
  • 8.6.0.1
  • 8.5.3
  • 8.5.1
  • 8.5 *
  • 8.4
  • 8.3 *
IBM FlashSystem 9200   § 1  
 
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.7.0  7
  • 8.6.0.1
  • 8.5.3
  • 8.5.1
  • 8.5 *
IBM FlashSystem 9500   § 1
 
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.7.0  7
  • 8.6.0.1
  • 8.5.3
  • 8.5.1
  • 8.5 *
IBM FlashSystem C200   § 9
 
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.7.2.2  7
IBM FlashSystem V9000 2, 3, 4 EOS
Tested firmware levels:
  • 8.3.1 *
  • 8.3
  • 8.2
  • 8.1
  • 7.8
  • 7.7
IBM FlashSystem V840 5 EOS
As-is Software:
8.1.3.6
8.1 *
7.8.1
7.8
7.7  


Tip:

  • Newer firmware levels are also supported. For IBM Spectrum Control, an upgrade to a later version might be required, particularly for new functions. IBM Storage Insights is automatically upgraded.
  • If any problems occur when you use newer firmware levels, open a support case. IBM Support then investigates the problem and attempts to resolve it. You can open cases for IBM Storage Insights or IBM Spectrum Control at https://www.ibm.com/mysupport/ 
  • If any problems occur while using older, end of support, as-is software levels, upgrade to an officially supported version.
  • View the Support Statement for the Spectrum Virtualize Family of Products and Related Software for up-to-date software version lifecycle information.
  • § For Call Home with cloud services, storage systems that run IBM Spectrum Virtualize 8.5.3 and later, and have 128 GB or more of system memory per node, can be integrated with IBM Storage Insights by using Call Home with cloud services.  For more information see Enabling Call Home with cloud services.  Note that FlashSystem 5000 and 5100 do not support Call Home with cloud services.

  
 

Limitations and considerations

  • Important notes when integrating Storage systems with IBM Storage Insights:
    • Ransomware threat detection is available through Data Collector, but if you want to take advantage of the ransomware threat detection associated with FlashCore Module drives, you'll need to monitor the device through Call Home with cloud services.
  • 1 For Storage systems that integrate with IBM Storage Insights by using Call Home with cloud services: 
    • Storage systems on firmware level 8.5.4 - 8.6.0.2 may experience timeouts when probing, collecting performance data, or while uploading log packages.  If this occurs the Data Collection and Performance Monitor Status will show as "No Call Home Contact".  To prevent and resolve the problem upgrade firmware to 8.6.0.3 or later.  For a workaround and more details, see details in SVC APAR 110059 and SVC APAR 117768.
    • Storage Insights log collection upload may fail with message "a log upload is already running or has been run too recently". Sometimes this prevents future log upload requests from starting. This is resolved in firmware 8.7.0.7 and higher, and on 9.1.0.0 and higher. For more details, see SVC APAR 148606.
    • Volume groups and policy based replication are newer functions and are only monitored through Call Home with cloud services.
  • 2 Older Flash Storage firmware levels are supported (such as 7.8.x), but calculation of Physical Stored Capacity rendered in IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Control might not match actual values of the storage system.  According to the IBM Storwize team, the correct calculation for Physical Allocated Space for the V9000 is in firmware levels 8.1.3.4+, 8.2.0.2+ and 8.2.1+ and match the calculations used in the V9000 GUI for Physical Stored Capacity.  For more information, see APAR IT29167. To prevent the problem, upgrade the FlashSystem firmware to 8.1.3.4+, 8.2.0.2+ or 8.2.1 or later.
  • 3 IBM Storage Insights and IBM Spectrum Control can only manage the control nodes of a V9000 cluster, it cannot manage the backend FlashSystem module. For more information, see APAR IT24763 and Limitations and Known Issues Document.
  • 4 IBM FlashSystem V9000 reached End of Service as of 31 December 2022.
  • 5 IBM FlashSystem V840 reached End of Service as of 31 December 2019.
  • 6 IBM Spectrum Control 5.4.12 and higher support IBM FlashSystem 5300.
  • 7 IBM Spectrum Control 5.4.12 and higher support firmware level 8.7.0 and above.  
  • 8 IBM Spectrum Control has known issues monitoring IBM FlashSystem 5045 and is not yet supported.  For more information see APAR IT45972.
  • 9 IBM Spectrum Control 5.4.13.1 and higher support IBM FlashSystem C200.  
  • * Firmware level 8.5.0.5 is supported, but may cause problems when adding the system to IBM Storage Insights.  Suggest upgrading to 8.5.0.7 or later.
  • * Firmware levels 8.3.1.2 - 8.3.1.5 have known issues and are not supported.  For more information see Spectrum Control APAR IT40647 and Storage Insights APAR IT42491.  To prevent or resolve the problem upgrade system firmware to 8.3.1.6 or later.
  • * Firmware 8.1.3.5 has known issues and is not supported.  For more information see APAR IT31680 and corresponding SVC APAR HU01916.
  • View the Support Statement for the Spectrum Virtualize Family of Products and Related Software for up-to-date software version lifecycle information.
 
 

Learn more about IBM Spectrum Control

IBM Spectrum Control is an on-premises storage management, monitoring, and reporting solution for storage systems, hypervisors, servers, fabrics, and switches.

  • For detailed information about the capabilities of IBM Spectrum Control, see IBM Docs.
  • For a complete list of the storage systems that are supported by Spectrum Control, see Supported Storage Products.
 

Learn more about IBM Storage Insights

IBM Storage Insights is a complementary offering to IBM Spectrum Control. It's an off-premises, IBM Cloud service that provides cognitive support capabilities, monitoring, and reporting for storage systems.

  • For detailed information about the capabilities of IBM Storage Insights, see IBM Docs.
  • For a complete list of the storage systems that are supported by IBM Storage Insights, see Supported resources .

 

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Document Information

Modified date:
16 September 2025

UID

swg27050051

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