Preventive Service Planning
Abstract
This document lists the configuration limits and restrictions specific to IBM Storwize V7000 software version 7.5
Content
The use of WAN optimization devices such as Riverbed is not supported in native Ethernet IP partnership configurations containing Storwize V7000.
Clustered Systems
A Storwize V7000 system at version 7.5 and higher requires native Fibre Channel SAN or alternatively 8Gbps/16Gbps Direct Attach Fibre Channel connectivity for communication between all nodes in the local cluster. Fibre Channel over Ethernet ( FCoE ) connectivity for communication between all nodes in the local cluster is also supported.
Partnerships between systems for Metro Mirror or Global Mirror replication can be used with both Fibre Channel, Native Ethernet connectivity and FCoE connectivity, however direct FCoE links are only supported to a maximum of 300 metres. Distances greater than 300 metres are only supported when using an FCIP link or Fibre Channel between source and target.
Direct Attachment
For information on support configurations using direct attachment please visit the following document
Direct Attachment of Storwize and SAN Volume Controller Systems
Encryption
Minimum required Storwize V7000 software level for encryption is V7.4.0.2.
If using encryption in a cluster containing both Gen1 and Gen2 Storwize V7000 control enclosures, all Gen2 control enclosures (2076-524) must have encryption licensed and enabled. With this configuration, only RAID arrays/MDisks on the Gen2 control enclosure(s) can enable encryption.
Cisco Nexus
The minimum level of Cisco Nexus firmware supported for FCoE with the IBM Storwize V7000 Gen2 is 5.2(1)N1(2a).
16Gbps Fibre Channel Canister Connection
Please see SSIC for supported 16Gbps Fibre Channel configurations supported with 16Gbps node hardware. Note 16Gbps Node hardware is supported when connected to Brocade and Cisco 8Gbps or 16Gbps fabrics only. Direct connections to 2Gbps or 4Gbps SAN or direct host attachment to 2Gbps or 4Gbps ports is not supported. Other configured switches which are not directly connected to the16Gbps Node hardware can be any supported fabric switch as currently listed in SSIC.
IP Partnership
Using an Ethernet Switch to convert a 10Gbps IP partnership link to 1Gbps link and vice versa is not supported. Therefore, the IP infrastructure on the two partnership sites should both be 1Gbps or 10Gbps. However, bandwidth limiting on 10Gbps and 1Gbps IP partnership between sites is supported.
Fabric Limitations
Only one FCF ( Fibre Channel Forwarder ) switch per fabric is supported.
HyperSwap
When using the HyperSwap function with software version 7.5 and higher, please configure your host multipath driver to use an ALUA-based path policy.
Due to the requirement for multiple access IO groups, iSCSI and SAS attached host types are not supported with HyperSwap volumes.
AIX Live Partition Mobility (LPM)
AIX LPM is not currently supported with the HyperSwap function.
VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols)
The use of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (VVols) on a system that is configured for HyperSwap is not currently supported with SVC/Storwize.
DS4000 Maintenance
Storwize V7000 supports concurrent ESM firmware upgrades for those DS4000 models listed as such on the Supported Hardware List when they are running either 06.23.05.00 or later controller firmware. However, controllers running firmware levels earlier than 06.23.05.00 will not be supported for concurrent ESM upgrades. Customers in this situation, who wish to gain support for concurrent ESM upgrades, will need to first upgrade the DS4000 controller firmware level to 06.23.05.00. This action is a controller firmware upgrade, not an ESM upgrade and concurrent controller firmware upgrades are already supported in conjunction with Storwize V7000. Once the controller firmware is at 06.23.05.00 or later the ESM firmware can be upgraded concurrently.
Note: The DS4000 ESM firmware upgrade must be done on one disk expansion enclosure at a time. A 10 minute delay from when one enclosure is upgraded to the start of the upgrade of another enclosure is required. Confirm via the Storage Manager applications "Recovery Guru" that the DS4000 status is in an optimal state before upgrading the next enclosure. If it is not, then do not continue ESM firmware upgrades until the problem is resolved.
Host Limitations
Microsoft Offload Data Transfer ( ODX ) and SDDDSM Requirements
Storwize V7000 version 7.5.0 introduced support for Microsft ODX. In order to utilise this function all windows hosts accessing Storwize V7000 are required to be at a minimum SDDDSM version of 2.4.5.0. Earlier versions of SDDDSM are not supported when the ODX function is activated.
Windows NTP server
The Linux NTP client used by Storwize V7000 may not always function correctly with Windows W32Time NTP Server
TPC Restrictions
TPC Supported Versions
The minimum supported TPC version for SVC/Storwize version 7.5 is TPC 5.2.6.
Vdisk Migration
When a vdisk is migrated between a child pool and its parent, or between child pools of the same parent, it is necessary to re-probe the cluster from TPC as no event is logged on the cluster for this type of migration
Migrations between non-child pools also currently require a re-probe
These issues will be addressed in future releases of TPC and SVC/Storwize Code.
Oracle
Oracle Version and OS | Restrictions that apply: |
| Oracle Release 11.2 any platform | 1 |
| Oracle Release 12.1 any platform |
Oracle ASM disk groups may dismount with the following error
"Waited 15 secs for write IO to PST"
Recommendation
Increase the asm_hbeatiowait to 120 seconds to prevent this issue occurring.
Applies to Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 11.2.0.3 to 12.1.0.1 [Release 11.2 to 12.1] on any platform
Priority Flow Control for iSCSI
Priority Flow Control for iSCSI is supported on Brocade VDX 10-gigabit Ethernet switches only.
Maximum Configurations
Configuration limits for Storwize V7000:
Maximum WWPNs per host Object and iSCSI Names
The maximum number of FC/SAS/FCoE hosts ports supported per host object is now 32 (previously 512).
The maximum number of iSCSI names supported per host object is now 8 (previously 256).
Please see the following document
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1005261
| Property | Maximum Number | Comments |
System (Cluster) Properties | ||
| Control enclosures per system (cluster) | 4 | Each control enclosure contains two node canisters |
| Nodes per system | 8 | Arranged as four I/O groups |
| Nodes per fabric | 64 | Maximum number of maximum number of SVC or Storwize family system nodes that can be present on the same Fibre Channel fabric, with visibility of each other |
| Fabrics per V7000 system | 6 | The number of counterpart Fibre Channel SANs which are supported - Up to 4 fabrics using native Fibre Channel ports - Up to 2 fabrics using FCoE ports |
| Fabrics per V7000 Gen 2 system | 8 | The number of counterpart SANs which are supported |
| Inter-cluster partnerships per system | 3 | A system may be partnered with up to three remote systems. No more than four systems may be in the same connected set |
| USB ports | 2 | |
Node Properties | ||
| Logins per node Fibre Channel port | 512 | Includes logins from server HBAs, disk controller ports, node ports within the same system and node ports from remote systems |
| Fibre Channel buffer credits per port - 8Gbps FC Adapter | 255 | The number of credits granted by the switch to the node |
| Fibre Channel buffer credits per port - 16Gbps FC Adapter | 4095 | The number of credits granted by the switch to the node |
| iSCSI sessions per node | 256 | 512 in IP failover mode (when partner node is unavailable) |
Managed Disk Properties | ||
| Managed disks (MDisks) per system | 4096 | The maximum number of logical units which can be managed by a system, including internal arrays. This number also includes external MDisks which have not been configured into storage pools (managed disk groups) |
| Managed disks per storage pool (managed disk group) | 128 | |
| Storage pools per system | 1024 | |
| Parent pools per system | 128 | |
| Child pools per system | 1023 | |
| Managed disk extent size | 8192 MB | |
| Capacity for an individual internal managed disk (array) | 1 PB | No limit is imposed beyond the maximum number of drives per array limits. Maximum size is dependent on the extent size of the Storage Pool. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
| Capacity for an individual external managed disk | 1 PB | Note: External managed disks larger than 2 TB are only supported for certain types of storage systems. Refer to the supported hardware matrix for further details. Maximum size is dependent on the extent size of the Storage Pool. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
| Total storage capacity manageable per system | 32 PB | Maximum requires an extent size of 8192 MB to be used This limit represents the per system maximum of 2^22 extents. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
Volume (Virtual Disk) Properties | ||
| Volumes (VDisks) per system | 8192 | Maximum requires a system containing four control enclosures; refer to the volumes per I/O group limit below |
| Volumes per I/O group (volumes per caching I/O group) | 2048 | |
| Volumes accessible per I/O group | 8192 | |
| Thin-provisioned (space-efficient) volume copies per system | 8192 | No limit is imposed here beyond the volume copies per system limit. |
| Compressed volume copies per V7000 Gen1 system | 800 | Maximum requires a system containing four control enclosures; refer to the compressed volume copies per I/O group limit below |
| Compressed volume copies per V7000 Gen1 I/O group | 200 | |
| Compressed volume copies per V7000 Gen2 system | 2048 | Maximum requires a system containing four control enclosures; refer to the compressed volume copies per I/O group limit below |
| Compressed volume copies per V7000 Gen2 I/O group | 512 | With 32GB Cache upgrade and 2nd Compression Accelerator card installed. |
| Volumes per storage pool | - | No limit is imposed beyond the volumes per system limit |
| Fully-allocated volume capacity | 256 TB | Maximum size for an individual fully-allocated volume. Maximum size is dependent on the extent size of the Storage Pool. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
| Thin-provisioned (space-efficient) volume capacity | 256 TB | Maximum size for an individual thin-provisioned volume. Maximum size is dependent on the extent size of the Storage Pool. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
| Compressed volume capacity | 96 TB | Maximum size for an individual compressed volume Maximum size is dependent on the extent size of the Storage Pool. Comparison Table: Maximum Volume, MDisk and System capacity for each extent size. |
| Host mappings per system | 20,000 | See also - volume mappings per host object below |
Mirrored Volume (Virtual Disk) Properties | ||
| Copies per volume | 2 | |
| Volume copies per system | 8192 | |
| Total mirrored volume capacity per I/O group | 1024 TB | |
Generic Host Properties | ||
| Host objects (IDs) per system | 2048 | A host object may contain both Fibre Channel ports and iSCSI names |
| Host objects (IDs) per I/O group | 512 | Refer to the additional Fibre Channel and iSCSI host limits below |
| Volume mappings per host object | 2048* | * This limit is 512 for Solaris OS |
| Total Fibre Channel ports and iSCSI names per system | 8192 | |
| Total Fibre Channel ports and iSCSI names per I/O group | 2048 | |
| Total Fibre Channel ports and iSCSI names per host object | 32 | |
| iSCSI names per host object (ID) | 8 | |
Fibre Channel Host Properties (including hosts attached using FCoE) | ||
| Fibre Channel hosts per system | 2048 | |
| Fibre Channel host ports per system | 8192 | |
| Fibre Channel hosts per I/O group | 512 | |
| Fibre Channel host ports per I/O group | 2048 | |
| Fibre Channel hosts ports per host object (ID) | 32 | |
| Port logins (4x 8Gb FC) | 1024 | |
| Port logins (2x 16Gb FC) | 2048 | |
| Simultaneous I/Os (4x 8Gb FC) | 2048 | |
| Simultaneous I/Os (2x 16Gb FC) | 4096 | |
iSCSI Host Properties | ||
| iSCSI hosts per system | 1024 | |
| iSCSI hosts per I/O group | 256 | |
| iSCSI names per host object (ID) | 8 | |
| iSCSI names per I/O group | 256 | |
Copy Services Properties | ||
| Remote Copy (Metro Mirror and Global Mirror) relationships per system | 8192 | This can be any mix of Metro Mirror and Global Mirror relationships. |
| Active-Active Relationships | 1024 | |
| Remote Copy relationships per consistency group | - | No limit is imposed beyond the Remote Copy relationships per system limit |
| Remote Copy consistency groups per system | 256 | |
| Total Metro Mirror and Global Mirror volume capacity per I/O group | 1024 TB | This limit is the total capacity for all master and auxiliary volumes in the I/O group. |
| Total number of Global Mirror with Change Volumes relationships per system | 256 | Change volumes used for active-active relationships do not count towards this limit. |
| FlashCopy mappings per system | 4096 | |
| FlashCopy targets per source | 256 | |
| FlashCopy mappings per consistency group | 512 | |
| FlashCopy consistency groups per system | 255 | |
| Total FlashCopy volume capacity per I/O group | 4096 TB | |
IP Partnership Properties | ||
| Inter-cluster IP partnerships per system | 1 | A system may be partnered with up to three remote systems. A maximum of one of those can be IP and the other two FC. |
| I/O groups per system | 2 | The nodes from a maximum of two I/O groups per system can be used for IP partnership. |
| Inter site links per IP partnership | 2 | A maximum of two inter site links can be used between two IP partnership sites. |
| Ports per node | 1 | A maximum of one port per node can be used for IP partnership. |
Internal Storage Properties | ||
| SAS chains per control enclosure | 2 | |
| Expansion enclosures per Storwize V7000 SAS chain | 5 see notes | Up to 5 expansion enclosures on SAS port 1 and up to 4 expansion enclosures on SAS port 2 |
| Expansion enclosures per Storwize V7000 control enclosure | 9 | |
| Drives per Storwize V7000 I/O group | 240 | |
| Drives per Storwize V7000 system | 960 | Maximum requires a system containing four control enclosures, each with the maximum number of expansion enclosures |
| Expansion enclosures per Storwize V7000 Gen 2 SAS chain | 10 | |
| Expansion enclosures per Storwize V7000 Gen 2 control enclosure | 20 | |
| Drives per Storwize V7000 Gen 2 I/O group | 504 | |
| Drives per Storwize V7000 Gen 2 system | 1056 | |
| Min-Max drives per enclosure | 0-12 or 0-24 | Limit depends on the enclosure model |
| Simultaneous autosparing | Drives per system | |
RAID Properties | ||
| RAID arrays per system | 128 | |
| Encrypted RAID arrays per system | 128 | |
| Min-Max member drives per RAID-0 array | 1-8 | |
| Min-Max member drives per RAID-1 array | 2-2 | |
| Min-Max member drives per RAID-5 array | 3-16 | |
| Min-Max member drives per RAID-6 array | 5-16 | |
| Min-Max member drives per RAID-10 array | 2-16 | |
| Hot spare drives | - | No limit is imposed |
External Storage System Properties | ||
| Storage system WWNNs per system (cluster) | 1024 | |
| Storage system WWPNs per system (cluster) | 1024 | |
| WWNNs per storage system | 16 | |
| WWPNs per WWNN | 16 | |
| LUNs (managed disks) per storage system | - | No limit is imposed beyond the managed disks per system limit |
System and User Management Properties | ||
| User accounts per system | 400 | Includes the default user accounts |
| User groups per system | 256 | Includes the default user groups |
| Authentication servers per system | 1 | |
| NTP servers per system | 1 | |
| iSNS servers per system | 1 | |
| Concurrent open SSH sessions per system | 32 | |
Event Notification Properties | ||
| SNMP servers per system | 6 | |
| Syslog servers per system | 6 | |
| Email (SMTP) servers per system | 6 | Email servers are used in turn until the email is successfully sent |
| Email users (recipients) per system | 12 | |
| LDAP servers per system | 6 | |
change
Extents
The following table compares the maximum volume, mdisk and system capacity for each extent size.
Extent size (MB) | Maximum non thin-provisioned volume capacity in GB | Maximum thin-provisioned volume capacity in GB | Maximum Compressed Volume Size** | Maximum MDisk capacity in GB | Total storage capacity manageable per system* |
16 | 2048 (2 TB) | 2000 | 2048 (2 TB) | 64 TB | |
32 | 4096 (4 TB) | 4000 | 4096 (4 TB) | 128 TB | |
64 | 8192 (8 TB) | 8000 | 8192 (8 TB) | 256 TB | |
128 | 16,384 (16 TB) | 16,000 | 16,384 (16 TB) | 512 TB | |
256 | 32,768 (32 TB) | 32,000 | 32,768 (32 TB) | 1 PB | |
512 | 65,536 (64 TB) | 65,000 | 65,536 (64 TB) | 2 PB | |
1024 | 131,072 (128 TB) | 130,000 | 96TB** | 131,072 (128 TB) | 4 PB |
2048 | 262,144 (256 TB) | 260,000 | 96TB** | 262,144 (256 TB) | 8 PB |
4096 | 262,144 (256 TB) | 262,144 | 96TB** | 524,288 (512 TB) | 16 PB |
8192 | 262,144 (256 TB) | 262,144 | 96TB** | 1,048,576 (1024 TB) | 32 PB |
** Please see the following Flash
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Document Information
Modified date:
28 March 2023
UID
ssg1S1005250