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System Requirements: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management 2.3.1

Detailed System Requirements


Abstract

This document details the system requirements for IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management 2.3.1.

Content

Important Brand Change Information

The product now known as IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management was named IBM Storage Copy Data Management in levels earlier than 2.2.26. To learn more about the brand change, see IBM Storage CDM and Sentinel brand change to IBM Storage Defender CDM and Sentinel.
The product now known as IBM Storage Copy Data Management was named IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management in levels earlier than 2.2.20. To learn more about the brand change, see IBM Spectrum Protect brand change to IBM Storage Protect.

General

Verify that you have the required system configuration and browser to deploy and run IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management.

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management uses the NetworkManager tool nmtui for network configuration.
IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management uses TLS 1.2 for communication between the host and clients where applicable.
IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management support for third-party operating systems, applications, services, and hardware depend on the respective vendor. If a third-party product or version moves into extended support, self-service support, or end-of-life, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports the product or version at the same level as the vendor. See also IBM Support General Guidelines and Limitations.

Configuration

Virtual Machine Installation

VM Appliance on VMware vSphere

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management is installed as a virtual appliance on VMware vSphere. Before you deploy to the host, verify you have the following:

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IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management is distributed as an OVF template, with an OVA file extension.
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vSphere 8.0.3, or 9.x.
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Either an available static IP address to use or access to DHCP server.

Note:

For later versions of vSphere, the vSphere Web Client might be required to deploy IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management appliances.
Beginning with IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management 2.2.18, VMware VDDK 7.0 is included. This VDDK level does not support vSphere 6.0. See APAR IT42544.

VM Appliance on Windows Hyper-V

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management is installed as a virtual appliance on Windows Hyper-V. Before you deploy to the host, verify you have the following:

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IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management for Hyper-V is distributed as an EXE install binary, packaged as a ZIP file.
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Microsoft Windows 2019, 2022, 2025.
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Either an available static IP address to use or access to DHCP server.
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Hyper-V is currently tested and supported for IBM FlashSystem as a storage provider.

CDM Software on IBM PowerPC

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management is installed as native software on IBM PowerPC. Before you deploy to the host, verify you have the following:

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IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management for PowerPC is distributed as an ISO, mountable on RHEL 9.6 ppc64le arch.
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PowerPC 10 and 11.
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Either an available static IP address to use or access to DHCP server.
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CDM on PowerPC is currently tested and supported for IBM FlashSystem as a storage provider.

Common Configuration Requirements

For initial deployment, configure your virtual appliance to meet the following minimum requirements:

Component
Requirement
Processor
64-bit quad-core machine
Memory
48 GB

The appliance has three virtual disks that total 400 GB storage:

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50 GB for operating system and application (includes 16 GB swap, 256 MB boot, remainder for root partition)
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100 GB for configuration data related to jobs, events, and logs
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250 GB for Inventory data
Important: Use Network Time Protocol (NTP) in your environment for IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management appliance, storage arrays, hypervisors, and application servers. If the clocks on the various systems are significantly out of sync, you might experience errors during application registration, inventory, backup, or restore jobs. For more information, see Time in virtual machine drifts due to hardware timer drift.

Browser Support

Run IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management from a computer that has access to the installed virtual appliance. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management was tested and certified against the following web browsers. Latest levels are supported.

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Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Safari
Note: If your resolution is less than 1024 x 768, some items might not fit on the window. Pop-up windows must be enabled in your browser to access the Help system and some IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management operations.

IBM Storage Requirements

IBM Storage Systems run on:

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IBM Storage Virtualize 8.7.0.x, 8.7.3.x (8.7.3.2 included)
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IBM Storage Virtualize for Snapshot 9.1.x (9.1.0, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3 included)

Supported IBM storages are IBM FlashSystems, IBM SAN Volume Controller.

Warning: Outdated SAN Volume Controller (SVC) firmware might result in a storage-warm start. SVC firmware needs to be updated to the most current supported version to ensure system reliability.
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HyperSwap is supported on IBM FlashSystems for both physical and virtual server types for volumes, virtual machines, and applications.
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Only Safeguarded Copy is supported on IBM Storage Systems running on IBM Storage Virtualize software version 8.5.1 or later.
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IBM Storage Virtualize for Snapshot is supported on IBM Storage Systems running on IBM Storage Virtualize software version 8.5.4 or later.
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IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports PBR for IBM Storage FlashSystem version 8.7.0 and later by using IBM Storage Virtualize Snapshot SLA policies.
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IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports PBHA 2-site & PBHA 3-site configuration for IBM Storage FlashSystem version 9.1.0 and later by using IBM Storage Virtualize Snapshot SLA policies.
Note: IBM providers must be registered by an IBM user with administrator-level privileges.

Dell PowerMax Storage Requirements

Dell PowerMax storage system models running on the listed Dell PowerMax versions are supported:

Model
Unisphere Version
Dell PowerMax 2000/8000
10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x
Dell PowerMax 2500/8500
10.2.x, 10.3.x, 10.4.x

Dell PowerFlex Storage Requirements

Dell PowerFlex Storage systems managed by the following versions of PowerFlex Manager are supported:

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Dell PowerFlex Manager version — 4.6.x, 4.8.x
Note: Due to a known limitation in PowerFlex Manager version 4.6.x and 4.8.x, the standard user account with storage admin privileges is insufficient for performing remote snapshot operations. As a workaround, user must be granted super-user privileges.

Dell PowerStore Storage Requirements

Dell PowerStore Storage systems managed by the following versions of PowerStore Manager are supported:

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Dell PowerStore Manager version — 4.4.0, 4.2.0
Note: Only Virtual Applications Supported.

NetApp ONTAP Requirements

Any NetApp ONTAP storage system model running on the listed Data ONTAP versions is supported:

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ONTAP System Manager 9.12.1
Note: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management does not support new features introduced in ONTAP 9.x. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management was tested against Data ONTAP 9.3.

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports NetApp MetroCluster configurations running on ONTAP 9.x or later. After successful completion of MetroCluster Switchover or Switchback operations, mirror or vault relationships must be reestablished through an IBM Storage Copy Data Management job.

Clustered Data ONTAP providers must be registered with a cluster administrator account. Cluster peering must be enabled. Peer relationships enable communication between SVMs. See NetApp ONTAP's Cluster and Vserver Peering Express Guide.

Note: Make sure that TLS protocol is enabled on the NetApp storage system by setting the tls.enable option to ON. For TLS to take effect on HTTPS, make sure that the httpd.admin.ssl.enable option is also set to ON. See Enabling or disabling TLS.

NetApp ONTAP File Inventory Job Requirements

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management uses SnapDiff in NetApp ONTAP file level jobs to run catalog based on snapshot differences. The following options must be enabled on the volume of the NetApp storage system to catalog:

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create_ucode and convert_ucode: These options are turned off by default.
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Inode to Pathname: Creates relationships between file names and relative paths. If disabled on a volume, you must enable it, then delete existing snapshots on the volume. When new snapshots are created with Inode to Pathname enabled, the volume can be cataloged.

Internationalization Requirements

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The language code must be set and the UTF-8 variant must be specified on the NetApp storage system. For example, en_US.UTF-8. Only the English locale for vol0 for UTF-8 is supported.
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The IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management application and documentation are available in English only. However, cataloging, searching, and reporting functions support international metadata.

Pure/Everpure Storage Requirements

Supported Versions

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Purity 6.9.3
Note: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports only snapshot and replication of volumes in Purity 6.x. Newer features such as vVol, ActiveCluster (pod), SafeMode Snapshot, or CloudSnap are not supported.

VMware Requirements

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vSphere 8.0 and 8.0.x levels (Beginning with 2.2.21)
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vSphere 8.0.2 and 8.0.3 levels (Beginning with 2.2.27)
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vSphere 9.1 (Beginning with 2.3.1)

Make sure that the most current version of VMware Tools is installed in your environment.

Note: Beginning with IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management 2.2.18, VMware VDDK 7.0 is included. This VDDK level does not support vSphere 6.0. See APAR IT42544.

Application Requirements

To find the associated application requirements for supported storage types in this level, see Requirements Documents: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management.

Third-Party License Requirements

NetApp ONTAP Storage Systems

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For NetApp ONTAP Storage Systems, a FlexClone license is required to fully use Instant Disk Restore and Instant VM Restore features. If your workflow includes vault and mirror protection, SnapVault and SnapMirror licenses are also required on both source and destination resources. Similarly, if your workflow includes individual file recovery a SnapRestore license is required. Individual file recovery is only supported at the primary site.

IBM Storage Systems

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For IBM Storage Systems, Remote Mirroring and FlashCopy licenses are required.

VMware

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For VMware, a Storage vMotion license is required.

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Product Synonym

IBM Storage Copy Data Management; IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management; IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management; IBM CDM; Defender CDM;

Document Information

Modified date:
14 July 2026

UID

ibm17275583

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