Ibm System Storage Ds Storage Manager - IBM System Storage DS3500 Introduction And Implementation Manual

Draft Document for Review March 28, 2011 12:24 pm

2.6 IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager

The new DS3500 and DS3950 storage subsystem uses the same Storage Manager as the
DS5000 product line and the legacy DS3000 models. At the time of this writing the current
version of the software is 10.70.G5.08. When you receive your DS3500 storage subsystem,
you may also receive with it a copy of the IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Software
and Host Kit CDs. If you do not receive this software, or the version you receive is not
compatible with your DS3500's firmware release, you can download it from the IBM support
Web site.
Using IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager software, you can perform tasks such as
creating arrays and logical drives, assigning logical drives to the host servers, setting up
FlashCopy and VolumeCopy, capturing logs for troubleshooting, and so on. We discuss the
IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager software and it's use in great detail later in this
book, so we will just briefly describe some of the main points here.
When discussing the IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager, it is important to differentiate
between the following two terms:
Host server
This is a server attached to the DS3500 storage subsystem through the I/O path (SAS,
iSCSI, or Fibre Channel). The host server has access to the logical drives which are
defined on the DS3500 storage server for its storage use.
Management station
The management station is the system that is responsible for managing all, or a portion of,
a storage network. The IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager provides a GUI which
runs on the management station. This management station can be based on Windows,
Linux, AIX or Solaris operating systems. There may be slight screen shading differences
between the different operating system version of the displays, but the fit and functions are
the same for all. You need to establish a management connection between the
management station and the DS3500 storage subsystem. This can be done in two ways:
– Out-of-band
When using out-of-band management, the management station is connected to the
Ethernet management port in each DS3500 RAID controller. All management
communication flows across the TCP/IP connection between the management station
and the DS3500. We also call this method
management station in this case only requires an Ethernet connection to the DS3500.
– In-band
This method utilizes the I/O path between a host server and the DS3500. In this case,
the management station does not have direct TCP/IP connection to the DS3500, but
rather communicates with the DS3500 through an HBA, which acts as a gateway to the
DS3500 storage subsystem, that is, communication between the management station
and the host server is across the fiber channel, SAS or iSCSI I/O path.
We also call this method
Because each method has some associated advantages as well as disadvantages we will
discuss them both to help you select which is more appropriate for your environment. Both
methods offer identical functionality; you can perform any management task with either of
these methods.
direct-attached management
host-attached management
Chapter 2. Introduction to IBM System Storage DS3500
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