Dynamic organizations want to accelerate growth while reducing costs. To do so, they must speed the deployment of business applications and adapt quickly to any changes in priorities. Organizations today require an IT infrastructure that is easy, efficient, and versatile. The VersaStack solution by Cisco and IBM® can help you accelerate the deployment of your data centers. It reduces costs by more efficiently managing information and resources while maintaining your ability to adapt to business change. The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of the IBM Storwize® storage system. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure includes the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS), Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS switches, and Cisco UCS Director. The IBM FlashSystem® V9000 enhances virtual environments with its Data Virtualization, IBM Real-time Compression™, and IBM Easy Tier® features. These features deliver extraordinary levels of performance and efficiency. The VersaStack solution is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) ready. Your IT team can build, deploy, secure, and maintain applications through a more agile framework. Cisco Intercloud Fabric capabilities help enable the creation of open and highly secure solutions for the hybrid cloud. These solutions accelerate your IT transformation while delivering dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and simplicity. Cisco and IBM are global leaders in the IT industry. The VersaStack solution gives you the opportunity to take advantage of integrated infrastructure solutions that are targeted at enterprise applications, analytics, and cloud solutions. The VersaStack solution is backed by Cisco Validated Designs (CVD) to provide faster delivery of applications, greater IT efficiency, and less risk. This IBM Redbooks® publication is aimed at experienced storage administrators who are tasked with deploying a VersaStack solution with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and IBM Spectrum™ Protect.

Organizations of all sizes face the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. But storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. The IBM® Storwize® V5000 Gen2 system provides a smarter solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. The Storwize V5000 Gen2 delivers efficient, entry-level configurations that are designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses. Designed to provide organizations with the ability to consolidate and share data at an affordable price, the Storwize V5000 Gen2 offers advanced software capabilities that are found in more expensive systems. This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators. It applies to the Storwize V5030, V5020, and V5010. The concepts in this book also relate to the IBM Storwize V3700 where applicable.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is a detailed technical guide to the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller (SVC), powered by IBM Spectrum Virtualize™ Version 7.6. IBM SAN Volume Controller is a virtualization appliance solution, which maps virtualized volumes that are visible to hosts and applications to physical volumes on storage devices. Each server within the storage area network (SAN) has its own set of virtual storage addresses that are mapped to physical addresses. If the physical addresses change, the server continues running by using the same virtual addresses that it had before. Therefore, volumes or storage can be added or moved while the server is still running. The IBM virtualization technology improves the management of information at the "block" level in a network, which enables applications and servers to share storage devices on a network.

Data is the currency of the new economy, and organizations are increasingly tasked with finding better ways to protect, recover, access, share, and use data. Traditional storage technologies are being stretched to the breaking point. This challenge is not because of storage hardware performance, but because management tools and techniques have not kept pace with new requirements. Primary data growth rates of 35% to 50% annually only amplify the problem. Organizations of all sizes find themselves needing to modernize their IT processes to enable critical new use cases such as storage self-service, Development and Operations (DevOps), and integration of data centers with the Cloud. They are equally challenged with improving management efficiencies for long established IT processes such as data protection, disaster recovery, reporting, and business analytics. Access to copies of data is the one common feature of all these use cases. However, the slow, manual processes common to IT organizations, including a heavy reliance on labor-intensive scripting and disparate tool sets, are no longer able to deliver the speed and agility required in today's fast-paced world. Copy Data Management (CDM) is an IT modernization technology that focuses on using existing data in a manner that is efficient, automated, scalable, and easy to use, delivering the data access that is urgently needed to meet the new use cases. Catalogic ECX, with IBM® storage, provides in-place copy data management that modernizes IT processes, enables key use cases, and does it all within existing infrastructure. This IBM Redbooks® publication shows how Catalogic Software and IBM have partnered together to create an integrated solution that addresses today's IT environment.

Dynamic organizations want to accelerate growth while reducing costs. To do so, they must speed the deployment of business applications and adapt quickly to any changes in priorities. Organizations require an IT infrastructure to be easy, efficient, and versatile. The VersaStack solution by Cisco and IBM® can help you accelerate the deployment of your datacenters. It reduces costs by more efficiently managing information and resources while maintaining your ability to adapt to business change. The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of the IBM Storwize® storage system. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure includes the Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS switches, and Cisco UCS Director. The IBM Storwize V7000 storage system enhances virtual environments with its Data Virtualization, IBM Real-time Compression™, and IBM Easy Tier® features. These features deliver extraordinary levels of performance and efficiency. The VersaStack solution is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) ready. Your IT team can build, deploy, secure, and maintain applications through a more agile framework. Cisco Intercloud Fabric capabilities help enable the creation of open and highly secure solutions for the hybrid cloud. These solutions accelerate your IT transformation while delivering dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and simplicity. Cisco and IBM are global leaders in the IT industry. The VersaStack solution gives you the opportunity to take advantage of integrated infrastructure solutions that are targeted at enterprise applications, analytics, and cloud solutions. The VersaStack solution is backed by Cisco Validated Designs (CVDs) to provide faster delivery of applications, greater IT efficiency, and less risk. This IBM Redbooks® publication is aimed at experienced storage administrators that are tasked with deploying a VersaStack solution with IBM DB2® High Availability (DB2 HA), IBM Spectrum™ Protect, and IBM Spectrum Control™.

IBM® Spectrum Virtualize Software Version 7.5 provides software-defined storage capabilities across various platforms, including IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Storwize® V7000, Storwize V7000 (Unified), Storwize V5000, Storwize V3700, and Storwize V3500. These offerings help clients reduce the complexities and cost of managing their storage in the following ways: Centralizing management of storage volumes to enable administrators to manage storage volumes from a single point Improving utilization of storage capacity with virtual volumes to enable businesses to tap into previously unused disk capacity Avoiding downtime for backups, maintenance, and upgrades Performing data migration without disruption to applications Enabling all storage devices to be organized into storage pools from which virtual volumes, whether standard, compressed, or thin-provisioned, are created with the characteristics that you want Delivering automation of storage management with SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center, IBM Tivoli® Storage Productivity Center (as applicable by platform), and IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy® Manager (as applicable by platform) Increasing the performance efficiency of storage pools with IBM Easy Tier® Restoring data access quickly with near and remote copy capabilities across Fibre Channel (FC), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and IP networks In this IBM Redbooks® publication, which is aimed at storage administrators and technical professionals, we describe the IBM HyperSwap® capability in IBM Spectrum™ Virtualize Software V7.5. HyperSwap delivers high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) in one solution and reuses capital investments to achieve a range of recovery and management options that are transparent to host operations. This book describes how you can use HyperSwap with VMware to create an environment that can withstand robust workloads.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the IBM storage area network (SAN) and IBM Spectrum™ Virtualize, and SAN Volume Controller Enhanced Stretched Cluster configuration when combined with VMware. It describe guidelines, settings, and implementation steps necessary to achieve a satisfactory implementation. Business continuity and continuous availability of applications are among the top requirements for many organizations today. Advances in virtualization, storage, and networking make enhanced business continuity possible. Information technology solutions can now be designed to manage both planned and unplanned outages, and to take advantage of the flexibility, efficient use of resources, and cost savings that cloud computing offers. The IBM Enhanced Stretched Cluster design offers significant functions for maintaining business continuity in a VMware environment. You can dynamically move applications across data centers without interruption to those applications. The live application mobility across data centers relies on these products and technologies: IBM Spectrum Virtualize and SAN Volume Controller Enhanced Stretched Cluster Solution VMware Metro vMotion for live migration of virtual machines A Layer 2 IP Network and storage networking infrastructure for high-performance traffic management Data center interconnection

Dynamic organizations want to accelerate growth while reducing costs. To do so, they must speed the deployment of business applications and adapt quickly to any changes in priorities. Organizations today require an IT infrastructure to be easy, efficient, and versatile. The VersaStack solution by Cisco and IBM® can help you accelerate the deployment of your data centers. It reduces costs by more efficiently managing information and resources while maintaining your ability to adapt to business change. The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of the IBM Storwize® storage system. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure includes the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS), Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS switches, and Cisco UCS Director. The IBM Storwize V7000 enhances virtual environments with its Data Virtualization, IBM Real-time Compression™, and IBM Easy Tier® features. These features deliver extraordinary levels of performance and efficiency. The VersaStack solution is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) ready. Your IT team can build, deploy, secure, and maintain applications through a more agile framework. Cisco Intercloud Fabric capabilities help enable the creation of open and highly secure solutions for the hybrid cloud. These solutions accelerate your IT transformation while delivering dramatic improvements in operational efficiency and simplicity. Cisco and IBM are global leaders in the IT industry. The VersaStack solution gives you the opportunity to take advantage of integrated infrastructure solutions that are targeted at enterprise applications, analytics, and cloud solutions. The VersaStack solution is backed by Cisco Validated Designs (CVD) to provide faster delivery of applications, greater IT efficiency, and less risk. This IBM Redbooks® publication is aimed at experienced storage administrators that are tasked with deploying a VersaStack solution with Microsoft Sequel (SQL), IBM Spectrum™ Protect, and IBM Spectrum Control™.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is a detailed technical guide to the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller Version 7.4. The SAN Volume Controller (SVC) is a virtualization appliance solution, which maps virtualized volumes that are visible to hosts and applications to physical volumes on storage devices. Each server within the storage area network (SAN) has its own set of virtual storage addresses that are mapped to physical addresses. If the physical addresses change, the server continues running by using the same virtual addresses that it had before. Therefore, volumes or storage can be added or moved while the server is still running. The IBM virtualization technology improves the management of information at the “block” level in a network, which enables applications and servers to share storage devices on a network. This book is intended for readers who want to implement the SVC at a 7.4 release level with minimal effort.

Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM Storwize® V7000 solution, an innovative storage offering that delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The IBM Storwize V7000 solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, raising the standard for storage efficiency in midrange disk systems. This cutting-edge storage system extends the comprehensive storage portfolio from IBM and can help change the way organizations address the ongoing information explosion. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the features and functions of the IBM Storwize V7000 system through several examples. This book is aimed at pre-sales and post-sales technical support and marketing, storage administrators, and will help you understand the architecture of the Storwize V7000, how to implement it, and take advantage of the industry-leading functions and features.

Organizations of all sizes are faced with the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. However, storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more and more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources, but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. The IBM® Storwize® V3700 system provides a solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. Storwize V3700 delivers efficient, entry-level configurations that are specifically designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses. Designed to provide organizations with the ability to consolidate and share data at an affordable price, Storwize V3700 offers advanced software capabilities that are usually found in more expensive systems. Built on innovative IBM technology, Storwize V3700 addresses the block storage requirements of small and midsize organizations, Storwize V3700 is designed to accommodate the most common storage network technologies. This design enables easy implementation and management. Storwize V3700 includes the following features: Web-based GUI provides point-and-click management capabilities. Internal disk storage virtualization enables rapid, flexible provisioning and simple configuration changes. Thin provisioning enables applications to grow dynamically, but only use space they actually need. Enables simple data migration from external storage to Storwize V3700 storage (one-way from another storage device). Remote Mirror creates copies of data at remote locations for disaster recovery. IBM FlashCopy® creates instant application copies for backup or application testing. This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators. The concepts in this book also relate to the IBM Storwize V3500. This book was written at a software level of version 7 release 4.

Organizations of all sizes are faced with the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. But storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. The IBM® Storwize® V5000 system provides a smarter solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. Storwize V5000 delivers efficient, entry-level configurations that are specifically designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses. Designed to provide organizations with the ability to consolidate and share data at an affordable price, Storwize V5000 offers advanced software capabilities that are usually found in more expensive systems. This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators. The concepts in this book also relate to the IBM Storwize V3700. This book was written at a software level of Version 7 Release 4.

Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors. Nevertheless, 72% of them have not started, or are only planning, big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity that it already has. The IBM® Storwize® family, including the IBM SAN Volume Controller Data Platform, is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources. This functionality helps support improved business application availability and greater resource use. The following list describes the business objectives of this system: To manage storage resources in your information technology (IT) infrastructure To make sure that those resources are used to the advantage of your business To do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs Storwize functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash memory. In addition, IBM Real-time Compression™ enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into Storwize also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides information about the latest features and functions of the Storwize V7000 Gen2 and software version 7.3 implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.

Data is the new currency of business, the most critical asset of the modern organization. In fact, enterprises that can gain business insights from their data are twice as likely to outperform their competitors; yet, 72 percent of them have not started or are only planning big data activities. In addition, organizations often spend too much money and time managing where their data is stored. The average firm purchases 24% more storage every year, but uses less than half of the capacity it already has. A member of the IBM® Storwize® family, IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) Data Platform is a storage virtualization system that enables a single point of control for storage resources to help support improved business application availability and greater resource utilization. The objective is to manage storage resources in your IT infrastructure and to make sure they are used to the advantage of your business, and do it quickly, efficiently, and in real time, while avoiding increases in administrative costs. Virtualizing storage with SVC Data Platform helps make new and existing storage more effective. SVC Data Platform includes many functions traditionally deployed separately in disk systems. By including these in a virtualization system, SVC Data Platform standardizes functions across virtualized storage for greater flexibility and potentially lower costs. SVC Data Platform functions benefit all virtualized storage. For example, IBM Easy Tier® optimizes use of flash storage. And IBM Real-time Compression™ enhances efficiency even further by enabling the storage of up to five times as much active primary data in the same physical disk space. Finally, high-performance thin provisioning helps automate provisioning. These benefits can help extend the useful life of existing storage assets, reducing costs. Integrating these functions into SVC Data Platform also means that they are designed to operate smoothly together, reducing management effort. In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we discuss the latest features and functions of the SVC 2145-DH8 and software version 7.3, implementation, architectural improvements, and Easy Tier.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication captures several of the preferred practices that are based on field experience and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller and Storwize® V7000 V7.2. This book begins with a look at the latest developments with SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 and reviews the changes in the previous versions of the product. It highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools and managed disks, volumes, remote copy services, and hosts. Then, this book provides performance guidelines for SAN Volume Controller, back-end storage, and applications. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. Next, it provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000. Finally, this book highlights several scenarios that demonstrate the preferred practices and performance guidelines.

IBM® System Storage® Gen 5 fabric backbones are among the industry's most powerful Fibre Channel switching infrastructure offerings. They provide reliable, scalable, and high-performance foundations for mission-critical storage. These fabric backbones also deliver enterprise connectivity options to add support for IBM FICON® connectivity, offering a high-performing and reliable FICON infrastructure with fast and scalable IBM System z® servers. Designed to increase business agility while providing nonstop access to information and reducing infrastructure and administrative costs, Gen 5 Fibre Channel fabric backbones deliver a new level of scalability and advanced capabilities to this robust, reliable, and high-performance technology. Although every network type has unique management requirements, most organizations face similar challenges managing their network environments. These challenges can include minimizing network downtime, reducing operational expenses, managing application service level agreements (SLAs), and providing robust security. Until now, no single tool could address these needs across different network types. To address this issue, the IBM Network Advisor management tool provides comprehensive management for data, storage, and converged networks. This single application can deliver end-to-end visibility and insight across different network types by integrating with Fabric Vision technology; it supports Fibre Channel SANs, including Gen 5 Fibre Channel platforms, IBM FICON, and IBM b-type SAN FCoE networks. In addition, this tool supports comprehensive lifecycle management capabilities across different networks through a simple, seamless user experience. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the concepts, architecture, and basic implementation of Gen 5 and IBM Network Advisor. It is aimed at system administrators, and pre- and post-sales support staff.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces the IBM Storwize® V7000 Unified Disk System, a virtualized storage system that consolidates block and file workloads into a single storage system. Advantages include simplicity of management, reduced cost, highly scalable capacity, performance, and high availability. It also offers improved efficiency and flexibility through built-in solid-state drive optimization, thin provisioning, IBM Real-time Compression™, We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the following Redbooks publications to get the most from this book: Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 V6.3, SG24-7938 Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller V6.3, SG24-7933 Real-time Compression in SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000, REDP-4859 SONAS Implementation and Best Practices Guide, SG24-7962 SONAS Concepts, Architecture, and Planning Guide, SG24-7963

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the IBM storage area network (SAN) and IBM IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller enhanced stretched cluster solution VMware Metro vMotion for live migration of virtual machines A Layer 2 IP Network and storage networking infrastructure for high-performance traffic Data center interconnection

Organizations of all sizes are faced with the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. But storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. The IBM® Storwize® V5000 system provides a smarter solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. Storwize V5000 delivers efficient, entry-level configurations that are specifically designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses. Designed to provide organizations with the ability to consolidate and share data at an affordable price, Storwize V5000 offers advanced software capabilities that are usually found in more expensive systems. This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for pre-sales and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators. The concepts in this book also relate to the IBM Storwize V3700. This book was written at a software level of Version 7 Release 1.

Organizations of all sizes are faced with the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. But storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more and more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. The IBM® Storwize® V3700 system provides a smarter solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. Storwize V3700 delivers efficient, entry-level configurations that are specifically designed to meet the needs of small and midsize businesses. Designed to provide organizations with the ability to consolidate and share data at an affordable price, Storwize V3700 offers advanced software capabilities that are usually found in more expensive systems. Built upon innovative IBM technology, Storwize V3700 addresses the block storage requirements of small and midsize organizations. Providing up to 240 TB of capacity packaged in a compact 2U, Storwize V3700 is designed to accommodate the most common storage network technologies to enable easy implementation and management. This IBM Redbooks® publication is intended for pre- and post-sales technical support professionals and storage administrators. The concepts in this book also relate to the IBM Storwize V3500. This book was written at a software level of Version 7 Release 1.