If you have been following on VMware vSphere closely, then you would know that VMware VAAI(vStorage Api for Array Integration) is evolving to be more important on regular basis. VAAI, as you probably aware is a method VMware use to offload some tasks to the storage. The initial release was to offload three main functionality:

1- Full Copy: It was used to offload copying VMs to the storage to handle it rather than doing it in the software. This speed up VMs Deployment & so on.

2- Zero Blocks: which is used to zero-out disk regions

3- VMFS Assisted locking, so ESXi hosts will lock only a block rather than the full store as originally was the case before introducing VAAI when any file operation was done.…

I have today  just passed my IBM 000-206 High-End Disk Solutions for Open Systems Version 1. I thought I will post out my tips for what to study to help others pass the exam as well.

1- Make sure you know when to use DS8000, DS6000, DS4000, Nseries & SVC. There are so many scenario questions that will require you to be able to distinguish between the usage of each of the above storage types.

2- Make sure you are aware of the different versions of IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center, when to use which version, & what its used for.

3- Make sure you know the IBM DS8000 in and out. Make sure you know when to use DS8100 & when do you need DS8300.…

Today, you will learn how to install IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Server. You have two methods of getting the installation steps. Just watching the small video below after each section, or read the article below. Ah should I make this video training to be a paid one!!! Should it cost $$$$? Just a thought. As I am not paid to put this online & really its more of a time constrain, I was not able to add voice to these video or re-edit the videos & did not want to drag this tutorial further till I add voice to them. If you want to donate some of your time to do this, I can provide the video source.

Note: unfortunately I did not have the original media of the IBM TSM 5.5 at the time I was writing this tutorial so I have downloaded the installers from the IBM website & put them in a folder called TSM_Images on my E drive.…

If you have a boot from SAN server, you will be able to easily clone it for a backup or deployment purpose using the native DS8000 FlashCopy. As mentioned earlier FlashCopy is an optional feature for the DS8000, which means it will require an additional license to enable. The SAN administrator can initiate a FlashCopy of Boot from SAN Disk using the DS8000 Storage Manager GUI or using the DSCLI.

Creating a FlashCopy on the DS8000 can be as easy as running the following command on DS8000 DSCLI, where 6100 is the source LUN & 6101 is the target LUN.

mkflash -seqnum 01 6100:6101

After creating a FlashCopy of a certain LUN in case you need to restore the server to its original state all you have to do is shutdown the server (shutdown will be required if it’s the boot LUN only) & Map the FlashCopy Target LUN in the place of the FlashCopy Source LUN.…

The minimum IBM TotalStorage support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy and Virtual Disk Service (VDS) supported by IBM Tivoli Flash Copy Manager is Version 4.0.1. You can obtain the latest IBM DS8000 VDS form IBM Website at:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S4000372&rs=1113

IBM DS8000 VDS is required in order for IBM Tivoli FCM to be able to utilize the DS8000 FlashCopy feature as a hardware provider for its shadow services. If you don’t install IBM DS8000 VDS, then IBM Tivoli FCM will use the default Windows System Provider which has many limitations. The steps below illustrate the steps required to install IBM DS8000 VDS on Windows 2003 SP2.

1- If you plan on using the IBM TotalStorage Support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service with dynamic volumes,  please contact Microsoft and obtain hotfix 949391, 940349, & 932532.…

This section provides an overview of the installation and configuration of the CIM agent on a Windows 2003 operating system. If you have decided to use the CIM agent for HMC & followed the 3.3 section, then you can skip this section directly to chapter 4. If you are not going to the use the CIM agent for HMC and decided to install the CIM agent on a Windows 2003 host then read on.

Ensure that you know how to administer a Windows 2003 operating system before you install the CIM agent. Also be familiar with the commands that you use during installation and configuration of the CIM agent.

Perform the following list of installation and configuration tasks on your Windows operating system:

1.…

Beginning with DS8000 Release 2.4, the CIM Agent is pre-installed on the hardware management console (HMC). This section includes an overview of the setup process and instructions for enabling and configuring the CIM agent on the DS8000 HMC. The DS8000 can be managed either by the CIM agent that is bundled with the HMC or with a separately installed CIM agent. The HMC CIM agent has the following limitations:

• The CIM agent is initially disabled on the HMC and must be enabled through the WebSM management console before it can be used.

• The HMC CIM agent can only support DS8000 devices that are managed by that HMC. This CIM agent is not able to manage any ESS 800 or DS6000 devices, or any DS8000 devices that are managed by a different HMC.

CIM agent is a Common Information Model (CIM) agent provides a means by which a device can be managed by common building blocks rather than proprietary software. If a device is CIM-compliant, software that is also CIM-compliant can manage the device.

Vendor applications can benefit from adopting the common information model because they can manage CIM-compliant devices in a common way, rather than using device-specific programming interfaces. Using CIM, you can perform tasks in a consistent manner across devices and vendor applications.

IBM Tivoli FlashCopy Manager communicates with the DS8000 storage using VDS (more on VDS in later chapters) in order to initiate the FlashCopy process. In DS8000 enviornment, VDS will require a CIM Agent in order to be able to communicate with an IBM DS8000 Storage.…

This task creates the free volume pool (VSS_FREE Volume Group) and the reserved volume pool (VSS_RESERVED Volume Group) that are used to assign volumes to the virtual host. Before you can use the IBM System Storage support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and Virtual Disk Service software, you must specify the volumes that can be used as FlashCopy target volumes. You specify the volumes after you create a VSS_FREE pool and a VSS_RESERVED pool. These pools are represented by virtual hosts that are created on the storage unit. After the virtual hosts are created, you can add volumes to the free pool by assigning a volume to the virtual host. Perform the following steps using the IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager or DS CLI to create the VSS_FREE and VSS_RESERVED pools:

Important: If you are using the DS CLI, you must perform these steps in order.…

Before even reaching to your IBM Tivoli Flash Copy Manager installation CDs, there are few preparation steps that must be carried out on the DS8100 & any SQL Server where you will install IBM FCM in our case SQLnode01_POC, SQLnode02_POC, & SQLsrv01_POC. Please note for the integration of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager with IBM Tivoli Flash Copy Manger, IBM TSM has to be separately installed & configured, though TSM installation is out of this book scope. Though if you have an IBM Tivoli Storage Manager already setup in your environment, you will be able to integrate IBM FlashCopy manager with it easily by running through the Wizard illustrated in later chapters. In this chapter we will focus on the DS8100 preparation for IBM Tivoli FlashCopy Manager Installation.…