Chapter 7. Administration - Summary Tab

Figure 7-1 IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Summary tab



7.1 Status

The first box is the Status box, which displays the basic status of your storage subsystem

(Figure 7-2).



Figure 7-2 Status box



7.1.1 Storage Subsystem Profile

Configuring a storage server can be a complex task. It is essential to document the initial

configuration and every later configuration change. The configuration documentation can be

saved in a text file known as a subsystem profile. This profile stores information (properties)

about the controllers, attached drives, enclosures, microcode levels, arrays, logical drives,

storage partitioning and others.



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To generate and open the subsystem profile, click the Storage Subsystem Profile link in the

Status box (Figure 7-2 on page 178). The information will be gathered from the various

components and the profile window will open (Figure 7-3). The various tabs show the

properties of various objects in storage subsystem. Use the Save As button to save the whole

profile locally to disk, to help document a change history of your storage subsystem. It will be

saved as a text file. You can look at this file later, or send it to somebody who has no direct

access to your storage subsystem to analyze it. For more information about the profile, refer

to Chapter 14, “Administration - Support” on page 329.



Figure 7-3 Subsystem Profile window



Note: You should save a new version of the profile (or collect all support data (CASD) as

described in Chapter 14, “Administration - Support” on page 329) and store it securely

whenever the configuration changes. Even in the case of a complete configuration loss,

your data on disks might not be affected, and in this case you can restore the arrays and

logical drives configuration and the mappings for the storage partitioning. The profile

should be stored locally, and also can be included in any offsite disaster recovery

documentation.



7.1.2 Storage subsystem status

The second line in the Status box shows the current subsystem status. If the status is green

as on Figure 7-2 on page 178, the subsystem is running in an optimal status. If there is any

problem with the subsystem, the status icon will change to red (Figure 7-4). Click the link

Storage Subsystem Needs Attention to open the Recovery Guru. How to troubleshoot and

recover from problems is covered in Chapter 14, “Administration - Support” on page 329. The

same red icon is also visible in upper part of the Subsystem Manger window, close to the

name of subsystem, and the Recovery Guru icon in the toolbar is flashing.



Figure 7-4 Status box - Storage Subsystem Needs Attention

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7.1.3 Operations in Progress

The third line shows operations that are currently in progress (Figure 7-5). If there is at least

one operation in progress, you can click the link to display a window with more detailed

information (Figure 7-6). You can find more information about operations in progress in

Chapter 9, “Administration - Logical Tab” on page 219.



Figure 7-5 Status Box - Operations in Progress



Figure 7-6 Detailed In Progress information



7.1.4 Connection lost

If the management connection from the management station to the storage subsystem is lost,

the subsystem icon and text is changed to notify you of this communication error (Figure 7-7).

If only the management connection is lost, the attached hosts can still access data on the

disks, but you will not be able to manage your subsystem or to receive alerts. The Subsystem

Management window will then display the last known state of the subsystem only, and you will

not be able to perform any administrative operations.



Figure 7-7 Status box - connection lost



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7.2 Hardware Components

Below the Status box is an overview of the Hardware Components (Figure 7-8) that are

physically installed in this storage subsystem. The upper part of the box shows the number of

installed controllers (two in this case) and the number of connected enclosures (one in this

case). The lower part of the box shows information about installed hard drives, number of

drives, the drive type, and an overview of the hot spare drives.



Figure 7-8 Hardware Components



To find out how to get more information about HW component, go to Chapter 10,

“Administration - Physical Tab” on page 257.



7.3 Capacity

The Capacity box is located at the top of the middle column and is shown in Figure 7-9. It

displays the overall capacity of your subsystem: that is, the total capacity of the installed disk

drives. Darker green color is used to show already configured capacity in logical volumes, and

light green color is for the capacity that can be used for configuration of new arrays and

Logical Drives.



Figure 7-9 Capacity - Configured and unconfigured capacity



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7.4 Hosts & Mappings

Below the Capacity box is an overview of your Hosts & Mappings as shown in Figure 7-10.



Figure 7-10 Hosts & Mappings



Hosts are single server systems that can be mapped to a drive. This means a host is a

system that accesses the logical drive through the attached technology (SAS, Fibre Channel,

or iSCSI). If multiple hosts access one or a group of logical drives, they all would have equal

access to these drives. Because most operating systems (without clustering software) do not

usually allow shared access to the same logical drives, you must create storage partitions. Do

this by mapping specific logical drives to the host ports of the host systems. Configuring host

access is described in details in Chapter 11, “Administration - Mappings Tab” on page 275.



7.4.1 Configured Hosts

This line simply shows you how many hosts are currently configured on this storage

subsystem. Click the link to display the configured host names (Figure 7-11). This view is only

an overview of the configured hosts. The storage subsystem only communicates with hosts

by the use of Word Wide Port Name (for example: 50:00:62:b0:00:09:40:51) or by iSCSI

Initiators name (for example: iqn.1996-04.de.suse:01:27dc9458a936). The storage

subsystem is not aware of which Host Bus Adapters or iSCSI Initiators are in the same server

or cluster unless you configure it. More information about host ports configuration is covered

in Chapter 11, “Administration - Mappings Tab” on page 275.



Figure 7-11 Configured Host window



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7.4.2 Host-to-Logical Drive Mappings

Host-to-Logical Drive Mappings is the second link in this box. Next to the link you see the

number of logical drives that are already mapped. This means the number of logical drives

that are allowed to be seen by a specific host. Opening the link displays a more detailed view

(Figure 7-12).

In this window, the Logical Drive Name is displayed next to the mapped host (Accessible By

column), so it is easy to discover which host is allowed to access which logical drive. The

window also includes the LUN Number, the Logical Drive Capacity, and the Type. More

information about drive mappings is provided in Chapter 11, “Administration - Mappings Tab”

on page 275.



Figure 7-12 Hosts & Mappings - Host-to-Logical Drive Mappings



7.4.3 Storage partitions

The lower part of the box in Figure 7-10 on page 182 displays information about the number

of storage partitions that are used and available on this storage subsystem. Storage partitions

are enabled by a Premium Feature License, so you can either order enough storage partitions

for your planned configuration at the initial setup, or you can also get them later as an

upgrade when the number of your servers will increase.

All DS3500 storage subsystems have four storage partitions as standard. It can be optionally

upgraded to 8, 16, 32, or 64 storage partitions. More information about storage partitions is

provided in 3.3.7, “Storage partitioning” on page 63

The Storage Partition part of the box shows how many storage partitions are already used

on your subsystem and how many partitions is available to use. Sum of these two numbers

shows how many storage partitions is the DS3500 subsystem licensed for.



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7.5 Arrays & Logical Drives

At the top of the right column of the Summary tab is the Arrays & Logical Drives pane. This

box shows how many arrays and logical drives are configured on your system (Figure 7-13).

An array is a set of physical disk drives that the controller groups together to provide one or

more logical drives to the host or host group.

While creating an array, you can also choose the array’s RAID level. For more details about

the RAID levels, refer to 3.3.2, “Understanding RAID types” on page 50. Depending on your

configuration, this affects the system’s fault tolerance and performance. The bottom part of

the box shows which RAID levels are configured on your storage subsystems, how many

arrays of this level exist, and how many logical drives are in each level.



Figure 7-13 Arrays & Logical Drives



Note: A RAID1 level array on more than two disks is equivalent to RAID10. However, in

this case you will see RAID1 displayed in this box.



7.6 Information Center

At the right bottom edge of the Summary tab is the Information Center box (Figure 7-14). It

includes several links to help you understand and set up your storage subsystem, and answer

any questions you can have.



Figure 7-14 Information Center



Each of the five links opens the same Help application window but with different content. Click

one of the links to navigate in the online help directly to the related content:

Online Help

Storage Concepts Tutorial

Planning your Configuration

Configuring Your Storage Subsystem

Essential Terms to Know

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As shown in Figure 7-15, topics on how to configure DS3500 storage subsystem display if the

Storage Concepts Tutorial link is selected.



Figure 7-15 Information Center - Storage Concepts Tutorial



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8



Chapter 8.



Administration - Subsystem

Management

Chapter 6, “Administration - Enterprise Management” on page 157 describes how to start

managing a storage subsystem from the IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager 10

(Enterprise Management) window.

When you choose to manage a specific storage subsystem, the IBM System Storage DS

(Subsystem Management) window opens, along with the Initial Setup Task on background

and a small window prompting for the password (Figure 8-1 on page 188).

Note: Starting with DS Storage Manger version 10.70, all managed subsystems must have

a password set. Setting the password and a description of the new strong password rules

are described in “Set Password” on page 204

After entering the correct password, all six tabs of Subsystem Manager are accessible. The

last used tab from previous session is selected automatically and the size of window is also

restored from previous session. See Chapter 12, “Administration - Setup tab” on page 297 for

the Initial Setup Tasks for the first configuration steps on a new subsystem.



© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved.



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8.1 DS Storage Manager - Subsystem Manger window

The IBM System Storage DS Storage Manager Subsystem Management window has four

main areas as shown in Figure 8-1.

We cover these areas in four sections:

8.2, “Pull-Down Menu” on page 189

8.3, “Toolbar” on page 212

8.4, “Status bar” on page 215

8.5, “Tabs” on page 216



Pull-Down Menu

Toolbar



Tabs



Status bar

Figure 8-1 Subsystem Manger window and Enter Password window



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