IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Architecture and Implementation (Version 12.3.1)

IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Architecture and Implementation (Version 12.3.1)

by Francesco Anderloni, Bert Dufrasne, Roger Eriksson, Lisa Martinez, Stephen Solewin
Released February 2019
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738457406

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Abstract

* Version 12.3.1 *

This IBM® Redbooks publication presents the architecture, design, concepts, and technology that are used in IBM FlashSystem® A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R.

FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R deliver the microsecond latency and high availability of IBM FlashCore® technology with grid architecture, simple scalability, and industry-leading IBM software that is designed to drive your business into the cognitive era. The Hyper-Scale Manager highly intuitive user interface simplifies management.

Comprehensive data reduction capabilities, including inline deduplication and a powerful compression engine, help lower total cost of ownership. With software version 12.3.1 and Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.5.1 (or later) the system can compute reclaimable and attributed capacity information, without performance impact.
From a functional standpoint, FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R take advantage of most of the software-defined storage features that are offered by the IBM Spectrum™ Accelerate software, including multi-tenancy and business continuity functions. FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R supports HyperSwap and Multi-site High Availabilty / Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) configurations.

This publication is intended for those individuals who need to plan, install, tailor, and configure FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R.

For detailed information about configuration, management, and replication functions and their usage, see the following publications:

  • , SG24-8376

    IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family Storage Configuration and Usage for IBM FlashSystem A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and IBM XIV Gen3

  • , REDP-5401

    IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Business Continuity Solutions

  • , REDP-5434

    IBM HyperSwap and Multi-site HA/DR solution for IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R

  • , SG24-8368.

    IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family: Host Attachment and Interoperability

    •

    Table of contents

    1. Front cover
    2. Notices
      1. Trademarks
    3. Preface
      1. Authors
      2. Now you can become a published author, too
      3. Comments welcome
      4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
    4. Chapter 1. IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R
      1. 1.1 FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R overview
        1. 1.1.1 FlashSystem A9000
        2. 1.1.2 FlashSystem A9000R
      2. 1.2 Feature set
      3. 1.3 Licensing
      4. 1.4 Management tools
      5. 1.5 Utility Offering
    5. Chapter 2. Logical architecture and concepts
      1. 2.1 Overall architecture
        1. 2.1.1 Parallelism and grid architecture
        2. 2.1.2 Cache resiliency
      2. 2.2 IBM FlashCore technology
      3. 2.3 Data reduction and capacity concepts
        1. 2.3.1 Data reduction technology
      4. 2.4 Storage provisioning concepts
        1. 2.4.1 Storage pools
        2. 2.4.2 Volumes
        3. 2.4.3 Snapshots
        4. 2.4.4 Consistency groups
      5. 2.5 Multi-tenancy
        1. 2.5.1 Domains
      6. 2.6 Data security
        1. 2.6.1 Key management
        2. 2.6.2 User access control
      7. 2.7 Auditing through syslog
    6. Chapter 3. Hardware and technology
      1. 3.1 Systems overview
        1. 3.1.1 FlashSystem A9000R
        2. 3.1.2 FlashSystem A9000R entry-level capacity option
        3. 3.1.3 FlashSystem A9000
        4. 3.1.4 FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Storage Utility Offering
      2. 3.2 System components details
        1. 3.2.1 Grid controller
        2. 3.2.2 Flash enclosure
      3. 3.3 FlashSystem A9000R specifics
        1. 3.3.1 FlashSystem A9000R switched InfiniBand
        2. 3.3.2 InfiniBand switch battery backup unit
        3. 3.3.3 FlashSystem A9000R rack
      4. 3.4 Scaling FlashSystem A9000R
      5. 3.5 FlashSystem A9000 specifics
        1. 3.5.1 FlashSystem A9000 direct InfiniBand
      6. 3.6 Reliability, availability, and serviceability
        1. 3.6.1 Reliability
        2. 3.6.2 Availability
        3. 3.6.3 Serviceability
      7. 3.7 IBM FlashCore technology
        1. 3.7.1 Technology and architectural design overview
        2. 3.7.2 Hardware-only data path
        3. 3.7.3 Flash card memory chips
        4. 3.7.4 Flash module capacities
        5. 3.7.5 Field Programmable Gate Array
        6. 3.7.6 Overprovisioning
        7. 3.7.7 Wear leveling
      8. 3.8 IBM Variable Stripe RAID and 2D Flash RAID protection overview
        1. 3.8.1 Variable Stripe RAID
        2. 3.8.2 Two-dimensional (2D) Flash RAID
    7. Chapter 4. Capacity planning and management
      1. 4.1 Introduction and definitions
        1. 4.1.1 System capacity specifications
        2. 4.1.2 Capacity allocation
      2. 4.2 Capacity planning with data reduction
        1. 4.2.1 Workload types
        2. 4.2.2 Data reduction planning
      3. 4.3 Capacity representation and reporting
        1. 4.3.1 Data usage collection
        2. 4.3.2 Capacity representation in the Hyper-Scale Manager GUI
        3. 4.3.3 Capacity planning report
      4. 4.4 Intelligent capacity management for deduplication
    8. Chapter 5. Installation requirements
      1. 5.1 Physical space requirements
        1. 5.1.1 FlashSystem A9000
        2. 5.1.2 FlashSystem A9000R
      2. 5.2 Delivery requirements for IBM FlashSystem A9000R
        1. 5.2.1 Delivery clearance requirements
        2. 5.2.2 Delivery weight requirements
        3. 5.2.3 Height and weight reduction features
      3. 5.3 Site requirements
        1. 5.3.1 Power supply requirements
        2. 5.3.2 Power consumption and thermal dissipation
        3. 5.3.3 Other equipment
      4. 5.4 Basic configuration
      5. 5.5 Network connections
        1. 5.5.1 Remote mirroring connectivity
        2. 5.5.2 Planning for growth
        3. 5.5.3 IPv6 addressing and planning
        4. 5.5.4 IP protocols
        5. 5.5.5 SMTP server
        6. 5.5.6 IBM service ports (model 415 only)
      6. 5.6 Physical installation
        1. 5.6.1 Initial setup
        2. 5.6.2 Completing the physical installation
        3. 5.6.3 System shutdown/power-off and power-on
      7. 5.7 Host connections
        1. 5.7.1 Fibre Channel connections
        2. 5.7.2 iSCSI connections
        3. 5.7.3 Fibre Channel cabling and configuration
        4. 5.7.4 iSCSI cabling and configuration
        5. 5.7.5 iSCSI IP configuration
    9. Chapter 6. Performance
      1. 6.1 Performance considerations
        1. 6.1.1 Sizing
        2. 6.1.2 Multipathing considerations
      2. 6.2 Quality of service
        1. 6.2.1 Limitation by bandwidth
        2. 6.2.2 Limitation by input/output operations per second
      3. 6.3 Performance monitoring
        1. 6.3.1 Using the Storage Management GUI
        2. 6.3.2 Using the command-line interface
    10. Chapter 7. Monitoring and troubleshooting
      1. 7.1 Monitoring
        1. 7.1.1 Monitoring events
        2. 7.1.2 Monitoring alerts and events
        3. 7.1.3 Monitoring statistics
        4. 7.1.4 Monitoring hardware
        5. 7.1.5 Simple Network Management Protocol monitoring
        6. 7.1.6 Call Home
        7. 7.1.7 Encrypting Call Home and heartbeat notifications
        8. 7.1.8 Subscribe to support notifications
      2. 7.2 Troubleshooting
        1. 7.2.1 IBM Support process
        2. 7.2.2 Collecting logs
        3. 7.2.3 IBM Remote Support
    11. Related publications
      1. IBM Redbooks publications
      2. Other publications and online resources
      3. Help from IBM
    12. Back cover

    Product information

    • Title: IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Architecture and Implementation (Version 12.3.1)
    • Author(s): Francesco Anderloni, Bert Dufrasne, Roger Eriksson, Lisa Martinez, Stephen Solewin
    • Release date: February 2019
    • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
    • ISBN: 9780738457406