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Advanced Technology Group – Storage experts cover a variety of technical topics.
Audience: Clients who have or are considering acquiring IBM Storage solutions. Business Partners and IBMers are also welcome.
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2021 Upcoming Webinars:
January 12- CSM 6.2.11 Update and DS8900F Global Mirror with Safeguarded CopyRegister Here: https://ibm.biz/Bdq7C2
January 14 - Epic with IBM StorageRegister Here: https://ibm.biz/Bdq7Nm
January 21 - New data exploration capabilities with IBM Spectrum Discover Version 2.0.4Register Here: https://ibm.biz/BdqUNs
Accelerate with IBM Storage Support Site: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1125513D6Q
Accelerate with IBM Storage Technical Webinar Series
RFE 141749 – Allow usage of CSM backup files when migrating a CSM server to a z/OS system
New session type designed to collect write monitoring information for volumes so that customers can more accurately size their Extent Space Efficient FlashCopy and Safeguarded Copy environments
RFE 144776 and 145787 – REST API improvements in session level queries
RFE 84717 – View LSS Out of Sync track historical information graphically in the CSM GUI
RFE 139998 – Support CSM IP to z/OS host connections to multiple sysplexes or monoplexes with the same name
New Migration session type is now available with no charge license for CSM pre-installed on the DS8000 HMC
RFE 144683 – Display/Return Volume WWN in CSM GUI and REST interfaces for automation in auto-provisioning cloud environments
RFE 112978 – New option on DS8000 FlashCopy and Practice session to fail flash if the target is online to a host
Display/Return Volume WWN in CSM GUI and REST interfaces for automation in auto-provisioning cloud environments
• RFE 144683 – a request to return the WWN for the volume to easily determine which hardware volume is mapped to a host
• Prior to 6.2.11 CSM only displayed the user name and full hardware name for a volume. However, most host systems map the volume using the volume’s WWN.
• Starting in 6.2.11 CSM will now display the Volume WWN across the various GUI panels. In tables displaying the volumes, you can unhide the Volume WWN column by clicking the icon at the very right of the table header. In other locations the volume WWN will appear in the popup or volume information along with the other volume details.
• The REST interface will now return the Volume WWN in the “volume_wwn” tag for queries. In addition, you can now query with a given volume wwn to retrieve the volume that should be added to the CSM session thus allowing for easy automation when volumes are auto provisioned.
• RFE 144776 and RFE 145787 – Customers have requested some improvements in the data returned when querying for session information using the REST API
• The /sessions/ query returns all overview information for all sessions, which can result in a LOT of data. A new /sessions/short query is now available and will return a json array where the results contain only minimal information for each session. Details for specific sessions can then be queried separately.
• CSM will now return the hardware consistency group names created for Spectrum Virtualize and Accelerate storage systems allowing customers to map those to the CSM session.
• For Spectrum Virtualize the tag “hwcg” will display the hardware consistency group name
• For Spectrum Accelerate the tags “h1cg”, “h2cg”, “h1pool” and “h2pool will display the hardware consistency group and pool information
• RFE 144783 – a customer use case existed where they needed to assimilate an existing Spectrum Virtualize FlashCopy relationship into a CSM FlashCopy session without having to “reflash” the data
• The Discover command for the CSM FlashCopy session with Spectrum Virtualize volumes behaves in the following ways
• The Discover command can be run from the Defined, Prepared, or Target Available state. Defined pairs are set to consistent and Target Available if a relationship is found on the hardware that is part of a consistency group. Note: It is assumed that the relationships are flashed and consistent.
• Although discovered pairs are set consistent, the session is not able to validate that they are consistent to the time of all other pairs in the session.
• If a consistency group is not yet established for the session, the Discover command assimilates the consistency group for the first pair found into the session.
• If the hardware relationship found for a pair is not part of a consistency group, the Discover command fails and error message IWNR2096E is set for the pair.
• If the hardware relationship found for a pair is not in the correct state (that is, flashed), the Discover command fails and error message IWNR2096E is set for the pair.
• If the hardware relationship found for a pair is part of a different consistency group than that established for or assimilated into the session, the Discover commands fails and error message IWNR2096E is set for the pair.
• If the FlashCopy session is set with the Incremental option turned off, even if the Discover command assimilated an incremental relationship, the flash always terminates and reflashes the relationship.
New Migration session type is now available with no charge license for CSM pre-installed on the DS8000 HMC
• CSM 6.2.10 released a new session type that provides the ability to create Global Copy relationships on a DS8000 storage system. This session type does not guarantee consistency in the event of a disaster but can be used for migrating data using Global Copy.
• Starting in 6.2.11, this session type will now be available for straight out of the box for all DS8000 systems using the CSM version pre-installed on the DS8000 HMC. No additional CSM license will be required in order to manage migration sessions.
• When support is required open the ticket against the DS8000 storage system and not CSM to ensure proper handling of the ticket
Allow usage of CSM backup files when migrating a CSM server to a z/OS system
• RFE 141749 – In CSM 6.2.9 the backup feature for CSM servers was enhanced to include ALL files necessary to either migrate or restore a CSM server. Previously only the database containing the connection and session information was collected. Now all necessary properties and changes are collected. However, using the backup file on z/OS installations required manually unzipping and managing the contents of the zip file.
• Starting with CSM 6.2.11 you can now use the backup zip file for CSM during a z/OS installation in order to migrate an existing CSM server to z/OS. The backup zip can be created on a Distributed or another z/OS system.
• Migration using the backup zip file can be done by using the existing MIGRATE_FROM value in the IWNINSTL script on z/OS and specifying the zip file instead of a location.
View LSS OOS track historical information graphically in the CSM GUI
• RFE 84717 – Customers have requested the ability to view the RPO and LSS OOS historical data in a graph from the CSM GUI
• In CSM 6.2.10, CSM provided the ability to view the RPO historical data for a session and role pair.
• In CSM 6.2.11 CSM extends this capability to now display LSS OOS statistics for a session and role pair as well.
• When a higher than expected RPO is seen on the RPO charts, customers can bring up the LSS OOS chart for the same timeframe to determine if one or more LSSs had high OOS counts that may have lead to the high RPO
• To bring up the LSS OOS charts click on Session Actions->View Modify->Global Mirror Data and then click on the LSS Chart tab on the left side of the panel
• Hover over specific points in the graph to see specific OOS counts for the given LSS
Support CSM IP to z/OS host connections to multiple sysplexes or monoplexes with the same name
• RFE 139998 – Customers have requested the ability to manage multiple sysplexes or monoplexes that have the same name from the same CSM server
• In previous releases CSM could not manage multiple systems with the same name because when you went to associate a sysplex to a session for HyperSwap or Hardened Freeze support, there was no way to distinguish which session to associate.
• Starting with CSM 6.2.11, the drop down showing the sysplex association in the session options, will now indicate not only the sysplex name but the hostname for the connection as well.
Ex. CAPTKEN1:ezu249.ibm.com
• If multiple sysplexes have the same name, choose the sysplex association with the correct corresponding hostname
New option on DS8000 FlashCopy and Practice sessions to fail flash if target is online to a host
• RFE 112978 – Customers have requested a session property to prevent the flash if the target volume is online
• When clicking View Modify->Properties for a session, customers can now select the Fail Flash if target is online (CKD only) option. Option may be displayed under the given FlashCopy role pair for the session
• The value is NOT enabled by default. When selected, if the target volume is a CKD volume and is online to a host any flash to that target will fail
• Sessions that support the new property
• FlashCopy• Global Mirror Failover/Failback w/ Practice• Metro Mirror Failover/Failback w/ Practice• Global Mirror Either Direction w/ Two Site Practice• Metro Global Mirror w/ Practice• Metro Mirror – Global Mirror w/ Practice
• NOTE: CSM supported the fail if online option via a property in the server property file. The value in the server properties will OVERRIDE what’s defined in the session Properties.
New session type designed to help customers size for Safeguarded Copy and FlashCopy solutions
• In CSM 6.2.11 a new session is available. The ESEsizer session supports analyzing space requirements for DS8000 Extent Space Efficient (ESE) FlashCopy and Safeguarded Copy environments.
• The new session is available for no charge on the preinstalled CSM version on the DS8000 HMC, as well as the full charged CSM license
• With the DS8880 microcode release 8.5.4 and DS8900F release 9.1 a Write Monitoring (WM) bitmap was implemented in the DS8000 to track all write to each volume. The write monitoring bitmap enables a DS8000 to track the amount and locality of its changed data over definable time intervals and across a set time period in an existing production environment.
• The new session type queries the Write Monitoring bitmap and provides output files on box and volume level including details such as the currently allocated extents, changed tracks, changed small extents and change large extents. That level of detail can readily be used to determined how much capacity would have been allocated over time for FlashCopy and Safeguarded Copy.
• To interpret the data collected the following tool is available online that will allow you to import the csv files collected from the session
Performance enhancements for Safeguarded Copy and FlashCopy in mainframe environments
• In order to create consistent FlashCopy flashes and Safeguarded Copy backups, a freeze must be issue briefly across all volumes in the session during the flash or backup process.
• CSM has implemented a number of enhancements in previous releases to minimize the application impact of the freeze, however, network and system resources for the CSM server can impact the performance.
• In CSM 6.2.11, customers can now go into the properties for a FlashCopy or a Safeguarded Copy session and associate the session with a sysplex. When a sysplex is associated, the necessary commands are passed down to the IOS component on z/OS to perform the flash or backup, dramatically improving the performance and minimizing application impact.
• In order to use the feature, all volumes in the session must be attached to the zOS system that is associated to the session. If the volumes are not attached the backup or Flash will fail, and the sysplex association will need to be removed so that the flash or backup can be executed the traditional way.
• IOS APAR OA59561 must be applied to the z/OS system
• Safeguarded Copy has many different possible topologies. This discussion is focused on the physical isolation example, where Safeguarded Copy is desired at the GM target site.
• The Global Mirror leg could also be the asynchronous leg of an MGM configuration
The queries in steps 3 and 4 are all device level queries.1,000’s of pairs ➔ 1,000’s of queries.
Global Mirror
Global Copy
CSM
SafeguardedCopy
Process to take a Safeguarded Backup is:1. Pause Global Mirror with consistency2. Query until Global Mirror pauses3. Query all Global Copy pairs until OOS=04. Suspend Global Copy pairs5. Resume Production Global Mirror6. Take Safeguarded Backup7. Resume Cascaded Global Copy
SGC Backup Process with cascaded Global Mirror (new solution!)
Process to take a Safeguarded Backup is:1. Pause Cascaded GM with consistency
• No CG is formed until production GM is paused2. Pause Production GM with consistency3. Query until Production GM pauses4. Query until Cascaded GM pauses5. Resume Production Global Mirror6. Take Safeguarded Backup7. Resume Cascaded Global Mirror
Critical Path
Global Mirror
Global Mirror
CSM
SafeguardedCopy
Cascaded GM(instead of GC)
The queries in steps 3 and 4 are now GM session level queriesOnly 1 query for the session
IBM Storage Insights monitoring of Safeguarded Copy capacity
• Cloud-based solution that can monitor your DS8000 Storage• Monitor your Safeguarded Copy volumes• Easily see which volumes are safeguarded• Configure alerts and get capacity and performance data• Enables IBM Storage Support to view performance data and collect support logs as-needed
Register for IBM Storage Insights:http://ibm.biz/register