Originally posted by: Guenter Rebmann
IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility
IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility is a no-cost feature introduced in XIV Storage System software version 11.3. This level of software is available since May 2013. Prior releasing this software the naming was changed from OLVM (Online Volume Migration) to IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility, which is now the official name.
The feature allows users to move volumes from one XIV System Gen3 to another XIV System Gen3 with no interruption before, during, and after the migration.
Field of application for this feature is versatile. It is practical among others for:
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Managing storage growth
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Allow more flexibility in capacity forecast
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Managing costs
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Adjust and balance workload across systems w/o server downtime
Use cases (examples):
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Particularly useful in combination with XIV System Thin Provisioning when over provisioned and total system hard space is approaching depletion
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When volumes in a thin pool using more hard space then planned
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Migrate volumes to other XIV in regularly provisioned XIV System that is simply running out of physical storage space
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In situations where customer has two XIV Systems with different performance characteristics to move performance critical volumes to performance optimized XIV System
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Used to simply rebalance the workload away from a system that is heavily utilized to a system that is under utilized
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Removing a XIV System gracefully and concurrent from the environment
IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility requirements:
There are some requirements, which need attention to migrate volumes successful from the target XIV to the destination system.
The process of migrating a volume with concurrent, uninterruptible host access requires that the host operating system uses a
multi-path driver which enables the switching of paths from the source to destination XIV without any risk for volume access.
Source and destination XIV must be accessible to the host system concurrently. This requires changes to the zoning in use.
Further the two XIVs need accordingly zoning to allow connections for migrate the volumes.
Additional requirement is, to have sufficient space available in the destinations storage pool where the volume(s) will be migrated to.
For more detailed information and an example of using IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility we published a "Redpaper", which can be found here:
Redpaper REDP-5007-00: "IBM XIV Storage System: IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility Overview and Usage"
IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility, what is possible in the future?
In connection with IBM Hyper-Scale Manager this feature has a great potential to automate procedures.
For me some imaginable, automated scenarios can be:
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Moving volumes away from a XIV, when over provisioned and total system hard space is approaching depletion or when a normal provisioned XIV reach the max. capacity.
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Balance performance within a XIV Storage environment, by automatically reviewing performance data and moving volumes to a XIV which can provide the appropriate performance.
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Establish a kind of auto-tier process to move volumes on the basis of usage to a according XIV Storage System.