Originally posted by: RandyBlea

In December, 2018 IBM GA'd the next version of IBM Copy Services Manager, version 6.2.4

Copy Services Manager 6.2.4 Download

IBM Copy Services Manager is a storage replication product that provides a single place to manage all the replication across your IBM storage environment.  With IBM Copy Services Manager customers can simplify the management of their replication solutions while providing disaster recovery and high availability to their applications.

What's New in IBM Copy Services Manager 6.2.4

As always, we're very excited to provide the following key features being released in this new version.  We develop Copy Services Manager in an agile development cycle and as such have included a number of customer requested features!!!

Show more sessions on the Session Overview Panel

Previously the Session Overview panel only displayed a small subset of the sessions as the session table did not take advantage of all the space on the panel.  Customers with a large number of sessions have requested that the panel display a greater number of session in the table by default, so that they can minimize the scrolling they have to do as well as see the overall status and progress for a greater number of sessions. In 6.2.4 the sessions table on the Session Overview panel will now automatically fill the space on the panel so that more sessions can be displayed and scrolling can be minimized. 

Performance Improvements for non-Incremental FlashCopy

CSM supports DS8000 FlashCopy and the various options available for FlashCopy.  When a CSM FlashCopy session does not have the Incremental option set, every Flash command will first issue a terminate to the hardware to remove the existing pairs prior to establishing the new pairs with a new point in time copy.  If the session spans multiple DS8000 LSSs, CSM will invoke multiple threads in order to process all LSSs simultaneously.  In previous releases the step to terminate the existing relationships was done within the same thread as the re-establish when processing an LSS.  What this did was lead to a situation where one LSS may complete the terminate process and start re-establishing pairs before other LSSs had completed the terminate.  Starting the re-establishes puts the pairs in a long busy state and so the long busy time may be extended waiting for all pairs to first be terminated.  In 6.2.4, the step to terminate all the pairs is now done prior to starting any establishes on the hardware, thus preventing the long busy from being held up waiting for terminates to complete.

New CSM User Administrator Role

CSM 6.2.4 introduces a new user role to the list of Security roles for users.  The 'User Administrator' role is designed to provide a user ONLY the ability to manage the list of users that have access to the CSM server.  Some customers may have an outside group that manages their servers.  While other customers may want to provide greater security on the CSM server.  By combining the User Administrator with the Session Operator, customers can setup the server so that there is no one with the all encompassing Administrator access.  An Administrator will be needed to setup the server initially, creating connections to the storage systems etc.  But once that is complete, the Administrator can be removed such that there only exists a set of User Administrators and Session Operators.  Processes can then be put in place to grant Administrator access temporarily for any necessary changes requiring Administrator access, and then set back once complete.  

Official Support for FlashSystem 9100 and added support for FlashSystem A9000 HyperSwap

CSM 6.2.4 support also includes two important updates for currency support on IBM FlashSystem storage systems. 

The first update is the addition of official support for FlashSystem 9100 devices.  FlashSystem 9100 devices are built on IBM Spectrum Virtualize and take full advantage of the performance of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) architecture.  FlashSystem 9100 storage devices can be connected to a CSM server in the Add Storage System wizard by selecting the FlashSystem / Spectrum Virtualize icon.  Once connected, CSM will automatically discover all the volumes and display them appropriately as FlashSystem 9100 devices allowing them to be used in all Spectrum Virtualize supported session types.

The second update is for the already supported FlashSystem A9000 devices.  FlashSystem A9000 has recently release support for HyperSwap between two volumes.  HyperSwap technology provides high availability for customers by automatically swapping I/O from a primary device to a secondary device in the event of a primary I/O error.  It also provides the ability to manually swap to the secondary set of devices for planned site switch or maintenance requirements.  On a CSM Metro Mirror Failover/Failback session type with FlashSystem A9000 copy sets added, the "Manage H1-H2 w/ HyperSwap" property is available.  Checking this property will put the hardware into HyperSwap mode.  CSM then monitors the state of the relationships and the direction of the replication to help indicate if an unplanned swap occurred.  CSM also provides the mechanism to issue a planned swap using the "HyperSwap" command to the session. 

With the added currency updates for FlashSystem devices in this release, CSM shows that it's dedicated to continually supporting the entire IBM Storage portfolio.

What's new in Copy Services Manager 6.2.4 Video

RFE support for Copy Services Manager

If you wish to open a new Request for Enhancement on IBM Copy Services Manager, you can now do so through the following link.
https://ibm.biz/Bd4Zxj