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Revealing IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 2.0

By Nilesh Khankari posted Fri January 24, 2025 11:08 AM

  

Authors: @Abhishek Mehta @Nilesh Khankari @Sayali Joshi

The IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 2.0 is now available and includes exciting new features, such as a IBM Storage Insights integration which offers ransomware alerting, performance monitoring at the datastore and storage system level. With this plugin, users can easily monitor both storage system and datastore performance using different metrics. In addition, users are notified of ransomware threats against datastore and can add ESXi hosts that use the iSCSI protocol to the storage system.

Note: For more information on the features of the previous version, IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 1.3.0, please visit the blog.

Highlights of IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 2.0

  • Ransomware threat alerting

  • Performance monitoring dashboard

  • Storage system performance monitoring

  • Datastore performance monitoring

  • Integrations for IBM Storage Insights

  • Support for ESXi hosts configured with iSCSI

Ransomware threat alerting

IBM Storage FlashSystem offers new smart technology enabled by FCM4, designed to continuously monitor statistics gathered from every I/O. It employs an advanced AI inference engine to detect potential ransomware threats in less than a minute. For more details, please visit the link. IBM Storage FlashSystem forwards these alerts to IBM Storage Insights, where they are analyzed, and alerts are triggered. So, after integrating the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere with IBM Storage Insights, users can view ransomware threat alerts in the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere, ensuring that their business is protected before a cyberattack.

When a potential ransomware threat is detected on a datastore managed by the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere, an alert appears on the Dashboard and in Datastore actions panels. The Dashboard highlights the alert on the summary page, storage systems page, and storage system details panel, providing visibility into affected systems. Ransomware alerts also show in the datastore summary card, snapshot panel, or performance tab. vSphere alarms are triggered and remain visible until acknowledged. Users can acknowledge alerts via the "View alerts on Storage Insights" link, which redirects to IBM Storage Insights for further action. For this to work, the plugin and storage system must be connected to IBM Storage Insights pro, and the storage system should have FCM 4.1 drives.

For more details about the Ransomware threat alert visit IBM Documentation

Performance Monitoring Dashboard

The IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 2.0 dashboard has been revamped with a new navigation menu, including Summary, Storage Systems, and Settings. A key improvement is the introduction of an intuitive monitoring dashboard that visually represents data for all registered storage systems. The Summary page is organised into three cards: Systems, Datastore & VMs, and Performance. 

  • The Systems card displays a donut chart for the status, version, call home status, and platform data for all registered storage systems. Users can select different option from the "View by" dropdown.

  • The Datastore & VMs card shows the number of datastores managed by the plugin, the VMs connected to those datastores, as well as reporting any alarms that have been raised on these items.

  • The Performance card, when connected to IBM Storage Insights, displays the top 5 storage systems and datastores linked to vCenters based on IOPS (default), latency, and bandwidth. Users can also view the CPU utilisation of registered storage systems in bar charts.

For more details about performance monitoring dashboard visit IBM Documentation.

Storage system performance monitoring

The IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere allows users to monitor real-time and historical performance of registered storage systems for up to 14 days. It also provides a link to visit IBM Storage Insights to view performance data beyond 14 days. Performance charts for latency, IOPS, and bandwidth are displayed separately for the selected time period.

To view the historical performance of a storage system, both the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere and the storage system must be connected to IBM Storage Insights. To access storage system performance, go to the plugin dashboard, click the 'Storage Systems' menu in the left navigation panel, and select the hyperlink for the storage system name from the list. On the 'Overview' tab, the performance card displays three charts: IOPS, Bandwidth, and Latency, with the 'Read' checkbox selected by default.

For more details about the storage system performance monitoring visit IBM Documentation

Datastore performance monitoring

Using the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere, users can view the historical performance of VMFS datastores created through the plugin. Performance charts over time are displayed for latency, IOPS, and bandwidth, each separately for the selected period. To view datastore performance, the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere and the storage system where the datastore is created must be connected to IBM Storage Insights pro. To view datastore performance, go to the Monitor tab of the selected datastore and click on IBM® Storage > Performance. By default, the Last Hour period is selected, but users can choose from Last Hour, Last Day, Last 14 Days, or a Custom period to view historical performance data.

For more details about the datastore performance monitoring visit IBM Documentation

Connect to IBM Storage Insights

To get the historical performance data and ransomware threat alert, it is necessary that the plugin should be connected to IBM Storage Insights pro. To connect to IBM storage Insights pro, click on Connect to storage Insights button on the performance card on Summary page of Dashboard. Connect to IBM Storage Insights modal will open and provide information of Host Name, Tenant Id of IBM Storage Insights instance, API key, Api Key Alias and click on Save button. If the plugin does not have internet connectivity, it has the capability to configure a proxy, so users must configure a proxy to enable internet connectivity.

For more details about the connect to IBM Storage Insights visit IBM Documentation.

Support for ESXi hosts configured with iSCSI

The IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere already supports the Fibre Channel protocol for ESXi hosts. Now, with the IBM Storage Virtualize Plugin for vSphere 2.0, users can add ESXi hosts using the iSCSI protocol to the selected storage system, update host details, and create an iSCSI session if it fails for the ESXi host. While adding an iSCSI host, users can provide the required CHAP authentication details and select the necessary portset. Similarly, users can update CHAP authentication details and change the portset using the 'Edit Host' option.

For more details about the ESXi host configuration visit IBM Documentation.

Users can create host clusters on the storage system for iSCSI hosts. During the cluster creation process, users can also select the appropriate portsets for iSCSI hosts within the Manage Host Cluster wizard.

For more details about the Manage Host Cluster visit IBM Documentation

Reference links:

For any queries feel free to contact:

Sandeep Bangur: sandeep.bangur@in.ibm.com

Warren Hawkins: whawkins@uk.ibm.com

Nilesh Khankari: nikhanka@in.ibm.com



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