In Aug 2025 IBM GA'd a new version of IBM Copy Services Manager
Copy Services Manager 6.3.16.0 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.
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!!!
IAllow Customers to update the server certificate via CSM CLI or REST
IDEA CSM-I-210 - New option to view a Scheduled Task without having to open the Modify wizard
IDEA CSM-I-211 - Ability to manually start a Scheduled Task from any step
Cancel a running Scheduled Task
IDEA CSM-I-212 - View running status and last run status of actions within a Scheduled Task
IDEA CSM-I-221 - Provide more details in subject of email notifications, to allow for easier filtering
New DS8000 support for Time-Locked Expirations on SGC Backups
More enhancements for FlashSystems Snapshot and PBR support
New FlashSystems support for Restore from a Thin Clone's Snapshot
New support for handling FlashCore Module Threat Detection events for FlashSystems directly from CSM and Automatically invoking a Scheduled Task
Allow Customers to update the server certificate via CSM CLI or REST
- In the CSM 6.3.15 release, we updated the import button on the CSM GUI Settings->Advanced Tools panel, so that when you imported a certificate, that certificate got applied to ALL in and out going port connections for the server.
- In CSM 6.3.16, we made it possible to now automate that process, by creating a CSM CLI and REST API command for the import.
- The new
importcerts command on the CSM CLI, takes in a file name and an optional password, for the certificate you want to upload.
- Similarly, the
POST /system/certificates command allows REST, python calls to upload a file to the server to replace the certificate.
- As customers have demands now to update even certificates on a regular basis, these options should help make it a lot easier to automate the process.
IDEA CSM-I-210 - New option to view a Scheduled Task without having to open the Modify wizard
- CSM Scheduled Tasks provide customers a powerful way to create their own work flows to manage their environment. However, after the task is created, the only way to really see the actions a task will run, is to go back into the modify task wizard, and click through the panels. This means you have to click through all the schedule panels to get to the action panel. Like-wise, if you simply wanted to change the schedule, you'd still have to click through the actions. And entering the wizard which can make changes, just to view the actions, could be considered dangerous in the event that something gets unintentionally modified.
- Starting with CSM 6.3.16, we have significantly improved how you can view and manage the task.
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- View by hover-over : By simply hovering over the name of the Scheduled task, a tool-tip will pop up showing you the list of actions this task will run. This is an extremely quick way to validate what actions will be run and whether things are setup right.
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- View Full Details : By clicking on the Scheduled Task name, you'll now get a new full size pop up that contains all the relevant information pertaining to the task. This includes the actions, the schedule, the run on success/failure operations, etc.
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- Modify JUST the Schedule : And what about the case of just wanting to modify the schedule without risking changing the actions? There is now a Modify Schedule action in the Actions pull down, which will provide a wizard which will ONLY allow you to modify the schedule. Streamlining the process.
IDEA CSM-I-211 - Ability to manually start a Scheduled Task from any step
- As I stated above, CSM Scheduled Tasks are quite powerful and let you do multiple steps like you would in an external script. But what happens if you end up specifying something wrong and the task fails in the middle? Or something didn't quite go according to plan with one of the middle steps? Today you'd typically have to go and manually run the remaining steps so that you can complete the intended task.
- Starting with CSM 6.3.16 we have introduced the Run Task -> Now from specified step command. This command will pop up a window which will allow you to run the task from any of the steps you specify. So you can now select the step just after the one that failed and the server will run the task from there!
- This is currently only available manually, so you cannot schedule it to run from a given step. But this should greatly help how you handle issues that can and often do pop up.
Cancel a running Scheduled Task
- Today, once a task starts running...whether it's scheduled or started manually....there's no way to cancel it. This can become annoying when you have a task with a lot of steps and you realize that you did something wrong or need to prevent it from actually completing.
- Starting with CSM 6.3.16 though, you can now cancel a running task. Note though...the task has to complete the current action. If the task is canceled, you won't see the cancel take affect until AFTER the currently running action completes.
IDEA CSM-I-212 - View running status and last run status of actions within a Scheduled Task
There's one final improvement for Scheduled Tasks in the CSM 6.3.16 release. And this one is VERY exciting!
Now in CSM 6.3.16, if you click the Scheduled Task name in the table, as part of the overall Task information I discussed earlier....you will now see running/historical status!!
For example, if you kick off a task manually and then click the link, you'll now see a running icon appear on the action that is currently being performed, followed by a green check mark or red x based on the outcome of the action.
This status will remain so that if you close the window and want to look at it again before the next run....you can see where exactly the task may have failed, or validate that all actions were successful.
NOTE: The historical status is kept in memory and not persisted. If you restart the server the status will clear until the next time the task is run.
IDEA CSM-I-221 - Provide more details in subject of email notifications, to allow for easier filtering
Today when an email alert is sent from the CSM server, the subject of the email simply contains a message ID for the event that occurred. The message in it's entirety is then in the body of the email.
In CSM 6.3.16, based of a customer request, we will now be providing more info directly in the subject of the email. The email subject will now hold the following data:
message ID [time stamp] [server name] [event category] [message inserts]
These values can then be used in filtering for the emails to make processing email events easier.
New DS8000 support for Time-Locked Expirations on SGC Backups
DS8000 SGC backups can be setup with a frequency and an expiration. By default, backups are expired using the retention time set on the session and the "last successful backup". This decision was done originally so that backups weren't just based on the time the backup was taken, ensuring that a specified number of backups remain on the system at all times.
As customers have started using SGC, there has since been a lot of requests for the ability to base the expiration solely on time instead. Even if they managed to keep x backups at all times, if those backups are old, then they no longer become useful as well. In addition, basing the expiration on time alone, also means that the backup can be truly "locked" and not removable....even under Dual Control, until the time expires.
In CSM 6.3.16, you can now setup a CSM server to run in a mode which will base all DS8000 SGC expiration on the time. We are calling this "time-locked" mode as neither the internal retention process, nor manual expiration commands, will be able to delete the backup until AFTER the retention time has expired.
Special considerations need to be made before enabling this feature though. In order to truly protect the SGC backups, once the feature is enabled on the server, it cannot be disabled. This means, if one or more volumes run out of backup capacity, you may not be able to create new backups, until after enough backup have passed the expiration to free up enough space.
When "time-locked" SGC is enabled. A new feature is also enabled for SGC backups. You will now be able to do the following actions:
- Disable Expiration - You can trigger a disable expiration on the server to in essence, preserve the existing backups in the event of a potential attack, so that the backups do not get expired because they went passed their retention time. When ready, the Enable Expiration can be issue which will allow the server to again expire backups
- Hold and Preserve Backups - This is a special mode that not only stops expiration, but stops the ability to create new backups as well. This truly locks down the SGC session and preserves the contents. In addition, the session will track the time it is in this mode, so that when the Release Expiration is issued, all existing backups will have their retention time extended based on the duration of the hold. This helps to preserve a certain number of backups and can be used by some businesses that want to manage SGC only during their official business hours.
More enhancements for FlashSystems Snapshot and PBR support
There were some more great enhancements for FlashSystems Snapshot and Asynchronous PBR support this release.
For starters, CSM will now automatically create a Snapshot session for all Volume Groups found on the storage system. This is similar to how things were done for SGC 1.0 on FlashSystems. However, a scheduled task will have to be manually created in order to manage Snapshots through CSM.
In addition, if you create a thin clone from a Snapshot, CSM will now create a Snapshot session for that thin clone as well. A lot of customers have started either replicating the thin clones or creating Snapshots off the thin clone, so this will greatly streamline the management within CSM.
In the CSM GUI, any Snapshot sessions that were created as a thin clone, will display an icon, similar to what's on the FlashSystem itself, indicating that it's tied to a thin clone volume group.
And last but not least. When managing Async PBR within CSM, in a previous release CSM created a Snapshot session for every storage system that is part of the replication, however the Snapshot session did not "share" the site name with the Async PBR session. Now, the Snapshot session will automatically shared the site name (even custom site names) so that at a glance you can tell which Snapshot session is local/remote etc.
New FlashSystems support for Restore from a Thin Clone's Snapshot
CSM 6.3.16 has added a new feature that FlashSystems now supports. After creating a Thin Clone from a Snapshot. If you create Snapshots off that thin clone itself, the FlashSystem will allow you to restore the original source volumes from the Snapshot of that Thin Clone.
In CSM, we will now create a session for any thin clones and will allow you to even schedule snapshots to that session. If you want to take advantage of this new feature, you can go to the original Snapshot session via the link under "Source Volume Group" under the Thin Clone Snapshot session. And from that original Snapshot session you can issue the Restore from Thin Clone command. This command will prompt you for the thin clone, the snapshot in that thin clone, and then restore the volumes to that Snapshot.
New support for handling FlashCore Module Threat Detection events for FlashSystems directly from CSM and Automatically invoking a Scheduled Task
The FlashCore Modules that make up the FlashSystems, have built in AI to help detect anomalies that might indicate a threat. When a threat is detected, Storage Insights will alert the customer to the potential threat.
In CSM 6.3.15, you can now setup up CSM to automatically handle these FlashSystems Threat Detection events!!! The CSM server will monitor the FlashSystem event queue for the 4300 Threat Detection event which allows CSM to provide the following features:
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- Email Notifications: You can now setup Email Notifications to receive Threat Detection events. A new category now shows under types of alerts a user can receive. When you select Threat Detection Alert, an email notification will be sent out for the user for any Threat Detection events found on the storage system.
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- Automatically Run a Scheduled Task: A new setting now appears on the Scheduling page of the Scheduled Task Create/Modify Wizard. In you check the box "Run Task on a Threat Detection Event", the next page in the wizard will allow you to choose one or more sessions, and if any of those session receive a Threat Detection Event, the Scheduled Task will automatically run. This can be used to quickly create a backup, kick off a script to do validation, kick off an action to lock down the system, and more!!!
NOTE: To ensure the FlashSystem itself receive the the 4300 event and adds it to the event queue, the FlashSystem has to be setup for Storage Insights access using the chsystem -storageinsightcontrolaccess command.
IBM_FlashSystem:FS9500xxxA:superuser>chsystem -storageinsightscontrolaccess yes
IBM_FlashSystem:FS9500xxxA:powerha>lssystem
storage_insights_control_access yes
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