Primary Storage

Originally posted by: DebraParker

Balancing the workload of applications across your IT infrastructure is key to maintaining the performance and stability of your environment. Ensuring that IBM Spectrum Control, a member of the IBM Spectrum Storage Suite, collects data at the right times and frequency can be a critical part of that load balancing strategy.

When you schedule probes to collect data about resources, you can have Spectrum Control automatically schedule them. Automated probe scheduling removes the complexity of manually planning when probes run.  It ensures that the server resources required for data collection (CPU, Memory, and so on) are distributed over time. The distribution of system resources avoids excessive load on Spectrum Control at any one time.

To schedule probes automatically, Spectrum Control uses an algorithm to determine the best times to run the probes. Here's what that algorithm does:

• Evaluates the existing schedules of probes for all types of resources. For example, when an automated probe of a storage system is scheduled, IBM Spectrum Control attempts to minimize the number of probes that are running concurrently by evaluating the existing probes of switches, servers, hypervisors, and other storage systems.
• Analyzes the frequency, start time, and expected duration of existing probe schedules. The analysis includes probes that were scheduled automatically or manually.
• Creates a unique probe schedule for each day of the week.

All this scheduling work is based on the time zone where the Spectrum Control server is installed.

Here we go again

At the end of the week, the algorithm does it all again by rescheduling the automated probes. During the rescheduling process, it recalculates the best times to run automated probes on each day of the upcoming week. Because all automated probes are rescheduled weekly, Spectrum Control ensures that the average number of concurrent probes is kept minimized for your environment on an ongoing basis.

If you schedule a new probe during the week, the schedule of existing probes does not change. Spectrum Control considers existing probes when the schedule of the new probe is determined, but existing probes continue to run according to the previously defined schedule for that week.

For more information and other things that you should know when you choose to have probes scheduled automatically, check out How automated probes are scheduled in the IBM Knowledge Center for Spectrum Control.

Joining the IBM Spectrum Control or IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights BETA program

IBM Spectrum Control and the cloud offering, IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights, is looking for new #BETA testers to use, and explore new #storage functionality while having a voice in future updates. Get onboard today and become part of the #BETA program! Contact Mary Anne Filosa at mfilosa@us.ibm.com for more details and to register.

You can try IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights for a free 30-day trial and see what it can do for your business.

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This blog was prepared with assistance from Chris King, whom you can also follow on or on Twitter @chris_tking.