Mainframe Storage

 View Only

What's New in IBM Copy Services Manager 6.3.11.0

By Randy Blea posted Thu June 27, 2024 06:19 PM

  



In June 2024 IBM GA'd a new version of IBM Copy Services Manager 

Copy Services Manager 6.3.11.0 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!!!

Allow larger size volumes for FC targets and SGC recovery volumes

LSS level selection for ESESizer and SGCSizer

Display Role Pair on DS8000 Global Mirror Info Tab

Support LDAP for z/OS RACF

Support for connecting to DS8000 storage systems using z/OS Passtickets

Support Scheduled Task Run External Script action with SSH key pair

Automatically reconnect active standby servers after a disconnect

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

IDEA CSM-I-139 - Allow larger size volumes for FC targets and SGC recovery volumes

  • In today's FlashCopy session the target volumes have to be the same size as the source volumes.  In addition, in today's SGC session, the recovery volumes have to be the same size as the source volumes.  This helps to ensure that you can do a full volume restore from that target or recovery volume.
  • A customer request came in however, where the customer wanted to be able to use FlashCopy for migration purposes, in order to migrate to a larger volume.  The DS8000 storage system can do this, but the CSM session didn't allow it.  A larger target volume is perfectly valid in the migration session since there will be no need to restore back to the original source.
  • To support this requirement, CSM created a new FlashCopy Migration session.  This session has the same FlashCopy options and support as the regular FlashCopy session, however it allows you to define the copy sets in the session where the targets are larger than the sources.
  • A similar request was entered for SGC recovery volumes.  While a catastrophic restore would require the source and recovery volumes to be the same size, the request was geared toward a surgical restore.  In a surgical restore, you might only restore a single or set of data sets from the SGC backup, instead of the entire volume worth of data.  Since surgical restores are done more at an individual volume level vs. a whole session level, the customer wanted to ability to define a smaller set of volumes with larger sizes, which were large enough to use to recover the backup of any volume in the configuration. 
  • When a surgical restore is needed, they can create or automate the creation of a new SGC session with only the volumes they need to surgically restore from using recovery volumes from the pool of larger volumes.  CSM will discover all the existing backups for those volumes and allow the recover for a backup so that the surgical restore can be done, without having to recover ALL the volumes in the main SGC session.

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

IDEA CSM-I-155  - LSS level selection for ESESizer and SGCSizer

  • The ESESizer and SGCSizer sessions are designed to help in sizing the space needed for either FlashCopy target volumes or SGC backup capacity.  These sessions take in a set of single volume copy sets.  Today the Add Copy Set wizard though allows you to multi-select for volumes on a single LSS, but to add volumes from different LSSs, you have to loop through the wizard multiple times. 
  • The customer request was centered around the fact that the majority of the time that these sessions are configured, they are configured for ALL the volumes across a large set of LSSs. 
  • Starting with the 6.3.11 release you can now multi-select at the LSS level in the Add Copy Set wizard.  If you multi select at the LSS level though all volumes for those LSSs selected will be added to the session.  You will not be able choose the volumes individually. 

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

IDEA CSM-I-162  - Display Role Pair on DS8000 Global Mirror Info Tab

  • Starting with the 6.3.9 release of CSM, as well as the 9.4 release of DS8000, there are now session types in CSM that may have more than one active GM role pair.  These sessions are the Multi-Target Global Mirror Global Mirror session as well as the 4 Site Replication Enhanced session type.
  • When more than one role pair is actively running in Global Mirror mode, the Global Mirror info tab on the session details panel, will display the Global Mirror statistics for each of the role pairs.  These statistics include the Data Exposure as well as counts for successful and unsuccessful consistency group formations.
  • While determining which set of Global Mirror info was for which role pair was possible by looking at the consistency group number, starting with the CSM 6.3.11 release the data will now also contain the role pair name making it easier to map the data to the role pair. 

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

Support LDAP for z/OS RACF

  • CSM supports both Basic users as well as LDAP users today.   But you can now setup CSM using an LDAP server running on z/OS with the SDBM backend.
  • With this support, you can setup a CSM instance running on a Distributed server or DS8000 HMC, with users defined in z/OS RACF.  This helps to consolidate management of the users to a single place, instead of having to maintain RACF as well as LDAP/Active Directory users. 
  • To setup CSM to use an LDAP z/OS instance, LDAP must first be setup on z/OS with the SDBM backend.  See z/OS documention for the setup.
  • Once LDAP is setup on z/OS, you can define the connection in CSM by using the Advanced Tab in the LDAP Configuration wizard and the sample XML below, replacing the key values with values specific to your customer environment. 
  • NOTE: After adding the XML and clicking the Test button, you may get a "no users found" error.  If you receive this error, the setup may still be valid.  Continue to click the Save button and then query for the users by clicking the Add Users button on the Adminstration panel. 
  • <server description="IBM Copy Services Manager LDAP Registry">         
<ldapRegistry baseDN="profiletype=user,sysplex=PLEXNAME" bindDN="racfid=csmusr,profiletype=user,sysplex=SVPLEX1" bindPassword="{xor}asBSC124==" host="hostname.domain.com" id="ldap" ldapType="IBM Tivoli Directory Server" port="389" realm="RACFRealm">                     
<idsFilters groupFilter="racfid=%v" groupIdMap="*:racfid" groupMemberIdMap="racfconnectgroupname:racfgroupuserids" userFilter="racfid=%v" userIdMap="*:racfid"/>             
</ldapRegistry>         
<federatedRepository>                   
<extendedProperty dataType="String" entityType="PersonAccount" name="racfid"/>                   
<extendedProperty dataType="String" entityType="Group" name="racfid"/>                   
<primaryRealm name="FederatedRealm">                             
<participatingBaseEntry name="profiletype=user,sysplex=PLEXNAME"/>                           
  <userDisplayNameMapping inputProperty="racfid" outputProperty="racfid"/>                           
  <userSecurityNameMapping inputProperty="racfid" outputProperty="racfid"/>                             
<groupSecurityNameMapping inputProperty="uniqueName" outputProperty="uniqueName"/>                           
  <uniqueGroupIdMapping inputProperty="uniqueName" outputProperty="uniqueName"/>                       
</primaryRealm>             
</federatedRepository>   
</server>

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

Support for connecting to DS8000 storage systems using z/OS Passtickets

  • Prior to the CSM 6.3.11 release, when connecting to a DS8000 storage system, a customer needed to add a userid and a password in order to CSM to authenticate and connection to that storage system.  The problem with this is that most customer environments now have rules that require passwords to change on some cycle.  Every time the password changes, it has to then be changed for all Storage systems using that userid and password combination. 
  • Starting with CSM 6.3.11, CSM can now connect to a DS8000 storage system via a z/OS Passticket.  When setting up security on the DS8000 storage system you can set it up to point to an LDAP server running on z/OS tied to z/OS RACF with the SDBM backend.  What this does, is allow customers to setup the users that can login to the DS8000, via the users defined in z/OS RACF.   If the DS8000 is tied to z/OS RACF, you can then define users that support z/OS Passtickets.
  • When setting up a user for a Passticket, the user is defined a Passticket Key.  This Passticket key can now be used in place of a password when setting up a DS8000 storage system connection in the Add Storage System Wizard.  If using a Passticket key, you'll also need to specify the Application name which in this case is the started task name for the LDAP server on z/OS, such as LDAPSRV.
  • When the connection is setup with a Passticket Key, anytime that CSM goes to connect to that DS8000, CSM will use the key for the user and the application name and build a Passticket which is in essence a unique time based password.  z/OS RACF validates the Passticket and authenticates the user.  This means that every time CSM authenticates a different "password" is essentially used, thus covering any requirement for having to constantly modify the password used to connect in CSM.

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

Support Scheduled Task Run External Script action with SSH key pair 

  • CSM Scheduled Tasks support an action type called "Run External Script".  This action allows a customer to define a server with a userid and password that can be used to SSH to that server in order to run a given script.  This allows for coordinating external jobs with CSM session commands etc.
  • Prior to 6.3.11 there are two issues that often come up in managing the tasks.
  • The first issue is that if you have multiple Scheduled Tasks that issue different scripts to the same server, then you have to specify the same server credentials in multiple tasks....and update those across multiple tasks should those credentials change. 
  • The second issue is that the connection requires the use of a static password, which might change often leading to task failures or a painful process of updating the password across multiple tasks. 
  • In CSM 6.3.11, we have separated the external server credentials from the Scheduled Task Run External Script action.  When defining the Run External Script action you can now select a server, or add a new server which will be used to run the script.  That server definition can then be used across multiple scheduled tasks. 
  • The External Server Connections button is accessible from the Scheduled Tasks panel so that you can manage these connections outside of the tasks themselves.  This lets you add, remove or even test the connection.
  • To address the issue of static passwords, the CSM 6.3.11 release now supports the ability to SSH to the server selected in the Run External Script action, using and SSH key pair.  When you create the server connection, you can choose to use an SSH key pair instead of a password.  This then creates the key pair on the CSM server which can be exported from CSM and then imported on the server that is being called.  Importing the public key onto the server allows the task to SSH to that server and execute the script without requiring a password. 

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

IDEA CSM-I-160 - Automatically reconnect active and standby servers after a disconnect 

  • Before the CSM 6.3.11 release, if your active and standby server disconnected for any reason, such as rebooting the server after applying maintenance or a network outage, customers had to manually go into CSM and reconnect the server.
  • Staring with CSM 6.3.11, after a disconnect, as long as the servers were previously synchronized, the Active server will automatically attempt to resynchronize with the Standby.  The Active server will attempt to reconnect every minute up to 10 times by default.  After the 10th time if the active server is unable to reconnect, a manual reconnect will be necessary.
  • This automatic reconnect helps to automatically ensure that the standby has the latest information in case of a disaster.
  • To protect the automatic reconnect from causing the standby to get potentially corrupted if the active was corrupted, prior to synchronizing after a reconnect, the standby will automatically take a backup of it's database contents.  This auto backup can be used to restore the standby if necessary.
  • After an actual loss of the active server, if you had issued a takeover on the standby server, when the active comes back up and attempts to reconnect to the standby, it will see that a takeover was done and will not continue to attempt the reconnect.  The old active can then be setup as the standby.

https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

CSM 6.3.11.0 What’s New Video

  • https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

Download the What's New CSM 6.3.11 Presentation!!

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7159155

  • https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/IMWUC/UploadedImages/d5d5d759-cab6-4adb-ae53-b03967a4252d/CSM628/line.png

Idea/RFE support for Copy Services Manager

 
If you wish to open a new IDEA (formally called a Request for Enhancement) on IBM Copy Services Manager, you can now do so through the following link.
https://ibm-sys-storage.ideas.ibm.com/ideas?project=CSM



#ds8900
#copyservicesmanager
​​​#safeguardedcopy​#flashsystem​​

3 comments
33 views

Permalink

Comments

SHIN TAKATA
Mon July 01, 2024 02:38 AM

Hi Randy,

Thank you very much and sorry for taking your time. I could download your files.

Randy Blea
Fri June 28, 2024 11:16 AM

Hi Shin!   Love that idea.  I updated the blog with a new link towards the bottom where you can download either a PDF or the PowerPoint of the presentation showing what's new in the release!

SHIN TAKATA
Thu June 27, 2024 10:46 PM

Hi Randy,

Thank you very much for your valuable update information on CSM periodically. Can we download the charts on this blog ? I'd like to save it on my PC. 

Shin.