Originally posted by: Thomas Luther
IBM has multiple years experience in centralized Storage Replication Management across multiple platforms through its software offering called Tivoli Storage Productivity Center for Replication (TPC-R). TPC for Replication is available as part of IBM Spectrum Control, formerly known as Tivoli Storage Productivity Center (TPC) or IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center (VSC). In its journey to further leverage new IBM Storage replication features and faster respond to customer requirements, IBM developed a new stand alone product called IBM Copy Services Manager (CSM), which is built on TPC for Replication technology and inherits all of its capabilities.
The first build of IBM Copy Services Manager 6.1 (CSM) was released end of June 2015 and is available for customers as Special Bid delivery until it is formalized as an IBM product. Beside the inherited TPC for Replication capabilities, CSM 6.1 introduces a set of NEW valuable features to enhance Disaster Recovery Management with IBM's Storage portfolio.
The CSM 6.1 special bid Drop 1 release from June 2015 includes but is not limited to the following deliverables:
- Continued support for all existing TPC-R functionality across mainframe and distributed storage devices
- Stand-alone Installation on all currently supported TPC-R Distributed Platforms with full 64 bit support: Windows, AIX and Linux.
- Additional Support for new platforms not currently supported by TPC-R: PowerPC Linux and Linux for z Systems
- Reduced Software footprint for Replication management
- There is NO need for DB2 or TPC/VSC bundle installation, making CSM a small footprint software to manage DR
- CSM can be installed in less than 10 minutes
- CSM does not consume unnecessary resources on Standby Server by unused software packages
- Support for Basic File Registry authentication and centralized LDAP Registry Authentication
- This allows customers a centralized authentication service across Active and Standby CSM servers while still having the emergency fall back option of file based authentication when LDAP services are not available during disaster recovery situations
- Support for simple migrations of TPC-R customers to CSM
- An existing TPC-R repository backup can be easily migrated into a CSM repository during or after the CSM installation
- Updated Installation, CLI and User Guides
- Official Support for IBM Storwize V5000
- Official Support for IBM FlashSystems V9000 and V840
- Updates to REST interfaces for integration with iSeries Advanced Copy Services Toolkit
- Support to allow multiple CSM Global Mirror sessions to use the same Global Mirror consistency group ID on the hardware
- This feature expands a hardware limitation and enables customers to manage 256+ GM sessions individually under CSM on the same DS8000
- CSM performs necessary dynamic consistency group reconfigurations on the hardware when shared CSM Global Mirror sessions must be suspended, flashed or recovered individually
- Support for users to define what Global Mirror consistency group ID should be used on DS8000
- Multiple CSM Global Mirror Sessions can now be selected on the Sessions Overview panel to set a common Consistency Group ID (= Global Mirror Master ID on DS8000)
The CSM 6.1 special bid Drop 2 release from September 2015 includes following deliverables:
- Basic Auto Restart capability for SVC/Storwize GM relations with suspend reason code 1720/1920
- Suspend on Drain command for DS8000 MGM, automating the MGM Suspension once the Out of Sync tracks reaches 0
- Added DS8000 GM Drain Time and Coordination Interval settings in the Session Properties in the GUI (formaerly only available per CLI)
- Remote CLI installation for various platforms
- This simplifies CSM CLI installation on client platforms that might also be different than the CSM server platform
- Support for 'no copy' option via the server.properties file for initial start of DS8000 Sessions without Data Copy
- User ensures no initial copy must be done
- Useful if new volumes are created and taken under replication control before they are ever mapped to a host or if source and target have been synchronized before
- Support for adding CSM license files during installation
- Support for configuring LDAP authentication via CSM CLI
- Support for Try And Buy Evaluation License
Following graphic highlights the CSM capabilities:
IBM is currently working on an SOW for the special bid delivery. If you have interested customers new to IBM Copy Services Management or existing TPC-R customers who are interested to explore CSM 6.1 capabilities, please get in touch with your IBM Sales Representative.