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What's New In IBM Copy Services Manager 6.1.1

By Archive User posted Wed March 23, 2016 05:06 PM

  

Originally posted by: RandyBlea


On March 22, 2016 IBM announced the next version of IBM Copy Services Manager, version 6.1.1

 

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https://ibm.biz/Bd4Zn3

 

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.

 

 

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What's New in IBM Copy Services Manager 6.1.1?

 

We're very excited to provide the following key features being released in this new version.

 

  • New Standalone PID (5725-Z54 IBM Copy Services Manager) available for ordering via Passport Advantage (PPA)
  • HyperSwap and Hardened Freeze Enablement for DS8000 Multi-Target Metro Mirror - Global Mirror (MM-GM) and Multi-Target Metro Mirror - Global Mirror with Practice (MM-GM w/ Practice) session types
  • Support for target box not having the Multi-target feature for DS8000 RPQ
  • Setup of LDAP configuration through the CSM GUI
  • Allow a User Defined Delay time for the auto restart feature on SVC GM sessions
  • The ability to export historical RPO data for SVC GM with Change Volume sessions
  • The creation of SVC consistency groups using the IBM Copy Services Manager session name
  • Support for external failbacks in the opposite direction on SVC MM/GM sessions

 

 

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New Standalone PID (5725-Z54 IBM Copy Services Manager)

 

When IBM Copy Services Manager 6.1.0 GA'd in December 2015, a customer could either purchase the product via the Copy Services Manager z/OS license on shopZ, or through Spectrum Control / Virtual Control Center via Passport Advantage (PPA).  With this announcement and the 6.1.1 version, there is now a new standalone Copy Services Manager PID available via Passport Advantage (5725-Z24).  Customers that have environments where the full Spectrum Control license can not be utilized, now have the option to purchase only the Copy Services Manager product.

 

After IBM Copy Services Manager has been purchased, in order to get up and running with the product, the customer will need both the installer (for the platform they plan to install on) as well as the enablement files.  The following table is a summary of where you can find the install images and the enablement files, as well as where a customer is entitled to run with each of the licensing options.

 

 

CSM under shopZ

5698-E01
 

CSM Standalone PID under PPA

5725-Z54

CSM entitlement via Spectrum Control/VSC CSM on Fix Central
Contains z/OS Install image YES NO NO NO
Contains Distributed Install images NO1 YES NO YES
Entitled to run on z/OS YES NO NO n/a
Entitled to run on Distributed YES1 YES YES n/a

 

 

1 Distributed Installers available on Fix Central.  Distributed Enablement files available mid April 2016 for entitled CSM z/OS customers via LCD8-2735-01 IBM Copy Services Manager for z/OS Systems License Keys CD) 

 

 

 

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HyperSwap and Hardened Freeze Enablement for DS8000 Multi-Target Metro Mirror - Global Mirror (MM-GM) and Multi-Target Metro Mirror - Global Mirror with Practice sessions

 

Version 6.1.0 of IBM Copy Services Manager, released support for two new multi-target session types:  Metro Mirror - Global Mirror and Metro Mirror - Global Mirror with Practice.  This release enhances those sessions by providing HyperSwap and Hardened Freeze capabilities.

 

HyperSwap enablement provides High Availability when running in a multi-target environment, so that in the event of a primary i/o error an automatic swap of the application will occur to the Metro Mirror target.  This support builds on top of IBM's existing DS8000 and z/OS HyperSwap technology, extending its three site support to a multi-target environment, allowing customers to choose between a cascading three site or a multi-target three site configuration with HyperSwap. With DS8000's multi-target technology, transitioning between sites becomes easier to maintain and manage with the help of IBM Copy Services Manager.

 

Hardened Freeze enablement provides continued disaster recovery capabilities while running in a multi-target environment, helping to ensure that consistency is maintained even when management software is down.  When the session reaches a Prepared state, the Metro Mirror configuration is loaded into z/OS, so that any disaster level trigger, such as loss of paths between primary and secondary sites, will lead to a freeze of the replication, keeping the secondary site data consistent. 

 

 

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Support for target box not having the Multi-target feature for DS8000 RPQ

 

With the 6.1.0 version of Copy Services Manager, when a multi-target session was created, only volumes that resided on a DS8000 that had the multi-target feature code were allowed to be added to the session.  NOW, with version 6.1.1, this restriction has been lifted.  This allows customers to use CSM, when using the DS8000 RPQ, for migration purposes, to move from a target storage system without multi-target capabilities to a new storage system.  Please note, that this feature is not intended for configurations that intend to run in a multi-target setup permanently.  Without multi-target enabled on all three boxes, recovery to either of the remote systems may result in requiring a full copy of the data to get back to a disaster recovery capable state.  

 

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Setup of LDAP configuration through the CSM GUI

 

Copy Services Manager 6.1.0 allowed LDAP to be configured on ther server it could only be configured via the CLI.  In version 6.1.1, the ability to configure LDAP has been added to the GUI.  From the Administration panel, a customer can click on the modify link and specify either their Active Directory or their LDAP server information.  Once configured, users can be granted access to the Copy Services Manager server and given either the Administrator, Monitor, or Session Operator role.  This then allows those users to login to Copy Services Manager using their Active Directory or LDAP user name and password.

 

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Allow a User Defined Delay time for the auto restart feature on SVC GM sessions

 

This new feature builds on the capability in IBM Copy Services Manager 6.1.0, to set a property on an SVC GM session so that the session will automatically restart in the event of a 1720/1920 suspension.  When a customer enables this property on the session, they will now also have the option to add a delay time in seconds, indicating how long after the 1720/1920 event was processed that the session should wait before attempting to do an automatic restart of the session.  This feature could be used if the customer knows that it takes a certain amount of time after a 1720/1920 hits in their environment, for things to clear in order to not hit the 1720/1920 immediately again.   It could also be used by customers that have a large number of SVC sessions and wish to set a different delay time on each session, thus allowing them to stagger the restart so that not all sessions use the bandwidth to resync between sites at the same time.

 

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The ability to export historical RPO data for SVC GM with Change Volume sessions

 

IBM Copy Services Manager SVC GM with Change Volumes session have always shown a real time Recovery Point Objective (RPO) on the session details panel.  This is calculated every 30 seconds and helps a customer understand their current data exposure.  With the 6.1.1 release, the IBM Copy Services Manager server will now store those RPO calculations so that they can be used for historical reporting on the RPO for a duration in the life of the session.  Through the GUI (Export -> Export Global Mirror Data) link or the CLI (exportgmdata) the historical data can be exported to a csv file which can then be uploaded into a spreadsheet or other tool in order to chart the RPO over time.

 

Below is an example of what the csv file data looks like from an export of the SVC GM with Change Volumes Session.

#Generated at:,"Mar 22, 2016 8:50:13 AM"

#Session Name:,GMCV

#Role Pair:,H1-H2

#Start Date:,"Mar 21, 2016"

#End Date:,"Mar 22, 2016"

 

#Query Time,Session Name,Role Pair Name,Consistency Group Name,Query Interval (secs),Data Exposure (hh:mm:ss),Data Exposure (milliseconds),

2016-03-21 21:35:29.911,GMCV,H1-H2,GMCV,30,07:00:59,25259000,

2016-03-21 21:35:30.098,GMCV,H1-H2,GMCV,30,07:01:00,25260000,

 

 

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The creation of SVC consistency groups using the IBM Copy Services Manager session name

 

Previously, when an SVC session was started through IBM Copy Services Manager, the session did not define what the name of the consistency group should be on the SVC, causing the consistency group to be created with an auto generated name.  While the Copy Services Manager session internally tracks which SVC consistency group was tied to which Copy Services Manager session, a customer looking at the SVC GUI or CLI could not easily determine which consistency group was tied to their session. 

 

With 6.1.1, the name of the session in IBM Copy Services Manager will now be directly applied to the created consistency group for new sessions.  When the session goes to create the consistency group on the SVC, it will attempt to use the session name when creating the consistency group, thus allowing a customer to easily distinguish what is what on the SVC GUI or CLI.  SVC consistency groups have a 15 character limit.  Due to this the Copy Services Manager GUI will now limit the session name during creation of the SVC session to 15 characters.  If a name longer than 15 characters is needed, the CLI can still be used to create the session, however, the session name will not be used when creating the consistency group. 

 

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After creating the session, the consistency group name will now appear on the Session Details panel as well, in order to help a customer determine whether the session name was used or the auto generated name still applies.

 

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Support for external failbacks in the opposite direction on SVC MM/GM sessions

 

IBM Copy Services Manager SVC MM and GM sessions have had the ability for awhile to recognize when an external failover has been issued to the consistency group being managed by the session.  This support was added as there are tools out there, such as VMWare SRM and PowerHA, that help facilitate and automate the site switch for applications.

 

The 6.1.1 release expands on this support by adding in the capability of the session to recognize an external failback in the opposite direction.  Some tools today not only do the failover to recover to the remote site, but also restart the replication in the reverse direction.  With this release, the MM or GM session will recognize the failback event and the change in direction of the relationships, and automatically show the change on the session.  This helps provide better coexistence and allow for the Copy Services Manager product to help setup and monitor the replication environment, while helping other tools complete the full end to end solution for automating the site switch of an application.

 

 

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What's New in Version 6.1.1 Video

 

Watch the following video for an overview of the above new set of features, as well as a demo or some of the key features.

 

 

 

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New RFE support for Copy Services Manager

 

If you wish to open a new Request for Enhancement on IBM Copy Services Manager, you can now do so through the following link.

https://ibm.biz/Bd4Zxj

 

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Additional Reference Links for CSM below:

 

Copy Services Manager Support Portal

https://ibm.biz/BdHC46

 

Copy Services Manager Knowledge Center

http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSESK4/product_welcome/csm_kcwelcome.html

 

Copy Services Manager YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2KaP7qpv4Z9yJ75YioI-pA

 

 

 













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