IBM Spectrum Virtualize&trade: V7.8.1 is the latest software for FlashSystem V9000, SAN Volume Controller and Storwize products.
Last release, IBM introduced "Host Groups" for clusters that needed to share a common set of volumes. This release offers "Host cluster I/O throttling": I/O throttling can be managed at the host level (individual or groups) and at managed disk levels for improved performance management,and GUI support.
Increased background FlashCopy transfer rates: This feature enables you to increase the rate of background FlashCopy transfers, providing faster copies as the infrastructure allows. This takes advantage of the higher performance capabilities of today's systems, processing the copy in a shorter period of time. The default was 64 MB/sec, and now we can go up to 2 GB/sec, for those who want their FlashCopy to be done as fast as possible.
Port Congestion Statistic: Zero buffer credits help detect SAN congestion in performance-related issues, improving support in high-performance environments. IBM had this for the 8Gbps FCP cards, but not for the 16Gbps cards, so now that's fixed.
Resizing of volumes in remote mirror relationships: Target volumes in remote mirror relationships will be automatically resized when source volumes are resized. Lots of clients asked for this, and IBM delivered!
Consistency protection for Metro/Global Mirror relationships: An automatic restart of mirroring relationships after a link fails between the mirror sites improves disaster recovery scenarios, helping to ensure the applications are protected throughout the process.
When IBM introduced "Global Mirror with Change Volumes" (GM CV), I wanted to call it "Trickle Mirror", because the primary site takes a FlashCopy, trickles the data over, then FlashCopy at the remote site. Now, clients using traditional Metro or Global Mirror can add "Change Volumes" as protection. In the unlikely event a network disruption occurs, it drops down to GMCV until the link resumes full speed.
Support of SuperMicro servers for the Spectrum Virtualize as Software Only offering: Support for x86-based Intel™ servers by SuperMicro for Spectrum Virtualize Software is available with this release.
Last year, IBM offered Spectrum Virtualize as software that could run on Lenovo servers. However, now there are clients who want alternative server choices.
Supermicro SuperServer 2028U-TRTP+ is supported to run Spectrum Virtualize Software. This is a great option for end clients, managed service or cloud service providers deploying private clouds, building hosted services, or using software-defined storage on third party Intel servers. This a fully inclusive license with all key features available on Spectrum Virtualize in a single, downloadable image.
To learn more, see [ IBM Spectrum Virtualize Software V7.8.1] press release.
We often joke that IBM Virtual Storage Center is the [Happy Meal] combining storage virtualization with Spectrum Virtualize hardware like FlashSystem V9000, SAN Volume Controller or Storwize as the "hamburger", Spectrum Control as the "fries" and "Spectrum Protect Snapshot" as the "soft drink". Storage Analytics was included as a "prize inside" only available in the VSC bundle to entice clients to chose this option.
Whenever IBM updates Spectrum Control, they often put out a new version of the Virtual Storage Center bundle as well. I was the Chief Architect for Spectrum Control 2001-2002, and Technical Evangelist for SVC in 2003 when we first introduced the product, so I have long history with both products.
This release provides additional information and performance metrics on Dell EMC VMAX and EMC VNX devices. This is done natively, they do not need to be virtualized by Spectrum Virtualize as was often done in the past.
IBM now offers better visibility of drives within IBM Cloud Object Storage Slicestor® nodes. IBM acquired Cleversafe 18 months ago, and are working to get it under the Spectrum Control management umbrella.
IBM Spectrum Scale™ file system to external pool correlation. Spectrum Scale can migrate data to three different type of "external pools":
- Cloud Object pool, either on-premise Object Storage or off-premise Cloud Service Provider storage.
- Spectrum Protect pool, where Spectrum Protect manages the migrated data on one of 700 supported devices, including tape, virtual tape, optical, flash, disk, object storage or cloud.
- Spectrum Archive pool, where data is written directly to physical tape using the Industry-standard LTFS format.
This release provides additional information on the copy data panel about SAN Volume Controller (SVC) HyperSwap® and vDisk mirror.
While the "Virtual Storage Center" bundle is an awesome deal, some clients have asked for the "Vegetarian Option" (Fries and Drink only). Why? Because they want the advanced storage analytics (prize inside) for other devices like DS8000, XIV, etc. So, IBM created the "IBM Spectrum Control Advanced Edition", which has everything in VSC except the Spectrum Virtualize itself.
Advanced edition adds improvements to the chargeback report. It also includes IBM Spectrum Protect™ Snapshot V8.1 release.
To learn more, see [IBM Spectrum Control V5.2.13 and IBM Virtual Storage Center V5.2.13] press release.
Storage Insights is IBM's "Software-as-a-Service" reporting-only offering subset of Spectrum Control Advanced Edition. It includes direct support for Dell EMC VMAX, VNX, and VNXe storage systems. This is huge! Now, clients who have only EMC hardware can now, on a monthly basis, figure out where they are wasting money and decrease their costs.
Other features carried over include the enhanced drive support for IBM® Cloud Object Storage, enhanced external capacity views for IBM Spectrum Scale™ and additional replication views for vDisk mirror and HyperSwap® relationships for SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and Storwize® devices that I mention above.
To learn more, see [IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights Software as a Service] press release.