© Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center
Operations Manager 2012
Eric B. Johnson
IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement
November 2013
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
Table of contents
Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 ................................................................................................ 2
IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools ......................................................................... 4
Microsoft System Center Operation Manager 2012 ............................................................... 4
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM............................................................. 5
Test environment layout .......................................................................................................... 6
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center prerequisites ....................... 7
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center installation ........................... 8
IBM Storage Management Pack configuration ..................................................................... 11
Command-line configuration .................................................................................................................. 11
Microsoft SCOM console configuration ................................................................................................. 12
Microsoft SCOM monitoring of the IBM XIV Storage System .............................................. 17
Summary ................................................................................................................................. 23
Resources ............................................................................................................................... 24
Trademarks and special notices ........................................................................................... 25
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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Abstract
This technical white paper demonstrates IBM-specific installation, configuration and combined use-case benefits of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 (SCOM) with the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3. By coupling the two partner solutions, information technology departments can take advantage of a hybrid support model that consists of central and distributed monitoring. Instrumental to the central monitoring aspects of the solution, the IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager allows administrators to collect health status data from IBM XIV. Also, to demonstrate the hybrid monitoring solution, an IBM XIV module failure is induced to illustrate the source and target behavior for hardware alerts while revealing the unique performance and innovative data integrity characteristics of IBM XIV Storage System Gen3.
This solution is intended for mid- to large-size businesses seeking comprehensive and proactive monitoring of their Microsoft application, compute, network, and storage infrastructures that include IBM XIV Storage System Gen3. The intended audience consists of information technology (IT) administrators evaluating dynamic, extensible, cost-effective monitoring strategies to help preserve critical application availability, reliable performance and healthy service level agreements. Intermediate experience with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 administration is suggested. Nevertheless, technical reviews and supplemental resources are provided throughout the paper.
Introduction
As businesses flourish in this modern digital age, data centers must expand to accommodate the
corresponding growth. This usually requires scaling up and scaling out diverse application, compute,
network and storage resources. Furthermore, this includes host virtualization since physical-to-virtual
machine migrations that consolidate business-critical applications often require new or more powerful
hardware. Understandably, the type and degree of scaling depends on the actual business growth, size,
budgets, and how efficiently the data centers are managed, not to mention numerous other factors.
Regardless of the independent growth and size differences, a common yet crucial customer requirement
exists – all businesses need to proactively monitor their expanding data center resources to prevent
business continuity from being negatively impacted. To address this requirement, a few general data
center resource monitoring strategies are routinely considered.
Quite often, the first strategy to consider requires the proprietary software that is traditionally provided with
a vendor product. This is an obvious approach because the resource vendor customizes its product
software to accommodate key data center monitoring and management requirements. However, this type
of product-focused, distributed monitoring or management model requires separate, proprietary software
for each unique data center resource with few exceptions. Also depending on the environment, the
number of data center resources can be quite enormous, not to mention complex with various security
restrictions, frequently commanding advanced solution skills or expertise. Consequently, proprietary
monitoring and management software is usually limited to smaller, technology-specific teams. This
limitation generally prevents resource visibility by all support personnel. Thus, distributed monitoring
strategies often present significant administrative challenges that prevent a more holistic view of the
enterprise, and can delay response time to issues that may have been caught sooner.
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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Conversely, a holistic, central monitoring strategy allows all administrators to use a single pane of glass to
monitor vast data center resources. By using secure, industry-standard communication protocols adapted
by vendors for various products, a non-exclusive application can provide universal monitoring for a broad
spectrum of proprietary and non-proprietary data center resources without compromising individual
component safeguards. This is especially important for technology-specific teams that support solutions
that span multiple layers such as database administrators (DBAs) who manage application data and log
files that reside on external storage connected to servers with various networking and infrastructure
components. Instead of just being able to monitor database applications, DBAs can help to ensure all of
the end-to-end solution components are healthy. Similarly, multiple teams can observe all database
application tiers to provide redundant monitoring that can contribute to faster proactive and reactive
support resolutions.
However, even with the extensive product visibility that is possible with central monitoring, specialized
support teams still require robust proprietary tools to accomplish numerous resource-specific tasks
impossible without them. Thus, most businesses end up implementing hybrid support strategies that
include both distributed and central monitoring. Their distributed monitoring processes address advanced
resource monitoring and diagnostic needs, while their central monitoring processes yield comprehensive
monitoring benefits for all essential support teams. Since this white paper focuses on the IBM® XIV®
Storage System Gen3 alert and monitoring behavior, it helps to first describe the array and its distinct,
inherent features including its native monitoring capabilities.
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3
It is not uncommon for information technology (IT) administrators to continuously scramble to simplify their
never-ending daily tasks including resource monitoring. In order to help their organizations stay on track,
they increasingly search for smarter solutions that often involve some form of automation - anything to
minimize the countless tasks at hand. By and large, one of the most difficult administrative challenges is to
manage business-critical data as efficiently and effortlessly as possible. This compels more and more IT
administrators to demand straightforward solutions with dependable performance from their data center
resource vendors including storage manufacturers.
Thankfully, the IBM XIV Storage System broke the conventional, complex storage tradition long ago that
plagued so many organizations and contributed to the painful administrative nightmares that still presently
haunt many. The latest IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 design further departs from unpleasant storage
traditions and as a result, has strengthened its global presence.
Upon examination of its distinct design, the highly scalable and distributed architecture of the XIV system
provides a combined total of up to 360 GB of cache and individual modules powered by quad-core Intel®
Xeon® processors. Up to six dedicated host interface modules ensure optimal, balanced data distribution
among all one-hundred and eighty 2 to 4 TB disks to eliminate hot spots. In addition to data integrity
benefits, as every logical unit number (LUN) is striped across all 180 disks, the chance of saturating
storage I/O is greatly reduced when compared to conventional architectural approaches using Redundant
Array of Independent Disks (RAID) sets.
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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Fortunately, for IT departments that want uncomplicated solutions delivering high performance, the unique,
innovative architecture of IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 is built to deliver this expected performance with
exceptional user-friendly system administration and hassle-free monitoring. This combination addresses
the previously mentioned customer concerns and has substantially reduced many of the common burdens
of business-critical data management.
The IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 enhanced scripting capabilities and automation of many of its core
functions also greatly reduces data management burdens. At the heart of the IBM XIV distributed
architecture is that virtual storage that automatically self-tunes as necessary based on fluctuating
application workloads. Accordingly, businesses save considerable time and labor not having to plan for
and maintain traditional, complex RAID configurations. Furthermore, the IBM XIV system automates many
self-healing and data protection mechanisms to really boost its high availability.
Basically, IBM XIV data distribution algorithms help to ensure fast recovery from major and minor faults by
using pre-failure detection and proactive corrective healing. In the event of module or disk failures, global
spares striped across all disks quickly redistribute data back to a fully redundant state. During such events,
the performance impact is notably minimized and further enhanced by the IBM XIV physical data
protection attributes.
The IBM XIV physical data protection attributes span multiple levels that include active/active N+1
redundancy of all data modules, disks, interconnect switches, and battery backup uninterruptible power
supply (UPS) units. The IBM XIV Storage System also contains an automatic transfer switch (ATS) for
external power supply redundancy. A built-in UPS complex consisting of three UPS units protects all disks,
cache, and electronics with redundant power supplies and fans, which further promotes application data
integrity, availability, and reliability.
The following IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 key benefits are also available:
Substantial hardware upgrades compared to the previous XIV generation including an
InfiniBand® interconnect, larger cache (up to 360 GB of combined memory), faster SAS
disk controllers and increased processing power—plus, each XIV Gen3 interface module
delivers 8 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) and 1 Gb (or optional 10Gb) iSCSI connectivity
Optional solid-state drive (SSD) cache provides up to 4.5 times faster performance for
highly random application workloads
Enhanced performance for business intelligence, archiving, and other I/O-intensive
applications with up to four times the throughput (10 GBps) compared to the previous XIV
generation
Industry-leading automatic data redistribution and rebuild times for disk or module failures
New cloud and virtualization enhancements including Microsoft® Windows® Server 2012
support
Innovative snapshot functionality including snap-of-snap, restore-of-snap, and nearly
unlimited snapshot quantities
Non-disruptive maintenance and upgrades
Quality of service (QoS) control per host/cluster for workload prioritization based on
business application precedence
Decreased total cost of ownership (TCO) through greater energy efficiency and capacity
optimization including support for Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) UNMAP space
reclamation
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XIV family all-inclusive pricing model with no hidden costs for snapshot functionality, thin
provisioning, asynchronous and synchronous data replication, advanced management,
performance reporting, monitoring and alerting; not to mention full support of Microsoft
technologies including GeoClustering, Volume Shadow Copy Services and Multipath I/O
(MPIO)
Uncommonly simple, intuitive management tools that makes even the most complex
administrative tasks appear to be effortless
IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools
To accommodate standard interface preferences for all administrators, whether novice or advanced, the
IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools package consists of the following intuitive, user-friendly
graphical and command-line software utilities:
IBM XIV graphical user interface (XIVGUI)
IBM XIV online monitoring tool (XIVTop)
IBM XIV command-line interface (XCLI)
Not only do the IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools assist with a full variety of management
tasks as the product name implies, but IBM XIV users also have powerful and distinctive monitoring
capabilities. While the tools are essential to distributed monitoring, enterprise storage administrators also
have central monitoring capabilities by way of multisystem management. So, for data centers with
numerous IBM XIV Storage Systems, all of the arrays can be monitored and managed through a single
interface.
For Microsoft-centric data centers, many IT departments prefer to implement hybrid support models that
not only include the IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools but also Microsoft System Center
Operations Manager 2012. Combined, the two applications provide an impressive distributed and central
monitoring framework with the IBM XIV Storage System Management Tools primarily playing a distributed
monitoring role and Microsoft System Center Operations Manager playing a central monitoring role.
Microsoft System Center Operation Manager 2012
As a member of the Microsoft System Center family and key element of such hybrid support models,
Operations Manager 2012 is part of a robust management platform. Among its Microsoft System Center
siblings, Operations Manager 2012 offers central monitoring for a variety of data center resources
including mainstream enterprise applications, operating systems, hypervisors, and a diverse selection of
hardware all through a user-friendly central administrative interface. The Microsoft SCOM monitoring
objects, rules, various configuration and short-term performance data is collectively stored in Microsoft
SQL database repositories that are required by the Microsoft SCOM server and can be used to generate
reports. Additionally, Microsoft SCOM’s extensibility features also allow IT administrators to author custom
management packs that provide deep visibility for both proprietary software and hardware solutions such
as the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3.
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IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM
Taking advantage of the Microsoft SCOM extensibility features, IBM developed several software modules
in the IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM package for some of the most popular storage
portfolio products. For clarification, this software package contains several management packs comprised
of custom settings that enable agents to monitor the IBM storage arrays in the Microsoft SCOM console.
For the most part, the management pack settings allow Microsoft SCOM servers to automatically discover
or detect and monitor physical and logical storage objects for alert status changes.
The IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM contains the following specific components:
SCOM configuration and diagnostics command-line utilities
IBM System Storage® Common management pack (core prerequisite for others)
IBM Flex System™ V7000 management pack
IBM Storwize® V3500 management pack
IBM Storwize V3700 management pack
IBM Storwize V7000 management pack
IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller management pack
IBM System Storage DS8000® series management pack
IBM XIV Storage System management pack
For convenience, Microsoft SCOM administrators can import just the specific management packs to be
monitored based on individual storage needs. In the testing environment, only the IBM System Storage
Common and IBM XIV Storage System management packs are imported. Additionally, the default
discovery interval for the IBM XIV system is every ten minutes using encrypted Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL) communication through the XIV command-line client (XCLI) as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Microsoft SCOM communication with IBM XIV Storage System
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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The Microsoft SCOM polling process establishes temporary communication with one of the three IBM XIV
management ports using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 7778. More or less, the Microsoft
SCOM server connects to the IBM XIV system and extracts the pertinent monitoring information and then
disconnects. The following Microsoft SCOM server command-line output shows the IBM XIV connection
during the polling process:
C:\Documents and Settings\ericj>netstat -an
Active Connections
Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 192.168.101.114:52492 192.168.101.252:7778 ESTABLISHED
In order to properly establish Microsoft SCOM communication with IBM XIV Storage System Gen3, the
ensuing test configuration can be used for general guidance as it highlights the minimum required software
and hardware components.
Test environment layout
The subsequent solution components were used for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager
storage testing with the overall test configuration being illustrated in Figure 2.
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1
− Hosts the OperationsManager database
− Hosts the OperationsManagerDW database
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition
− Failover clustering
Hyper-V highly available virtual machines
IBM System x®3550 M2 servers
Brocade 825 host bus adapters (HBAs)
− Brocade Adapter Software v3.2.0
IBM XIV Host Attachment Kit for Windows v2.1.0.1
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager v2.1.0
IBM SAN24B-4 FC switches
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 11.2.0.a
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Figure 2: Microsoft System Center Operations Manager virtual machine implementation with IBM XIV storage
For detailed product planning and deployment guidance, refer to the “Resources” section at the end of the
white paper.
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System
Center prerequisites
Before proceeding to the IBM Storage Management Pack installation and configuration, obtain the
required user privileges for accessing the IBM XIV Storage System to be monitored. In order for the
Microsoft SCOM server to establish a connection with the storage array, an IBM XIV storage user account
that belongs to the Read Only category must be created. Default user accounts such as the IBM XIV
admin account can be used at the user’s discretion.
Note: Only IBM solution-specific installation and configuration guidelines are detailed in the following
sections as Microsoft SCOM expertise is presumed.
For further information about the IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations
Manager, visit the following website:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/strhosts/ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.strghosts.doc%2Fscom-homepage.html
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System
Center installation
In order to begin monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System, administrators must first install the IBM Storage
Management Pack for SCOM software on the SCOM servers and any SCOM agent site servers. The latter
allows each SCOM agent service to collect monitoring data to forward to the SCOM management servers.
The IBM software installation package contains a SCOM command-line configuration utility and extracts
the necessary management packs for several IBM storage arrays including the IBM XIV Storage System.
Perform the following steps on the Microsoft SCOM servers and SCOM agent site servers:
1. Download and start the IBM XIV Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM installation
wizard by double-clicking IBM_Storage_MP_for_SCOM_2.1.0-61_Windows-x64.exe.
2. Select the preferred installation language and click OK (refer to Figure 3).
Figure 3: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard language selection
3. In the InstallShield Wizard that appears, click Next (refer to Figure 4).
Figure 4: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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4. Accept the terms of the software license agreement and click Next (refer to Figure 5).
Figure 5: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard software license agreement
5. Retain the setup type as Complete and click Next (refer to Figure 6).
Figure 6: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard setup type
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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6. Click Install to begin the installation (refer to Figure 7).
Figure 7: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard installation settings
7. Confirm the successful installation of IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM and
click Finish (refer to Figure 8).
Figure 8: IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft SCOM InstallShield Wizard successful completion
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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For further information about the IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations
Manager, visit the following website:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/strhosts/ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.strghosts.doc%2Fscom-
homepage.html
IBM Storage Management Pack configuration
After the successful software installation, the IBM Storage Management Pack for SCOM must be
configured. There are two configuration phases required to accomplish this task. First, the IBM Storage
SCOM-control application, a CLI utility, must be used to establish a secure connection to the storage
array. Second, administrators need to import the necessary storage management packs using the
Microsoft SCOM console.
Command-line configuration
Using the IBM Storage SCOM-control application, perform the following steps to connect to the IBM XIV
Storage System:
1. Double-click the IBM Storage SCOM-control Utility Command Prompt shortcut on the Windows
desktop to start the first phase of the configuration.
Note: The utility runs from the following default location:
C:\Program Files\IBM\Storage\Host\IBMStorageSCOM\bin\scomu.cmd.
2. Next, set the management server connection using the following syntax.
>scomu.cmd --sc-set --servername localhost
3. Re-confirm the management server connection using the following syntax.
>scomu.cmd --sc-check
4. Finally, establish the management server connection to the IBM XIV Storage System using the
following syntax (refer to Figure 9):
>scomu.cmd --add –t xiv --ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx --username xxxxx
--password xxxxxxxxxx
Reminder: At a minimum and in order for the Microsoft SCOM server to establish a connection
with the IBM XIV Storage System, an XIV storage user account that belongs to the Read Only
category must be used. For the sake of simplicity in the test environment, the default XIV admin
account was used.
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Figure 9: IBM Storage SCOM-control Utility Command Prompt syntax examples
Microsoft SCOM console configuration
Using the Microsoft Operations Console, perform the following steps to import the IBM Storage
Management Packs.
1. Launch the Microsoft SCOM console from the Windows Start menu by clicking Start
Operations Console.
Tip: To reveal Windows Server 2012 or Windows 8 Start menu applications, enter the first letter
of the application to list all of the applications that begin with that letter. As more letters or
characters are entered, the list of applications decreases. After the required application is
located, select it to start the application.
2. In the Operations Manager left pane navigation tree, expand Administration and click
Managements Packs.
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3. At the right side of the Operations Manager window, in the Tasks pane, under Actions, click
Import Management Packs (refer to Figure 10).
Figure 10: Microsoft Operations Manager import management packs
4. On the Operations Manager Import Management Packs page, click Add Add from disk…
(refer to Figure 11).
Figure 11: Microsoft Operations Manager Import Management Packs page
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5. In the Operations Manager Online Catalog Connection message box, click No as the IBM XIV
Storage System management pack dependency is included in the previous software installation
(refer to Figure 12).
Figure 12: Online Catalog Connection prompt
6. In the Select Management Packs to import dialog box, select the dependency
IBM.Storage.Common.mp and array-specific IBM.Storage.XIV.mp files and click Open (refer
to Figure 13).
Figure 13: Select Management Packs to import dialog box
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7. On the Operations Manager Import Management Packs page, confirm that the two management
packs are ready to be imported and click Install (refer to Figure 14).
Figure 14: Microsoft Operations Import Management Packs import list and status details
8. On the Operations Manager Import Management Packs page, confirm the two management
packs status changed to Imported and click Close (refer to Figure 15).
Figure 15: Microsoft Operations Import Management Packs import confirmation
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9. In the Operations Manager console, confirm the addition of the two management packs (refer to
Figure 16).
Figure 16: Microsoft Operations console management packs list
10. Finally, in the Operations Manager console, confirm the IBM XIV management packs storage
logical and physical objects that can be monitored (refer to Figure 17).
Figure 17: Microsoft Operations console management packs storage logical and physical objects
For further information about the IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations
Manager, visit the following website:
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/strhosts/ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.strghosts.doc%2Fscom-
homepage.html
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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Microsoft SCOM monitoring of the IBM XIV Storage
System
After configuring Microsoft SCOM to communicate with the IBM XIV Storage System and importing the
appropriate management packs, system administrators can begin monitoring the storage array using the
Microsoft SCOM console. By default, both logical and physical IBM XIV storage objects are monitored
using sealed or protected SCOM management packs. Even though the management pack principal
configuration settings that define the IBM XIV storage objects cannot be modified, users can customize
additional Microsoft SCOM settings such as rules, monitors, tasks, and overrides that supersede the
default management pack values. This helps define the scope of the information that is returned.
Moreover, this provides all administrators flexible central storage monitoring capabilities using Microsoft
SCOM that can be used in tandem with existing, popular IBM XIV management utilities primarily used by
storage support teams. Thus reiterating how extra monitoring safety measures are available to help meet
business-critical service requirements by allowing wide-ranging storage visibility for various data center
support groups.
To help demonstrate and compare the referenced storage monitoring capabilities, the following test
examples include hardware-induced IBM XIV storage failures, as depicted by the IBM XIV management
utilities, specifically the IBM XIV GUI, and the Microsoft SCOM console. The examples not only
demonstrate and compare storage monitoring capabilities, but also showcase some of the IBM XIV
Storage System Gen3 systems high availability or resiliency features. Likewise, the examples identify two
fundamental IBM XIV sources responsible for triggering Microsoft SCOM storage alerts:
IBM XIV storage object health status changes (for example, a module, disk, Fibre Channel
port, and so on)
IBM XIV logged events through xcli event_list output
To clearly demonstrate the alert behavior, the alert source and target or final destination are examined.
Thus, the alerts are analyzed from a storage array and Microsoft SCOM perspective. Since the IBM XIV
Storage System generates the Microsoft SCOM storage alerts, the XIV GUI can be used to verify any
physical or logical object failures as indicated by the alert source.
From the source perspective, both IBM XIV GUI graphic and textual alerts notify the storage administrators
of a problem. Figure 18 depicts a hardware failure represented by the red highlighted IBM XIV data
module. By moving the mouse over the red icon at the lower-right side of the window, administrators can
view a pop-up alert that reveals additional information about the failure. To demonstrate the intuitive nature
of the XIV GUI, administrators can click one of the hardware pop-up alerts to view the failed hardware
component, or module in this case, as seen in Figure 19.
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Figure 18: IBM XIV GUI hardware alerts for failed data module
Figure 19: IBM XIV GUI failed module
To view more status information, storage administrators can also move the mouse over the XIV GUI
Monitor menu and click Alerts as shown in Figure 20. There, users can determine when an alert was
approximately triggered, its severity, and the nature of the alert in the form of a descriptive summary as
illustrated in Figure 20.
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Figure 20: IBM XIV GUI monitor alerts menu
Figure 21: IBM XIV GUI monitor alerts details
From a target perspective in the Microsoft SCOM console, the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 system
alerts can be viewed in a few different locations. For a current list of outstanding system alerts involving all
computers, storage arrays including the IBM XIV system, networking components, and so on,
administrators can view the general monitoring active alerts as illustrated in Figure 22. This provides
Microsoft SCOM users the ability to monitor the entire data center without having to examine countless
individual components or management pack objects. Thus, there is no need to expand or search the
navigation tree for alerts.
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Figure 22: Microsoft SCOM console monitor active alerts highlighting the IBM XIV module failure
For more detailed alert source information, the IBM XIV GUI events can be viewed by using the same
menu as shown previously in Figure 20 by clicking Events instead. Figure 23 and Figure 24 highlight the
completion of an IBM XIV data redistribution event which automatically takes place when a module or disk
fails. Data and performance integrity is maintained by copying only actual data that existed on the failed
module drives and evenly distributing it across all of the remaining disk drives. This IBM XIV high
availability feature places the storage system data back into a fully redundant state until the failed
hardware is replaced as triggered by IBM call-home support (if enabled) or prompted by a customer
service request.
Note: Both Microsoft SCOM and the IBM XIV Storage System can be configured for Short Message
Service (SMS) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) email alerts. It is up to the administrators to
determine if one or both sources should be configured for such alerts. This provides additional, flexible
safety measures for data center administrators in conjunction with old-fashioned visual system and
application-monitoring practices commonly employed by first-level support teams for high-priority,
business-critical solutions. However, configuring such alerts is beyond the scope of this paper.
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Figure 23: IBM XIV GUI monitor events
Note: Double-clicking an event displays its properties as shown in Figure 24.
Figure 24: IBM XIV GUI event properties
For more alert target information, the Microsoft SCOM console lists the details in the monitoring
navigational tree events for the actual management pack objects. These are essentially the same alert
details as the XIV GUI events noted previously but in a slightly different format. The Microsoft SCOM
console image in Figure 25 shows the IBM XIV informational event for the exact data redistribution
occurrence that resulted from the preceding failed module example.
Note: The source and target alert timestamp discrepancies are due to the Microsoft SCOM server and
IBM XIV Storage System clocks being slightly out of sync with each other. To avoid this problem in
production environments, use a common Network Time Protocol (NTP) server.
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Figure 25: Microsoft SCOM monitor equivalent data redistribution event
For further IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 configuration and data protection design details, visit the
following website:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247659.html
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Summary
By combining Microsoft SCOM 2012 with the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 management tools, data
centers can enjoy the hybrid support benefits of central and distributed monitoring. Most importantly, the
ability to share proactive and reactive data between applications and systems makes it possible to couple
the strengths of individual tracking, management and monitoring tools, while providing a single user
interface for viewing and collecting crucial resource health status information. Technology-specific support
teams are no longer inhibited by exclusive resource visibility but have the ability to monitor the entire end-
to-end solutions. Not only does this expand individual support team capabilities but it also provides
redundant monitoring support that can result in faster problem resolutions. Last but not least, high
availability is not only improved by implementing this type of hybrid monitoring approach but the unique
performance and data integrity design of IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 can help administrators manage
their business-critical data as efficiently and effortlessly as possible.
Refer to the “Resources” section for supplementary in-depth information about each of the solution
products.
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Resources
For further information about the tested solutions products, visit the following websites:
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh205987.aspx
What’s New in System Center 2012 for Operations Manager
technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh551139.aspx
What’s New in SQL Server 2012 technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb500435.aspx
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Virtualization microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/server-virtualization.aspx
What’s New in Failover Clustering in Windows Server 2012? technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh831414.aspx
IBM Storage Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/strhosts/ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.strghosts.doc%2Fscom-homepage.html
IBM XIV Storage System ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/xiv/index.html
IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 Architecture, Implementation, and Usage www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg247659.pdf
IBM XIV Host Attachment Kit – Version 2.1.0.1 pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/strhosts/ic/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.strghosts.doc%2Fhsg_hak_2.1.0.1.html
IBM disk storage systems ibm.com/systems/storage/disk/?lnk=mprST-dsys-usen
IBM solutions from independent software vendors, partners and solution providers ibm.com/systems/storage/solutions/isv/
Monitoring the IBM XIV Storage System Gen3 with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2012 © Copyright IBM Corporation, 2013
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Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
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