Context

Tool mentors explain how a tool can perform tasks, which are part of ITUP processes and activities. The tasks are listed as Related Elements in the Relationships section.

You can see the details of how processes and activities are supported by this tool mentor, by clicking the links next to the icons:

•   Data Management
  •   Evaluate Data Management Performance

Details

IBM® TotalStorage® Productivity Center (TPC) for Disk is designed to centralize the management of networked storage devices that implement the Storage Management Interface Specification (SMI-S) established by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), including the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server, IBM TotalStorage DS4000 series family (FAST family), IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, and the devices that they manage. TPC for Disk is designed to:

• Help reduce storage management complexity and costs while improving data availability
• Centralize management of storage devices through open standards (SMI-S)
• Enhance storage administrator productivity
• Improve storage resource utilization
• Offer proactive management of storage devices

Discovery of IBM storage devices that are SMI-S enabled

Centralized access to storage devices information (that is, information concerning the system attributes of connected storage devices) is available from the TPC for Disk console.

Centralized management of storage devices

The device configuration and manager console for the SMI-S-enabled IBM storage devices can be launched from the TPC for Disk console.

Device management

TPC for Disk can provide access to single-device and cross-device configuration functionality. It can allow the user to view important information about the storage devices that are discovered by TPC for Disk, examine the relationships between those devices, or change their configurations. TPC for Disk supports the discovery and LUN provisioning of IBM System Storage DS8000 series storage systems, IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, IBM System Storage Enterprise Storage Server, IBM System Storage DS6000 series storage systems, and third party storage systems that support the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The user can view essential information about the storage, view the associations of the storage to other devices including connected switches and computer systems, and manage the storage configuration.

TPC for Disk can also be bundled with TPC for Fabric. With this function, the storage administrator can view fiber channel as well as SMI-S-enabled storage devices, automate zoning of clients, LUNs, and storage devices for the storage environment, and drill down from storage devices to the underlying infrastructure.

Figure 1. Viewing storage devices

Performance monitoring and management

TPC for Disk can provide performance monitoring of DS, ESS, and SVC storage devices, customization of thresholds based on your storage environment, and generation of events if thresholds are exceeded. In addition, TPC for Disk is designed to help the IT administrators select the LUN on the storage system that best matches the required storage criteria. TPC for Disk allows the IT administrator to specify both when and how often the data should be collected. In addition, TPC for Disk is designed to help support high availability for critical applications by providing customization of threshold settings and generating alerts when these thresholds are exceeded. TPC for Disk can also provide gauges to track real-time performance. TPC for Disk is designed to enable the IT administrator to:

• Monitor performance metrics across storage subsystems from a single console
• Receive timely alerts to enable event action based on customer policies
• Focus on storage optimization through identification of best LUN

Figure 2. I/O rate performance graph

For more information

For more information about this tool, go to the IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center page.