IBM Z® has a close and unique relationship to its storage. Over the years, improvements to the IBM zSystems® processors and storage software, the disk storage systems, and their communication architecture consistently reinforced this synergy. This IBM® RedpaperTM publication summarizes and highlights the various aspects, advanced functions, and technologies that are often pioneered by IBM and make IBM Z and IBM DS8000® products an ideal combination. This paper is intended for users who have some familiarity with IBM Z and the IBM DS8000 series and want a condensed but comprehensive overview of the synergy items up to the IBM z16 server with IBM z/OS® V2.5 and the IBM DS8900 Release 9.3 firmware.

This IBM® Redbooks Product Guide provides an overview of the features and functions that are available with the IBM Storage DS8900F models that run microcode Release 9.3.2 (Bundle 89.32/Licensed Machine Code 7.9.32). As of February 2023, the DS8900F with DS8000 Release 9.3.2 is the latest addition. The DS8900F is an all-flash system exclusively, and it offers three classes: IBM DS8980F: Analytic Class: The DS8980F Analytic Class offers best performance for organizations that want to expand their workload possibilities to artificial intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence, and Machine Learning. IBM DS8950F: Agility Class: The agility class is efficiently designed to consolidate all your mission-critical workloads for IBM zSystems, IBM LinuxONE, IBM Power Systems, and distributed environments under a single all-flash storage solution. IBM DS8910F: Flexibility Class: The flexibility class delivers significant performance for midrange organizations that are looking to meet storage challenges with advanced functionality delivered as a single rack solution.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is intended for individuals who want to maximize the performance of their DS8900 storage systems and investigate the planning and monitoring tools that are available.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication helps you plan, install, configure, and manage Copy Services on the IBM DS8000® operating in an IBM Z® or Open Systems environment. This book helps you design and implement a new Copy Services installation or migrate from an existing installation. It includes hints and tips to maximize the effectiveness of your installation, and information about tools and products to automate Copy Services functions. It is intended for anyone who needs a detailed and practical understanding of the DS8000 Copy Services. This edition is an update for the DS8900 Release 9.1. Note that the Safeguarded Copy feature is covered in IBM DS8000 Safeguarded Copy, REDP-5506.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM Storage DS8900F family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8900F systems. This edition applies to DS8900F systems with IBM Storage DS8000® Licensed Machine Code (LMC) 7.9.30 (bundle version 89.30.xx.x), referred to as Release 9.3. The DS8900F systems are all-flash exclusively, and they are offered as three classes: DS8980F: Analytic Class: The DS8980F Analytic Class offers best performance for organizations that want to expand their workload possibilities to artificial intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence (BI), and machine learning (ML). IBM DS8950F: Agility Class: The Agility Class consolidates all your mission-critical workloads for IBM Z®, IBM LinuxONE, IBM Power, and distributed environments under a single all-flash storage solution. IBM DS8910F: Flexibility Class: The Flexibility Class reduces complexity while addressing various workloads at the lowest DS8900F family entry cost. The DS8900F architecture relies on powerful IBM POWER9TM processor-based servers that manage the cache to streamline disk input/output (I/O), which maximizes performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced by High-Performance Flash Enclosures (HPFE) Gen2. Like its predecessors, the DS8900F supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides guidance about how to configure, monitor, and manage your IBM DS8880 storage systems to achieve optimum performance, and it also covers the IBM DS8870 storage system. It describes the DS8880 performance features and characteristics, including hardware-related performance features, synergy items for certain operating systems, and other functions, such as IBM Easy Tier® and the DS8000® I/O Priority Manager. The book also describes specific performance considerations that apply to particular host environments, including database applications. This book also outlines the various tools that are available for monitoring and measuring I/O performance for different server environments, and it describes how to monitor the performance of the entire DS8000 storage system. This book is intended for individuals who want to maximize the performance of their DS8880 and DS8870 storage systems and investigate the planning and monitoring tools that are available. The IBM DS8880 storage system features, as described in this book, are available for the DS8880 model family with R8.0 release bundles (Licensed Machine Code (LMC) level 7.8.0).

Updated for R8.51 This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8880 family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8880 systems. The IBM DS8000® family is a high-performance, high-capacity, highly secure, and resilient series of disk storage systems. The DS8880 family is the latest and most advanced of the DS8000 offerings to date. The high availability, multiplatform support, including IBM Z, and simplified management tools help provide a cost-effective path to an on-demand and cloud-based infrastructures. The IBM DS8880 family now offers business-critical, all-flash, and hybrid data systems that span a wide range of price points: DS8882F: Rack Mounted storage system DS8884: Business Class DS8886: Enterprise Class DS8888: Analytics Class The DS8884 and DS8886 are available as either hybrid models, or can be configured as all-flash. Each model represents the most recent in this series of high-performance, high-capacity, flexible, and resilient storage systems. These systems are intended to address the needs of the most demanding clients. Two powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers manage the cache to streamline disk I/O, maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of the second generation of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFEs Gen-2) and newer flash drives. Like its predecessors, the DS8880 supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8880 storage system include the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8880 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives, by using the IBM Easy Tier® feature. Release 8.5 introduces the Safeguarded Copy feature. The DS8882F Rack Mounted is decribed in a separate publication, Introducing the IBM DS8882F Rack Mounted Storage System, REDP-5505.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication describes the concepts and functions of IBM System Storage® Easy Tier®, and explains its practical use with the IBM DS8000® series and License Machine Code 7.9.0.xxx (also known as R9.0).. Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the storage system disks pool. It enables the system to (automatically and without disruption to applications) relocate data (at the extent level) across up to three drive tiers. The process is fully automated. Easy Tier also automatically rebalances extents among ranks within the same tier, removing workload skew between ranks, even within homogeneous and single-tier extent pools. Easy Tier supports a Manual Mode that enables you to relocate full volumes. Manual Mode also enables you to merge extent pools and offers a rank depopulation function. Easy Tier fully supports thin-provisioned Extent Space Efficient fixed block (FB) and count key data (CKD) volumes in Manual Mode and Automatic Mode. Easy Tier also supports extent pools with small extents (16 MiB extents for FB pools and 21 cylinders extents for CKD pools). Easy Tier also supports high-performance and high-capacity flash drives in the High-performance flash enclosure, and it enables additional user controls at the pool and volume levels. This paper is aimed at those professionals who want to understand the Easy Tier concept and its underlying design. It also provides guidance and practical illustrations for users who want to use the Easy Tier Manual Mode capabilities. Easy Tier includes additional capabilities to further enhance your storage performance automatically: Easy Tier Application, and Easy Tier Heat Map Transfer.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8870. The WhitepaperRedpaperbook provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8870. The IBM DS8870 is the most advanced model in the IBM DS8000® series and is equipped with IBM POWER7+TM based controllers. Various configuration options are available that scale from dual 2-core systems up to dual 16-core systems with up to 1 TB of cache. The DS8870 features an integrated High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE) with flash cards that can deliver up to 250,000 IOPS and up to 3.4 GBps bandwidth. A High-Performance All-Flash configuration is also available. The DS8870 now features 16 Gbps host adapters. Connectivity options, with up to 128 Fibre Channel/IBM FICON® ports for host connections, make the DS8870 suitable for multiple server environments in open systems and IBM zTM Systems environments. DS8870 Release 7.5 brings new and enhanced IBM z SystemsTM synergy features. These features are covered in detail in IBM DS8870 and IBM z Systems Synergy, REDP-5186. The DS8870 supports advanced disaster recovery solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8870 storage system have the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8870 also can be integrated in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) infrastructure. The DS8870 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives and flash cards, through the IBM Easy Tier® feature, which is available at no extra charge. This edition applies the IBM DS8870 Release 7.5.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication will help you install, configure, and use the new IBM Fibre Channel Endpoint Security function. The focus of this publication is about securing the connection between an IBM DS8900F and the IBM z15TM. The solution is delivered with two levels of link security supported: support for link authentication on Fibre Channel links and support for link encryption of data in flight (which also includes link authentication). This solution is targeted for clients needing to adhere to Payment Card Industry (PCI) or other emerging data security standards, and those who are seeking to reduce or eliminate insider threats regarding unauthorized access to data.