This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide is an overview of the main characteristics, features, and technology that are used in IBM FlashSystem® A9000R Model 415 and Model 425, with IBM FlashSystem A9000R Software V12.3.2. Software version 12.3.2, with Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.6 or later, introduces support for VLAN tagging and port trunking.. IBM FlashSystem A9000R is a grid-scale, all-flash storage platform designed for industry leaders with rapidly growing cloud storage and mixed workload environments to help drive your business into the cognitive era. FlashSystem A9000R provides consistent, extreme performance for dynamic data at scale, integrating the microsecond latency and high availability of IBM FlashCore® technology. The rack-based offering comes integrated with the world class software features that are built with IBM SpectrumTM Accelerate. For example, comprehensive data reduction, including inline pattern removal, data deduplication, and compression, helps lower total cost of ownership (TCO) while the grid architecture and IBM Hyper-Scale framework simplify and automate storage administration. The A9000R features always on data reduction and now offers intelligent capacity management for deduplication. Ready for the cloud and well-suited for large deployments, FlashSystem A9000R delivers predictable high performance and ultra-low latency, even under heavy workloads with full data reduction enabled. As a result, the grid-scale architecture maintains this performance by automatically self-optimizing workloads across all storage resources without manual intervention.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication provides information for attaching the IBM FlashSystem® A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and IBM XIV® Storage System to various host operating system platforms, such as IBM AIX® and Microsoft Windows. This publication was last updated in May 2019 to cover the VLAN tagging and port trunking support available with software version 12.3.2 (see in particular section 2.4, "VLAN tagging" on page 67. The goal is to give an overview of the versatility and compatibility of the IBM SpectrumTM Accelerate family of storage systems with various platforms and environments. The information that is presented here is not meant as a replacement or substitute for the IBM Storage Host Attachment Kit publications or other product publications. It is meant as a complement and to provide usage guidance and practical illustrations. This publication does not address attachments to a secondary system used for Remote Mirroring or data migration. These topics are covered in IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Business Continuity Solutions, REDP-5401.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication describes preferred practices for attaching members of the IBM SpectrumTM Accelerate family, including the IBM XIV® Gen3 Storage System, IBM FlashSystem® A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and other IBM Spectrum AccelerateTM based deployments, to either an IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller or IBM Storwize® V7000 system. The paper also explains what to consider for data migration when done in combination with a SAN Volume Controller or a Storwize V7000 system. In addition, this publication describes data reduction, and where it is appropriate to enable data reduction.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM SAN Volume Controller powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.4. These practices are based on field experience. This book highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools, and managed disks, volumes, Remote Copy services, and hosts. Then, it provides performance guidelines for IBM SAN Volume Controller, back-end storage, and applications. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. It also provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting IBM SAN Volume Controller. This book is intended for experienced storage, SAN, and IBM SAN Volume Controller administrators and technicians. Understanding this book requires advanced knowledge of the IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM FlashSystem, and SAN environments.

Companies need to migrate data not only when technology needs to be replaced, but also for consolidation, load balancing, and disaster recovery (DR). Data migration is a critical operation, and this book explains the phases and steps to ensure a smooth migration. Topics range from planning and preparation to execution and validation. The book explains, from a generic standpoint, the appliance-based, storage-based, and host-based techniques that can be used to accomplish the migration. Each method is explained through practical migration scenarios and for various operating systems. This publication addresses the aspects of data migration efforts while focusing on fixed block storage systems in open environment with the IBM® FlashSystem 9100 as the target system. Therefore, the book also emphasizes various migration techniques using the Spectrum Virtualize built-in functions. This document targets storage administrators, storage network administrators, system designers, architects, and IT professionals who design, administer or plan data migrations in large data Centers. The aim is to ensure that you are aware of the current thinking, methods, and products that IBM can make available to you. These items are provided to ensure a data migration process that is as efficient and problem-free as possible. The material presented in this book was developed with versions of the referenced products as of February, 2020.

This edition applies to FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R, Model 415 and 425, with system software Version 12.3 IBM® FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem® A9000R provide copy functions suited for various data protection scenarios that enable you to enhance your business continuance, disaster recovery, data migration, and backup solutions. These functions allow point-in-time copies, known as snapshots, and also include remote copy capabilities in either synchronous or asynchronous mode. Furthermore, support for IBM Hyper-Scale Mobility enables a seamless migration of IBM FlashSystem A9000 or A9000R volumes to another with no interference to the host. Starting with software level V12.1, the IBM HyperSwap® feature delivers always-on, high availability (HA) storage service for storage volumes in a production environment. Starting with version 12.2, asynchronous replication between the IBM XIV® Gen3 and FlashSystem A9000 or A9000R is supported. Starting with Version 12.2.1, Hyper-Scale Mobility is enabled between XIV Gen3 and FlashSystem A9000 or A9000R. Version 12.3 offers Multi-site replication solution that entails both High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR)function by combining HyperSwap and Asynchronous replication to a third site. This IBM RedpaperTM publication is intended for anyone who needs a detailed and practical understanding of the IBM FlashSystem A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R replication and business continuity functions.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication captures several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM SAN Volume Controller powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize Version 8.4.2. These practices are based on field experience. This book highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools and managed disks, volumes, Remote Copy services and hosts. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. It also provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting. This book is intended for experienced storage, SAN, IBM FlashSystem®, IBM SAN Volume Controller, and IBM Storwize® administrators and technicians. Understanding this book requires advanced knowledge of these environments.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication provides an overview of containers and their framework. Container technology enables prepackaged and pre-configured software with the elements that are needed to run in any environment. Because they are meant to be portable, containers normally restrict applications from storing data on external storage. To overcome this limitation, IBM has developed a solution to provide persistent storage for containers on IBM storage systems, known as the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers. The Enabler tightly integrates with IBM SpectrumTM Connect (formerly IBM Spectrum ControlTM Base Edition). IBM Storage Enabler for Containers v1.0 extends IBM Spectrum Connect to Kubernetes orchestrated container environments. The paper focuses on containers implementation, management, and control by using IBM Spectrum Connect and IBM Storage Enabler for Containers plug-in, with IBM FlashSystem® A9000 or A9000R.

This IBM Redbooks publication captures several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM FlashSystem® products. These practices are based on field experience. This book highlights configuration guidelines and preferred practices for the storage area network (SAN) topology, clustered system, back-end storage, storage pools and managed disks, volumes, Remote Copy services, and hosts. It explains how you can optimize disk performance with the IBM System Storage Easy Tier® function. It also provides preferred practices for monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting. This book is intended for experienced storage, SAN, IBM FlashSystem, SAN Volume Controller, and IBM Storwize® administrators and technicians. Understanding this book requires advanced knowledge of these environments.

Version 12.3.2 This IBM® Redbooks publication presents the architecture, design, concepts, and technology that are used in IBM FlashSystem® A9000 and IBM FlashSystem A9000R. FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R deliver the microsecond latency and high availability of IBM FlashCore® technology with grid architecture, simple scalability, and industry-leading IBM software that is designed to drive your business into the cognitive era. The Hyper-Scale Manager highly intuitive user interface simplifies management. Comprehensive data reduction capabilities, including inline deduplication and a powerful compression engine, help lower total cost of ownership. With software version 12.3.1 and Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.5.1 (or later) the system can compute reclaimable and attributed capacity information, without performance impact. Software version 12.3.2, with Hyper-Scale Manager version 5.6 or later, introduces support for VLAN tagging and port trunking. From a functional standpoint, FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R take advantage of most of the software-defined storage features that are offered by the IBM SpectrumTM Accelerate software, including multi-tenancy and business continuity functions. FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R supports HyperSwap and Multi-site High Availabilty / Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) configurations. This publication is intended for those individuals who need to plan, install, tailor, and configure FlashSystem A9000 and FlashSystem A9000R. For detailed information about configuration, management, host attachment, and replication functions and their usage, see the following publications: IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family Storage Configuration and Usage for IBM FlashSystem A9000, IBM FlashSystem A9000R, and IBM XIV Gen3, SG24-8376 IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R Business Continuity Solutions, REDP-5401 IBM HyperSwap and Multi-site HA/DR solution for IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R, REDP-5434 IBM Spectrum Accelerate Family: Host Attachment and Interoperability, SG24-8368.