Managing and configuring storage
IBM® Flex System Manager provides facilities to manage and configure storage devices, such as disks, switches, internal RAID controllers, and RAID subsystems. This includes the use of IBM Flex System Manager features, SMI-S providers, and external storage applications.
- Planning for storage management
To manage a few storage systems with IBM Flex System Manager, you must install a piece of management software, or SMI-S agent, from a third party. Third-party agents are not required for the following storage systems and devices: IBM Flex System V7000, IBM DS8000®, IBM XIV® Storage System, IBM SAN Volume Controller, IBM Storwize® V7000, Storwize V3700, and Storwize V3500, and Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch. - Storage management in real time and using configuration templates
Storage is managed in two ways: in real time and with the use of configuration templates. When managing storage in real time, changes become effective immediately, or in some cases at the next restart if a restart is required to have the changes take effect. When managing storage using configuration templates, you are creating configuration templates that contain storage device definitions, but no storage device is configured or altered. A configuration template must be deployed in order to have its definitions take effect. - Managing SMI-S providers
To use SMI-S providers with IBM Flex System Manager, you must install and configure them. They are needed only for some devices. - Discovering and collecting inventory for storage devices
Storage devices including disks, switches and storage controllers must be discovered. The systems that these devices are attached to must have inventory collection run. For IBM Flex System Manager chassis-mounted Fibre Channel switch discovery, use CMM auto discovery. - Working with external storage applications
Use an external storage management application to configure, control, and maintain certain storage devices and their connectivity to your network. If the necessary external storage management applications are not already installed, consult the appropriate documentation to acquire and install them. - Viewing storage devices
You can view storage devices from a number of different perspectives, such as storage groups, the devices attached to a given system, a list of storage volumes, a list of discovered storage devices, System status and health of storage systems, and a topology view for a particular device. - Managing storage in real-time
You can manage storage systems in real-time, without the use of configuration templates. - Managing storage with configuration templates
Storage configuration templates are used to specify storage definitions, such as storage volume definitions and SAS zoning. These configuration templates are stored by IBM Flex System Manager and can then be deployed to the associated storage devices. The configuration manager is used to create and manage these configuration templates.
Parent topic: Managing external storage resources