IBM Storage Solutions Redbooks

IBM DS8000 Safeguarded Copy (Updated for DS8000 R9.1)
Storage Solutions

Draft Redpaper, last updated 21 Jan 2021

This IBM® Redpaper™ publication explains the IBM DS8000 Safeguarded Copy functionality. With Safeguarded Copy, organizations have the ability to improve their cyber resiliency by frequently creating protected point-in-time backups of their critical data, with minimum impact and effective resource utilization. The paper introduces Safeguarded Copy and discusses the need for logical corruption protection (LCP) and information about regulatory requirements. It presents the general concepts of LCP, and then explore various use cases for recovery. The paper is intended for IT security ... [more]

IBM FlashSystem Best Practices and Performance Guidelines
Software Defined Storage

Draft Redbooks, last updated 15 Jan 2021

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 ... [more]

IBM SAN Volume Controller Best Practices and Performance Guidelines
Software Defined Storage

Draft Redbooks, last updated 14 Jan 2021

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 (SVC) 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 SAN Volume Controller, back-end storage, and ... [more]

Privileged Access Management for Secure Storage Administration: IBM Spectrum Scale with IBM Security Verify Privilege Vault
Storage Solutions

Redpaper, published 8 Jan 2021

There is a growing insider security risk to organizations. Human error, privilege misuse, and cyberespionage are considered the top insider threats. One of the most dangerous internal security threats is the privileged user with access to critical data, which is the “crown jewels” of the organization. This data is on storage, so storage administration has critical privilege access that can cause major security breaches and jeopardize the safety of sensitive assets. Organizations must maintain tight control over whom they grant privileged identity status to for storage administration. Extra ... [more]

IBM DS8000 and IBM Z Synergy (DS8000 Release 9.1 and IBM z/OS 2.4)
Storage Solutions

Redpaper, published 5 Jan 2021, last updated 6 Jan 2021

IBM® Z has a close and unique relationship to its storage. Over the years, improvements to the Z processors and storage software, the disk storage systems, and their communication architecture consistently reinforced this synergy. This IBM Redpaper publication summarizes and highlights the various aspects, advanced functions, and technologies that are often pioneered by IBM, and that make the IBM Z® and the 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 ... [more]

IBM Storage for Red Hat OpenShift Blueprint
Storage Solutions

Blueprint, published 18 Dec 2020

This IBM® Blueprint is intended to facilitate the deployment of IBM Storage for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform by using detailed hardware specifications to build a system. It describes the associated parameters for configuring persistent storage within a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform environment. To complete the tasks, you must understand Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Storage, the IBM block storage Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver, and the IBM Spectrum Scale CSI driver. The information in this document is distributed on an “as is” basis without any warranty that is either ... [more]

Cloudera Data Platform Private Cloud Base with IBM Spectrum Scale
Storage Solutions

Draft Redpaper, last updated 17 Dec 2020

This IBM Redpaper publication provides guidance on building an enterprise-grade data lake by using IBM Spectrum® Scale and Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Private Cloud Base for performing in-place Cloudera Hadoop or Cloudera Spark-based analytics. It covers the benefits of the integrated solution and gives guidance about the types of deployment models and considerations during the implementation of these models.

LDAP Authentication for IBM DS8000 Systems (Updated for Release 9.1.1)
Storage Solutions

Draft Redpaper, last updated 17 Dec 2020

The IBM® DS8000® series includes the option to replace the locally based user ID and password authentication with a centralized directory-based approach. This IBM Redpaper publication helps DS8000 storage administrators understand the concepts and benefits of a centralized directory. It provides the information that is required for implementing a DS8000 authentication mechanism that is based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). Starting with DS8000 Release 9.1 code, a simpler, native LDAP authentication method is supported along with the former implementation that relies on ... [more]

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Practical Guidance for Deployment, Configuration, and Usage
Storage Solutions

Redpaper, published 14 Dec 2020

IBM® Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection solution that provides near-instant recovery, replication, retention management, and reuse for virtual machines, databases, and applications backups in hybrid multicloud environments. IBM Knowledge Center for IBM Spectrum® Protect Plus provides extensive documentation for installation, deployment, and usage. In addition, build and size an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus solution. The goal of this IBM Redpaper® publication is to summarize and complement the available information by providing useful hints and tips that are based on the authors’ ... [more]

Implementing the IBM FlashSystem with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.4
Flash storage

Draft Redbooks, last updated 10 Dec 2020

Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM FlashSystem® solution that is powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.4. This innovative storage offering delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies that are typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, which raises the standard for storage efficiency in ... [more]

Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Version 8.4
Flash storage

Draft Redbooks, last updated 10 Dec 2020

Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM FlashSystem® solution that is powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.4. This innovative storage offering delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies that are typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, which raises the standard for storage efficiency in ... [more]

IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller, IBM Storwize V7000, and IBM FlashSystem 7200 Best Practices and Performance Guidelines
Software Defined Storage

Redbooks, published 11 Feb 2020, last updated 7 Dec 2020

  (based on 1 review)

This IBM® Redbooks® publication captures several of the preferred practices and describes the performance gains that can be achieved by implementing the IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storwize® V7000 powered by IBM Spectrum Virtualize™ V8.2.1. 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 SAN Volume ... [more]

IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Elastic Storage System Network Guide
Storage Software

Draft Redpaper, last updated 30 Nov 2020

  (based on 1 review)

High speed IO workloads are moving away from the SAN to Ethernet and IBM® Spectrum Scale is pushing the network limits. The IBM Spectrum® Scale team has discovered that many existing infrastructure Ethernet networks used for years to support a variety of applications are not designed to provide a high-performance data path concurrently to many clients from many servers. IBM Spectrum Scale is not the first product to use Ethernet for storage access. Technologies like Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), scale out NAS and IP connected storage (iSCSI and others) leverage Ethernet though IBM ... [more]

Cyber Resilience Solution Across Hybrid Cloud Using IBM Storage Solutions
Storage Solutions

Blueprint, published 12 Nov 2020

In today’s data driven world, the information and data of an organization is considered as the most important asset to its business. It can serve as key asset for growth of an organization. As more data are collected by organizations, it is growing at a staggering pace. With this exponential data growth, there is an increase need to protect the data from the various cyberattacks in the form of malware and ransomware that is trying to steal precious data and information. These cyberattacks can have catastrophic impact on the organization and result in devastating financial losses and affect ... [more]

Implementing the IBM FlashSystem 5010 and FlashSystem 5030 with IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.3.1
Flash storage

Redbooks, published 23 Sep 2020, last updated 28 Oct 2020

  (based on 2 reviews)

Organizations of all sizes face the challenge of managing massive volumes of increasingly valuable data. But storing this data can be costly, and extracting value from the data is becoming more difficult. IT organizations have limited resources, but must stay responsive to dynamic environments and act quickly to consolidate, simplify, and optimize their IT infrastructures. IBM® FlashSystem 5010 and FlashSystem 5030 systems provide a smarter solution that is affordable, easy to use, and self-optimizing, which enables organizations to overcome these storage challenges. The IBM FlashSystem® ... [more]

Hybrid Multicloud Business Continuity for OpenShift Workloads with IBM Spectrum Virtualize in AWS
Storage Solutions

Blueprint, published 10 Aug 2020, last updated 20 Oct 2020

This publication is intended to facilitate the deployment of the hybrid cloud business continuity solution with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and IBM® block CSI (Container Storage Interface) driver plug-in for IBM Spectrum® Virtualize on Public Cloud AWS (Amazon Web Services). This solution is designed to protect the data by using IBM Storage-based Global Mirror replication. For demonstration purposes, MySQL containerized database is installed on the on-premises IBM FlashSystem® that is connected to the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) cluster in the vSphere environment ... [more]

Making Data Smarter with IBM Spectrum Discover: Practical AI Solutions
Storage Software

Redbooks, published 19 Oct 2020

More than 80% of all data that is collected by organizations is not in a standard relational database. Instead, it is trapped in unstructured documents, social media posts, machine logs, and so on. Many organizations face significant challenges to manage this deluge of unstructured data, such as the following examples:
- Pinpointing and activating relevant data for large-scale analytics
- Lacking the fine-grained visibility that is needed to map data to business priorities
- Removing redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT) data
- Identifying and classifying sensitive ... [more]

IBM TS4500 R7 Tape Library Guide
Storage Solutions

Redbooks, published 26 Jun 2020, last updated 9 Oct 2020

  (based on 1 review)

The IBM® TS4500 (TS4500) tape library is a next-generation tape solution that offers higher storage density and better integrated management than previous solutions. This IBM Redbooks® publication gives you a close-up view of the new IBM TS4500 tape library. In the TS4500, IBM delivers the density that today’s and tomorrow’s data growth requires. It has the cost-effectiveness and the manageability to grow with business data needs, while you preserve investments in IBM tape library products. Now, you can achieve a low cost per terabyte (TB) and a high TB density per square foot because the ... [more]

Implementing IBM FlashSystem 9200, 9100, 7200, and 5100 Systems with IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.3.1
Storage Software

Redbooks, published 23 Sep 2020

  (based on 1 review)

Continuing its commitment to developing and delivering industry-leading storage technologies, IBM® introduces the IBM FlashSystem® solution that is powered by IBM Spectrum® Virtualize V8.3.1. This innovative storage offering delivers essential storage efficiency technologies and exceptional ease of use and performance, all integrated into a compact, modular design that is offered at a competitive, midrange price. The solution incorporates some of the top IBM technologies that are typically found only in enterprise-class storage systems, which raises the standard for storage efficiency in ... [more]

IBM TS7700 Release 5.0 Guide
Storage Solutions

Redbooks, published 19 Mar 2020, last updated 8 Sep 2020

This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers IBM TS7700 R5.0. The IBM TS7700 is part of a family of IBM Enterprise tape products. This book is intended for system architects and storage administrators who want to integrate their storage systems for optimal operation. Building on over 20 years of virtual tape experience, the TS7770 supports the ability to store virtual tape volumes in an object store. The TS7700 supported off loading to physical tape for over two decades. Off loading to physical tape behind a TS7700 is utilized by hundreds of organizations around the world. By using the same ... [more]