Storage system related resources

Related resources are resources that are connected to the storage system or are assigned storage from its volumes. Related resources that you can view include file systems, back-end storage systems for storage virtualizers, and object storage systems for IBM Storage Scale.

Hosts

To view information about the hosts that are related to the storage system, click Hosts in the Related Resources section.

The host is shown as a related resource to the storage system when the following conditions are met:
  • The host is assigned storage from a storage system. For example, a volume from the storage system is assigned to a file system (disk) on the host.
  • The assigned storage from the storage system is visible to the host.
  • Data was collected for the host.
  • The host has storage that is mounted from a network-attached storage (NAS) device.

Back-end storage systems

To view information about the back-end storage systems that are associated with the storage virtualizer, click Back-end Storage Systems in the Related Resources section.

Examples of storage virtualizers include Storwize® V7000 and SAN Volume Controller.
Tip: The list of back-end storage systems includes storage systems that are not being monitored by IBM® Storage Insights Pro. These back-end storage systems are detected because they provide storage to the managed disks on the storage virtualizer.

Only basic information is provided for the back-end storage systems that are not being monitored. If you want to view more detailed information about these storage systems, you can add the storage systems for monitoring so that data can be collected.

The name that is shown for the back-end storage systems that were not added might comprise:
  • The serial number of the back-end storage system
  • The node worldwide name (WWN) of a controller on the back-end storage system
  • The port or set of ports on the back-end storage system

The name that is shown is determined by the information that is available about the back-end storage system. If the back-end storage system name is a list of back-end storage system ports, the ports are comma-separated.

Depending on the masking configuration of the port on the back-end storage system, the back-end storage system ports might be shown in multiple rows. For example, the first row might contain Name="[10000002323AE1EE, 10000002323AE1EA, 10000002323AE1EB]" and the second row might contain Name="[10000002323AE1EE, 10000002323AE1EA]".

GPFS clusters

To view information about the GPFS clusters that are associated with the storage system, click GPFS Clusters.

Information is shown about GPFS Clusters when the following conditions are met:
  • One or more file systems are shared between the IBM Storage Scale storage system and a GPFS cluster.
  • The storage system assigns storage to a GPFS cluster. The NSDs on the GPFS cluster are mapped to volumes on the back-end storage system.
Navigation tip: To open the GPFS clusters page, open the Overview page for the storage system, and then click GPFS Clusters in the Related Resources section.
Viewing GPFS clusters as related resources to an IBM Storage Scale storage system

On the GPFS Clusters page, click the value in the Shared File Systems column to view the GPFS file systems that are shared between the storage system and the related GPFS cluster.

On the File Systems page, you can view the file systems that the storage system mounts from the related cluster and the file systems on the storage system that are mounted by the related cluster.

Viewing GPFS clusters as related resources to a back-end storage system
Storage systems that provide storage to GPFS clusters are considered to be back-end storage systems.
Navigation tip: To view information about the NSDs on the GPFS cluster that are mapped to volumes on the back-end storage system, click the Volume Mappings tab on the GPFS Clusters page.
On the Volume Mappings tab, you can check the performance of the volumes. Before you can view the performance information, data must be collected for the storage system that contains the volume.
Tip: To view the performance of a volume, right-click a volume on the Volume Mappings tab, and select View Performance. You can view the performance of multiple volumes at the same time. Each volume is represented by a separate line in the performance chart and a separate row in the table view.

Block Storage Systems

To view information about the block storage systems that are related to IBM Storage Scale, click Block Storage Systems. Information is shown about block storage systems when the following conditions are met:
  • Volumes on the block storage system are mapped to Network Shared Disks (NSDs) on the IBM Storage Scale cluster.
  • The block storage system is being monitored.

The number in parentheses shows the number of block storage systems that are related to IBM Storage Scale. For example, if two XIV® systems provide storage to IBM Storage Scale, the following entry is shown: Block Storage Systems (2).

You can view the following information about the related block storage systems:
  • Total storage capacity
  • Allocated, reserved, and available capacity
  • Volume mappings
For a list of the information that is available for block storage systems, see Block storage systems.

Object Storage Systems

To view information about the object storage systems that are related to IBM Storage Scale, click Object Storage Systems. Information is shown about object storage systems when the following conditions are met:
  • An external pool is being used by a file system in a IBM Storage Scale cluster and is connected to a vault on an object storage system, such as IBM Cloud Object Storage.
  • The object storage system is being monitored.

The number in parentheses shows the number of object storage systems that are related to a IBM Storage Scale storage system. For example, if two dsNets (Cloud Object Storage Systems) provide vaults to IBM Storage Scale, the following entry is displayed: Object Storage Systems (2).

You can view the following information about the related object storage systems:
  • Total storage capacity
  • Available capacity
  • Vaults
  • Access pools and storage pools

For a list of the information that is available for object storage systems, see Object Storage Systems.

Virtualizer storage systems

To view information about the storage virtualizers that are assigned storage from the storage system, click Virtualizer Storage Systems.

Storage systems that provide storage to virtualizers such as SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 are considered to be back-end storage systems.

To view the virtualizer disks, such as managed disks or external disks, that are mapped to volumes on the back-end storage system, click Disk Mappings. The following information is available for each disk:
Mode
The allocation mode of the managed disk. The value Unmanaged indicates that an external volume is virtualized as a managed disk but is not being used. The value Managed indicates that an external volume is virtualized as a managed disk and is assigned to a pool or managed disk group. The value Image indicates that an external volume is not virtualized and that the associated volume provides a direct block-for-block translation of the external volume. The Mode column shows values only for storage systems that run IBM Storage Virtualize.
Pool
The name of the pool in which a mapped volume from the back-end storage system is a member.
Thin Provisioned
Shows whether a volume is a thin-provisioned volume, and the type of thin-provisioning that is used for the volume. A thin-provisioned volume is a volume with a provisioned capacity that is different from its real capacity. Not all the storage capacity of the volume is allocated when the volume is created, but is allocated over time as needed. Thin-provisioned volumes on a DS8000® storage system can be defined as Extent Space-Efficient (ESE) or as Track Space-Efficient (TSE).
Virtualizer
The name of the storage virtualizer that is assigned storage from the storage system.
Virtualizer Disk
The name of the disk on the storage virtualizer that is assigned storage from the storage system. For storage systems that run IBM Storage Virtualize, the name represents a managed disk.
Virtualizer Disk Status
The status of a virtualizer disk that determines the condition of the disk and if actions must be taken.
Error status
Take immediate action to correct the problem.
Operational status
No action is required because the status of the operations is normal.
Virtualizer Pool
The name of the pool for the disks on the storage virtualizer.
Volume
The name or label of a volume that is mapped to the storage virtualizer.
Volume ID
The identifier of the volume, such as a serial number or internal ID.