IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control

IBM® Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is an IBM Cloud® service that can help you predict and prevent storage problems before they impact your business. It is complementary to IBM Spectrum® Control and is available at no additional cost if you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Virtual Storage Center, IBM Spectrum Storage Suite, or any edition of IBM Spectrum Control.

As an on-premises application, IBM Spectrum Control doesn't send the metadata about monitored devices offsite, which is ideal for dark shops and sites that don't want to open ports to the cloud. However, if your organization allows for communication between its network and the cloud, you can use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control to transform your support experience for IBM block storage.

Why use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control

IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Spectrum Control work hand in hand to monitor your storage environment. Here's how IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control can transform your monitoring and support experience:

Open, update, and track IBM Support tickets easily for your IBM block storage devices.
Get hassle-free log collection by allowing IBM Support to collect diagnostic packages for devices so you don't have to.
Use Call Home to monitor devices, get best practice recommendations, and filter events to quickly isolate trouble spots.
Leverage IBM Support's ability to view the current and historical performance of your storage systems and help reduce the time-to-resolution of problems.

To compare the features of IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, check out the Feature comparison.

Important: To monitor the devices that you already monitor in IBM Spectrum Control, you must add them separately to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control. You must also deploy a data collector in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control to collect advanced metadata about devices.

Alerting tip: Alerts are a good way to be notified of conditions and potential problems that are detected on your storage. If you use IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control together to enhance your monitoring capabilities, it's recommended that you define alerts in one of the offerings and not both. By defining all your alerts in one offering, you can avoid receiving duplicate or conflicting notifications when alert conditions are detected.

How to get IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control

To register for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, go to https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/storage/storage-insights/registration and follow the directions to sign up and get started.

When registered, you’ll receive an email with your tenant information in it. Raise a support ticket by providing your tenant URL and proof of entitlement for IBM Spectrum Control. You can also provide customer number or site number or agreement number as proof of entitlement. When a support ticket is raised, your tenant is upgraded to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

Note: To open a support ticket, go to https://www.ibm.com/support/

To see how easy it is to get started, check out Before you begin checklist for IBM Storage Insights.

Questions and answers

Find answers to other questions about IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

What's the difference between IBM Storage Insights, IBM Storage Insights Pro, and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?

IBM Storage Insights is an off-premises, IBM Cloud service that is available free of charge if you own IBM block storage systems. It provides a unified dashboard for IBM block storage systems with a diagnostic events feed, a streamlined support experience, and key capacity and performance information.
IBM Storage Insights Pro is an off-premises, IBM Cloud service that is available on subscription and expands the capabilities of IBM Storage Insights. You can monitor IBM file, object, and software-defined storage (SDS) systems, and non-IBM block and file storage systems such as Dell EMC storage systems. It also includes configurable alerts and predictive analytics that help you to reduce costs, plan capacity, and detect and investigate performance issues. You get recommendations for reclaiming unused storage, recommendations for optimizing the placement of tiered data, capacity planning analytics, and performance troubleshooting tools.
IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is functionally identical to IBM Storage Insights Pro in capability and is available for no additional cost if you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Virtual Storage Center, IBM Storage Software Suite, or any edition of IBM Spectrum Control.

I already have a paid subscription to IBM Storage Insights Pro, does this service apply to me?

Yes! When your next renewal date for IBM Storage Insights Pro approaches, contact your IBM Sales representative to see if a move to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is right for you.

Tip: If you want to cancel your subscription to IBM Storage Insights Pro and switch to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, check out the IBM Cloud Service Agreement at https://www.ibm.com/support/customer/csol/contractexplorer/cloud/csa/us-en/9 for cancellation information.

If I already have IBM Storage Insights (the free service), can I upgrade it to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?

Yes, if you have an active license for IBM Spectrum Control, you can upgrade IBM Storage Insights to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control. To register, go to https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/storage/storage-insights/registration and follow the directions to sign up and get started.

Because IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is functionally identical to IBM Storage Insights Pro in capability, does it use the same Service Level Agreement (SLA)?

No, IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control doesn't include the service level agreement for IBM Storage Insights Pro. Terms and conditions for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control are available at http://www.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf/sla/sd-8410-01.

Do IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control share the metadata that they collect about storage?

No, metadata cannot be shared between the offerings or exported from one offering to the other.

Are the devices that I monitor in IBM Spectrum Control automatically monitored by IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?

To monitor the devices that you already monitor in IBM Spectrum Control, you must also add them to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

To collect advanced metadata about devices, you must also deploy a data collector in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control. Storage Resource agents and device connections that are defined in IBM Spectrum Control aren't used in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

To see which devices that you can monitor in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, check out the list for IBM Storage Insights Pro in Supported resources.

If I use IBM Storage Insights Pro or IBM Storage Insights and switch to IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, is my existing metadata migrated?

Yes, any metadata that a tenant has already collected, is retained if you choose to change the way you're licensing IBM Storage Insights.

How is licensing handled?

You are entitled to use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control for the same enclosures, devices, and covered storage capacity that is covered by your entitlement of Spectrum Control.

How long can I use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?

You can use IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control for as long as you have an active license with a current subscription and support agreement for IBM Spectrum Control license. If your subscription and support lapses, you're no longer eligible for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

If your subscription and support lapses, don't worry. To continue using IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, simply renew your IBM Spectrum Control license.

You can also choose to subscribe to IBM Storage Insights Pro. For information about how to subscribe, see Want to try or buy IBM Storage Insights Pro?

Because IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control is a cloud service, I'm concerned about security. Where can I find out more information about its security measures?

IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control runs in IBM Cloud and adheres to IBM's rigorous security standards. For more information, check out the [PDF] IBM Storage Insights Security Guide.

Where can I learn more about IBM Spectrum Control?

For detailed information about IBM Spectrum Control, see the IBM Spectrum Control documentation.

How do I get support for IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control?

To contact IBM Support for help and report issues that you encounter in IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control, follow these steps:

Open a support case against IBM Storage Insights.
Describe the problem. To help us troubleshoot, include the URL of your IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control instance.
Submit the case.

Feature comparison

Compare the features of IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control.

Table 1. Features in IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control
Resource Management	Features	IBM Spectrum Control	IBM Storage Insights for IBM Spectrum Control
Monitoring	Inventory	IBM and non-IBM block storage, file storage, object storage, fabrics, switches, and VMware ESXi hosts	IBM and non-IBM block storage, file storage, object storage, fabrics, switches, and VMware ESXi hosts
	Health status
	Call Home events
	Performance	(1-minute intervals)	(5-minute intervals)
	Capacity
	Drill down performance workflows to troubleshoot bottlenecks
	Explore virtualization relationships	Storage and Server virtualization	Storage virtualization
	Explore replication relationships
	Retain performance data	Customizable	1 year
	REST API
Service	Deployment method	On-premises	Off-premises (in IBM Cloud)
	Filter Call Home events to quickly isolate trouble spots
	Hassle-free log collection
	Simplified ticketing
	Show active PMRs and ticket history
	Active directory and LDAP integration for managing users
Reporting	Inventory, capacity, performance, and storage consumption reports
	Chargeback and consumer reports
	Rollup reporting
Alerting	Predefined alerts and policies that you can customize for your environment
	Multi-conditional alerting
	Alert notifications	GUI, email, SNMP, scripts	GUI, email
Analytics	Performance planning
	Capacity planning
	Business impact analysis (applications, departments, and groups)
	Optimize data placement with tiering
	Optimize capacity with reclamation
Pricing		On-premises licensing	No charge for IBM Spectrum Control customers