EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity for IBM i Environments

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1 EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity for IBM i Environments Applied Technology Abstract This white paper described the features and benefits of the EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity for customer environments that include IBM i servers. June 2010

2 Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED AS IS. EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. Part Number h Applied Technology 2

3 Table of Contents Executive summary... 4 Introduction... 4 Audience... 4 EMC-IBM partnership... 4 EMC and IBM i license agreement... 5 Cooperative support agreement... 5 IBM i server dynamics... 5 Symmetrix VMAX and the Virtual Matrix Architecture... 6 Enhanced Virtual LUN Technology... 7 Auto-provisioning Groups... 7 Concurrent provisioning hypers per physical drive... 8 New management integration... 9 Boot from SAN capabilities... 9 Host and array-based replication... 9 SRDF/TimeFinder Manager for IBM i... 9 SRDF/Extended Distance Protection... 9 SRDF enhancements SRDF/Star with an R22 device SRDF groups TimeFinder enhancements Snap re-create Open Replicator for Symmetrix enhancements Migrating from internal storage to Symmetrix Additional features directors Support for 2,400 drives Metadata reduction Conclusion Applied Technology 3

4 Executive summary The EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity provides IBM i customers with powerful levels of storage scalability, consolidation, and performance, along with 24 x 7 application availability. Recent advances in server connectivity are prompting IBM i customers to move rapidly to external SAN storage to realize these advantages. Power Systems servers with the IBM i operating system, supporting over 5,000 applications from more than 2,500 independent software vendors, provide a database and middleware foundation for financial and other business processes for many of the world s largest customers. IBM i servers, part of the IBM Power Systems server platform and known previously as System i, iseries, and AS/400, are undergoing a pronounced market transformation. Increasingly organizations with IBM i are ramping up their investments in enterprise storage arrays. This is because longstanding connectivity constraints have been lifted, enabling IBM i users finally to move from internal server storage to external SAN storage. New host bus adapters from IBM increase four-fold the number of external storage volumes that can be attached to a given HBA, and increase up to six-fold the amount of throughput. IBM i customers are deploying en masse the i6.1 (and now i6.11) operating system that supports this technology. They now can truly realize the scale, tiered storage consolidation, and business continuity advantages of Symmetrix and meet increasingly stringent performance requirements. Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity (EMC s storage microcode platform) enables unprecedented levels of scalability, consolidation, and performance, along with 24 x 7 application availability, for these environments. The new Symmetrix VMAX delivers the industry's first Virtual Matrix Architecture, revolutionizing the high-end storage market and setting Symmetrix apart from all competitive offerings. It combines the ability to scale performance and capacity to unmatched levels with industry-proven support for nondisruptive operations. Symmetrix VMAX arrays, which are purpose-built for the next-generation virtual data center, allow users to efficiently support growth and maintain service levels. It enables IT organizations to further lower costs, simplify and automate management, and protect more information. The VMAX is powered by the Enginuity 5874 operating environment to enable high-end functionality and data protection. Introduction This white paper focuses on Symmetrix VMAX features for IBM i environments. For details on other environments, see the white papers EMC Enginuity 5874 Enhancements for Symmetrix VMAX Open Systems Environments - A Detailed Review and EMC Enginuity 5874 Enhancements for Symmetrix VMAX Mainframe Environments - A Detailed Review. Audience This white paper is intended for technology professionals who seek to understand the ways in which Symmetrix VMAX arrays meet the rigorous requirements of applications running on IBM i servers. EMC-IBM partnership EMC s relationship with IBM greatly strengthens its role as a non-ibm storage provider for IBM i environments. EMC has licensed key IBM technologies and participates in IBM i early-availability testing programs. Participation in IBM s early release program enables EMC to support new IBM software and hardware prior to GA, enabling customers to move seamlessly to new offerings. In addition, the EMC- IBM Cooperative Support Agreement ensures that customers have timely and effective support from both vendors. Applied Technology 4

5 EMC and IBM i license agreement EMC and IBM have just renewed a license agreement through 2016 to provide EMC with interfaces to IBM i. EMC and IBM have a long history of working together to provide solutions to customers using EMC storage with IBM servers, including over 10 years of extended support for the IBM i platform (formerly AS/400 and iseries). In fact, EMC has been connecting external storage to this platform since the early 1990s. The two companies engineering teams collaborate to ensure the highest level of integration between the IBM i operating system and EMC Symmetrix. IBM provides technical information and new operating system releases of IBM i hardware and software to EMC prior to GA as part of an early shipment program, enabling Symmetrix developers to ensure full interoperability when customers deploy their new IBM Power Servers running IBM i. Cooperative support agreement IBM and EMC have a longstanding Cooperative Support Agreement (CSA) to ensure that customer issues are resolved seamlessly and on a timely basis between the two companies. All customers are automatically covered provided they are under active warranty or maintenance contracts with both companies products. IBM products addressed in this agreement include System x, System i, System p, System z, and their operating systems; DS4000, DS6000, and DS8000 storage systems; and Tivoli software. While each company supports its own products, EMC and IBM will coordinate support when appropriate; for example, by sharing relevant information to determine the root cause of a customer issue. IBM and EMC also exchange information about their respective products on a continuing basis to better understand product interoperability. This further enables timely and efficient case remedies for joint customers. IBM i server dynamics Like Symmetrix at the storage level, IBM i server technology is advancing to help customers meet critical challenges related to information growth, data center consolidation, performance, and TCO. IBM i and other IBM Power Systems servers greatly increase server processing power with high-frequency, 64-bit dual-core Power6 processors. This enables proven consolidation platforms that help enterprises control costs while improving overall performance, availability, and energy efficiency. Another benefit of this server platform is support for IBM PowerVM virtualization, which enables IT organizations to consolidate applications for AIX, IBM i, and Linux on a single server. Processor, memory, and I/O resources are virtualized to increase asset utilization. Customers can dynamically adjust server capabilities to fit workload changes. With the Enginuity 5874 Q4 service release, Symmetrix VMAX systems support N_Port ID Virtualization or NPIV, a feature of PowerVM that provides direct access to Fibre Channel adapters from multiple client partitions in order to simplify SAN management. These servers further enable data center consolidation by connecting to more storage. New Smart I/O Adapters (IOA, or host bus adapters) can support 64 volumes per connection, a 2x increase. With two ports per IOA, this means 128 volumes can be supported per Smart IOA. So this IOPless architecture, as it is called, supports more volumes on a single path, which enables a denser configuration of external storage and reduces TCO. In addition to volumes, another dimension is the I/O itself. As many as six concurrent I/Os are supported per path and device with the Smart IOAs. This also means that implementing multipath can even further increase the I/O concurrency. (For example, with two redundant paths to a device, there can be up to 12 concurrent I/Os). Figure 1 shows an example of the resulting boost in throughput between servers and external SAN storage due to I/O concurrency: Applied Technology 5

6 Figure 1. More throughput with Smart I/O Adapters and concurrent I/O Symmetrix arrays accommodate distinct IBM i storage-formatting methods by formatting drives in a 520 fixed-block architecture (FBA) for IBM i, as compared with the standard 512-block architecture for open systems and mainframe drives. Due to the different formatting methods between IBM i and other servers, a single drive cannot contain data for both IBM i and non-ibm i hosts. But Symmetrix arrays can contain both IBM i and non-ibm i drives, and this is in fact the case in many mixed enterprise environments. Symmetrix VMAX and the Virtual Matrix Architecture Symmetrix VMAX systems are based on a revolutionary new Virtual Matrix Architecture that leverages new core hardware elements called Symmetrix VMAX Engines. The VMAX Engine contains two integrated Symmetrix VMAX directors, each with consolidated front-end, memory, and back-end functions for direct memory access and highly optimized processing. Customers can easily scale out Symmetrix VMAX system resources in a linear fashion by simply adding more VMAX Engines. These engines aggregate into a single system with shared connectivity, processing, memory and capacity resources, all managed as one. This architecture will flexibly support future expansion to dozens of engines, geographically dispersed throughout a data center. Through consolidation and advanced tiering capabilities, Symmetrix VMAX can lower acquisition and operational costs, simplify and lower the cost of management, accelerate productivity, and bring the benefits of 24 x 7 x forever availability to all storage tiers. Compared to the industry-leading Symmetrix DMX-4, the new Symmetrix VMAX offers: Support for 128 Fibre Channel host ports, up 2x, enabling the consolidation of far more server resources on a given array Twice the number of back-end connections for Flash and Fibre Channel drives, delivering high performance and increased usable capacity Multi-core Intel Xeon processors that provide over the twice the IOPS, in a smaller footprint, reducing energy and cooling requirements. Up to 1 TB of global memory, with shared access across Symmetrix VMAX Engines A Virtual Matrix bandwidth of 192 GB/s Automation that can reduce management time by 90 percent 8 Gb/s front-end Fibre Channel connectivity for host and SRDF traffic (with the Enginuity 5874 Q4 service release) Applied Technology 6

7 Symmetrix VMAX systems also support extended drive loop configurations that give customers the option to increase the size of a two-engine system to five storage bays and 1,200 drives, and a four-engine system to 10 storage bays and 2,400 drives. A two-engine system with extended drive loops also can be upgraded to a three-engine system with 1,800 drives. These options, available with the Enginuity 5874 Q4 SR, enable users to increase capacity without additional processing power, cache, or connectivity ports. Enhanced Virtual LUN Technology In previous Enginuity versions, Symmetrix logical volumes could only support one RAID type per volume. Also, some RAID types, RAID 1 and RAID 5, occupied two of the four available mirror positions for a given volume. Enginuity 5874 introduces a new RAID implementation for Symmetrix known as RAID Virtual Architecture (RVA). With RVA, each local RAID group is abstracted to a single mirror position. Currently, two distinct RAID groups, a primary and a secondary, can be associated with a Symmetrix logical volume. This new architecture enables improved flexibility with mirrors and protection schemes. For example, drive sparing now can take place at the same time as concurrent SRDF. RVA also is the foundation for Enhanced Virtual LUN Technology. Virtual LUN technology, a feature of Symmetrix Optimizer, enables users to nondisruptively relocate volumes to different tiers, and now to different RAID types, transparently to the host and without impacting local or remote replication. Organizations can respond more easily to changing business requirements when using tiered storage in the array. Migrations can be performed to either configured or unconfigured space. When migrating to configured space, the Symmetrix will choose from existing logical volumes to migrate the data to. These target volumes may not be in use on the array prior to or during the migration. Following the migration, data that may have existed on the target volumes will no longer be accessible. Migrating to unconfigured space will create new hypers, from free space, to be used as the target of the migration. Once the data transfer has been completed, the physical space previously associated with the migrated volume will be returned to the free pool. Auto-provisioning Groups The Auto-provisioning Groups feature provides an easier, faster way to provision storage in Symmetrix VMAX storage arrays running Enginuity The majority of applications running on Symmetrix arrays require a fault-tolerant environment with clustered hosts, as well as multiple paths to devices. Autoprovisioning Groups were developed to make storage allocation easier and faster by reducing labor and risk of error, especially with these types of configurations. Storage provisioning in previous Enginuity versions required a separate command for each initiator/port combination through which devices would be accessed. With Enginuity 5874, users can create a group of devices (storage group), a group of director ports (port group), and a group of host initiators (initiator group), and associate them in a masking view. When the masking view is created, the devices are automatically mapped and masked and, thereby, accessible to the host(s). Applied Technology 7

8 Figure 2. Auto-provisioning Groups After the masking view is created, any objects (devices, ports, or initiators) added to an existing group automatically become part of the associated masking view. This means that no additional steps are necessary to add additional devices, ports, or initiators to an existing configuration. All necessary operations to make them part of the configuration are handled automatically by Enginuity once the objects are added to the applicable group. This reduces the number of commands needed for mapping and masking devices and allows for easier storage allocation and de-allocation. Auto-provisioning Groups are especially useful for large virtualized server environments, including those with PowerVM, that require many volumes to be made available to many host initiators on many storage ports at once. Use of the new Auto-provisioning Groups functionality requires the symaccess command available with Solutions Enabler 7.0. Concurrent provisioning A new feature in Enginuity 5874 provides the ability for multiple configuration changes to be executed concurrently within the Symmetrix VMAX storage array, thereby improving efficiency. This concurrency is possible provided that the configuration changes do not require the same resources. Resources will still be locked during the configuration changes, but concurrent changes can be submitted provided the targeted resources are not locked. For example, a configuration change to add the SRDF attribute to a volume can take place at the same time as a volume being mapped, provided that each operation is not being run against the same volume. Examples of configuration changes that can take place concurrently include: Volume mapping Volume attribute changes Virtual LUN migration Metavolume expansion These changes will also be able to take place while maintenance scripts, such as Permanent Member Sparing or disk replacement, are running. 512 hypers per physical drive Previous versions of Enginuity supported a maximum of 256 hypers per physical drive. Starting with Enginuity 5874 this value will be increased to a maximum of 512 hypers per physical drive. This enables customers to improve flexibility and capacity utilization by configuring more granular volumes that meet Applied Technology 8

9 their space requirements, particularly when using high-capacity drives. Administrators typically emulate fixed volume sizes in the array that match volume sizes in the IBM i servers, using 2107 emulation. New management integration Starting with Enginuity 5874, Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) is now available on the service processor. By joining the service processor to the corporate network, storage administrators will have immediate access to SMC from anywhere in the enterprise. Communication to the service processor will occur over a secure, SSL/HTTPS connection. This support for out-of-band management reduces TCO by eliminating the need for the customer to purchase an additional server to manage the Symmetrix with SMC and/or SMI-S Providers. Boot from SAN capabilities Symmetrix DMX and Symmetrix VMAX systems provide users with the ability to boot their images from within the array, eliminating the need for any disk within the server and providing a complete external storage image. This capability requires i5 system hardware and the V5MR3M5 operating system or later. By placing both the load source and data volumes on external storage, customers can leverage easier and more effective array-based replication. They also reduce costs by requiring less connectivity hardware, and use switch technology to allocate SAN ports more effectively. Host and array-based replication Today many IBM i customers with internal storage rely on host-based replication software such as Vision and Mimix. By moving to external storage on Symmetrix VMAX and Symmetrix DMX, customers can leverage several key benefits of array-based replication with the industry-leading TimeFinder and SRDF product families. For remote replication, SRDF can easily and reliably replicate all their server data in aggregate, including the load source and user data, freeing up server resources. Administrators also can regain time because they are not required to manage journaling on a daily basis. SRDF/TimeFinder Manager for IBM i EMC SRDF/TimeFinder Manager for IBM i (STM) enables users to set up, control, and monitor SRDF/S, SRDF/A, TimeFinder/Snap and TimeFinder/Clone, including Clone emulation (for TimeFinder/Mirror scripts) in IBM i environments. These replication functions can be managed in combination with switchable independent ASPs (IASPs), and in environments that are configured for remote load source mirroring (RLSM). STM users can display the configuration on their host, and pair BCVs, clones, or snap devices with standard devices or invoke SRDF and TimeFinder control actions in a combined System i and Symmetrix environment. In addition, customers can use the new i6.1 DB2 quiesce and flush option when splitting off point-in-time copies. STM fully supports Symmetrix VMAX with Enginuity With the Q4 service release, STM further provides the ability to manage a clustered iasp disaster recovery configuration from a secondary host in a high-availability environment, in the event of primary host failure. SRDF/Extended Distance Protection Available with Enginuity 5874, SRDF/Extended Distance Protection (SRDF/EDP) is a new two-site disaster restart solution that enables customers the ability to achieve no data loss at an out-of-region site at a lower cost. Using cascaded SRDF as the building block for this solution, combined with the use of the new diskless R21 data device at an intermediate (pass-through) site Symmetrix system, provides data passthrough to the out-of-region site using SRDF/A. With Enginuity 5773, cascaded SRDF introduced a new SRDF R21 device. The R21 device assumed dual roles of primary (R1) and secondary (R2) device types simultaneously. Data received by this device as a secondary can automatically be transferred by this device as a primary. Applied Technology 9

10 Figure 3. SRDF/Extended Distance Protection As with cascaded SRDF, an SRDF/EDP configuration consists of a primary site (Site A) replicating synchronously to a secondary site (Site B) with SRDF/S, and then replicating the same data asynchronously to a tertiary site (Site C) with SRDF/A. An R21 device has its own local mirrors so there are three full copies of data, one at each of the three sites. In contrast, the diskless R21 device has no local disk space allocated to store the user data, therefore it reduces the cost of having disk storage in the secondary (R21) Symmetrix system. The purpose of a diskless R21 device is to cascade data to the R2 device. When using a diskless R21 device, the changed tracks received on the R2 mirror are saved in cache until these tracks are sent to the R2 device. Once the data is sent to the R2 device and the receipt is acknowledged, the cache slot is freed and the data no longer exists on the R21 Symmetrix. SRDF/EDP is for customers who are looking for a two-site DR solution with the ability to achieve a zero recovery point objective (RPO) in the event of a primary site failure. To date, customers looking to establish a two-site disaster recovery configuration with a zero RPO were bound by distance limitations due to latency and application performance (synchronous type replication). Also, if the business called for an extended distance replication solution (asynchronous type replication) they would have to compromise with some level of data loss (secs/mins). SRDF/EDP supports an RPO between the zero RPO of SRDF/S and seconds to minutes of SRDF/A, offering customers a more cost-effective, optimal solution to a three-site DR configuration. The key benefits of SRDF/EDP to the customer are: New long-distance replication solution with the ability to achieve zero RPO at the tertiary site Lower-cost alternative in which to achieve no data loss for out-of-region disaster restart SRDF/Star differential relationship support between the tertiary site and the production site for failover operations with reverse SRDF/Asynchronous protection Note: SRDF/EDP is supported within SRDF/Star environments, both concurrent and cascaded, with some limitations. For more information on these limitations please see the EMC Solutions Enabler Symmetrix SRDF Family CLI Version 7.0 Product Guide. SRDF enhancements SRDF/Star with an R22 device A new SRDF volume type is introduced in Enginuity 5874, a concurrent R2 (R22). A concurrent R2 volume is one whose two remote mirrors are paired with a different R1 volume. However, only one of the R2 mirrors may be receiving data from its corresponding volume containing the R1 mirror at any given time. The primary intended use for an R22 volume is to simplify failover situations and improve resiliency in SRDF/Star environments. With the introduction of the R22 volume, SRDF/Star setup can include the creation of recovery volume pairings, thus negating the need to create these pairings during a SRDF/Star switch event. The availability of an R22 volume also simplifies swap operations in cascaded SRDF configurations. Applied Technology 10

11 Figure 4. SRDF/Star configurations with an R22 device 250 SRDF groups In Enginuity versions 5772 and 5773, SRDF groups could be assigned group numbers between 1 and 250, with a maximum of 128 groups created per Symmetrix, and a maximum of 32 SRDF groups on any one SRDF director. Enginuity 5874 now allows up to a maximum of 250 SRDF groups to be created, still numbered between 1 and 250, with a maximum of 64 SRDF groups on any one SRDF capable director (RF or RE). TimeFinder enhancements Snap re-create Prior to Enginuity 5874, taking a new point-in-time TimeFinder/Snap copy required terminating the previously activated snap session between the source volume and the target virtual volume (VDEV). Now, following activation of a snap session, if a new point-in-time image is requested, the session can be just be re-created and then activated again. As the re-create will lead to the replacement of the old image on the VDEV, all used tracks in the SAVE pool associated with the previous session will be released. Open Replicator for Symmetrix enhancements Open Replicator, with Enginuity 5874, now allows for the migration of IBM i volumes from either IBM DS8000 or older Symmetrix DMX arrays (DMX-2, DMX-3, and DMX-4) to a Symmetrix VMAX storage array, or from one Symmetrix VMAX to another. Options include: Hot pull, without donor update Hot pull, with donor update Cold pull Open Replicator with IBM i support allows for the migration of metavolumes with different configurations between source and target. When migrating from DS8000 to Symmetrix VMAX, the emulation type cannot be changed. Users also can leverage SRDF for replication or migration between Symmetrix arrays. Applied Technology 11

12 Migrating from internal storage to Symmetrix Customers have several key options for migrating internal IBM i storage to external Symmetrix DMX and Symmetrix VMAX arrays. The first is to reload from a tape or disk library such as EMC Disk Library (EDL). This entails backing up all data to the library, using native IBM save lib commands or Backup Recovery & Media Services (BRMS) or other backup software, then connecting the Symmetrix VMAX or Symmetrix DMX to the IBM i server and reloading the data to the array from the library. Users incur downtime throughout this process. Users also can run a side-by-side migration in which changes are saved and restored to a new host within the reload process, with less overall downtime incurred because the original server and storage remain up and running. Another option is the add/remove process of IBM i dedicated service tools. Users present the Symmetrix to the server, add it to the ASP, and remove the old IBM storage. At that point they can migrate data to the array and mark the internal IBM i drives for removal. This process also incurs some downtime. To minimize this downtime, customers also can add the Symmetrix array using the system services tools command and Start ASP Balance command. This marks the internal drives for removal and moves the data to the array, all online. A brief period of downtime is incurred while internal drives actually are removed. As with other functionality described here, customers and account teams should engage the iseries Global Practice team of pre-sales and implementation experts. Additional features 128 directors Previous Enginuity versions supported up to 16 director boards, with four processors per board labeled A through D for a total of 64 directors, front end and back end. The Symmetrix VMAX with Enginuity 5874 still supports 16 director boards, but now with eight emulations per board labeled A through H for a total of 128 front-end and back-end directors. The 64 front-end directors can be configured as: Up to 128 Fibre Channel (two ports per director emulation) Up to 64 FICON Up to 64 GigE/iSCSI Up to 64 RE/RF Support for 2,400 drives The Symmetrix VMAX with Enginuity 5874 is incrementally scalable, supporting from 40 to 2,400 4 Gb/s high-performance Fibre Channel drives. Metadata reduction Because Enginuity 5874 supports up to 2,400 drives, with a possible 512 hypers per drive available to be configured, the Symmetrix VMAX can scale well beyond existing limits. In order to accommodate the potential growth, metadata related to the status of volume tracks was reduced for all standard volumes, thereby reducing the amount of global memory required, improving performance, and increasing usable capacity. Applied Technology 12

13 Conclusion Software and hardware features of the Symmetrix VMAX Series with Enginuity enable IBM i customers to realize compelling business benefits with their storage, as many move for the first time to external storage. The Symmetrix VMAX delivers unprecedented scale, consolidation, and performance, along with 24 x 7 application availability. Applied Technology 13