V02_Storwize V7000 and VCenter Plugin

Copyright IBM Corporation, 2011

Managing IBM Storwize V7000 with IBM Storage Management Console for

VMware vCenter

IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement August 2011

Managing IBM Storwize V7000 with IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter

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Table of contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction to IBM Storwize V7000 ........................................................................................ 2

Storwize V7000 hardware and concepts ................................................................................................. 2 Introduction to VMware vCenter .............................................................................................. 5 IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter Server ........................................... 6

Supported environments .......................................................................................................................... 7 Installation and configuration ................................................................................................................... 8

IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter installation steps ..................... 9 Configuring the plug-in .................................................................................................... 12 Verifying the installation .................................................................................................. 14 Advanced configurations ................................................................................................. 16

Storage management for the VMware administrator ............................................................................. 16 Adding a Storwize V7000 storage system and storage .................................................. 17 Volume provisioning ........................................................................................................ 19 Viewing volume properties .............................................................................................. 21 Modifying volumes ........................................................................................................... 23

Increasing capacity of VMware VMFS data stores ........................................................................ 23 Migrating volumes between Storwize V7000 storage pools .......................................................... 27 Viewing detailed volume information ............................................................................................. 28

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 30 Resources ............................................................................................................................... 31 Trademarks and special notices ........................................................................................... 32


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Abstract

The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter is a software plug-in that provides VMware administrators with the ability to centrally manage storage resources from a familiar interface by integrating into VMware vCenter and connecting to supported IBM storage systems. Storage pools that can be predefined by storage administrator, are added into the plug-in view within vCenter; enabling VMware administrators with the ability to manage VMware storage resources.

Introduction to IBM Storwize V7000

The IBM Storwize V7000 system enables customers to improve application flexibility, responsiveness, and availability, while reducing storage usage and complexity through storage virtualization and the following features:

Metro Mirror and Global Mirror perform synchronous and asynchronous data replication between IBM Storwize V7000 systems at varying distances to protect data and keep services online in downtime situations.

IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager creates instant volume copies for data protection and flexibility.

Virtualization enables volume migration and mirroring to any storage managed by the IBM Storwize V7000 system.

IBM System Storage Easy Tier, thin provisioning, and an intuitive easy-to-use graphical user interface increases efficiency for the storage and storage administrator.

IBM Storwize V7000 is a modular storage system built from the IBM SAN Volume Controller technology base and utilizing Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology from the IBM System Storage DS8000 family to deliver a virtualized, enterprise-ready, mid-range storage solution. The subsequent sections describe the IBM Storwize V7000 hardware and concepts.

Storwize V7000 hardware and concepts

A Storwize V7000 system is made up of 2U drive enclosures. One control enclosure with the option to add up to nine expansion controllers is required for additional capacity. All enclosures have the option of 12 drive slots (as shown in Figure 1) or 24 drive slots (as shown in Figure 2).

Figure 1: Storwize V7000 12 disk enclosure


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Figure 2: Storwize V7000 24 disk enclosure

Within the control enclosure are two node canisters, also known as an I/O group (which form an active-active processing unit), act as the management point for the storage system and service all I/O to host systems.

Storwize V7000 may have between one to nine expansion enclosures, which are connected to the control enclosure through redundant serial-attached SCSI (SAS) connections and form the systems internal storage capacity. The control and expansion controllers support a wide range of drives:

2.5-inch drive support 300 GB solid-state drive (SSD) 146 GB 15K RPM SAS disk 300 GB 15K RPM SAS disk 300 GB 10K RPM SAS disk 450 GB 10K RPM SAS disk 600 GB 10K RPM SAS disk 1 TB 7,200 RPM near-line SAS disk

3.5-inch drive support 2 TB 7,200 RPM near-line SAS disk

Drive types can be intermixed between enclosures. The maximum number of internal drives supported by the Storwize V7000 system is 240. Figure 3 shows a Storwize V7000 system with mixed enclosure and drive types.


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Figure 3: Storwize V7000 with 10 enclosures

The 6.2 code release introduced support for clustering of Storwize V7000 systems. Up to two Storwize V7000 control enclosures can be joined into a Storwize V7000 cluster which doubles the number of interfaces, the amount of cache, and the number of internal drives (480) supported on a system.

In addition to managing internal storage, one major feature of the Storwize V7000 system is the ability to manage storage provided by external storage systems. The Storwize V7000 system acts as the virtualization layer between the host and external storage system. Up to 32 PB of external storage can be managed by a single Storwize V7000 system, and as the storage is virtualized, volumes can be nondisruptively moved between external and internal storage capacity. Figure 4 shows a representation of this technology.


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Figure 4: IBM Storwize V7000 virtualizing external and internal storage

Introduction to VMware vCenter

VMware vCenter Server, formerly known as VMware VirtualCenter, provides the foundation for management of the vSphere platform. VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management of configurations as well as aggregated performance statics for clusters, hosts, virtual machines, storage, and guest operating systems. VMware vCenter Server scales to provide management of large enterprises, granting administrators the ability to manage more than 1,000 hosts and up to 10,000 virtual machines from a single console.

VMware vCenter Server is also an extensible management platform. The open plug-in architecture allows VMware and its partners to directly integrate with vCenter Server, extending the capabilities of the vCenter platform, and adding additional functionality.

Figure 5 shows the main pillars of functionality provided by VMware vCenter Server.


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Figure 5: Pillars of VMware vCenter Server

IBM Storage Management Console for VMware

vCenter Server

IBM has taken advantage of the open plug-in architecture of VMware vCenter Server to develop the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter Server. The IBM Storage Management Console is a software plug-in that integrates into VMware vCenter and provides for management of supported IBM storage systems including:

IBM Storwize V7000

IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller

IBM XIV Storage System

The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware is installed and runs as a Microsoft Windows Server service on the vCenter Server. When a vSphere client connects to the vCenter Server, the running service is detected and the features provided by the Storage Management Console are enabled for the client.

Features of the IBM Storage Management Console include:

Integration of IBM storage management controls into the VMware vSphere graphical user interface (GUI) with the addition of an IBM storage resource management tool and a dedicated IBM storage management tab


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Full management of storage volumes including volume creation, deletion, resizing, renaming, mapping, unmapping, and migration between storage pools

Detailed storage reporting such as capacity usage, FlashCopy or Snapshot details, and replication status

The graphic in Figure 6 shows the relationships and interaction between the IBM plug-in, VMware vCenter and vSphere, and the IBM storage system.

Figure 6: Relationships and interaction between components

Supported environments

VMware vCenter 4.x (4.0, 4.1) must be installed on the Windows vCenter server prior to installing the IBM Storage Management Console. The versions of Microsoft Windows Server that have been tested can be found in Table 1.


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Operating System Architecture Compatibility

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x86, x64 Tested with Service Pack 2

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x86, x64 Tested with Service Pack 2

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Tested with and without Service Pack 1

Table 1: Supported operating systems

The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter currently supports the IBM Storwize V7000, SVC, and XIV storage systems. Supported code versions for each storage system can be found in Table 2.

Storage system Microcode version

IBM Storwize V7000 6.1, 6.2

IBM SAN Volume Controller 5.1, 6.1, 6.2

IBM XIV Storage System 10.1.0 10.2.4x

Table 2: Supported storage systems

The following software must be installed on client workstations that will be accessing the VMware vCenter server and utilizing the IBM plug-in.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher

VMware vSphere Client 4.x (4.0, 4.1)

Installation and configuration

You can download the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter by accessing the IBM Fix Central website and searching for updates available for any of the supported IBM storage systems.

IBM Fix Central - ibm.com/support/fixcentral/

Download the installation package that is appropriate for architecture of the vCenter server.

On x86 architectures IBM_Storage_Management_Console_For_VMware_vCenter-2.5.1-x86.exe

On x64 architectures - IBM_Storage_Management_Console_For_VMware_vCenter-2.5.1-x64.exe


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IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter installation steps Perform the following steps to install the IBM Storage Management Console on the VMware vCenter server.

1. Launch the downloaded installation package.

2. Select the appropriate language.

Figure 7: Installation language selection

Note: The selected language is only used for the installation wizard and the IBM license agreement. Texts used within the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter are available in English only.

3. If undetected, the IBM Storage Solutions External Runtime Components (previously known as XPyV) installation wizard is started. If this is the case, click Next. After reviewing, accept the IBM license agreement and click Next to install the components.


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Figure 8: Installation wizard for the IBM Storage Solutions External Runtime Components

The installation wizard for the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter starts as soon as the IBM Storage Solutions External Runtime Components are installed.


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Figure 9: Installation wizard for the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter

4. Click Next to advance to the License Agreement page.

5. Review the IBM license agreement and then click I accept the terms in the license agreement.

6. Click Next to advance to the Destination Folder page.

7. Click Change to select a directory to use for the installation, or use the default installation directory (C:\Program Files\IBM\IBM Management Console for VMware vCenter\).


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Figure 10: Installation destination page

8. Click Next to advance to the Ready to Install the Program page.

9. Click Install to begin the installation. The Completed page is displayed after the installation is complete.

10. Click Launch the Configuration Wizard and click Finish.

Configuring the plug-in The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter setup wizard must run before the plug-in can be used to manage storage. If Launch the Configuration Wizard was selected in step 10 of the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter installation steps section, then the setup wizard should launch automatically, otherwise the installation wizard can be manually launched from the IBM folder located in the All Programs menu of Windows.

Figure 11 shows the welcome message that is displayed when the configuration wizard is launched.


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Figure 11: Installation wizard welcome message

The following steps provide guidance for configuring the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter.

1. Press Enter to advance from the welcome message and the following screen, as shown in Figure 12 is displayed.

Figure 12: Installation wizard step 1

2. Press Y to proceed. The following screen, as shown in Figure 13 is displayed.

Figure 13: Credentials for registering Plug-in

3. Enter a username and password that has sufficient privileges to register extensions on the vCenter server. After the configuration wizard verifies that the entered username has sufficient privileges the following screen, as shown in Figure 14 is displayed.


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Figure 14: Network port for web component of Plug-in

4. A valid network port number must be entered so the web components can service HTTP requests from the vSphere client. Press Enter and the default port of 8080 will be used, or enter a custom port number and press Enter. The following screen, as shown in Figure 15 is displayed.

Figure 15: SSL certificate prompt

5. The plug-in extension is now registered on the vCenter server. Press Enter to complete the configuration.

Verifying the installation The previous steps walked through installing and configuring the plug-in for the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter. Any connected instances of the vSphere client must be restarted before plug-in functions are available.

After closing and reconnecting with the vSphere client, the IBM Storage button appears in the vSphere Management tools section of the vSphere client Home page, as shown in Figure 16.


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Figure 16: IBM Storage management icon

In addition to the Home page icon, an IBM Storage tab is added to several menus within the vSphere management GUI including Datacenter, Cluster, Host, Datastore, and Virtual Machine views.

Figure 17: IBM Storage tab added to the host view within the vSphere client

The plug-in can be enabled or disabled by navigating to the Plug-ins menu item and clicking Manage plug-ins.


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Figure 18: Plug-in Manager window

Advanced configurations Advanced configuration and troubleshooting options for the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter is outside the scope of this paper. Refer to the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter User Guide for information on those topics. You can access the user guide from IBM Fix Central along with the installation package.

Storage management for the VMware administrator

The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter allows for common storage management tasks and provides insight to be accessible from the VMware vCenter interface. Administrators who manage both the VMware and Storage environments can take advantage of a single unified interface for their management tasks. Environments in which VMware and Storage administration are separate duties can benefit from self-service functionality that the IBM Storage Management Console affords to VMware administrators.

The storage management tasks that the IBM Storage Management Console provides for VMware administrators falls into two main categories: volume management (which is the act of creating, deleting, mapping, migrating, and modifying volumes) and storage views (which is the act of viewing detailed information about the storage system that would otherwise not be available including FlashCopy details and replication status). It is important to note that new storage pools cannot be created from the IBM Storage Management Console. Pools must be created from the native storage management GUI and added into the IBM Storage Management Console before they are available for use. This ensures that only resources provisioned upfront by the storage administrator can be allocated to be managed by the VMware administrators through the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter.


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Adding a Storwize V7000 storage system and storage Before attaching and managing a storage pool, you need to first add the Storwize V7000 storage system to the IBM Storage Management Console interface. The following steps provide guidance on adding a Storwize V7000 storage system.

1. On the Home Management IBM Storage page, click Add within the Storage Systems frame. This launches a wizard for adding a storage system.

Figure 19 : Add storage system to Plug-in

2. Select the appropriate IBM storage brand that you need to add to the IBM Storage Management Console and click Next.

3. The page that follows requires information be entered for the storage system that is being added, and a user account with appropriate rights and a valid SSH key to authenticate to the storage system. After entering that information, click Next

Figure 20: Information needed for adding storage system


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4. Storage pools which exist on the Storwize V7000 system are displayed. These storage pools can be selected or attached for management through the IBM Storage Management Console. This step is optional as you can add storage pools later, if necessary. Click Next to advance to the Confirmation page.

5. The Confirmation page displays a summary of the storage system that will be added and any storage pools that were selected for attachment. Click Finish to confirm and apply.

Figure 21: Summary of storage system to be added

The information entered by the author for the Add an IBM Storage System wizard resulted in a Storwize V7000 storage system and two storage pools being added into the IBM Storage Management Console as show in Figure 22.


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Figure 22: IBM Storage Management Console home page

Volume provisioning The most common first task for VMware administrators utilizing the IBM Storage Management Console is most likely provisioning a new volume. The following steps provide guidance on how to provision a new volume.

1. To launch the New Volume wizard from the IBM Storage Management Console home page, click New Volume right-click the storage pool and click New Volume,

2. Enter the details of the volume that is being created and click Next.


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Figure 23: Create New Volume wizard

3. The Volume Mapping page displays all the hosts that are added to the vCenter server, which is running the IBM Storage Management Console. Before a mapping can be created for a host, the host must be added within the Storwize V7000 system. Select the hosts that must have a mapping created for the new volume and click Next.

Figure 24: Volume mapping selection

4. The confirmation page displays a summary of the volume that will be created. The details of the volume created for this white paper are displayed in Figure 25.


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Figure 25: Summary of new volume

The volume is now available for the VMware administrator to format it with the VMware Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) or use it as raw device mapping (RDM) directly to a virtual machine.

Viewing volume properties The IBM Storage Management Console enables common volume management tasks including: renaming, expanding, and non-disruptively migrating between Storwize V7000 storage pools. The IBM Storage Management Console offers a comprehensive view of volume properties. Both volume management tasks and volume properties can be accessed from several locations within the vSphere Client GUI. This white paper focuses on the functions provided than detailing all of the locations where storage views and controls can be found. For an overview of all the menus available in the IBM Storage Management Console, refer to the IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter User Guide.

The following steps provide guidance for accessing the volume properties.

1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the Home Inventory Hosts and Cluster view.

Figure 26: Hosts and Clusters view in the vSphere Client

2. Select a host that has mappings to Storwize V7000 volumes.


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Figure 27: Selecting host with mappings to new volume

3. Click the IBM Storage tab for the selected host.

The IBM Storage tab displays all the volumes that have been provisioned and mapped to the selected host. Volumes that are in use and formatted with VMFS, or RDMs are displayed on clicking Datastores. Volumes that have been provisioned but are not yet in use are displayed on clicking Unused LUNs. Figure 28 outlines the various sections of the IBM Storage view.

Figure 28: Default storage view


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Modifying volumes The IBM Storage Management Console can only perform tasks on Storwize V7000 volumes. If a Storwize V7000 volume is modified, the VMware data store volume in which the Storwize V7000 volume is an extent can take advantage of the change. For example if the capacity of the Storwize V7000 volume is extended, then the VMware data store capacity can also be extended. However, VMware data store volumes cannot be modified through the IBM Storage Management Console. With the vSphere Client GUI navigated to the IBM Storage tab (as shown in Figure 28); right-click the Storwize V7000 volume that needs to be modified. A menu appears with the available management tasks.

Figure 29: Management tasks available for an in-use volume.

If the Storwize V7000 volume is in use, the management tasks available are show in Figure 29 and described as follows:

Extend Additional capacity is added to the Storwize V7000 volume.

Rename The Storwize V7000 volume is renamed.

Move The Storwize V7000 volume is migrated to another available storage pool.

The additional tasks of map, unmap, and delete are only available on Storwize V7000 volumes, which are not yet in use by VMware.

The following sections explain the management tasks and some common use cases for the VMware administrator.

Increasing capacity of VMware VMFS data stores The following steps provide guidance on how to increase the capacity of a VMware VMFS data store by utilizing the IBM Storage Management Console.

1. Click Extend from the management tasks menu, as shown in Figure 29. The Extend Volume page is displayed


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Figure 30: Original size of volume

2. Increase the volume size by entering a new value in the Volume Size field, or by sliding the red line in the graphic to the necessary size. In this example the volume has been extended to 1536 GB. Click Extend to apply the changes.

Figure 31: Specifying a new size for the selected volume


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Figure 32: Extended Storwize V7000 volume

The capacity of the Storwize V7000 volume has been increased as shown in Figure 32. However the VMware data store does not reflect the additional capacity. The following steps provide guidance on how to extend the VMware data store.

1. Select the Host Configuration tab, and click Storage in the Configuration block. Select the VMware data store that has to be extended and click Properties. This opens the Properties window for the selected volume.

Figure 33: VMware data store properties

2. Click Increase. This launches a wizard used for increasing data store capacity.

3. You can increase the data store capacity by extending the existing extent or adding another Storwize V7000 volume as an additional extent. In this example, select the existing extent and click Next.


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Figure 34: Increasing data store capacity

4. The next page displays the current disk layout and the changes that will be made. The additional free space added to the Storwize V7000 will be used for expanding the VMware data store. Review the information and click Next.

Figure 35: View of current disk layout

5. The next page provides an option to select the capacity to use when extending the volume. The default is to use the maximum capacity. Click Next.

6. The summary page provides a review of the changes that will be made. Click Finish to finalize.


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Figure 36: Summary of changes to be made

The VMware data store has now been extended to take advantage of the additional space provided by the expanded Storwize V7000 volume.

Migrating volumes between Storwize V7000 storage pools By utilizing storage virtualization, the Storwize V7000 system has the ability to take volumes actively being accessed by host servers, and migrate them between storage pools. Volume migration can be used between any storage that is managed by the Storwize V7000 systems, regardless of whether it is a locally-attached Storwize V7000 storage or an externally-attached storage virtualized by Storwize V7000 system. Volume migration is beneficial for VMware environments in the following methods.

Migrating entire VMFS volumes from retired legacy storage to Storwize V7000.

Migrating VMFS volumes so that capacity or performance can be increased.

Migrating volumes configured as physical RDMs that cannot be migrated with VMware Storage VMotion.

The IBM Storage Management Console enabled VMware administrators the ability to initiate volume migrations through the Move management task. The following steps provide guidance on how to migrate a VMFS volume.

1. Select Move from the management tasks menu as shown in Figure 29. The Move Volume to a new storage pool page is displayed.


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Figure 37: Migrating volume to a new storage pool

2. From the Select Storage Pool list, you can select the destination storage pool to use. The list filters to display only the storage pools having sufficient capacity to accept the volume that will be moved. Click Move to begin the process.

The volume migration proceeds in the background with no disruption to volume access. You cannot make further modifications to the volume while the migration is proceeding.

Viewing detailed volume information VMware vCenter server provides detailed information on VMware data store volumes. The IBM Storage Management Console goes a step further by providing information otherwise only available through the Storwize V7000 GUI. Figure 38 shows an example of the detailed information available for a volume.

Figure 38: Volume details view


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Details view includes the following key elements:

Capacity The pie chart indicates the capacity used by the volume on the storage pool. Thin-provisioned volumes reflect the amount of space being consumed by virtual machines.

Volume Name This field shows the name of the volume within the Storwize V7000 GUI. It is useful for communicating with storage administrators who might not recognize the names given to VMware data stores.

Storage Pool This field provides information about the Storwize V7000 storage pool in which the volume is a member.

FlashCopy The ability to see FlashCopy status is useful for VMware administrators as FlashCopy is typically used for backups; so this view allows VMware administrators with the ability to view backup status. The IBM Storage Management Console offers an expanded FlashCopy view, as shown in Figure 39, which provides details on the consistency group, target volume, and status.

Figure 39: FlashCopy details


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Summary

The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter allows organizations to streamline management of their Storage and VMware environments by enabling delegated management of storage resources through the VMware vCenter server. Storage administrators can allocate Storwize V7000 storage pools and after adding to the IBM Storage Management Console, VMware administrators can provision and manage volumes. This takes the burden off of Storage administrators and allows VMware administrators to quickly make additions and modifications to the VMware environment. The IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter is a no cost feature that supports IBM Storwize V7000 system, IBM SAN Volume Controller, and IBM XIV storage systems.


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Resources

The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper:

IBM Systems on PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/systems

IBM Storwize V7000 on PartnerWorld ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/pub/overview/HW26Z

IBM Publications Center www.elink.ibmlink.ibm.com/public/applications/publications/cgibin/pbi.cgi?CTY=US

IBM Storwize V7000 ibm.com/storage/storwizev7000

IBM Redbooks ibm.com/redbooks

IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC) ibm.com/systems/support/storage/config/ssic/displayesssearchwithoutjs.wss?start_over=yes

IBM Storage Management Console for VMware vCenter User Guide download4.boulder.ibm.com/sar/CMA/SDA/02nl1/1/IBM_MNG_for_VMware_VC_2.5.1_UG.pdf

VMware www.vmware.com

VMware vSphere 4.1 Documentation www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx41_vc41.html

Hardware Compatibility Guide www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility

VMware Fiber Channel SAN Configuration Guide www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_san_cfg.pdf

IBM TechDocs Library ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/Web/TechDocs


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Trademarks and special notices

Copyright IBM Corporation 2011. All rights Reserved.

References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in every country.

IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at "Copyright and trademark information" at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.

Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Intel, Intel Inside (logos), MMX, and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

SET and the SET Logo are trademarks owned by SET Secure Electronic Transaction LLC.

Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.

All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the supplier of those products.

All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the full text of the specific Statement of Direction.

Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as a definitive statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function or delivery schedules with


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respect to any future products. Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements. The information is presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effort to help with our customers' future planning.

Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here.

Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models.

Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materials at those websites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk.

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V02_Storwize V7000 and VCenter Plugin