This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM System Storage® DS8700 storage subsystem. This book has reference information that will help you plan for, install, and configure the DS8700 and also discusses the architecture and components. The DS8700 is the most advanced model in the IBM System Storage DS8000® series. It includes IBM POWER6®-based controllers, with a dual 2-way or dual 4-way processor complex implementation. Its extended connectivity, with up to 128 Fibre Channel/FICON® ports for host connections, make it suitable for multiple server environments in both open systems and IBM System z® environments. If desired, the DS8700 can be integrated in an LDAP infrastructure. The DS8700 supports thin provisioning. Depending on your specific needs, the DS8700 storage subsystem can be equipped with SATA drives, FC drives, and Solid® State Drives (SSDs). The DS8700 can now automatically optimize the use of SSD drives through its no charge Easy Tier feature. The DS8700 also supports Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. Its switched Fibre Channel architecture, dual processor complex implementation, high availability design, and the advanced Point-in-Time Copy and Remote Mirror and Copy functions that incorporates make the DS8700 storage subsystem suitable for mission-critical business functions.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM Storage DS8900F family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8900F systems. This edition applies to DS8900F systems with IBM Storage DS8000® Licensed Machine Code (LMC) 7.9.30 (bundle version 89.30.xx.x), referred to as Release 9.3. The DS8900F systems are all-flash exclusively, and they are offered as three classes: DS8980F: Analytic Class: The DS8980F Analytic Class offers best performance for organizations that want to expand their workload possibilities to artificial intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence (BI), and machine learning (ML). IBM DS8950F: Agility Class: The Agility Class consolidates all your mission-critical workloads for IBM Z®, IBM LinuxONE, IBM Power, and distributed environments under a single all-flash storage solution. IBM DS8910F: Flexibility Class: The Flexibility Class reduces complexity while addressing various workloads at the lowest DS8900F family entry cost. The DS8900F architecture relies on powerful IBM POWER9TM processor-based servers that manage the cache to streamline disk input/output (I/O), which maximizes performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced by High-Performance Flash Enclosures (HPFE) Gen2. Like its predecessors, the DS8900F supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning.

Booting servers from a storage area network (SAN) is being used increasingly in complex data center environments today, due to its significant benefits over the traditional method of booting from local disks. SAN Boot enables organizations to maximize consolidation of their IT resources, minimize their equipment costs, and realize the considerable management benefits of centralizing the boot process. In SAN Boot, you can deploy diskless servers in an environment where the boot disk is located on (often RAID-capable) storage connected to the SAN. The server (initiator) communicates with the storage device (target) through the SAN using the Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA). The system downtime is greatly minimized in case a critical component such as a processor, memory, or host bus adapter fails and needs to be replaced. The system administrator needs to swap only the hardware and reconfigure the HBA's BIOS, switch zoning, and host-port definitions on the storage server. The system image still exists on the logical drive, therefore the server is fully operational after the hardware swap and configuration change is completed. This IBM® Redbooks® publication can help you with the SAN Boot implementation. We present various SAN Boot scenarios using IBM System Storage® products that include DS5000, DS8000®, XIV®, and SVC. The operating systems that are covered include Windows 2008, Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, and VMware.