This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8870. The WhitepaperRedpaperbook provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8870. The IBM DS8870 is the most advanced model in the IBM DS8000® series and is equipped with IBM POWER7+TM based controllers. Various configuration options are available that scale from dual 2-core systems up to dual 16-core systems with up to 1 TB of cache. The DS8870 features an integrated High-Performance Flash Enclosure (HPFE) with flash cards that can deliver up to 250,000 IOPS and up to 3.4 GBps bandwidth. A High-Performance All-Flash configuration is also available. The DS8870 now features 16 Gbps host adapters. Connectivity options, with up to 128 Fibre Channel/IBM FICON® ports for host connections, make the DS8870 suitable for multiple server environments in open systems and IBM zTM Systems environments. DS8870 Release 7.5 brings new and enhanced IBM z SystemsTM synergy features. These features are covered in detail in IBM DS8870 and IBM z Systems Synergy, REDP-5186. The DS8870 supports advanced disaster recovery solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8870 storage system have the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8870 also can be integrated in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) infrastructure. The DS8870 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives and flash cards, through the IBM Easy Tier® feature, which is available at no extra charge. This edition applies the IBM DS8870 Release 7.5.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication describes the concepts, functions, and practical usage of IBM Easy Tier® Heat Map Transfer (HMT). IBM System Storage® DS8000® Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the storage system disks pool. Easy Tier generates a heat map. It is a workload activity metric for each extent in a logical volume. With Easy Tier HMT, it is possible to transfer the heat map from a mirrored primary site and reapply it periodically at secondary and tertiary sites by using the Easy Tier Heat Map Transfer Utility (HMTU). This capability helps maintain storage performance after a failover to a remote site. With DS8870 Release 7.5, the heat map transfer supports Metro Global Mirror (MGM) replication topology in addition to Metro Mirror/Global Copy/Global Mirror (MM/GC/GM) functions. This paper is for those professionals who want to understand the Easy Tier HMT concept and its underlying design. It also provides guidance and practical illustrations about the operation of the HMTU. For more information about the general concept of Easy Tier, see IBM DS8000 Easy Tier, REDP-4667. For more information about Easy Tier Server and Easy Tier Application, see the following publications: IBM System Storage DS8000 Easy Tier Server, REDP-5013 DS8870 Easy Tier Application, REDP-5014

Updated for R8.51 This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the concepts, architecture, and implementation of the IBM DS8880 family. The book provides reference information to assist readers who need to plan for, install, and configure the DS8880 systems. The IBM DS8000® family is a high-performance, high-capacity, highly secure, and resilient series of disk storage systems. The DS8880 family is the latest and most advanced of the DS8000 offerings to date. The high availability, multiplatform support, including IBM Z, and simplified management tools help provide a cost-effective path to an on-demand and cloud-based infrastructures. The IBM DS8880 family now offers business-critical, all-flash, and hybrid data systems that span a wide range of price points: DS8882F: Rack Mounted storage system DS8884: Business Class DS8886: Enterprise Class DS8888: Analytics Class The DS8884 and DS8886 are available as either hybrid models, or can be configured as all-flash. Each model represents the most recent in this series of high-performance, high-capacity, flexible, and resilient storage systems. These systems are intended to address the needs of the most demanding clients. Two powerful IBM POWER8® processor-based servers manage the cache to streamline disk I/O, maximizing performance and throughput. These capabilities are further enhanced with the availability of the second generation of high-performance flash enclosures (HPFEs Gen-2) and newer flash drives. Like its predecessors, the DS8880 supports advanced disaster recovery (DR) solutions, business continuity solutions, and thin provisioning. All disk drives in the DS8880 storage system include the Full Disk Encryption (FDE) feature. The DS8880 can automatically optimize the use of each storage tier, particularly flash drives, by using the IBM Easy Tier® feature. Release 8.5 introduces the Safeguarded Copy feature. The DS8882F Rack Mounted is decribed in a separate publication, Introducing the IBM DS8882F Rack Mounted Storage System, REDP-5505.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication reviews the architecture and operations of the IBM DS8000® Global Mirror function. The document looks at different aspects of the solution in terms of performance, infrastructure requirements, data integrity, business continuity, and impact on production. Hints and tips are provided on how to best configure the overall Global Mirror environment, in terms of connectivity, storage configuration, and specific parameters tuning. The guidelines that are provided are in general related to performance, which ultimately ensures a better recovery point objective (RPO). Therefore, we encourage you to follow those guidelines.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes data migrations between IBM DS8000® storage systems, where in most cases one or more older DS8000 models are being replaced by the newer DS8870 model. Most of the migration methods are based on the DS8000 Copy Services. The book includes considerations for solutions such as IBM Tivoli® Productivity Center for Replication and the IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel SysplexTM (GDPS®) used in IBM z/OS® environments. Both offerings are primarily designed to enable a disaster recovery using DS8000 Copy Services. In most data migration cases, Tivoli Productivity Center for Replication or GDPS will not directly provide functions for the data migration itself. However, this book explains how to bring the new migrated environment back into the control of GDPS or Tivoli Productivity Center for Replication. In addition to the Copy Services based migrations, the book also covers host-based mirroring techniques, using IBM Transparent Data Migration Facility (TDMF®) for z/OS and the z/OS Dataset Mobility Facility (zDMF).

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication describes the concepts and functions of IBM System Storage® Easy Tier®, and explains its practical use with the IBM DS8000® series and License Machine Code 7.9.0.xxx (also known as R9.0).. Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the storage system disks pool. It enables the system to (automatically and without disruption to applications) relocate data (at the extent level) across up to three drive tiers. The process is fully automated. Easy Tier also automatically rebalances extents among ranks within the same tier, removing workload skew between ranks, even within homogeneous and single-tier extent pools. Easy Tier supports a Manual Mode that enables you to relocate full volumes. Manual Mode also enables you to merge extent pools and offers a rank depopulation function. Easy Tier fully supports thin-provisioned Extent Space Efficient fixed block (FB) and count key data (CKD) volumes in Manual Mode and Automatic Mode. Easy Tier also supports extent pools with small extents (16 MiB extents for FB pools and 21 cylinders extents for CKD pools). Easy Tier also supports high-performance and high-capacity flash drives in the High-performance flash enclosure, and it enables additional user controls at the pool and volume levels. This paper is aimed at those professionals who want to understand the Easy Tier concept and its underlying design. It also provides guidance and practical illustrations for users who want to use the Easy Tier Manual Mode capabilities. Easy Tier includes additional capabilities to further enhance your storage performance automatically: Easy Tier Application, and Easy Tier Heat Map Transfer.

Multiple Target Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (MT-PPRC) was introduced with IBM® System Storage® DS8870 Version 7 Release 4 (License Machine Code 7.7.40.xx.xx). MT-PPRC provides the capability to have two PPRC relationships on a single primary volume. With this enhancement, there can be another target available to provide additional data protection to act as a backup if a disaster occurs. This IBM RedpaperTM publication provides practical information about the characteristics and functions of the IBM DS8000® Multiple Target Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (MT-PPRC). The paper includes scenarios that illustrate the implementation and use of different topologies, as well as enhanced migration scenarios.