IBM System Storage DS8000 Turbo series

Highlights

• Support continuous operations for cross-platform, mission-critical workloads with leading performance, flexibility, high availability, security and cost effectiveness
• New dual IBM POWER6-based controllers, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCI Express) Generation 2 internal component interconnect and device adapter cards enable up to over two and a half times performance improvement over previous DS8300 models
• Manage growth and reduce operational complexity through consolidation with high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs), high-capacity Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives, advanced management capabilities, support for advanced IBM de-duplication technology and thin provisioning
• Protect sensitive information from internal and external threats with innovative self-encrypting disk drives
• Realise greater efficiencies for IBM server environments through unique support for innovative IBM server platforms, such as High Performance FICON for System z, z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync, Extended Address Volumes, HyperPAV, Extended Distance FICON and Co-operative Caching
• Exceptional investment protection with prior models and total cost of ownership (TCO) with enterprise choice warranties of one, two, three or four years on both hardware and advanced functions.

Scalable, resilient, high-performance storage for mission-critical workloads

The IBM System Storage DS8700 is the most advanced model in IBM’s DS8000 lineup and introduces new dual IBM POWER6-based controllers that usher in a new level of performance for the company’s flagship enterprise disk platform. With overall performance improving up to over two and a half times, the new DS8700 is designed to support the most demanding business applications with its superior data throughput, unparalleled resiliency features and five-nines availability1. In today’s dynamic, global business environment, where organisations like yours need information be reliably available around-the-clock and with minimal delay, can you really afford not to run your business on the DS8000 series? Moreover, with its tremendous scalability, flexible tiered storage options, broad server support and support for advanced IBM deduplication technology, the DS8000 can help simplify the storage environment by consolidating multiple storage systems onto a single system while providing the availability and performance you’ve come to trust for your most important business applications.

The new DS8700 model is a testament to IBM’s legendary reputation for outstanding quality and world-class engineering. And in today’s challenging economic climate, having an enterprise disk platform that combines the highest levels of system and application availability with superior performance and TCO is essential.

The DS8000 is designed to deliver the utmost in high performance – helping organisations process, store and retrieve data at astounding speeds. Its unique three-tier processor architecture includes the latest IBM POWER6 microprocessors, an advanced, fault-tolerant internal component interconnect, switched connections to internal disks, innovative cache optimisation algorithms from IBM Research, as well as lightning fast SSDs. Not only is the DS8000 designed to deliver the highest levels of balanced performance throughout the system, close collaboration with other IBM offerings across IBM’s storage, server and software portfolios yields the type of solution performance our competitors can only envy.

The latest example is the close collaboration across IBM’s hardware and software organisations that aims to enable clients to get more value from solid-state storage solutions by looking at how SSDs affect not just the disk system, but also the overall application environment, including servers and software. While competitors would have you believe that simply supporting SSDs in a disk system is sufficient, IBM believes that as high-end disk systems increasingly incorporate multiple tiers of drives, clients need help aligning various application workloads and their data on the appropriate drive tier, which requires insight beyond simply the disk system. IBM is there to help with smart performance analysis and data migration tools that can help clients optimise the performance and cost effectiveness of their tiered storage deployments. That’s the IBM difference.

Along with the performance gain from our solid-state solution, the DS8000 series continues to offer superior overall throughput with enterprise Fibre Channel (FC) drives. With front-end, single-port performance of up to 400 MegaBytes per second (MBps) (with up to four ports per host adapter) and blazing back-end performance, the DS8000 series is designed to deliver superior total throughput for typical production workloads, such as those defined in the SPC-1 benchmark from the Storage Performance Council. In fact, research firm Enterprise Strategy Group verified that, with 4 Gigabits per second (Gbps) FC adapters transmitting 154,000 Input/Output operations per second (IOPs) per adapter, a single IBM DS8000 can be used to sustain up to 4.9 million IOPs!2 Moreover, the DS8000 system can stripe data across multiple Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) arrays to help minimise disk ’hot spots‘ and reduce the need for manual tuning.

When selecting a particular drive class, customers need to consider the application workloads the drives will be supporting. Some workloads require superior overall system throughput, while others might only need to optimise response times to and from the disk arrays on the backend. Much of this depends on which volumes of data are accessed more frequently, the value of the data on those volumes and the system’s use of cache memory. Placing data volumes on an inappropriate drive class can lead to a misalignment of performance requirements and drive capabilities. For this reason, IBM offers sophisticated analysis tools that can help them align the appropriate application workloads to the appropriate drive class, which can help balance the organisation’s service levels and storage costs more effectively.

The efficiency of a storage systems’ cache can also help to greatly improve input/output (I/O) performance, as well as reduce the overall cache requirements. The DS8000 series systems can be equipped with up to 384 GB of cache to help support high-capacity workloads. The caching algorithms in the DS8000 series are designed to intelligently and dynamically adapt system caching to the specific needs of the current workload. This is intended to help the system deliver an unimpeded flow of information for outstanding throughput. The latest cache advancement from IBM’s vaunted research labs is the new Intelligent Write Caching algorithm, which combines and balances the benefits of the most effective read and write caching algorithms to determine how the write cache should be managed for optimal throughput in the DS8000. The DS8000 series also incorporates Adaptive Multistream Pre-fetching (AMP), another breakthrough caching technology that is designed to dramatically improve performance for sequential and batch processing applications, such as data backup, business intelligence (BI) and data warehouse workloads. Moreover, the Co-operative Caching and I/O Priority functions of the DS8000 can help enable even greater cache efficiency and performance for higher priority DB2 applications running on IBM System p servers with the IBM AIX operating system.

In addition to its performance gains, to address the reliability and high availability requirements expected of high-end disk systems, the new DS8700 and its POWER6 processor complex re-uses over 90 percent of the DS8300’s microcode. What’s more, the DS8300’s disks and disk enclosures, as well as the DS8300 tools and scripts, are compatible with the DS8700, which translates into extraordinary investment protection for clients migrating to this new model. Existing clients will also appreciate the fact that their DS8300 (and some prior IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server) remote mirror and copy functions are interoperable with the new DS8700. Why is this significant? It’s significant because it underscores our commitment to providing our clients the performance and reliability they’ve come to expect from IBM. So, while the new DS8700 provides a tremendous boost in performance over prior models, it also preservers the reliability and high availability necessary to support the mission-critical applications of our most demanding clients.

The DS8000 series includes a variety of features designed to extend the performance of IBM System z environments. The most recent innovations include support for High Performance FICON for System z (zHPF) and z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync. The new zHPF offers the ability to double the throughput of System z implementations by using standard FC ports to transfer FICON commands and data. For its part, z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync improves the DS8000’s business resiliency in a three-site Metro/Global Mirror implementation. As part of the System z HyperSwap high availability solution, Incremental Resync can greatly reduce resynchronisation time needed after a HyperSwap from hours to minutes, which not only improves data consistency between mirrored sites but also reduces bandwidth requirements to help reduce the potential risk of information loss should another outage occur.

The DS8000 series also offers many other special IBM System z capabilities, such as EAV for z/OS, IBM z/OS Global Mirror Multiple Reader, IBM Basic HyperSwap, Extended Distance FICON, Parallel Access Volumes (PAV), HyperPAV, Priority I/O Queuing, Multiple Allegiance and support for the IBM System z MIDAW facility. Furthermore, to facilitate rapid data transfer to and from the System z server, the DS8000 can also support up to 128 4 Gbps FC/FICON ports or up to 64 IBM ESCON ports.

With more than 50 years of experience in disk storage and a rich heritage of providing storage solutions for IBM mainframe systems that dates back over 45 years, the DS8000 is uniquely positioned to address the needs of the most demanding System z workloads.

Increase security and reduce cost and complexity of drive retirement with innovative self-encrypting drives

After three years of enabling IBM clients to successfully secure their backup tapes with self-encrypting tape drives, the DS8000 series now extends this exciting technology to the disk system. By combining IBM full-disk encrypting drives and the market-proven key manager used with IBM’s tape encrypting solution, the DS8000 solution not only secures data at rest but also offers a simple, cost-effective solution for ‘securely erasing’ disk drives that are being retired or repurposed.

Whether a single drive is being returned for warranty or an entire disk system is being returned at the end of its lease, customers are fearful that the data on them isn’t adequately protected from unauthorised parties, internal or external. By changing the embedded encryption key in each drive through a few simple key strokes, the storage administrator can securely repurpose, retire, or return a drive when its lease expires or when under warranty. This not only greatly simplifies the process of drive retirement, but it can also significantly lower the costs associated with expensive data elimination services. Moreover, instead of destroying the many drives retired and contributing to the toxic waste in our landfills, customers can recoup some of the value of these retired drives.

By leveraging innovative Seagate Secure technology, each disk drive includes its own encryption engine that encrypts and decrypts at native drive speeds. This, combined with the DS8000’s performance-optimised architecture, allows for no discernable performance degradation compared to traditional non-encrypting drives. What’s more, unlike traditional encryption models that feed data to be encrypted through a single engine, the high performance of IBM’s self-encrypting drive model scales linearly as more drives are added!

For its part, the Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager (TKLM) is a Java™-based application, so it can run on a variety of server platforms customers already have in their environments, which can eliminate the need to insert new appliances or hardware accelerators to compensate for the extra processing power to perform the encryption operations. As a software-based key manager, TKLM can also leverage the host server’s existing access control and high availability/disaster recovery configurations, which greatly simplifies implementation. TKLM also includes backup and synchronisation features for high availability and long-term retention, as well as auditing capabilities for both internal and external compliance purposes. In fact, the DS8000 Full Disk Encryption solution can help address stringent (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) compliance requirements, so you can feel confident that your sensitive customer information will remain secure.

As with the IBM self-encrypting tape solution, the self-encrypting disk solution will be largely transparent to the server’s operating environment and applications, which makes deployment much simpler than other encryption models. Encryption has never been easier!

High Availability Leadership

The DS8000 series is designed to help address the needs of dynamic environments requiring the highest levels of availability. It is designed to support dynamic system changes, such as online system microcode updates and online hardware upgrades. The DS8000 also features redundant, hot-swappable components to help support continuous operations. This highly resilient design and its five-nines availability make the DS8000 series an ideal storage platform for supporting today’s around-the-clock, global business environment.

The DS8000 series offers an array of advanced functions for data backup, remote mirroring and disaster recovery. Advanced two-site and three-site business continuity capabilities give customers the peace of mind of knowing their mission-critical applications will be available when they need them during both planned and unplanned system outages. With this type of resiliency and high availability, it’s no wonder customers turn to the DS8000 to support their most important business applications.

Local data copies

The IBM FlashCopy feature addresses a key requirement for continuous data availability by quickly and efficiently creating asynchronous point-in-time copies without impeding the related application server. That is, when a copy of data is requested, both the source data and its copy are available for use almost immediately, so the business can continue operating with minimal delays. These copies can be used for backup, application or quality assurance testing or other purposes.

In addition to being able to make a full physical copy as a background service, FlashCopy also has a no-copy feature that is designed to reduce internal data movement overhead, which can enable quicker reuse of disk capacity that might otherwise be dedicated to copy operations for an extended period of time. With its copy-on-write capability, the only data copied is that which is about to be changed or overlaid. Copies can be made quickly, after which data can be backed up and capacity reallocated.

The IBM FlashCopy SE feature provides a space-efficient snapshot capability that can greatly reduce the storage capacity needed for point-in-time copies. The most important difference between FlashCopy SE and standard FlashCopy is space efficiency. With a FlashCopy SE relation, disk space will only be consumed for the target copy when data is written to the source volume or when a write is directed to the target. For a source volume without much write activity, the target volume can consume significantly less physical space than the source. In addition to the benefit of more efficient storage utilisation, less capacity can mean fewer disk drives and lower power and cooling requirements. FlashCopy SE may be especially useful in the creation of temporary copies for tape backup, online application checkpoints or copies for disaster recovery testing.

The new IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager can help deliver the highest levels of data protection for mission-critical IBM DB2, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft® Exchange and Microsoft® SQL Server applications via integrated application-aware point-in-time backup and restore capabilities. This is achieved through the exploitation of the DS8000’s advanced FlashCopy technology to create a high performance application data protection solution.

IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is easy to install, configure and deploy and integrates seamlessly with not only the DS8000, but also with IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and IBM XIV Storage System products. Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager also supports other Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)-capable hardware such as IBM System Storage DS3000, DS4000 and DS5000.

Remote mirroring

In today’s highly competitive and dynamic business climate, supporting the highest level of application availability can be vital to an organisation’s success. The DS8000 series remote mirroring and copy functions are designed to create mirrors of application data at remote sites that are cities or continents away, enabling synchronous copies between sites of up to 300 km apart and asynchronous copies over virtually unlimited distances. These advanced functions include IBM System Storage Metro Mirror, Global Mirror and Global Copy.

Metro Mirror provides real-time mirroring of logical volumes between two DS8000s that can be located up to 300 km from each other. Greater distances are supported on special request. It is a synchronous copy solution where write operations are completed on both copies (local and remote site) before they are considered to be complete, which maintains data consistency for outstanding information availability.

Global Mirror is designed to help maintain data currency at a remote site within a few seconds of the production site, regardless of distance. It includes exceptional capabilities, such as self-managed, cross-system data consistency groups, which help protect data integrity for large applications across a wide variety of flexible system configurations. In addition, Global Mirror configurations incorporate comprehensive data integrity protection at the remote site, which helps reduce risk during resynchronisation of data between sites after temporary link disruptions or other outages. The DS8000 also supports advanced three-site business continuity solutions, IBM Metro Mirror/Global Mirror and z/OS Metro/Global Mirror, to help enable even greater protection from unexpected site outages.

To help simplify the management, automation and monitoring of these advanced mirroring services, customers can licence IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Centre for Replication. This advanced offering can help automate administration and configuration of these services, control copy services tasks (starting, suspending and resuming) and monitor and manage the copy services sessions. Tivoli Storage Productivity Centre for Replication also can monitor the performance of the copy services and provide a measurement of the amount of replication and the amount of time that is required to complete the replication operations.