Storage Wisdom!

I want to failover my TSM 6 server!…

I have spoken to a number of customers that wanted to be able to failover their TSM 6 servers to another piece of hardware by remapping the LUNs that contain all of the database, log and disk storage pool data.  In TSM 5 this was very simple indeed because of the self contained nature of the database.  TSM 6 presents more of a challenge however.  The challenge comes from the DB2 database that is now used as the backend behind the TSM server.

In fact I was of the opinion that it would be such a faff that it would be easier to do a restore on the 2nd TSM server.  However once I had a go I was pleasantly surprised (and the customer I was with told me off for being so sceptical).

The process that we followed is detailed below:

The Servers:
2 x RHEL Servers both with the TSM 6.2.3.0 code installed (server1 is the primary TSM server, server2 is the DR TSM server)
TSM instance TSMINST1 running on the first machine.
The user that runs the instance is “tsminst1″

SAN disks used:

/tsm/TSMINST1 - home dir for user "tsminst1" folder contains dsmserv.opt, dsmserv.dsk, etc
/tsm/TSMINST1/db - database files
/tsm/TSMINST1/log - active log files
/tsm/TSMINST1/archlog - archive log files

The Process:
- halt TSMINST1 on server1
- Create the user on server2 using a tiny dummy bit of SAN disk to create the directory structure above
- Create a DB2 instance on server2 called TSMINST1

/opt/tivoli/tsm/db2/instance/db2icrt -a SERVER -u tsminst1 tsminst1

- Create the TSMDB1 database under that instance. (use a format or loadformat to do this).  Then stop DB2

 su - tsminst1
 /opt/tivoli/tsm/server/bin/dsmserv loadformat dbdir=/tsm/TSMINST1/db activelogdir=/tsm/TSMINST1/log mirrorlogdir=/tsm/TSMINST1/logm archlogdir=/tsm/TSMINST1/archlog
 db2stop

- Remove the dummy filesystem /tsm/TSMINST1 from server2 and import all the real filesystems from server1 (detatch the filesystems from server1 and import on server2).
- Start the DB2 database (using the db2start command)
- Start the TSMINST1 server

/opt/tivoli/tsm/server/bin/dsmserv

Magical Trevor - Disappearing a TSM server!

And guess what – the TSM server comes up. Happy days!

Now there maybe a better way of doing it than this but I figured that you need to trick DB2 that there was an instance of TSM on server2 and then replace all the files with the real files from the previously running instance.

Where might this be useful?

I can see that this process will be useful if you have two p795 frames that contain a SAP or Oracle server that uses PowerHA and when the TSM server is in the same frame as the active cluster node.  You may want to get TSM to follow the failover of your production server when it moves.  This would mean that the production backups can remain as an inter-frame activity.

Is this the only way?

no, in short there is a HADR DB2 feature that can be implemented to do TSM server mirroring.  See this as article:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/tivolistoragemanager/Electronic+vaulting+using+deduplicated+remote+copy+storage+pools

Sorry if that was a bit too techie…

Back in the day…

When I was a lad my elder brother and father were busy tinkering with the internals of a ZX Spectrum.  Unfortunately I was a little too young to be allowed into the same room as these amateur hackers (I would probably have done the annoying little brother thing of grabbing some ZX internals and running off to flush it down the loo).  The hackers enjoyed copying endless pages of code from magazines to perform tasks that only a hardened techie would get excited about.

I am now considerably older and only slightly more grown up, however I feel that I missed a key part of my computing education by not being able to fiddle in the fundamentals of a computer.  (The first hacking I did started on a 286 PC running DOS).

However all is not lost because a project based in Cambridge, UK is building a cheap and small computer that is designed for people to fiddle, furtle and poke it. The project is run by the Raspberry Pi foundation and the stated aim is to:

“…see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere; we actively encourage other companies to clone what we’re doing. We want to break the paradigm where without spending hundreds of pounds on a PC, families can’t use the internet. We want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children.”

So the aim of the project was to instil the enthusiasm for computing in the “up and coming“ generation.  There has been a huge hoo-ha here in the UK recently with people questioning the value of ICT lessons in schools.  The main issue being that the curriculum is too focused on using Office products rather than the fundamentals of computer science.

The hardware consists of the basic board (about the size of a credit card) with the chip (with RAM stacked on the top), SD slot for storage and OS, USB, HDMI, Power connector, RJ45 network port, Audio jack and a few connector ports.  The aim is that enthusiasts build add-on boards that link to the basic board to extend the functionality.  One of the Raspberry Pi team has already developed a board for operating motors. (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/500)

So what would you use it for?

Well other than it being fun to play with you could use it for a tiny media PC.  There is an example of the Pi being used as an AirPlay receiver! (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/564).  If you were doing the honourable education thing then it should become the core of some interesting school computing projects.  But make the projects interesting, some examples are:

- Parent warning system (pressure sensors in the landing carpet)
- Bedroom alarm system for unauthorised access to off limit areas
- Smelly breath detector for preventing those awkward discotheque moments
- Mobile DJ rig

But can I afford to have this toy?

So when I went home one evening and told my wife that I knew what my next gadget purchase would be, she rolled her eyes and imagined a 6 month delay to the kitchen re-fit.  However when I told her the price she smiled in a “whatever makes you happy” way.  The price is a staggeringly low $25 for the 128MB RAM model and $35 for the 256MB model! 

So hats off to the Cambridge boffins… go and get a slice of the Pi and support a good educational cause!

check out – http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Flash – AAAAH   aaaah…

 So EMC have released the first of their flash only arrays!  The VNX5500-F is based on the standard VNX chassis hardware but has a load of SSD drives shoved up it.

 The architecture is similar to the IBM STorwize v7000 model of disk system for block and additional “servers” to provide the file protocols.  EMC call the file modules, data movers (alternatively called X-Blade enclosures).

 EMC provide 3.5″ or 2.5″ SSD options for the VNX5500-F.  With the 2.5′ version you can install 25 x 100GB or 200GB SAS SSD’s.  The max number of trays you can attach is 15, meaning you can have 50TB of capacity (46.5TB of formatted storage).

 This capacity range seems to match the other “flash only” products such as the FA-310 from Pure Storage and the Violin 3100 series.  I am sure there would be lots of arguments from these flash purists that they would wipe the floor with the EMC VNX5500-F however EMC’s name does a lot to overcome these misgivings.

 The great thing with the VNX5500-F is that you can actually intermix all the other drive types that you can put in a standard VNX (SAS 10k, 15k and Near-line).  This mix of storage will then allow the tiering of storage as you would typically with an intermixed VNX.

 The other grand thing over some of the other smaller flash vendors is the functionality you get with the VNX such as, Block and File protocols, NDMP, Automatic tiering etc etc.

The future is flash…

 Anyway I am sure that this is the start of the trend that will become the norm. SSD will be the place your production data lives and the array will dynamically move your data through the tiers and then out to tape and into the vault.  A few years off but a very realistic prospect.

October was a busy month for announcements for IBM with the SVC 6.3, v7000 Unified, and TSM Flashcopy Manager (FCM) 3.1 amongst the announcements.  We have mentioned the v7000 unified previously but haven’t covered the FCM announcement.

Flashcopy Manager…

… is a software product in the Tivoli brand that allows you to manage snapshots of your IBM storage (and windows VSS snaps on any hardware) from one console.  It allows you to optionally perform a backup to TSM of the resulting hardware snaphost.  All of this functionality is performed through one interface.

What is in FCM Version 3.1

In the announcement in October IBM included the following new features:

• Advanced data protection and recovery features for VMware vSphere environments
• Enhanced data protection capabilities for Microsoft® Windows®, including support for New Technology File Systems (NTFS) and custom applications, and enhanced user interfaces for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server
• Support for IBM DB2® and Oracle databases (with or without SAP environments) on IBM AIX®, Solaris SPARC, Linux® x64, and HP-UX IA64 platforms
• Support for custom business-critical applications on IBM AIX, Solaris SPARC, Linux x64, HP-UX IA64, and Microsoft Windows platforms
• Transparent integration with IBM storage systems such as IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller space efficient FlashCopy target volumes, IBM Storwize® V7000, IBM XIV® Storage System, and IBM System Storage DS8000™
• Can leverage the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) framework for integration with non-IBM hardware subsystems
• Database cloning support for UNIX® and Linux clients

The diagram below shows the process of using hardware snapshots and TSM for VE:

In this first diagram we see the VMWare environment, FCM Linux proxy (either VM or Physical) and the TSM server.

The next diagram show the FCM proxy initiating VMWare software snapshots of the vmdk files that are owned by the VMs that we are protecting.  This process is using the standard vStorage API calls that are used by other products such as TSM for VE.

The third diagram shows the FCM software initiating a v7000 hardware snapshot (flashcopy) and removing the VMWare software snapshots so that the performance of the VM is not impacted during the backup.

The line from the snapshot through the FCM proxy to the TSM server shows the backup of the resulting snapshot into TSM.  The format of the backup into TSM uses the Common Data Format, this means that the data in TSM is in the structure that allows you to use the TSM for VE Recovery Agent.  This in turn means that you are able to recover individual files from a hardware snapshot backup that is stored in TSM!

At the moment the following configurations / restrictions apply:

• At the moment the following configurations / restrictions apply:
• FCM proxy is Linux only (RHEL or SUSE) – later will be Windows too
• If the FCM proxy is a VM, it can’t be on a datastore that is being backed up! (surprise)
• No SAN attachment required to the FCM proxy
• RDM and iSCSI attached volumes not supported
• When VMs span data stores the underlying disk system needs to be the same

Money Money Money!
So you are now saying to yourself “all well and good, but that is gonna cost!”.  Well actually if you purchase a IBM Storwize v7000 you can configure it to come with FCM.  In this configuration you can access a bigger discount than if you were purchasing a native v7000!  This incentive means that all v7000 quotes that I have seen recently have actually got this FCM licence bundled in.

Another reason to go get yourself a v7000 for xmas!
For more info:

Announcement:  http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=AN&subtype=CA&htmlfid=897/ENUS211-363&appname=USN

 Rapid Application Storage: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/tsd03121usen/TSD03121USEN.PDF