IBM SVC Storwize analysis and monitoring: BVQ storage in Balance (English)

Keep your storage in balance
BVQ – Business Volume Qualicision

AGENDA page 2
SVA company overview
New challenges in the storage sector
The solution
The benefits
Customer references and examples
A closer look at BVQ

Profile and business objective:
page 3
SVA is one of Germany´s leading system integrators for data center
infrastructure.
The company, headquartered in Wiesbaden, was founded In 1997 and
has today more than 460 employees at 13 locations In Germany.
The business goal of SVA is to combine high-quality IT-products of
different manufacturers with SVA´s outstanding project know-how and
flexibility, to achieve optimal solutions for our customers.
BVQ – KEEP YOUR STORAGE IN BALANCE , March 2015
SVA serves today more than 200 SVC customers.
The leading SVC partner in Europe!

SVA GmbH locations
page 4BVQ – KEEP YOUR STORAGE IN BALANCE , March 2015
Berlin
Hannover
Hamburg
Dresden
MünchenStuttgart
Saarbrücken
Karlsruhe
Headquarter
Wiesbaden
Düsseldorf
Köln
Greven
Dortmund

March 2015
BVQ – KEEP YOUR STORAGE IN BALANCE page 5
Felix Alexander Graduate Engineer
Former IBM sales manager
CEO, management spokesman
Philipp Alexander Graduate Engineer
CFO
Sven Eichelbaum Business Economist
CIO
Management board:

AGENDA page 6
The solution
The benefits

March 2015
BVQ – KEEP YOUR STORAGE IN BALANCE
Harmonizing growth and cost means
to ensure growth, to reduce cost and to provide storage services of highest quality.
page 7
Challenges:
1) Improving storage efficiency
2) Enhancing service quality
3) Adapting investments to measured needs

March 2015
Reduced cost because of improved efficiency!
Full usage of existing capacity and precise planned enhancements.
Reducing
storage costs
Optimizing load
distribution
Improving
efficiency
Increasing
utilization

March 2015
Capacity 100%
100%Performance
Utilizing all capacity
Utilizingallperormancecapabilities
Efficiency is achieved by measuring, assessing and controlling.
This is the base for efficient use and precise capacity planning.
This goal cannot be achieved by assuming facts!
Reducing
storage costs
Optimizing load
distribution
Improving
efficiency
Increasing
utilization

March 2015
Reducing
storage costs
Improving
operational safety
Monitor, analyze,
identify risks
Proactive
Management
Optimizing load
distribution
Monitoring and analysis help to identify risks at an early stage to avoid problems before
they rise. The quality of the storage service is improved sustainably!
Increasing
service quality
Improving
efficiency
Increasing
utilization

March 2015
Highly verified
investments
Adding
business value
to storage
Charge back, SLM,
alerting, VMware
integration
Modular expansion,
new disciplines
Monitoring and analysis help to improve efficiency and quality.
Why not going a few steps further by integrating new services to generate added value?
Reducing
storage costs
Increasing
utilization
Improving
operational safety
Increasing
service quality
Monitor, analyze,
identify risks
Proactive
Management
Optimizing load
distribution
Improving
efficiency

AGENDA page 12
The solution
The benefits

March 2015
Small
storage
pool
Large
storage
pool
Storage pools
High performance
High capacity
Archive
…
Storage system
IBM SVC
IBM Storwize family
The solution
With BVQ, companies gain the ability to discover complex relationships within their storage
environment - displayed by a simple and clear screen design.

March 2015
Storage pool utilization
 Size of pools
 Size of volumes
 Free capacity
 Secure drag & drop volume
migration *
* Connected to BVQ
SLA management rules
Reports : for example capacity growth
The treemap offers an in-depth view on storage details – such as pools, volumes and their
utilization. Volume migration is simplified via drag and drop...
The solution

March 2015
Capacity and performance overview
 Available capacities
 Used / free capacities
Performance judgment
high
low
Supports performance planning
and risk management
 Provable assessment of performance needs
Early detection of capacity and
performance shortages
The solution
Analysis methods are displayed and combine the views with reviews on performance,
efficiency, risks and errors. Highly efficient multidimensional views can be saved as favorites.

March 2015
Green = storage is balanced!
 Capacity / performance ratio
 Cost / TB OK
 Nothing to change
Blue = storage is unbalanced!
 Capacity / performance ratio not OK
Cost / TB too high
 Add more volumes with better performance
 Plan for cheaper storage
The solution
The BVQ analysis method ‘BVQ Heatmap’ displays the adequate storage classes as green areas.
The blue areas indicate too expensive storage classes.
A clear reference for possible savings potential.

March 2015
Red = storage is unbalanced!
 Operational risk
On performance issue, first candidate
for higher performance storage
 Close monitoring and plan for
more performant storage
Yellow = high performance demand
 May develop to operational risk
Seen from performance aspects: next
candidate for higher performance storage
 Close monitoring
The solution
The BVQ Heatmap also indicates risks. The red and yellow areas may evolve to a risk which
will be indicated early by a yellow coloring of the surrounding storage pools.

March 2015
The BVQ Treemap is a highly efficient tool for quick overview and monitoring.
With a single click you can start the deeper analysis of the measured data.
The playground for experts and unmatched by other tools in its depth and possibilities.
page 18
Analyze storage
performance
problems
Gain in-depth knowledge
and solve potential
problems
The solution

• Clear presentation of many important
dependencies on one single screen
• Fast and in-depth analysis capabilities
• Many disciplines in a single tool:
– Basis: monitoring, reporting,
analysis and alerting
– Modular expansions available:
accounting, service level
management, copy services
management and VMware
integration
March 2015
BVQ is the most advanced monitoring and analysis software for the
IBM storage systems SVC (SAN Volume Controller) and the Storwize family,
allowing a maximum of results with a minimum of complexity.
page 19
The solution

February, 2013
THE SOLUTION
BVQ Base Edition can be extended by 4 optional packages.
This makes it easy to add value to storage for different needs.
page 20
BVQ Base Edition
• BVQ Treemap Module for capacity and performance
monitoring and reporting engine with ODBC access to
BVQ data
• BVQ Performance View for technical analysis
• BVQ alerting and analysis modules
• BVQ IO Density Heat Map analysis
• BVQ Response Time Compliance analysis
• BVQ Space Efficiency with compression
and Thin Provisioning analysis
page 20
SVC CAPACITY
BASED LICENSE
STORWIZE V7000,
V5000 ENCLOSURE
BASED LICENSE
STORWIZE V3700
SYSTEM BASED
LICENSE
BVQ Accounting
Package
Storage cost
Interactive
monitoring on
organizational
layers
Accounting
reports
BVQ Service
Level Manage-
ment Package
Ensures
compliance with
storage class
related SLA’s
Checking and
reporting
compliance
based
on policies
BVQ Copy
Services
Package
Ensures that the
mirrored data is
up-to-date
Displays,
monitors and
analyzes metro
/ global mirror
BVQ VMware
Integration
Package
Monitors
VMware storage
related objects
in context with
SVC/Storwize
objects
Displays
effectiveness of
VM Thin
Provisioning

• Low complexity
• Easy to install and maintain
• Modular expandability
– only one single server needed
– virtual servers possible
– only 1 or 2 hours for installation
– several different storage systems on one
installation possible
March 2015
Installation in a few hours on a single server for a variety of storage systems.
Thus you can master complex environments with easy-to-manage systems.
page 21
BVQ Application BVQ GUI
VMware
BVQ
VMware
Scanner
BVQ Reporter
Cognos Reporter
Excel, Birt, ...
Other applications
open ODBC Interface
SVC /
Storwize
BVQ SVC
Scanner
The solution

AGENDA page 22
The solution
The benefits

The return on your investment:
• Avoid misinvestments at an early stage
– very high savings potential >> 75%
• Helps to secure operations
• Adds additional value to your storage
• Cost effective monitoring, reporting and
analysis solution
• Small footprint – easy to manage, saves
administration cost
• Storage investment protection
BVQ is the solution for companies of any size. For monitoring, analysis, planning,
solving problems and to add more business value to storage value.
BVQ – favorable price models for each size
page 23
BVQ for SVC
Favorable tier price model
BVQ for Storwize
Enclosure base price model
regardless of capacity
BVQ for Storwize V3700
System based – one license per
system - capacity independent

• Reduction of purchase cost
– BVQ analyzes how well the available performance is utilized
– Allows optimized planning of the performance requirements
– Base for choosing more effective storage classes
– Reduces cost/TB, less hardware, less maintenance and management
cost, less power cost
• Reduced storage management cost
• Avoid operational risks
• Master and avoid performance bottlenecks
• Proactive problem detection and avoidance
• Creating additional storage values
Minimizing purchase cost is a factor in an enterprise environment. Thus the costs of many
other cost objects are reduced in succession.
Benefit: reduction of purchase cost
page 24
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

Planned investment
80TB of high-end storage is exhausted and should be
extended.
March 2015
See how one of our customer‘s saved 75% on investment costs!
The BVQ Heatmap analysis uncovered a large difference between
perceived and real measured necessities.
Knowledge based on facts is the base for optimized investment
page 25
Migrate blue volumes and
free up storage class
High EndMid Range
Newlowendclass
Revised result after BVQ analysis
• IO density analysis shows many blue volumes on high-end.
• many of these with no business needs for high-end
• final result: 60% of all capacities can be moved to lower class
storage
 Free space on high end storage class
 no further extension needed.
 Extension of low-end for only a ¼ of the high-ends costs
Savings: 75%

• Reduction of management cost
– One tool for SVC / Storwize monitoring, reporting, analysis and alerting
– Easy to use, highly effective presentation of results with the Treemap
– Increases efficiency of storage administrators
– Reduces invests in other tools, education and IT environment.
• Creating additional storage value
Many management disciplines summarized in one product. BVQ is easy to use and
provides fast understanding of complex relationships by using the treemap.
Benefit: reduced management cost
page 26
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

Highly integrated presentation of results! 2.5PB and thousands of volumes at a glance!
A one-click interface allows performance analyses, storage efficiency
or more different capacity analyses.
Highly integrated presentation of results provides an excellent overview
page 27

Go from the big picture into detailed granularity. Detect problem areas
with the clearly displayed treemap and analyze them into depth.
The first step of problem solving and proactive management.
With one single click detailed analysis of each object
page 28

• Reduction of storage management efforts
– Storage systems do not know critical business rules
– SLAs or disk mirror placement rules must be checked by admin.
Consequences of crept errors may be fatal
– BVQ can learn technical and business rules (SLAs) and alerts early on
errors
Storage systems do not understand business needs.
BVQ learns technical and business-related rules including monitoring of their
implementation. This leads to efficient indication of possible errors before they arise.
Benefit: reduced operational risks
page 29
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

A storage system can trigger alerts if technical reasons exist.
BVQ also knows business needs and risks and warns you if they are violated.
The below displayed error would perhaps only be noticed in the case of a failed failover!
BVQ Alerting – application example
page 30
Data mirror – violated safety rule!
Mirrors no longer physically separated -
alert is triggered!

– Performance bottlenecks may happen at any time
– Reasons for this are often very difficult to understand
– Often hardware expansion is the reaction. That way, problems are
reduced at great expense but not solved.
– BVQ offers root cause analysis to solve problems selectively
Performance bottlenecks happen in small and big environments. The effects are always
high cost and many other subsequent problems. With pride we observe:
‘BVQ is the reference class in the performance analysis of SVC and Storwize’
Benefit: performance analysis to master bottlenecks
page 31
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

BVQ reference customer German Post
After 4 hours server outage we lose 50.000 €/h ($ 65,000
per hour) in every of our 4 locations.
We respond to this with the highest quality standards and
pro-active monitoring and analysis. Also partly as a
service.
BVQ customer reference stories
March 2015
Unexpected performance bottlenecks are not only just annoying situations. They are
unwanted, hard to master and mean high risk factors. In the worst case, they can lead to a
halt tomorrow. The proactive analysis with BVQ helps to avoid such situations.
page 32
Find more detailed information here
Analysis reveals the true reasons of bottlenecks - the first step to problem solving

Storwize V7000 Performance problem solved
Data collection started on Thursday, first analysis on
Wednesday – project finished on Monday.
March 2015
Unexpected performance bottlenecks are not only just annoying situations. They are
unwanted, hard to master and high risk factors. In the worst case, they can lead to a halt
tomorrow. The proactive analysis with BVQ helps to avoid such situations.
page 33
Find more detailed information here
Analysis reveals the true reasons of bottlenecks - the first step of problem solving

– Admins using BVQ have better knowledge about their systems’ limits
– With this knowledge many problems are avoided before they happen
– Periodic ‘Health checks’ further improve the stable operation
Administrators using BVQ have a better knowledge of the limits of their systems.
They can react very quickly and avoid many problems with the help of their
knowledge and experience.
Benefit: proactive problem detection and avoidance
page 34
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

 Risk analysis: checks for overload situations within nodes,
caches and SAN ports
 Performance bottleneck analysis: are there visible signs of
bottlenecks? how can they be solved ?
 Capacity and usage analysis: actual capacity and performance
utilization with extrapolation for full utilization
 Storage tier analysis: is the data allocated to suitable storage
classes? Which investments should be done in the future?
 Storage efficiency analysis: checks efficiency and effect of Thin
Provisioning and compression.
 Easy Tier analysis: how effective is Easy Tier working in the
environment?
March 2015
A BVQ Health Check uncovers weak points in SVC / Storwize environments.
Many BVQ customers therefore request it 1-2 times a year as value-added service to
improve the operational safety within their storage environments.
BVQ Health Check
page 35
 Click here for more information

• Reduced storage management efforts
• Reduced operational risks
– Integrates new disciplines in storage management
– Improves efficiency of storage administration
– Connects storage monitoring with the VMware world, monitors the
stability of data mirrors, enables accounting or sets the basis for
Service Level Management
Creating added storage value means to support business requirements far beyond the
mere storage of data. Much of this can be found already in the basic edition of BVQ and
special disciplines can be added as required.
Benefit: additional storage value
page 36
BVQ for SVC
BVQ for Storwize

AGENDA page 37
The solution
The benefits

EXAMPLE: PLANNING ANALYSIS
• BVQ customer in Switzerland
• Onsite service: planning analysis
• Requirement:
High- end storage is fully utilized and has to be extended
• Analysis shows: most of the volumes on the high end
storage don´t have high end performance requirements
(Volumes represented in blue in the BVQ analysis)
• An interview with the customer revealed , that only a few of these
volumes with poor performance had to remain on the high-end storage
because of business reasons
• Result of analysis with recommendation:
– Recommendation: establishment of a new Nearline storage class
– High end storage usage can be reduced immediately by 60%
– Move volumes into appropriate storage classes
Result is cost reduction:
• Nearline storage costs (less than) ¼ of the originally planned HE
storage class.
 75% saving for storage expansion
BVQ Return on Invest Whitepapers
Migrate Volumes to less
expensive Storage

EXAMPLE FOR BVQ PROBLEM SOLUTIONS
BVQ CUSTOMER AEPONA (NORTH IRELAND)
• Offsite service measure
• History:
– Extreme performance problems
– 6 months of analysis without any improvement
• Project:
– 09/20/2013: Scan started
– 09/25/2013: Web conference 25th September, 2013
– 09/29/2013: End of service
– 09/30/2013: End of project
• Result:
Problem was completely solved in just 10 days!

EXAMPLE FOR BVQ PROBLEM SOLUTIONS
CUSTOMER IN SOUTH AFRICA
• Offsite service measure
• History:
– Performance problems with ISCSI attached servers
– Open complaint with IBM
• Project not yet completed
Preliminary results:
 Storwize is the wrong contact for the complaint
 Problems can be found in the ISCSI connection
with the servers
• Finish time-consuming search on the Storwize!
Perform analysis of server connections!

E-Postbrief‘ brings the secrecy of correspondence into the Internet.
Accurately and efficiently with Storwize V7000 and BVQ
The German Post and DHL corporate brands offer a unique portfolio of logistics and
communication. Customers are offered both easy to use standardized products as well as
innovative and tailored solutions - from dialog marketing to industrial supply chains.
Organization of a new storage infrastructure with BVQ
Based on the existing SVC environment with analysis of BVQ
 Requirement: low complexity
 Requirement: lowering TCO
 The precisely formulated demands on manufacturers were formulated with the help of BVQ
New infrastructure as a result of detailed tendering
 Storwize V7000 with the following storage-mix:
1,4TB SSD, 137TB 900GB SAS, 437TB 3TB SATA
 BVQ Base Edition for Storwize V7000
Extended benefits with BVQ
 Optimal mapped storage-phased approach for performance, capacity, storage classes
 Highest efficiency in space and power because fewer discs are needed
 Continuity in the administration because of the close relation to V7000 for SVC, continued
usage of BVQ possible
BVQ references in the Internet

Sika Germany GmbH is a subsidiary
of the leading Swiss company Sika AG
The manufacturer of industrial
sealants and adhesives,
construction chemical product
systems employs more than 1,100
people in Germany.
Sika AG is an ideal partner for
architects, planners, builders, trade
and commerce as well as for
industrial production in Germany.
Sika already develops successful
innovations for tomorrow in its
own research laboratories.
March 2015
Targets achieved with BVQ
Capacity and perfor-
mance reporting
Optimize storage
usage
Proactively prevent
errors
Improve stability of
SVC environment
Lower administrative
efforts with storage
The Sika success story
Customer success cases
page 42

Voith sets standards in the markets
energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials
and transport & automotive.
Founded in 1867, Voith employs
more than 42,000 people, generates
€5.6 billion in sales, operates in more
than 50 countries around the world
and is today one of the biggest family-
owned companies in Europe.
Customer request
A solution for transparent
performance management and to
enable optimized load distribution
within the virtualized (SVC) storage
infrastructure.March 2015
Advantages with BVQ
Performance management
and load monitoring in real
time
Fast implementation
Avoidance of performance
peaks and bottlenecks
Business and service-level
oriented
Easy management of SVC
infrastructure
The Voith success story
page 43
Bernd Nagel, Team Manager Global Application
Infrastructure Voith IT Solutions
‘BVQ allows us a detailed analysis of
the performance and utilization of
our storage infrastructure. With this
information and through the
management of BVQ we could
avoid bottlenecks and subsequently
achieve higher utilization while
improving performance’.

The SSB, Stuttgarter Straßenbahn AG,
is one of the largest and most modern
transport operators in Germany and
has won numerous awards for its
achievements in recent years.
Customer request
A solution to optimize load and
performance of the virtualized
storage environment (SVC)
March 2015
Advantages with BVQ
Automatic performance
analysis in the
background
Clear presentation of
Performance / capacity
utilization and history
Performance of different
layers like application
storage system etc.
Identification of high
performers
Supports process to re-
balance a storage
system
The SSB success story
page 44
Alexander Müller, responsible for storage and
supply, Stuttgarter Straßenbahn AG
‘With BVQ it was only a small effort
to achieve excellent load distribu-
tion on our different storage tiers.
The root causes of performance
problems are easy to find can often
be solved with some movements in
the storage’.

Advantages with BVQ
More transparent capacity and
performance utilization of the
storage systems
BVQ is business and service level
oriented as requested
Cost savings due to allocation of
storage volumes now based on
clear facts
Performance peaks and bottle-
necks can now be avoided
Clear presentation with the BVQ GUI
Fast and uncritical installation
March 2015
Ericsson is a world-leading
provider of telecommuni-
cation equipment and
services to mobile and fixed
network operators.
Over 1,000 networks in
more than 180 countries
use our network
equipment, and more than
40 per cent of the world's
mobile traffic passes
through Ericsson networks.
The Ericsson success story
page 45
Dr. Reinhard Waas, Team Leader Unix and BVQ-
users, LHS Telecommunications GmbH & Co. KG
‘With BVQ we have achieved a good
mix and balance of storage pooling
with performance load isolation.
This resulted in better storage
performance and optimized storage
efficiency’.

BVQ webpages and contacts
page 47
BVQ on the Internet
www.bvq-software.com
BVQ technical wiki page with videos and
technical whitepapers
http://bvqwiki.sva.de
BVQ mail contact
bvq@sva.de
www.sva.de

AGENDA page 48
The solution
The benefits

BVQ application areas
Monitoring, surveillance and reporting
Keeping an eye on performance and capacity indicators and documenting them
Supporting storage planning and cost reduction
Finding cost-optimal storage mix, supporting Easy Tier planning
Problem-free operation, finding and solving storage problems
Checking for typical bottlenecks, finding and solving problems
VMware integration
Viewing and monitoring VMware objects in context with SVC objects
Usage based billing of storage cost
Organizational management of storage resources
Monitoring storage-related SLAs
Ensuring SLA compliance
Surveillance of remote copies and snapshots
Ensuring the currentness of mirrors and copies
BVQ application examples
http://bvqwiki.sva.de/x/VwAo

Monitoring with BVQ
Treemap – overview - monitoring
Capacities and performance at a glance
Plenty of analysis capabilities
Performance, capacity, utilization, cost, price
Integrated alerting module
Wrong storage location, violated limits…
Settings can be saved as favorites
Performance view - analysis
In-depth performance and bottleneck analysis
Highly interactive module allows ad hoc-analysis
Analysis can be saved as favorite
Detailed performance data for the last 7 months
Resolution of measurement data down to 1 minute
The BVQ GUI supports the typical operation of the administrator. The treemap provides an
overview and expertise for daily monitoring. The BVQ Performance View is the expert
mode, which allows in-depth analysis to clarify conspicuous performance situations.

Visualization of storage load - IO density – the BVQ Heatmap
Determines the load (IOPS / GIB – ‘IO density’) which is exerted by a volume on the sub-storage. It is
calculated for all storage tiers such as volume, MDisk, MDG, controller, array, …
Coloring shows how well a volume uses
the existing performance.
Why is this valuable?
Rapid assessment, whether volumes are
placed on the correct storage classes
Quick identification of capacity
overload or weak capacity utilisation
Basis for extension planning
Hot or cold? Best place for a volume?
The BVQ Treemap combines capacity and utilization information at a glance.
BVQ is familiar with the performance capabilities of the storage system and can
compare them on many levels with the current performance.

Storage load response time compliance
Compares the volume’s latency to the
maximum value of their storage class
Conspicuous volumes are marked
Combination of all storage objects possible
Multiple evaluation options
Higher objects ‘inherit’ the result
Small deviations become visible
Quick overview, if the response time of
individual volumes or disks deviates
from the expected value
Problems are quickly isolated
xx
Another example - BVQ knows the expected response times of the storage pools.
If the expected value is not met, the affected volume will be colored.
If this volume is host-related, the host will also be marked.

Optimizing storage efficiency
Monitors whether the useage of Thin Provisioning and / or Compression
leads to the desired success for individual volumes.
Evaluation for all storage levels
Storage efficiency stresses critical system resources
(CPU performance and write cache)
Compression is limited to 200 volumes per
node pair
Data can change over time and changes the
benefit of compression
The analysis-treemap for storage efficiency, shows objects which have more or less
advantage of Thin Provisioning or compression. Thus the utilization of these functions
can be monitored over time and optimized.
Compression
is efficient
Compression
not effcient
Switch off

Measurement interval down to 1 minute
The BVQ standard measurement interval is 5 minutes. This setting provides a good overview
but in order for a better problem-detection and analysis, it can be lowered during operation
to 1 minute.
Same CPU pathway with 1 min interval

Reporting functions
Development of capacities, performance
Accounting reports
Special reports on request
Open interfaces allow access from other tools
such as Excel or Cognos
Can be automated - integration into Intranet
Can be integrated into other system management
environments like Nagios
The database of BVQ is the source of all information. Reporting is another way to access this
information. There are also other ways to report the data e.g. via Excel or Cognos, for which
BVQ uses an open database schema.

BVQ application areas
Monitoring, surveillance and reporting
Keeping an eye on performance parameters and documenting them
Supporting planning and development, cost reduction
Finding cost-optimal storage mix, supporting Easy Tier planning
Problem-free operation, finding and solving storage problems
Checking for typical bottlenecks, finding and solving problems
VMware integration
Viewing and monitoring VMware objects in context with SVC objects
Performance-based billing of storage cost
Organizational management of storage resources
Monitoring storage-related SLAs
Ensuring SLA compliance
Surveillance of remote copies and snapshots
Ensuring the currentness of mirrors and copies
BVQ application examples
http://bvqwiki.sva.de/x/VwAo

High performance class
Typical storage management problems
Existing capabilities are underestimated
Required performance is overrated
No measuring instrument to find a proper assessment
Storage is calculated too high-valued (too expensive) due to security
standards
BVQ approach - avoiding wrong investments and revising with the
next expansion
 Finding the adequate storage-mix via analysis
 Enabling investments into convenient storage classes
Rapid assessment analysis by BVQ Heatmap
Only one volume needs
2000 IOPS
Only some volumes need
500 IOPS
Most of the volumes need
100 IOPS or less
Low-end class
The Capacity Performance Analysis is one of the analysis techniques developed to detect the
assignable performance requirements quickly and clearly.
BVQ Capacity and Performance Analysis
All non-orange areas
are stored too expensive

Quick analysis at the push of a button - even for many clusters simultaneously
The BVQ Heatmap analysis is the capacity performance analysis at the push of a button!
Mean values of 7 days to 5 minutes give a quick overview.
In this case shown below 2.5PB in 6 SVC clusters.
High amount of blue volumes 
big savings potential!

Technical analysis – Risk analysis
Just a few steps are required to answer many questions.
A BVQ expert can make a statement about potential risks
in just a few minutes.
Typical risk areas
SVC / Storwize nodes utilization
Overloaded partitions caches?
SAN properly sized?
SAN failures or impairments in the SAN?
Backend storage systems performance?
Unilateral overload?
Pro-active: risk assessment, avoiding bottlenecks
Re-active: solving performance problems
The BVQ Performance View is the playground of the experts. We have developed many
techniques for a controlled in-depth analysis of the storage. One of them is the so-called BVQ
Risk Analysis.

VMware integration package
Monitoring VMware areas in the SVC
context
• Connections from VMware storage objects to
SVC/Storwize objects
• Capacities of VMware objects (VM virtual
machines, VM disks, … ) in SVC volumes
• Free capacities in VM data stores
• Thin Provisioning storage efficiency of
VMware objects
A BVQ scanner for VMware fetches the storage-related information from the VMware-
installation and integrates them into the BVQ storage structure.
Then current information like the utilization of the VMware storage is available.

Two examples for storage-VMware representations
Example: which VM
is within the volumes?
Overview about the capacity utilization of the volumes
What happens during migrations, who is affected?
Example: which volumes support the
VM?
Typical starting point for a performance analysis
Performance problem in a VMware object
Question: which storage supplies the object?
The flexibility of the treemap is a big benefit here as it is easy to display which SVC volumes
include VMware objects. For example also the presentation of
volumes supporting a VMware virtual machine is important.

Representation ‘stand alone’ available for non-SVC volumes
VM SCSI volume not SVC
/Storwize
VM SCSI volume of
SVC/Storwize
Observation of the storage
connections in VMware
Independent from SVC or Storwize
systems
Also objects from other storage
systems are visible.
The VMware scanner detects all relevant VMware storage objects,
no matter if they are connected to SVC or Storwize or not.
This provides a complete map of the VMware storage structure.

VAAI traffic
SCSI traffic
Detailed expert metrics

BVQ accounting - extension of storage objects in the operating organizations
New organizational levels of monitoring:
Cost Center, application groups,
applications, volume groups
Cost-oriented monitoring and billing for all
organizational levels
 Topology, storage usage and performance
analysis based on applications or cost centers
 Cost and prices of organizational levels
 Reporting and accounting
BVQ accounting enables the combination of volumes to organizational structures like
applications or cost centers. This provides an organizational view over the storage,
which can be then used for accounting and other purposes.

Accounting functions - a relevant result for the billing of storage costs
The accounting report is a standard BVQ report
Alternative database access:
Loading the data into a spreadsheet
and finishing via pivot tables
Loading the data into an enterprise application
for integration into existing applications
Database scheme of BVQ is open and published
Allows integration of BVQ into enterprise applications
such as Data Warehouse or Asset Databases.
Reports often are the result of accounting which then will be further evaluated.
It might also be useful to transform data into more editable formats.
BVQs’ data formats are open to support such integrations.

Service Level Management functions
Storage and management of storage-related SLAs
Monitoring of SLAs and other storage rules
Data placement rating:
Green: compliant to storage rules
Red: violation against storage rules
Yellow: sub-optimal but compliant
Disk placement: ‘disk group relations’
Example: mirrors may not be established on
the same system, monitoring pools, systems,
rooms, sites
Cost and price calculation
For all storage objects and levels
Violation of SLA rule
Storage capacity is
acceptable by SLA
Storage capacity
corresponds to SLA
BVQ can monitor the fulfillment of SLAs. With SVC or Storwize it is very easy to move volumes
with via migrations and thus breaking SLA rules unnoticed. BVQ displays them via GUI or uses
alerts when this happens.

Copy services package
Displaying and monitoring
Flash copy and remote copy
Relation-mappings
Consistency groups cluster partnership
Coloring by state
Consistent, disconnected, stopped, …
Another added value is representation and monitoring of flash copies or mirrors.
Broken mirrors are shown as well as the transfer rate within a mirror-link.
An important added value for more safety in this critical area!

• Direct connection to the BVQ server with a
remote desktop application
• BVQ can be operated very efficiently on a
handheld or tablet device
March 2015
The graphical representation of the treemap is also perfect to be used
on mobile devices.
The benefits
page 73

Thank you – we would be happy and proud to work with you!

IBM SVC Storwize analysis and monitoring: BVQ storage in Balance (English)

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