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Getting started with storage system management

Get started by reviewing the web-based user interface and the management workflow. Then, review the management client requirements and the log-in procedure.

Storage Advisor Embedded overview

Storage Advisor Embedded provides simplified management of a storage system.

Storage Advisor Embedded is a tool for performing simple operations to change configurations. If you want to perform detailed or complicated operations, use other tools along with Storage Advisor Embedded. For details about other tools, see the "Management tools for system administration" section in the System Administration guide for your storage system.

Storage Advisor Embedded allows you to quickly build an environment with a storage system and its resources, such as pools, where you can perform simple operations using a web-based user interface without having to consider complicated storage system configurations.

In this interface, 1KB (kilobyte), 1MB (megabyte), 1GB (gigabyte),and 1TB (terabyte) are 1,000 bytes, 1,000KB, 1,000MB,and 1,000GB, respectively.

1KiB (kibibyte), 1MB (mebibyte), 1GB (gibibyte),and 1TB (tebibyte) are 1,024 bytes, 1,024KiB, 1,024MiB,and 1,024GiB, respectively.

The following describes the web-based user interface of Storage Advisor Embedded, and the information displayed on the dashboard.

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Navigation Bar

You can manage and operate storage systems in Storage Advisor Embedded by selecting and operating the resources displayed in the navigation bar.

Health Status

This area displays statuses such as Error or Warning when any of the following events are detected:

  • The pool usage rate exceeds a threshold value
  • A pool is partially blocked
  • An error occurs in a backup or a restore operation
  • SIMs (messages that are generated when the controller of the storage system detects an error or a service request) are sent
Notification History

For VSP E series storage systems, you can check information that was sent as notifications to the screen while you were logged in by checking the notification history.

Dashboard

When you log in, the dashboard opens. In the dashboard, you can check the storage system status, check the storage system total capacity, and view the following:

  • Information about the storage system, including the storage system name, model name, and serial number. The resource status is also displayed in this area, and you can check the Health Status message by clicking the status and launching the maintenance utility to view alerts. Click GUID-0FEB0812-30CF-4C67-AB06-3B83C27FB3AC-low.gif(Information) , and then select System Information to view detailed information about the storage system.
  • Capacity Usage, including the total pool capacity of the storage systems and the amount of used capacity.
  • The number of registered servers. Access the Servers page to perform operations related to servers.
  • The number of volumes. Access the Volumes page to perform operations related to volumes.
  • Total efficiency includes savings from deduplication and compression, accelerated compression*, snapshots, and Dynamic Provisioning. Total efficiency does not include metadata or garbage data generated by the capacity saving.

    * For VSP E series storage systems, the saving efficiency is not included because the accelerated compression function is not supported.

    Note

    After a volume is created from a pool and before data is written to the volume, the maximum value (99999.99) appears.

  • Data Reduction, including savings from the capacity saving (deduplication and compression).
  • Software Saving, including the amount of capacity reduction for volumes using the capacity saving function (deduplication and compression). This is displayed for VSP E series only.
  • Storage System Performance, including the status of IOPS, the response time (time required to respond to a request from the server), and the data transfer speed. By checking the performance values regularly, you identify any large changes from the usual performance values at an early stage. In particular, a large increase in the response time signals a problem in the storage system.
    Note

    Performance reports may not show the current information if performance data is not obtained from the storage system. This issue should resolve itself after some time when the storage system is less busy and able to obtain performance data.

Storage system resource configuration

The following figure shows the storage system resources that can be configured and managed using Storage Advisor Embedded.

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Drives

Drives are hardware composed of storage media, and devices for reading and writing to the storage media. According to the specified settings, you can use drives as data drives for reading and writing data, or as spare drives for copying data to continue storage system operations if an error occurs in the data drive. Drive capacity is displayed as physical capacity in one of the following units: KB (kilobyte), MB (megabyte), GB (gigabyte), or TB (terabyte).

Pools

Pools for thin provisioning are virtual areas in a storage system that are associated with multiple drives. Thin provisioning provides virtual volumes to a server and uses the actual capacity from a pool when a server makes a write request.

Volumes

Volumes are virtual storage areas attached to the server.

Snapshots

Snapshots are images of volumes at a specific point. When a snapshot is created, differential data from the original volume is stored in the pool. You can use snapshots to create backups, or to create volumes to clone a snapshot so that the data can also be used on other servers.

Ports

Ports are interfaces for connecting storage systems with servers.

Servers

Servers are units for managing business servers that use a storage system by Storage Advisor Embedded. For cluster configurations, all of the servers (nodes) that make up a cluster are managed as one server.

Storage system management workflow

Storage Advisor Embedded allows you to easily configure your storage system resources, such as volumes and pools, and perform daily tasks, such as backing up data and monitoring. You can complete tasks by using a web-based user interface or by using REST API incorporated into business applications or run automatically as scripts. The following figure shows the workflow for configuring and managing storage systems using Storage Advisor Embedded.

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Management client OS and browser requirements

The following describes the requirements for the management client to log in to Storage Advisor Embedded.

OS and architecture

Browser and version

Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)

Microsoft Edge

Internet Explorer 11

Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)

Windows 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)

Windows 8.1 (32-bit or 64-bit)

Microsoft Edge

Internet Explorer 11

Google Chrome (version 63 or later)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (64-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit)

Mozilla Firefox

If the browser does not display Storage Advisor Embedded correctly, make sure you are using the latest version of the browser.

Note
  • If the OS is Windows Server 2019, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5, Google Chrome is not supported. If you want to use Google Chrome, use another OS. Alternatively, use another browser.
  • Use the latest version of the browser.
  • For Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft has announced that support will end in FY 2022. For this reason, we recommend that you use a different browser. For details about the schedule for the end of support, see the Microsoft website.

Logging in to Storage Advisor Embedded

You must log in to Storage Advisor Embedded.

Before you begin

Verify the following:

  • For Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome, make sure that the pop-up blocker is disabled.

  • For Internet Explorer, verify the following settings:

    • Pop-up blocker is disabled.
    • Compatibility View is off.
    • Font download is enabled.
  • Protocol

    Specify a valid protocol in the storage system settings.

    For SSL communication, use https. For non-SSL communication, use http.

  • IP address of the storage system

    Use the IP address of CTL1 or CTL2, as specified in the maintenance utility.

Note

If you use the Microsoft Edge browser and the period of inactivity exceeds a certain length of time, you are logged out from the Storage Advisor Embedded session. Either turn off the sleep tab function, or add Storage Advisor Embedded to the sites for which the sleep state is not applied.

Procedure

  1. Open a web browser and specify the following URL:

    protocol://IP-address-of-storage-system/
    Note

    If the web browser repeatedly fails to open, close all active browser windows, and then clear the web browser cache.

    If the web browser fails to open even after you clear the cache, start the maintenance utility by specifying the following URL, and then check for alerts:

    protocol://IP-address-of-storage-system/MaintenanceUtility/

    To check for alerts, log in as a user registered in the Maintenance user group (a built-in user group).

  2. Enter a user name and password, and then log in.

    Use the following account when logging in for the first time:

    User name: maintenance

    Contact your administrator for the password.

    The account will be locked for 60 seconds after three consecutive unsuccessful login attempts.

If you are unable to log in to Storage Advisor Embedded

If you are unable to log in to Storage Advisor Embedded, access the following URL to start the maintenance utility, and check the status of the storage system. If the storage system power is off, turn the power on.

protocol://IP-address-of-storage-system/MaintenanceUtility/

Working with security certificates

If you encounter a warning message about the security certificate when logging in to Storage Advisor Embedded, the cause may be one of the following:

  • Use of a self-signed security certificate. The connection is secure but the certificate has not been issued by a Certificate Authority.
  • The certificate is outdated.

Website security certificates

When the message "There is a problem with this website's security certificate" is displayed, click Continue to this website (not recommended).

If the security certificate is not issued by a trusted certificate authority, the browser displays a warning message when you use encrypted SSL communications to connect to the storage system.

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