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Getting started with storage system management

Get an overview of the web-based user interface and the management workflow. Review 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 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 (kikobyte), 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
Dashboard

The dashboard appears when you log in. In the dashboard, you can see the following items, and check the operating status and the entire capacity of the storage system:

  • 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 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).
  • 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 can notice at an early stage any large changes from the usual performance values. 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 operations, such as backing up data and monitoring. You can perform operations by using a sophisticated web-based user interface or by using REST API, incorporated into business applications or executed 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) #1

Google Chrome (version 83 or later) #2

Internet Explorer 11 #2

Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)

Google Chrome (version 63 or later) #2

Internet Explorer 11 #2

Windows 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)

Windows 8.1 (32-bit or 64-bit)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (64-bit)

Google Chrome (version 63 or later) #2

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (64-bit)

Google Chrome (version 67 or later)#2

  • #1

    This browser is only supported for VSP Fx00 models and VSP Gx00 models storage systems.

  • #2

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

Logging in to Storage Advisor Embedded

You must log in to Storage Advisor Embedded.

Before you begin

Identify the following items:

  • If you are using Google Chrome
    • Make sure that the pop-up blocker is disabled.
  • If you are using Internet Explorer
    • Make sure the pop-up blocker is disabled.
    • Make sure Compatibility View is off.
    • Make sure the Font download option is enabled.
  • Protocol

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

  • IP address of the storage system

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

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's cache.

    If the web browser fails to open even after the cache has been cleared, 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's 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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