IBM Storage Scale

Add IBM Storage Scale storage systems to get asset, capacity, and configuration metadata analyzed so that you can detect changes in file and cloud storage usage and plan for future storage needs.

IBM Storage Scale is a software defined storage solution for processing large amounts of data in a distributed environment on a single IBM Storage Scale cluster. The cluster can contain one or more servers, or a combination of servers and GPFS Storage Server systems. GPFS Storage Server (GSS) is a storage solution that comprises storage enclosures, hard disks, and servers that are installed with IBM Storage Scale software.

You can monitor an IBM Storage Scale storage system that is configured for file storage, or a combination of file storage and object storage. The object storage uses an OpenStack Swift object storage system. Swift objects are stored in the GPFS file system.

Discover page

Use the following information to add the storage system so that it can be monitored and that metadata can be collected, analyzed, and presented in the GUI.

Host name or IP address

The host name or IP address of the cluster node that IBM Storage Insights Pro uses for authentication. For authentication, you can use any server or GSS server that is configured as a node of the cluster and that runs an operating system version that is supported. Depending on what is supported in your environment, you can enter an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) or IPv6 address. If you enter an IPv6 address, the preferred representation is written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. Example: 2001:DB95:0000:1234:0000:0000:5678:ABCD.

User name

The user name that is used to log on to the cluster node. To run administration commands for monitoring the storage system, the user must have the following privileges:

The user must have root privileges or privileges to run a set of specified administration commands using the sudo command on the cluster node.
The user must have permission to log on from the specified node without entering a password to the other nodes in the cluster.

Tip: Why not create a dedicated user account to manage the monitoring of your storage systems more efficiently? So, instead of using an existing user account, create a new user account to connect to and collect metadata from your storage resources.

Password

The password that is used to log on to the cluster node.

Specify authentication credentials for object storage

To monitor object storage, you must enter object storage credentials. If you do not specify credentials when you add an object storage system for monitoring, you can specify them later. However, until credentials are entered, no data is collected about the object storage system.

User name: The user name that is used to log on to the OpenStack Swift object storage system. The user must be assigned the admin role in Keystone, the OpenStack identity service. To monitor all accounts and containers, the user must also be assigned the ResellerAdmin role. Learn more.
Domain: The Keystone domain of the user that is used to monitor the OpenStack Swift object storage system. The default setting is Default. The combination of user name and domain uniquely identify a user on the object storage system.

Configure page

Use the following information to schedule the collection of data for the storage system:

Probe: The probe collects status, asset, and storage information about the IBM Storage Scale cluster.
The time zone that is shown is determined by the location of the browser that is used to access the GUI.
To probe object storage, the server that hosts the data collector must be able to connect to the OpenStack Swift and Keystone endpoints that are used to access object services. Learn more.
Performance Monitor: Enable or disable the performance monitor for the storage system. If you enable the performance monitor, select the schedule for how often you want performance data to be collected.
Before you can enable the performance monitor, you must configure the IBM Storage Scale performance monitoring tool on the IBM Storage Scale cluster. Learn more.