Before you begin checklist for IBM Storage Insights
IBM® Storage Insights is an off-premises, IBM Cloud® service. Because it's an IBM Cloud service, getting started is a snap. However, every environment is different, so to ensure that your getting started experience goes smoothly, use the following checklists as a guide.
Getting started in three easy steps
- Sign up. If you have IBM block storage systems and don't already have IBM Storage Insights, sign up at https://ibm.biz/insightsreg.
- Deploy metadata collectors. A metadata collector is a lightweight application that streams performance, capacity, and configuration metadata to IBM Storage Insights.
- Add your storage and switches. Connect IBM Storage Insights to the storage that you want to monitor.
- For some IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems, a data collector isn’t needed. For more information, see Enabling Call Home with cloud services.
- Data collectors are not needed to monitor IBM Storage Ceph® systems. IBM Storage Insights communicates directly with IBM Storage Ceph systems to collect capacity and configuration metadata.
Before you begin checklist
To jumpstart your IBM Storage Insights experience, preparation is key. Use this checklist to smooth the way.
Check | Step | Description |
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☐ | Sign up |
After you sign up, you'll receive a Welcome email. In your inbox, look for emails that were sent
by the following email addresses:
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☐ | Learn about security |
Protecting information about your storage is critical. Key highlights:
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☐ | Choose your metadata collection method: Monitoring IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems |
You can collect metadata for certain IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems by using a data collector or Call Home with cloud services. A number of factors can determine which metadata collection method might work best for you. For more information about choosing a collection method and the requirements for IBM Storage Virtualize storage systems, see Enabling Call Home with cloud services. |
☐ | Choose your platform: Operating system requirements |
You can install the data collector on the following operating systems:
When you install the data collector, you can configure it to connect to a proxy server. |
☐ | Choose your platform: Hardware requirements |
The location where you install a data collector must be available 24X7:
|
☐ | Determine how many data collectors to install |
You can install multiple data collectors to fail over to another data collector when a metadata collection fails or to optimize the metadata collection from data centers in different locations. |
☐ | Prepare for communication: Firewalls and an outbound port configuration |
|
☐ | Prepare for the data collector: Antivirus software |
If your antivirus software is set on the maximum mode, it might prevent some of your changes from being accepted. Configure your antivirus software product on the server or virtual machine where you install the data collector to allow new executable files to be created in its installation directory. If your antivirus software prevents the monitoring of some of your devices, such as XIV, Hitachi VSP, Dell EMC, NetApp, Pure storage, or VMware ESXi hosts, add the related executable files for those devices to your allowlist.
For more information about McAfee Adaptive Threat Protection, see the following links: |
☐ | Download the data collector | In the IBM Storage Insights GUI, go to , and click Deploy Data Collector. Click your operating system to download the compressed file. |
☐ | Ensure that the data collector can access your storage systems |
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☐ | Avoid the use of special characters |
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Windows checklist
If you install data collectors on servers or virtual machines that run Windows Server 2016 and later, you might find the following information useful.
Check | Step | Description |
---|---|---|
☐ | Choosing a location for the data collector .zip file |
|
☐ | Viewing the contents of the data collector .zip file |
After you extract data collector .zip file, here are some key files for you to use:
|
☐ | Installing the data collector as an administrator |
To install the data collector, you must run installDataCollectorService.bat
as an administrator. To run the batch file as an administrator, you can use the following methods:
|
AIX and Linux checklist
If you install data collectors on servers or virtual machines that run AIX or Linux, you might find the following information useful.
Check | Step | Description |
---|---|---|
☐ | Choosing a location for the data collector .gz file |
|
☐ | Viewing the contents of the data collector .gz file |
After you extract data collector .gz file, here are the key files for you to use:
|
☐ | Installing the data collector as root |
To install the data collector, you must have root authority on the server or virtual machine where you run installDataCollectorService.sh. To view all the steps for installing a data collector on AIX or Linux, see Installing data collectors on AIX or Linux. |
Need help?
As easy as getting started with IBM Storage Insights can be, unexpected problems might occur. If you get stuck, you can open an IBM Support case to get help. You can also access self-help resources, including posing questions to experts in the technical community.
For a directory of help options, see Getting support.