SSMC 2.1 – Whats New?

Back in December at HP Discover a new management console for 3PAR, the SSMC (StoreServ Management Console) was announced. The SSMC is a web based management console that has a clean new look shared with OneView. The original public release of SSMC was version 2.0 and didn’t have all the functionality of the 3PAR Management console with things likes configuring AO missing. SSMC 2.1 is just out and to be fair I think HP have short changed themselves with the numbering convention given the number of enhancements.  It seems more like SSMC 3.0 or given VMware’s naming convention à la VSAN SSMC 8.  Let’s check out some of the new features

VV Actions

The storage admin spends the majority of their time at the volume level. SSMC 2.1 sees the full set of Virtual Volume actions available from within the console.  Clone options are now available plus tune options which also includes conversion e.g. thick to thin.

1 VV Actions

CPG Actions

Compact CPG is now available from within the console.

2 compactcpg

Also available now is the ability to configure AO from within SSMC. I always used to do this via the CLI as the GUI for this in the management console was horrible. The new screen makes the process clearer by giving each of the elements required for an AO config clearer labels.

3 creat AO schedule

As with most things in the new console you can view AO in the Map view which is pretty and will help impress and confuse your manager.

4 AO Map view

System and functionality

Additional functionality has been added around the look of the console and system management tasks.

When the SSMC is launched the first time there is an animated getting started screen.

7 nav tutorial

Some screens now have a total row at the bottom to show for example showing the sum of the size of the VV’s.

7a total screen

Tunesys is back!

6 Tune system

System reporter

One of the biggest changes is that historic reporting data is now available via SSMC. All systems running 3PAR OS 3.1.2 have an instance of the system reporter installed which automatically collects performance data. The system reporter element requires no manual setup and is entirely self-sufficient, requiring no external database or anything like that. The historic data is stored on a system VV, the size of which depends on the model for example 60GB for a 7200 up to 100GB for a 10800. A system reporter licence will be required to enable the majority of the historic data reports to be viewed. The below screenshot shows the retention policies for an on node system reporter. You can read more about on node System Reporter in this HP blog post.

 

8 data retention on node

Alerts

This is a really welcome addition, the number of configurable alerts in 3PAR has until now been woeful.  SSMC 2.1 corrects this by introducing threshold alerts.  SSMC 2.1 comes with a number of preconfigured alerts in the form of alert templates on top of this you can create your own alerts.  Pretty much any physical or logical component can be set for alerting via the CLI or SSMC 2.1.

9 threshold alerts

Excel Client

There is now an Excel client that can be used to pull performance reporting data from SSMC into Excel.

11 Excel client

Finally one for the Apple fans, you will be glad to know when you are queuing at the next product launch managing your 3PAR system via Chrome on iPad is supported.

apple queue

SSMC 2.1 is available for download now from the 3PAR Software Depot.

 

 

This post marks the beginning of a series aimed at introducing and improving familiarity with SSMC. Stay tuned via Twitter or by subscribing as I am planning lots of posts regarding SSMCs new features and how to use them. Next in the series I will be looking at getting started with installing SSMC.

Installing the 3PAR Management Console

The process for downloading and installing the 3PAR Management Console is covered in this post. The 3PAR Management Console was the traditional tool for managing your 3PAR systems. 4.7.3 was the last incarnation of IMC, since it has been superseded by the StoreServ Management Console (SSMC) which gives you a pretty web based management interface.  If you want to get started with the SSMC you can get ready with our SSMC install guide and beginners SSMC posts.

If you are running 3PAR OS 3.3.1 and below or just prefer the traditional management console then read on.

Downloading the 3PAR Management Console

1 You can download the 3PAR Management console, form this direct link which takes you to the 3PAR software depot.  If you just browse the depot its hidden.

Installing the IMC

Its dead easy but here I will walk you though the process with screen shots.

1 Choose to run setup.exe for the v4.7 files you just downloaded. In my case from inside the Windows directory of the ISO

2 Just choose next at the 3PAR management console introduction screen

Introduction screen on 3PAR management console install

2 Choose the install location, leave it default unless you have specific reason to move it and then click next

Choosing file location for installation

3 A summary of the install appears, check your selections and then click install

Summary of selections made in wizard

4 A couple of information screens appear during the install, no need for any input.  Just wait for the install to complete.

Screen displaying progress of install

5 That’s it just click done, and you have the latest version of IMC installed!

Screen confirming 3PAR Management console 4.7 has been installed

Don’t forget to install your other 3PAR management tools the CLI and SSMC

You can learn more about the IMC in the HPE 3PAR Management Console User Guide

 

3PAR VVOL Requirements

I had a great question in the comments last week asking what would happen in a situation where VVOLs was implemented on a system with no snapshot (virtual copy) facility licenced.  This prompted me to think it was worth while putting together a quick post around what the requirements for 3PAR and VVOLs are.

VVOLs were introduced with vSphere 6 and provide offloading of the grunt work to the storage device and a one to one relationship between VM’s and their storage.  If you need a reminder on what VVOLs are all about check out my previous post.

HP 3PAR support VMware support
OS requirements HP 3PAR OS 3.2.1 MU2Patch 12 vSphere 6.0, vCenter Server 6.0
GUI versions HP 3PAR MC 4.6.x vSphere Web Client 6.0
CLI HP 3PAR 3.2.1 CLI esxcli (vSphere 6.0)
Licensing HP 3PAR Virtual Copy vSphere Standard license
HP 3PAR Thin Provisioning vCenter Server Standard

The above table summarises the requirements.  First and most obviously you need vSphere 6 and this needs to be licenced at vSphere Standard level. From the 3PAR side of things you need to be running 3PAR OS 3.2.1 MU2 or above, this effectively means that VVOLs are only available on the 7000 and 10,000 series models. Patch 12 for 3.2.1 is also a mandatory requirement for VVOLs, this patch ensures the consistency of the VM’s, read more in the official release notes

The 3PAR also needs to be licenced for both Virtual Copy and Thin Provisioning (part of the base OS on current models).  So going back to the original question I was asked, VVOLs will not work without a snapshot licence.

 

You will also need to be mindfully that currently the following features are not supported with VVOLs

  • vSphere Metro Storage Cluster
  • Array-based replication is not supported i.e. in the case of 3PAR Remote Copy is not supported
  • No support for SRM

It’s worth noting that VVOLs and traditional VMFS datastores can co-exist on the same system.  So if for example the requirement for replication was only on some VM’s these could be kept on VMFS datastores allowing others without the requirement to be moved to VVOLs.

You can read more in-depth about 3PAR and VVOLs in the white paper –  Implementing VMware Virtual Volumes on HP 3PAR StoreServ