storeserv management console – Page 2

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.

CPG Actions

Compact CPG is now available from within the console.

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.

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.

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.

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

Tunesys is back!

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.

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.

Excel Client

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

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.

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.

Last week at HP Discover HP announced the successor to the current 3Par Management Console as the StoreServ Management Console (SSMC). The SSMC is a from the ground up redesign, and as the admin console is somewhere sysadmins will be spending a good amount of their time I wanted to take a look at it today with some screenshots.

Login Screen

The SSMC is accessed via a web browser, the above screen show the new login screen, straight away you see this is a much more modern and fresh look compared to the 3Par Management Console.

Once logged in you will arrive at the dashboard screen. The purpose of this screen is to give you a high level view of the status and health of your complete environment. Up to 16 3Par StoreServ systems can be connected to a single instance of SSMC.

Dashboard

The look of the console is to be kept common across HP systems including One View for consistency. I went to look at the MoonShot system at HP Discover and noticed this was also using the same style of interface.

Working from the top left of the dashboard you first see the number of 3Par systems connected to your SSMC and their status. Next to the right you see the performance status of the connected systems and then all the other donuts are related to capacity. To create thresholds for alerts relating to performance the new CLI command createsralertcrit must be used.

The status of an item is indicated using a colour coding system:

Green – no alerts
Yellow – there is an alert that should be investigated further
Red – immediate action is required

You can click on any item to drill down further, so for example if you clicked on the storage systems area like shown below you would be taken to the systems view where you can see each system individually. Clicking on a particular segment will just take you to those systems with that status, so for example if you clicked on the green portion of the donut in the below screenshot you would be taken to those systems with a healthy status.

Mega Menu

To navigate from the dashboard and indeed between any screen you use the modestly titled Mega Menu

To give you a feel for what’s on the Mega Menu see the close up screenshot below. You will notice the file persona menu will appear when it’s licenced. Although not all the feature’s of management are in the SSMC, in the longer term the SSMC will be a single stop shop for the management of all features for block, file and object storage. In the short term the 3Par management console will need to be used for functionality such as configuring AO which has not yet been migrated to the SSMC.

Search

Another way to navigate around the system is by using the new global search function. For example the screenshot below shows that by typing create into the search box you are presented with all the available create options such as create host, create CPG etc.

The search option can also be used to find any item in the StoreServ’s inventory, for example below a user has started to type Win and is being shown all the items that begin with Win. The search function also remembers previous searches

Map View

To help to see how items correlate together there is now a map view, the idea is very similar to the map view found in VSphere. The below screen shot shows a map of how the physical components of a system fit together.

Maps can also be used to map the relationship between logical components such as CPG to VV association.

Reporting

System Reporter becomes integrated with 3Par OS 3.1.2 and is on node without the need for an external database. To accommodate the System Reporter data the 3Par system creates a VV sized according to the model

If you do not have a System Reporter licence only real time data can be displayed.

Below shows an example of a capacity reporting screen

Below shows one of the available performance reports, you can zoom into a chart to change the sample time for example from daily to hourly.

Availability and Support

The SSMC will be available from mid December and will be available for download from the Software Depot. Access can be from a Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer browser, mobile devices that support Chrome are supported.

The SSMC can be used to manage the seven and ten thousand series. The 3Par will need to be on 3Par OS 3.1.3 or later.

More Information

UPDATE – Since this post was published SSMC 2.1 has been launched, check out this post which details all the new features. If you want to learn more about SSMC take a look at my beginners guide to SSMC series. To stay in touch with more 3PAR news and tips connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

You can read more information about the announcements from HP Discover here: Part1 and Part2

Plus more information on the SSMC from the following sources:

Blog post from Craig Kilborn

SSMC White Paper

ShortTake 23: 3PAR StoreServ Management Console

Tag: storeserv management console

SSMC 2.1 – Whats New?