Front cover
Automated Storage Provisioning for
Windows using TotalStorage
Productivity Center and
Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Learn how TPC and TPM provide a
provisioning solution
Understand storage provisioning
Implement automated
storage provisioning
Steve Strutt
ibm.com/redbooks
Redpaper
International Technical Support Organization
Automated Storage Provisioning for Windows using
TotalStorage Productivity Center and
Tivoli Provisioning Manager
April 2007
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page v.
First Edition (April 2007)
This edition applies to Version 3, Release 1 of IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center (product number
5608-VC1) and IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V3.1 (product number 5608-TPM).
This document was created or updated on April 25, 2007.
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
The team that wrote this Redpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Chapter 1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1 Automated storage provisioning with Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1 Storage provisioning for Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2 Storage provisioning and IT Service Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3 Integration with server and application provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
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2
7
7
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Installation and configuration overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Installing TotalStorage Productivity Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.1 TPC 3.1 Installation and setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 Installation of TPC agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Tivoli Provisioning Manager installation and configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1 Installation and configuration overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.2 Install TPC V3.1 device driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.3 Install Windows NTFS file system device driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.4 Install Windows NTFS volume mapping device driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 Host configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.1 Install multipathing device drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Storage provisioning configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5.1 TPM data center model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5.2 TPC configuration and initialization workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5.3 Running the TPC_Configure workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5.4 Running the TPC_Initialize workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5.5 Configuring Windows hosts in TPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.5.6 Configuring host access for TPM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.6 Storage Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.6.1 Creating a new storage template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.7 Configuring the volume selection policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1 End-to-end provisioning workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.1 Add Storage Volume to Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.2 Remove Storage Volume from Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.3 Add Storage To Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.4 Remove Storage From Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Performing storage provisioning operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.1 Using Add Storage To Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.2 Using Add Storage Volume To Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.3 Using Remove Storage From Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.4 Using Remove Storage Volume From Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Automated file system extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
41
42
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42
42
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43
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45
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45
iii
3.3.1 Configuring file system extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.3.2 Using file system extension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.4 Using TPC and end-to-end workflows with TPM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Other publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
How to get IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
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Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
iv
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Notices
This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.
IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult
your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area.
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writing, to:
IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A.
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PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR
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Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published
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accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the
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This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them
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All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business
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COPYRIGHT LICENSE:
This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming
techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in
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programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the sample
programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore,
cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
v
Trademarks
The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both:
BladeCenter®
DS4000™
DS6000™
DS8000™
IBM®
Redbooks®
Redbooks (logo)
Tivoli®
TotalStorage®
z/OS®
®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States,
other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
vi
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Preface
The provisioning of SAN attached storage capacity to a server can be a time consuming and
cumbersome process. The task requires skilled storage administrators, and the complexity of
the task can restrict an IT department's ability to respond quickly to requests to provision new
capacity. However, there is a solution to this through automation.
This Redpaper looks at how an automated storage provisioning solution can be realized for a
Windows® environment using IBM® TotalStorage® Productivity Center 3.1 (TPC) and IBM
Tivoli® Provisioning Manager 3.1 (TPM). Together with provisioning workflows, these two
products provide a complete solution to the automated end-to-end provisioning of usable
storage capacity on the Windows Platform.
As implemented for the Windows platform, this Redpaper describes the solution for the
automated provisioning of SAN attached storage capacity on the IBM storage devices
supported by IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center 3.1.
The team that wrote this Redpaper
This Redpaper was produced by a specialist from the United Kingdom working with the
International Technical Support Organization, San Jose Center.
Steve Strutt is a Certified IT Specialist in the UK, working as a Systems Architect in STG. He
holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering and has over 18 years of experience of
IBM storage and storage management tools from z/OS® to Open Systems storage. He has
written extensively on the subjects of storage management and integration with enterprise
systems management and automation tools.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Mary Lovelace, Yvonne Lyon
International Technical Support Organization, San Jose Center
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vii
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viii
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
1
Chapter 1.
Introduction
In this Redpaper we look at automation of the end-to-end storage provisioning process
through the use of workflow automation for a Microsoft® Windows environment using IBM
TotalStorage Productivity Center V3.1 and IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V3.1.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
1
1.1 Automated storage provisioning with Microsoft Windows
The provisioning of SAN attached storage capacity to a server can be a time consuming and
cumbersome process. The task requires skilled storage administrators, and the complexity of
the task can restrict an IT department's ability to respond quickly to requests to provision new
capacity. However, there is a solution to this through automation.
End-to-end storage provisioning is the term applied to the whole set of steps required to
provision usable storage capacity to a server. It covers the configuration of all the elements in
the chain from carving out a new volume on a storage subsystem, through creating a file
system at the host and making it available to the users.
Typically, this involves a storage administrator using several different tools each focused on
the specific task at hand, or the tasks are spread across several people. This spread of tasks
and tools creates many inefficiencies in the provisioning process, which impacts the ability of
IT departments to respond quickly to changing business demands. The resulting complexity
and high degree of coordination required can also lead to errors and possibly impact systems
and application availability.
Automation of the end-to-end storage provisioning process through the use of workflow
automation can significantly simplify this task of provisioning storage capacity. Each
individual step is automated and best practice rules around zoning, device configuration and
path selection can be applied automatically. The benefits are increased responsiveness to
business requirements, lower administration costs and higher application availability.
1.1.1 Storage provisioning for Microsoft Windows
This paper looks at how an automated storage provisioning solution embodying such
capabilities can be realized for a Microsoft Windows environment using IBM TotalStorage
Productivity Center V3.1 (TPC) and IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager V3.1 (TPM). Together
with provisioning workflows, these two products provide a complete solution to the automated
end-to-end provisioning of usable storage capacity on the Windows platform.
As implemented for the Microsoft Windows platform, this paper describes the solution for the
automated provisioning of SAN attached storage capacity on the IBM storage devices
supported by IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center 3.1, DS4000™, DS6000™, DS8000™,
SAN Volume Controller (SVC), Enterprise Storage System (ESS), and IBM Tivoli Provisioning
Manager (TPM). The components of the overall solution are shown in Figure 1-1.
2
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 1-1 IBM automated storage provisioning environment for Windows
There are four principal components of the solution:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
Tivoli Provisioning Manager V3.1
TotalStorage Productivity Center V3.1
TotalStorage Productivity Center workflows
Windows NTFS provisioning workflows
Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) provides an environment in which IT tasks can be
automated, such as the provisioning and configuring of servers, operating systems,
middleware, applications, storage and network devices. TotalStorage Productivity Center
provides heterogeneous device, fabric and data management, and reporting capabilities.
Through its workflows, TotalStorage Productivity Center can be invoked by TPM to perform
configuration of storage subsystems and SAN switches. Finally, the Windows NTFS
provisioning workflows direct TPM to perform the end-to-end storage provisioning process.
Automated provisioning of NTFS file systems
The provisioning of SAN attached storage to servers and the automated creation of volumes
and file systems involve a significant number of labor intensive steps. The following list
illustrates the tasks that an administrator might have to perform to add additional storage on
the Windows platform:
򐂰 Add a volume (Storage Subsystem):
–
–
–
–
–
–
Select storage subsystem
Select or create new volume
Select host HBA ports (WWNs)
Select subsystem controller ports (WWNs)
Map volume to controller ports
Map volume to host HBA ports
򐂰 Set paths (SAN fabric switches):
–
–
–
–
–
Determine if multiple paths are required
Create or update zones
Get active zone set
Add zone to zone set
Activate Zone set
Chapter 1. Introduction
3
򐂰 Map the HBA LUNs to the operating system and file system (Host server):
– Rediscover attached LUNs
– Configure multipathing drivers
– Map LUNs to OS devices
򐂰 Create volume and file system (Host server):
– Create Windows volume
– Create or extend NTFS file system
These steps can be automated through workflows that enable the application of best practice
to the configuration of SAN attached storage and significantly reduce the time and effort to
provision SAN storage. The Windows NTFS provisioning workflows implement these tasks to
provision SAN attached storage. Where required, they invoke TotalStorage Productivity
Center functions and interact with the host to perform operating system device rediscovery,
configuration, and volume manager and file system configuration.
The overall provisioning flow is shown in Figure 1-2, in which the color coding and numbering
of the steps show which components perform the various operations.
Figure 1-2 Provisioning steps and process flow
TPM has overall control of the storage provisioning operations, while configuration of the
storage devices is performed by TPC. Steps 7 through 11 are performed by TPM directly
interacting with the host. Workflow support is provided in TPC V3.1 for configuration of
heterogeneous storage on any storage device that is compliant with Storage Management
Interface - Specification (SMI-S) 1.02. or 1.1. For a list of compliant devices, see:
http://www.snia.org/ctp
However, in this storage provisioning workflow implementation, only IBM storage devices are
supported.
4
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
This provisioning workflow implementation enables the automated discovery and
configuration of IBM storage on the Windows platform through support for the automated
configuration of the IBM Subsystem Device Driver (DS6000, DS8000, ESS, and SVC) and
RDAC (DS4000) multipathing drivers. The workflows can be extended to support the
non-IBM storage devices supported by TPC by incorporating support for configuration of the
relevant vendors' multipathing device drivers.
These Windows NTFS workflows directly implement best practice within the workflows,
eliminating the necessity to closely define provisioning parameters. The ports, LUNs, and
zones to be used are automatically determined by the workflows and TPC, using information
from TPC and TPM to make intelligent decisions. This intelligence and best practice also
delivers a significant part of the value of storage provisioning automation as administrators
are relieved of the necessity to determine appropriate choices. This reduces skill
requirements and improves availability, because errors and mistakes can be eliminated.
In addition to implementing the provisioning of new storage and file systems to servers,
automated file system extension is also supported. The addition of more storage capacity to a
server can be automated to occur on demand as the free space in a file system is consumed.
This capability can improve application and server availability because out of space
conditions can be avoided without administrator involvement.
Solution architecture
The solution architecture with control and data flows is shown in Figure 1-3.
Tivoli
Provisioning
Manager
DCM
Configuration
Discovery
Tivoli Common
Agent
Fabric
Discovery
TotalStorage
Productivity
Center
Discovery/
Configuration
SAN
SAN
SAN
switches
DB
Discovery/
Configuration
Disk Array
Figure 1-3 TPC and TPM component architecture
TPC provides discovery of the storage, fabric and hosts within the storage environment and
configuration of the storage devices and SAN fabrics. Storage device discovery and
configuration is performed via device Common Information Model (CIM) interfaces using
SMI-S. SAN fabric discovery and configuration is performed by industry standards based
interfaces including ANSI FC-GS-3, IETF SNMP MIBs and vendor APIs.
Chapter 1. Introduction
5
Discovery of host information such as Host Bus Adapter (HBA) World Wide Names (WWNs)
and server host names is done through the Fabric agent of TPC.
TPC Web services APIs enable TPM to perform storage subsystem device configuration and
SAN fabric configuration capabilities through a device independent interface. These APIs are
invoked via the TPC workflows to provide the ability to create and delete storage volumes,
perform LUN masking and mapping, and do the fabric zoning operations. In addition, TPC
discovered information about SAN attached hosts, storage devices, SAN fabrics, and
connectivity is populated into the TPM Data Center Model (DCM) of the environment. The
information from TPC is used by TPM to determine what storage is available to be
provisioned, SAN fabric connectivity of hosts and devices, and optimal port mapping and
zone configuration.
In this implementation, host configuration is performed by TPM using Tivoli Remote Execute
and Access (RXA) to provide secure command line access to the client system. The host
volume and file system configuration tasks are performed by TPM via the host command line
using RXA.
Provisioning storage
Provisioning storage and file systems using TPC and TPM is as simple as selecting a host,
selecting a storage template, and clicking OK. An example of initiating the provisioning of
storage and a file system is shown in Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-4 Adding storage to a host in Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Storage templates define the storage device, type, and amount of storage to be configured
along with the details of the host volume and file system to be configured. The provisioning
workflows use the templates as input and apply best practices to zoning and port selection to
configure data paths between the server and the storage subsystem. This paper describes an
implementation for Microsoft Windows, where creation of volumes and NTFS file systems is
supported, though other host platforms and file systems can be accommodated by the
templates. Figure 1-5 shows a storage template for creating an NTFS volume on a host.
Figure 1-5 Storage template for multiple volumes and file systems
6
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Using information from the template about the type and amount of storage required and about
the storage environment from TPC, TPM selects the (RAID) array on a storage device with
the required characteristics and determines an optimal configuration for the data paths from
the host to the device. A storage volume is created and mapped to the host using the TPC
APIs. TPM performs configuration of the host multipathing driver, IBM Subsystem Device
Driver (SDD) or RDAC depending on the storage being assigned and maps the volume to its
operating system device name. Once the volume has been discovered on the host and
mapped, the required Windows volume and NTFS file system is created.
Workflow automation can reduce provisioning time from hours down to minutes and
significantly simplifies the task of provisioning new storage capacity. As a consequence of the
automation and built in best practice, provisioning tasks can be devolved to less skilled
administrators, freeing up highly skilled personnel.
Implementation and usage
In this paper we look at how this solution can be implemented and used. We assume that you
are already familiar with both TPC and TPM and the process of provisioning SAN storage.
You can find further information on the background to automated storage provisioning using
TPC and TPM in the Redpaper, Introduction to Storage Provisioning with Tivoli Provisioning
Manager and TotalStorage Productivity Center, REDP-3900. This Redpaper explains much
of the TPM and storage provisioning terminology used in this paper and is recommended
reading. It is available from the IBM Redbooks Web site at:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com
We assume that you know how to install and configure both products separately. The
Redpaper refers to existing documentation on both products that explains how to install and
configure them.
The next section of this paper falls naturally into two parts. The first part covers the
configuration and setup of the automation solution, and the second part explains how TPC
and TPM are used to perform end-to-end storage provisioning.
1.1.2 Storage provisioning and IT Service Management
Automated provisioning of storage and file systems is an integral component of the IBM IT
Service Management initiative, focusing on the effective and efficient delivery of IT services to
the client. Through the framework of ITSM, requests for storage capacity are managed,
authorized, tracked, and put into action. Requests for additional capacity are passed to TPM
to perform the required storage provisioning operations.
1.1.3 Integration with server and application provisioning
Automated storage provisioning has a value wider than automating storage operations.
Reduction of the time and effort involved in delivering new applications through automated
server and application provisioning is a growing requirement in many IT environments.
Additionally, many of these applications require SAN attached storage to meet their
requirement for data storage capacity. The described storage provisioning solution can be
easily integrated into a wider Tivoli Provisioning Manager solution for application and server
provisioning to meet this requirement.
Chapter 1. Introduction
7
An application's storage requirements can be defined in TPM by linking an application profile
to server and storage profiles. When provisioning the application, if storage profiles are
associated with the application and servers, TPM invokes the necessary storage provisioning
workflows to configure the required storage. An example of a fully automated application and
server provisioning environment using IBM BladeCenter® and IBM TotalStorage is shown in
Figure 1-6.
Figure 1-6 Application and server provisioning with IBM BladeCenter and IBM TotalStorage
This figure shows a solution for a fully automated application and server provisioning
environment using IBM TotalStorage and IBM BladeCenter. Server operating system
deployment in this environment is automated through IBM Director, and the provisioning of
SAN attached storage is automated through TPC. In this integrated environment the blades
can be configured for boot-on-SAN with storage provided on the IBM storage devices.
TPM controls the overall provisioning process, provisioning blades, storage, configuring
boot-on-SAN, installing operating systems, and deploying and configuring the application in a
completely automated fashion.
8
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
2
Chapter 2.
Implementing automated storage
provisioning
The implementation guidance we provide in this chapter relates to setup and configuration of
automated end-to-end storage provisioning on Microsoft Windows 2003, using TotalStorage
Productivity Center V3.1 (TPC) and Tivoli Provisioning Manager V3.1 (TPM). This solution is
written to support all the IBM storage devices, DS4000, SVC, ESS, DS6000, and DS8000.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
9
2.1 Installation and configuration overview
Any licensed component of TPC V3.1 can be used in the automation solution, Disk, Fabric, or
Data, as long as sufficient SAN storage capacity is licensed for TPC management. It is not
necessary to have TPC for Disk or TPC for Fabric licenses, only that the licensed entitlement
of TPC Limited Edition that comes with any of the three licensed TPC components (Disk,
Fabric or Data) is installed to configure storage hardware and SAN fabric. The following list
outlines the steps that must be performed to install and configure end-to-end storage
provisioning with TPC and TPM for the Windows platform:
򐂰 TPC V3.1.2 installed and configured to manage SAN switches and storage subsystems
򐂰 Fabric agents and optionally Data agents deployed to all hosts requiring storage
provisioning
򐂰 TPM V3.1.3 installed and configured (FP3)
򐂰 TPC V3.1 device driver installed and configured
򐂰 Windows NTFS device driver installed
򐂰 Windows NTFS OS device driver installed
򐂰 SDD or RDAC installed on Windows servers
򐂰 TPC storage configuration and initialization workflows executed
򐂰 NTFS Storage Manager defined in TPM for each Windows server
򐂰 Windows OS definition created in TPM for each Windows server
򐂰 RXA Service Access Point configured in TPM for each Windows server
򐂰 Creation of storage templates
2.2 Installing TotalStorage Productivity Center
The steps to install TPC are done as with any typical TPC installation. We recommend that
prior to configuring end-to-end provisioning with TPM, you should verify that both disk and
fabric configuration can be performed using the TPC user interface, all Fabric agents are
installed on hosts and subsystems, and fabrics have been discovered.
2.2.1 TPC 3.1 Installation and setup
The following tasks are required to configure TPC:
򐂰 Install TPC 3.1.2 Data and Device Server according to installation manuals.
򐂰 Configure SMI-S interfaces for all subsystems on which storage is to be automatically
provisioned.
򐂰 Configure SAN switches for Fabric and zone management.
򐂰 Deploy Fabric agents and optionally Data agents to all hosts requiring storage
provisioning.
򐂰 Run out-of-band discovery to discover SAN fabrics.
򐂰 Run Probes on all SAN fabrics and storage subsystems.
򐂰 Validate that SAN fabrics have been discovered.
򐂰 Validate that volumes can be manually created and assigned from the TPC Disk Manager
configuration dialogs.
򐂰 Validate that SAN zones can be manually created and deleted from the TPC Fabric
Manager configuration dialogs.
10
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
2.2.2 Installation of TPC agents
The TPC for Fabric agent is required on all client systems requiring storage provisioning, in
order to determine the host’s HBA WWNs and hence fabric connectivity. Installation of the
TPC for Data agent is not required, but is desirable to enable monitoring and reporting on
capacity utilization and asset reporting of attached storage. It is also required if automated
extension of file systems is required.
With TPC V3.1, the Data agent can retrieve a host’s WWNs, though this information by itself
is insufficient to configure TPM to enable end-to-end provisioning. The fabric agent must be
installed on each host for which you plan to perform automated storage provisioning.
2.3 Tivoli Provisioning Manager installation and configuration
The steps to install TPM are to be done as with any standard installation, with the exception
that the Tivoli Agent Manager installation is not required.
The Windows storage provisioning workflows consist of two TPM device drivers,
WindowsNTFS.tcdriver and WindowsNTFS_OS.tcdriver:
򐂰 The first device driver is called the Windows NTFS File System device driver and is shown
in the TPM dialogs using this name. It contains the end-to-end provisioning workflows and
the NTFS file system creation workflows.
򐂰 The second device driver is called the Windows NTFS volume mapping device driver and
contains the workflows to discovery newly assigned LUNs on Windows and map these to
their Windows OS device names.
2.3.1 Installation and configuration overview
The steps to install and configure TPM are as follows:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
Install TPM 3.1 as described in the installation manuals.
Install TPM Fix pack 3.
Install IBM-TPC.tcdriver.
Install WindowsNTFS.tcdriver.
Install WindowsNTFS_OS.tcdriver.
The Windows NTFS provisioning workflows have been tested using TPM installed on the
Windows platform. However, any TPM server platform should be appropriate.
When TPM is installed, do not select the option to install the Tivoli Agent Manager. An Agent
Manager is required in the environment for the TPC installation; however, it is not required for
TPM in this solution as implemented.
The TPC storage provisioning workflow support for TPM should be installed and configured
according to the TPC instructions. These can be found in the manual, IBM TotalStorage
Productivity Center 3.1 Workflow Users Guide, SC32-0101.
In this revision of the end-to-end workflows, the Tivoli Remote Execution and Access (RXA)
capability is used to perform host configuration tasks on the Windows hosts being
provisioned. This requires that Windows administrative shares are not disabled and that
Remote Registry configuration is allowed. Future revisions of these workflows might support
usage of the Tivoli Common Agent (TCA). This would simplify installation and setup by using
a single agent infrastructure based on the Tivoli Common Agent by both TPC and TPM.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
11
2.3.2 Install TPC V3.1 device driver
As described in the TPC V3.1 Workflow Users Guide, install the TPC V3.1 storage
provisioning workflows. Here we summarize the overall steps required:
1. Download TPC 3.1 device driver, IBM-TPC.tcdriver, from the IBM Tivoli Open Process
Automation Library (OPAL) Web site at:
http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/tpm/
2. Copy it to %TIO_HOME%/drivers directory on the TPM server. Then execute the following
command from the %TIO_HOME%//tools directory to install the driver:
tc-driver-manager InstallDriver IBM-TPC
Example 2-1 shows the output from this command.
Example 2-1 Output from command to install the driver
C:\Program Files\ibm\tivoli\thinkcontrol\tools>tc-driver-manager InstallDriver I
BM-TPC
2006-01-30 19:33:56,453 INFO COPTDM001I TCDrivermanager was started.
2006-01-30 19:33:56,906 INFO COPTDM004I Config directory: "file:C:\Program File
s\IBM\tivoli\thinkcontrol\config/".
2006-01-30 19:33:56,922 INFO COPTDM004I Config directory: "file:C:\Program File
s\IBM\tivoli\thinkcontrol\config/".
2006-01-30 19:33:56,969 INFO COPTDM002I Driver directory: "Driver directory: "C
:\Program Files\IBM\tivoli\thinkcontrol/drivers/".".
2006-01-30 19:33:56,984 INFO COPTDM003I Installing driver "IBM-TPC", force:
"false", installItems: "true".
…….
2006-01-30 19:34:47,656 INFO COPTDM016I Creating the dcm object properties temp
late for Device Model "TPC StoragePool".
2006-01-30 19:34:47,672 INFO COPTDM017I Associating workflow "TPC_SP_CreateStor
ageVolume" with Device Model "TPC StoragePool".
2006-01-30 19:34:47,672 INFO COPTDM017I Associating workflow "TPC_SP_GetStorage
Volumes" with Device Model "TPC StoragePool".
2006-01-30 19:34:47,688 INFO COPTDM017I Associating workflow "TPC_SP_RemoveStor
ageVolume" with Device Model "TPC StoragePool".
2006-01-30 19:34:47,781 INFO COPTDM005I TCDrivermanager was stopped.
Successfully installed:
IBM-TPC
C:\Program Files\ibm\tivoli\thinkcontrol\tools>
2.3.3 Install Windows NTFS file system device driver
Proceed as follows:
1. Download WindowsNTFS.tcdriver device driver from OPAL and copy to the
%TIO_HOME%/drivers directory on the TPM server.
2. Execute the following command from the %TIO_HOME%//tools directory to install the
driver:
tc-driver-manager InstallDriver WindowsNTFS
12
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
2.3.4 Install Windows NTFS volume mapping device driver
This driver has a dependency on the IBM-TPC device driver which must be installed first.
Proceed as follows:
1. Download the WindowsNTFS_OS.tcdriver device driver and copy to
%TIO_HOME%/drivers directory on the TPM server.
2. Then execute the following command from the %TIO_HOME%//tools directory to install
the driver.
tc-driver-manager InstallDriver WindowsNTFS_OS
3. After installing all the device drivers, restart Tivoli Provisioning Manager. If TPM is installed
on Windows, we recommend that you restart the Windows server.
2.4 Host configuration
In addition to the TPC agents, the SDD and RDAC multipathing drivers must be installed on
the Windows hosts. Multipath driver installation can be automated using TPM’s software
provisioning capabilities if required. However, this is not covered in this paper.
2.4.1 Install multipathing device drivers
Prior to performing automated storage provisioning with IBM TotalStorage devices, the
requisite multipathing device drivers must be installed on the Windows servers.
For the IBM TotalStorage DS6000, DS8000, ESS, and SAN Volume Controller (SVC), the
Subsystem Device Driver (SDD) is the only supported device driver. The provisioning
workflows use the datapath query commands and expect the driver to be installed in the
default path:
C:/Program Files/IBM/Subsystem Device Driver
For the IBM TotalStorage DS4000 range of storage devices, the RDAC device driver must be
installed as well as the DS4000 Storage Manager utilities package, SMutils. The provisioning
workflows use the SMdevices command and expect the driver to be installed in the default
path:
C:/Program Files/IBM_DS4000
After initial setup, we recommend that you exercise the hot_add utility to verify that, in the
installed environment, it dynamically discovers newly assigned DS4000 LUNs on a Windows
host.
2.5 Storage provisioning configuration
After installing TPC, TPM, and the TPC and Windows NTFS workflows, the storage
provisioning environment within TPM can be configured. The first element of this is
configuring TPM's access to TPC to provide storage discovery and device configuration. The
second element is to set up the TPM model of the storage environment. The model provides
the TPM workflows with the information about the environment they require to make
intelligent decisions about the configuration actions that must be performed. It also provides
information about what configuration capabilities are available to TPM, such as how
commands are to be executed on the remote Windows servers.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
13
2.5.1 TPM data center model
Representing the physical data center environment as a model within TPM enables it to
manage different types of devices from many vendors by abstracting the physical devices,
assets and resources in the data center into generic classes of devices. The resulting data
center model (DCM) contains all the assets and resources of the data center, both physical
and logical, their relationships and state.
TPM defines four different device types for storage which represent the elements of a storage
environment. There are three device types related to the elements of a storage environment
which can be directly configured; SAN fabrics, storage subsystems and host based volume
managers and file systems, in TPM terminology 'Storage Managers'. The fourth device type is
a 'Storage Pool' which provides a logical grouping of storage subsystem volumes. These
logical devices and their relationship to the physical environment are shown in Figure 2-1 on
page 14.
Storage
environment
File system,
Volume Manager
SAN
SAN
SAN Fabric,
SAN switches,
Connectivity
Fibre Adapters
Storage
Logical Devices
Storage
Manager
SAN Fabric
Storage
Subsystem
Storage
Subsystem
Volumes
Storage Pool
Figure 2-1 TPM logical storage devices
In the TPC support for storage provisioning, a storage pool maps to a RAID array in a storage
subsystem, or a Managed Disk Group on the SVC. A subsystems' volumes are therefore
grouped into a number of TPM storage pools with a pool for each array or Managed Disk
Group.
14
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
2.5.2 TPC configuration and initialization workflows
TPC provides two setup workflows to configure the TPM storage provisioning environment,
TPC_Configure and TPC_Initialize:
򐂰 The TPC_Configure workflow enables TPM to securely access TPC using the Web
services API to retrieve storage information and configure storage devices. This provides
TPM with the IP address of the TPC and saves an encrypted copy of the user ID and
password required to securely access TPC functions.
򐂰 The TPC_Initialize workflow populates the TPM DCM with all of TPCs' discovered storage
information relating to storage devices, SAN fabrics, and fabric connected hosts. This
workflow only populates the TPM DCM with information to provision storage volumes and
configure zones. It does not provide all the information required to provision NTFS file
systems. The setup to perform file system configuration has to be performed subsequently
to this step via the TPM user interface.
Detailed documentation on these workflows and their usage can be found in the TotalStorage
Productivity Center 3.1 Workflow User’s Guide, SC32-0101.
2.5.3 Running the TPC_Configure workflow
Four input parameters are required for this workflow:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
IP address or hostname of TPC server
Device Management port of the TPC server, this defaults to 9550
Userid with device and fabric administration rights in TPC
TPC password
This workflow should be executed by the appropriate TPC administrator with the necessary
user rights and access. It is the only time that the TPC userid and password are required.
After successful execution, TPM users can perform storage provisioning actions through TPC
without knowledge of the TPC userid and password. If storage provisioning capabilities
should not be given to all TPM users, TPM role based security can be used to restrict the
actions that administrators can perform.
From the TPM navigation tree, locate the TPC_Configure workflow under the
Configuration → Workflows branch. From the Execute menu, select the Run option to open
the workflow input dialog as shown in Figure 2-2.
Figure 2-2 Running the TPC_Configure workflow
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
15
Enter the four parameters as required for your environment and click Run to execute the
workflow. The Workflow Deployment Requests dialog is displayed showing the current status
as shown in Figure 2-3.
Figure 2-3 Checking the execution status of the TPC_Configure workflow
Initially the workflow Status field shows a state of created — the workflow should complete
quickly. If you click the Refresh button in the top right of the window, the status should change
to success in a few seconds.
Verify that the workflow has completed successfully. Executing this workflow successfully also
validates that TPM can communicate to TPC.
2.5.4 Running the TPC_Initialize workflow
This workflow populates the DCM with all of TPC's discovered storage information relating to
storage devices, SAN fabrics, and servers connected to the SAN. Notice that currently, TPC
populates all TPC discovered computers that have either a Data or Fabric agent, or both
installed. However, only those computers with Fabric agents are populated into the DCM with
SAN connectivity information and only these can be used for automated storage provisioning.
From the TPM navigation tree, locate the TPC_Initialize workflow under the Configuration →
Workflows branch. From the Execute menu, select the Run option to open the workflow input
dialog as shown in Figure 2-4.
16
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 2-4 Running the TPC_Initialize workflow
This workflow requires no input. After completion, select the TPM Inventory → Storage
branch and the navigation tree now shows all the storage subsystems, storage pools, and
SAN fabrics that are known to TPC. A sample view of storage subsystems and pools is
shown in Figure 2-5.
Figure 2-5 Storage Inventory view of storage subsystems
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
17
Figure 2-6 shows discovered servers.
Figure 2-6 Server Inventory view of discovered servers from TPC
Notice that TPC populates hosts into TPM with a server name as known by TPC. Typically
this is the fully qualified host name. This can be seen in Figure 2-6 and differs from the usual
TPM practice of using just the host name to identify a server.
All hosts discovered by TPC with fabric connections are populated in to the TPM DCM, not
just Windows servers. This also includes servers with just TPC Data agents. The definitions
created in TPM for these servers are not usable for storage provisioning because they do not
contain SAN connection information. Either the definitions can be updated manually or the
server definitions can be deleted if not required. The non-Windows servers can be deleted if
desired.
2.5.5 Configuring Windows hosts in TPM
TPC populates all discovered hosts into TPM. Only Windows 2003 hosts with Fabric agents
can be used with end-to-end storage provisioning. Before provisioning can be performed, the
Windows host definitions in TPM must be updated with additional information to enable
successful provisioning. The additional steps that must be completed for each Windows
server are:
򐂰 Define NTFS Storage Manager
򐂰 Create the Windows OS software definition
򐂰 Configure RXA Service Access Point
TPM Storage Manager configuration
When initially populated into TPM, a server has only has its HBA ports and connections
defined. A Storage Manager has to be defined which represents the volume manager and file
system on the server. A server definition as initially discovered by TPC is shown in Figure 2-7.
The only discovered resources are the network adapter and the HBAs.
18
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 2-7 Windows server as populated by TPC
To create the Storage Manager, on the Edit menu, select the Add Storage Manager option,
as shown in Figure 2-8.
Figure 2-8 Edit menu options
The Add Storage Manager dialog is presented, from which the definition of an existing
Storage Manager can be selected from the pull-down list. If no suitable Storage Manager has
been defined previously, enter a name for the new Storage Manager. This name has to
correspond with the Storage Manager name used in the Storage Templates defined later;
typically NTFS is the name used for the Windows platform.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
19
Figure 2-9 shows the pull-down list already populated with a Storage Manager called NTFS,
and this has been selected.
Figure 2-9 Creating an NTFS Storage Manager
Click Save to create the Storage Manager definition. The NTFS Storage Manager has now
been create, and after refreshing the TPM user interface, the new Storage Manager is shown
at the bottom of the screen. Figure 2-10 shows the newly created Storage Manager.
Figure 2-10 Server inventory view with Storage Manager defined
After creating the NTFS Storage Manager, the Windows NTFS File System device driver
must be associated with the Storage Manager. Notice that this only has to be done the first
time an NTFS Storage Manager is created. Subsequently, when a new NTFS Storage
Manager definition is created on a server, TPM remembers the association with the Windows
NTFS device driver and it is not necessary to define this association again.
Select the NTFS Storage Manager by clicking the NTFS Storage Manager hyperlink.
Figure 2-11 shows the detailed inventory view of the new NTFS Storage Manager.
Figure 2-11 NTFS Storage Manager inventory view
20
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
When initially created, no volume containers (corresponding to a volume group), logical
volumes, physical volumes, or file systems are shown in this view. This information is not
currently populated by TPC into the TPM DCM.
Select the Workflows tab to show the assigned device driver. The first time the NTFS
Storage Manager is created for a server, no device driver is shown as assigned. Figure 2-12
shows this initial undefined state.
Figure 2-12 NTFS Storage Manager with no assigned Device Driver
Subsequently, when new NTFS Storage Managers are defined on other Windows hosts, this
step is not necessary. TPM remembers the device driver association from the assignment to
the first NTFS Storage Manager. To perform the assignment, from the Edit menu, select the
Assign Device Driver option as shown in Figure 2-13.
Figure 2-13 Assigning a Device Driver to the NTFS Storage Manager
The Assign Device Driver dialog is presented. In the Device Driver field, scroll down to the
Windows NTFS file system management device driver and select it, as shown in
Figure 2-14. Then click Save.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
21
Figure 2-14 Selecting the Windows NTFS File system management device driver
After saving the selection, the Current Assigned Device Driver is now the Windows NTFS
driver, and WinNTFS workflows are shown assigned to the different Storage Manager Logical
Device Operations. The assigned device driver and workflows are shown in Figure 2-15.
Figure 2-15 Assigned Windows NTFS device driver and workflows
At this point the Storage Manager configuration is complete.
22
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Windows OS software definition
To enable TPM to correctly map presented SAN volumes to Windows device names, the
installed operating system on the server has to be defined to TPM and the Windows NTFS
Volume Mapping device driver associated with the TPM Windows OS definition.
Creating the host OS definition
When a server is populated into TPM by the TPC initialize workflow, TPC does not include the
OS platform type or version or create the associated operating system software records in
TPM. This step has to be performed manually for each Windows host. From the Server
Inventory view, select the Software tab at the top of the screen as shown in Figure 2-16.
Just below this tab you can see that the operating system is currently blank.
Figure 2-16 Server with no operating system definition
Selecting the Software tab shows the servers' software inventory view. Initially, this indicates
that no software packages are recorded as being installed on the server. This is shown in
Figure 2-17.
Figure 2-17 Server software inventory with no software packages defined
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
23
Select the Edit menu, which displays the New software installation dialog. Enter a descriptive
name for the operating system installation in the Name field. In the Software Definition field,
select the appropriate version of Windows OS installed with corresponding Service Pack from
the list of software packages presented by TPM, as shown in Figure 2-18.
Figure 2-18 Selecting the Windows version installed
Figure 2-19 shows the completed software definition. Click Save to create the OS definition
for the server.
Figure 2-19 Completed Windows OS definition
24
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
After saving the software definition, the newly added Windows OS software definition is
shown in the server software inventory view; see Figure 2-20.
Figure 2-20 Windows OS definition in server software inventory view
On the General tab of the server inventory view, the Operating System field is now filled in
with the version of the Windows OS installed. If this is the first time this OS version has been
selected, the requisite workflows for storage provisioning also have to be associated with this
OS definition.
Configuring the Windows OS Volume mapping workflows
For each Windows OS software definition used on servers that perform automated
provisioning, the required Windows NTFS Volume Mapping workflows must be associated
with the Windows software definition.
The two workflows are:
򐂰 Windows_CreateSANPhysicalVolumeIBM
򐂰 Windows_RemovePhysicalVolume
As the TPM Windows OS device driver is already associated with the Windows software
definition, the Windows NTFS Volume Mapping device driver cannot be associated with the
software definition. Consequently the two workflows must be assigned individually.
From the server inventory Software view (see Figure 2-20), click the entry for the Windows
OS definition to link to the software definition record for the Windows OS version just
assigned. Alternatively the OS software definition can be accessed from the TPM Inventory
tree under Software Catalog → Definitions → Operating Systems. The inventory view of
operating system definitions is shown in Figure 2-21.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
25
Figure 2-21 Operating system definitions in TPM
Clicking the entry for the Windows OS definition takes you to the software definition record for
this Windows OS package as shown in Figure 2-22.
Figure 2-22 Software definition for Windows 2003 Service Pack 1
Selecting the Workflows tab shows the currently assigned Device Driver, Windows
Operating System and associated workflows. See Figure 2-23.
Figure 2-23 Default workflows assigned to Windows software definition
26
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Because the Windows Operating System device driver is already assigned, the two
workflows must be assigned separately. From the Edit Menu, select Assign Workflow as
shown in Figure 2-24.
Figure 2-24 Assign workflow to Windows 2003
In the Assign Workflow dialog, in the Logical Operation field, select the entry
OperatingSystem.CreateSANPhysicalVolume as shown in Figure 2-25.
Figure 2-25 Selecting the CreateSANPhysicalVolume LDO
In the Workflow field, you can see a list of all the installed workflows that implement this
Logical Device Operation (LDO). Select the Windows_CreateSANPhysicalVolumeIBM
workflow as shown in Figure 2-26.
Figure 2-26 Selecting the Windows_CreateSANPhysicalVolumeIBM workflow
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
27
The workflow that implements the OperatingSystem.RemovePhysicalVolume LDO must also
be assigned. This is shown in Figure 2-27. Select the Windows_RemovePhysicalVolume
workflow.
Figure 2-27 Selecting the 'Windows_RemovePhysicalVolume' workflow
When completed, all the workflows should be as shown in Figure 2-28.
Figure 2-28 Windows OS software definition with storage workflows assigned
2.5.6 Configuring host access for TPM
In this end-to-end workflow implementation, the Tivoli Remote Execution and Access (RXA)
capability is used to perform host configuration tasks on the Windows hosts being
provisioned. The final step in host setup is configuration of RXA to enable TPM to execute
commands remotely on the Windows server. This is used to map the volumes to the Windows
OS and create the NTFS file system.
The RXA Service Access Point (abbreviated as SAP throughout this paper) can be set up
using the TPM user interface, though to minimize the possibility of mistakes and keep the
setup simple, the existing RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow is used here.
From the TPM menu tree select Configuration → Workflows or use the Find field above the
navigation tree to locate the RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow as shown in Figure 2-29.
28
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 2-29 Locating the RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow
Before the RXA SAP can be defined, the DCM ID of the server definition in the TPM DCM has
to be determined. One way of doing this is via the TPM navigation tree. Open the
Inventory → Servers → Resource Pools branch of the tree and navigate down to the
desired server. Hovering the mouse over the entry for the Windows server being configured
reveals the servers DCM ID as shown in Figure 2-30.
Figure 2-30 Determining a servers DCM ID
In this case the server tpc01 has a DCM ID of 2467. Keep a record of this value. Select the
Execute menu option and then click Run to execute the RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow as
shown in Figure 2-31.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
29
Figure 2-31 Executing the RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow
The input parameter dialog is then shown for the create RXA SAP workflow, in this is entered
the DCM ID of the server for which the Service Access Point (SAP) is being configured
(previously recorded) and the userid and password of a Windows administrator with rights to
access the admin C$ share. Additionally the Remote Registry Service must be enabled and
running on the Windows server. The completed input dialog is shown in Figure 2-32.
Figure 2-32 Input dialog for RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow
Click Run to execute the workflow. Upon successful execution, the RXA SAP should have
been defined for the specified Windows server. On the server inventory Credentials tab, the
RXA SAP defined for server tpc01 is shown in Figure 2-33.
Figure 2-33 RXA SAP definition for server tpc01
2.6 Storage Templates
Storage Templates provide the guidance to the workflows to provision storage capacity. When
a template has been defined, it can be repeatedly used to provision storage to any server.
This reuse capability avoids the requirement to create multiple templates; only a small
number are typically required to meet all the provisioning requirements of an IT department.
A Storage Template is made up of a number of sub-templates called Settings that determine
all aspects of the storage provisioned to a server:
򐂰 Volume Container Settings
30
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
Logical Volume Settings
Physical Volume Settings
Disk Partition Settings
Data path Settings
A storage template can be made up of multiple groups of Settings to specify the creation of
several volumes and file systems at the same time.
2.6.1 Creating a new storage template
Storage Templates can be created in two ways, from the Tasks menu tree under the Storage
Management branch. An alternative method is shown here, using the Inventory menu tree.
From the TPM navigation tree, select Storage Templates under the Inventory → Storage
branch. This displays the Storage Template inventory view and shows any existing storage
templates, as depicted in Figure 2-34.
Figure 2-34 Storage Template inventory view
To create a new template, select the Edit option and click Add Storage Template as shown
in Figure 2-35.
Figure 2-35 Adding a storage template
In the new template dialog, enter a name for the new storage template. This should be a
descriptive name, to enable an administrator to select the right template by looking at its
name without having to drill down into the details. We recommend a format in which the name
comprises these elements: storage manager, storage subsystem, tier of storage, storage
amount, and file system name. A completed storage template name is shown in Figure 2-36.
Figure 2-36 Defining a storage template name
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
31
After you click Save, the display should be refreshed and show the newly created template
(refer to Figure 2-37). The next step is to define the various storage attributes or settings.
Figure 2-37 Inventory view showing newly created template
Click the newly created templates' name to open the template detailed inventory view.
Currently no attributes are defined. The first attribute that must be created is the Volume
Container Settings. Select the Edit option and click Add Volume Container Settings. This is
shown in Figure 2-38.
Figure 2-38 Selecting the Add Volume Container dialog
In the New Volume Container Settings dialog, specify a descriptive name for the volume
container. The Volume Container construct on the Windows platform purely serves to group
all the Windows volumes together and associate this group of volumes with a specific
Storage Manager. The specification of the Storage Manager in the Volume Container
Settings enables TPM to determine which templates are applicable to which Storage
Managers and hence which servers. Other attributes of the template are Storage Manager
specific, and this check enables TPM to avoid failures caused by selecting a template for a
different storage manager with different attributes.
Figure 2-39 shows a completed New Volume Container Settings dialog with the name NTFS
and the NTFS Storage Manager selected. We recommend that the name NTFS be used for
all Volume Container definitions on Windows for NTFS volumes.
Figure 2-39 New Volume Container Settings dialog
Click Save to create the new settings. Figure 2-40 shows the created Volume Container
Settings. No Logical or Physical Volume settings exist at this point. Click the action button on
the Volume Container Settings and select Add Logical Volume Settings.
32
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 2-40 Selecting Add Logical Volume Settings
Figure 2-41 shows the New Logical Volume Settings dialog, where the parameters required to
create the Windows volume are specified.
Figure 2-41 New Logical Volume Settings dialog
Set the New Logical Volume Settings as follows:
򐂰 The Name field specifies the volume label to be assigned to the volume created in
Windows.
򐂰 The Logical Volume Type specifies the type of Windows volume to be created, in this
version of the Windows NTFS workflows only Dynamic volumes are supported. Specify
Simple to create a simple dynamic volume.
򐂰 Specify an appropriate value for Consumable Size. However, when a dynamic volume is
created, its size gets set to the size of the underlying subsystem storage volume. This can
be greater than the requested size if an existing storage volume of greater capacity is used
to satisfy a request for a volume rather than creating a new volume of the requested size.
򐂰 Function Type is an unused field and must be set to the value Generic.
򐂰 Additionally, RAID Level is not a required field for a Simple Dynamic volume and to avoid
confusion is set to UNKNOWN.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
33
Click Save to create the Logical Volume Settings. The next step is to create File System
Settings for this logical volume. Select Add File System Settings as shown in Figure 2-42.
Figure 2-42 Selecting Add File System Settings
The new file systems dialog is used to specify the type of file system to be created and its
name. For a Windows NTFS file system, this is the Windows drive letter to be assigned and
the file system type NTFS. This dialog is shown in Figure 2-43.
Figure 2-43 New File System Settings dialog
The Name field specifies the drive letter to be assigned to the volume created in Windows.
Notice that when the AddStorageToHost workflow is executed, the workflow fails the request if
TPM knows that this driver letter is already in use. The File System Type specifies the type of
Windows file system to be created; in this version of the Windows NTFS workflows only NTFS
file systems are supported. You should specify an appropriate value for Consumable Size. For
a file system, when the file system is created, this value is set to the size of the logical (NTFS)
volume the file system is created on.
Click Save to create the File System Settings. The next step is to create Physical Volume
Settings. Two types of physical volumes can be specified:
򐂰 A volume on a disk internal to the server, a DASD volume
򐂰 A volume on SAN attached external disk, a SAN volume
Select Add SAN Physical Volume Settings as shown in Figure 2-44 to specify a SAN
volume.
Figure 2-44 Selecting Add SAN Physical Volume Settings
34
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
The New SAN Physical Volume Settings dialog specifies all the parameters required to create
a new volume on a storage subsystem or select an existing storage volume from a Storage
Pool. Figure 2-45 shows a completed dialog.
Figure 2-45 New SAN Physical Volume Settings dialog
The Name field must be specified, though this name is not used. To avoid workflow failures
due to duplicate volume names, the workflow implementation automatically creates a unique
volume name based in the host name of the host to which the volume will be assigned.
Specify an appropriate value for Consumable Size; this must be suffixed with the appropriate
Units identifier, M for megabytes, G for gigabytes and T for terabytes. When TPM is used with
TPC to provide storage subsystem management, the Function Type should be set to Generic.
The Storage Pool/Storage Subsystem and RAID Level fields are closely related. The RAID
Level specifies the minimum RAID level desired for the volume. For volume selection to be
successful, the pool or storage subsystem must have volumes of this RAID level or levels
which provide a higher level of availability. With the TPC support for automated storage
provisioning, a RAID array on a subsystem maps to a single Storage Pool. This
correspondence means that each Storage Pool only contains volumes of a single RAID level.
Consequently, when a storage pool is selected, the corresponding RAID level of this pool
must also be specified.
The correct RAID level of a Storage Pool can be determined from the inventory view of the
pool, using the Variables tab. TPC populates a number of variables, one of which is the RAID
level of the pool. An example for a DS4000 pool is shown in Figure 2-46. The RAID level in
this example is RAID 5.
Figure 2-46 Determining the RAID level of a DS4000 Storage Pool
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
35
Most storage subsystems have arrays and hence storage pools with specific RAID levels.
However, the IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) does not specify the RAID level
of its pools. The SVC is unaware of the RAID level of its pools because these are determined
by the subsystem whose storage the SVC is virtualizing. An example for an SVC pool is
shown in Figure 2-47. When TPC populates the storage subsystem information for an SVC
into TPM, the RAID level is UNKNOWN.
Figure 2-47 Determining the RAID level of an SVC Storage Pool
The Storage Pool/Storage Subsystem field allows a specific Storage Pool to be specified,
from which a new volume can be selected or created. The RAID Level specified must match
the RAID level of the desired pool.
Figure 2-48 shows an example of the available Storage Pools and Storage Subsystems. If a
subsystem is specified, the RAID level specified is used to select a volume from one of the
pools. Pool and volume selection in this case is intelligent and tries to select a pool with the
desired RAID level. If no capacity is available in one of these pools, capacity is selected in a
pool with a higher RAID availability level. Click Save to create the Physical Volume Settings.
Figure 2-48 Storage subsystem and pool selection
After the Physical Volume Settings have been created, they must be associated with the
corresponding Logical Volume Settings created earlier. This allows the logical volume to be
created on a specific physical volume. The association of logical to physical volumes is done
via Disk Partition Settings. Select Add Disk Partition Settings as shown in Figure 2-49 to
specify the Disk Partition information.
36
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 2-49 Selecting Add Disk Partition Settings
The New Disk Partition Settings dialog specifies the selected Physical Volume Settings with
Logical Volume Settings. Figure 2-50 shows a completed dialog.
Figure 2-50 New Disk Partition Settings dialog
The Partition Size is a mandatory field but is unused in the WindowsNTFS implementation.
You must enter a value, but can be set to any value. The Logical Volume Settings field is the
important field, from the pull-down menu, select the corresponding Logical Volume Settings
which have already been defined. Click Save to create the Disk Partition Settings.
The final step is to create the Data Path Settings, which define the logical data path across
the SAN from the host to the storage subsystem. A data path can explicitly define the exact
settings required to create a path from the subsystem to a host for a storage volume. It can
define the LUN numbers to be used, host HBA ports, subsystem ports, SAN zones, and
more.
However, specifying the data path settings with this level of detail makes the path settings and
hence the Storage Template specific to one provisioning operation, for one server. If used in
this fashion, the templates are not reusable. The Windows NTFS workflows implement a
more flexible approach to specifying data paths by implementing best practice directly within
the workflows. The ports, LUNs, and zones to be used are automatically determined by the
workflows and TPC, using information from TPC and TPM to make intelligent decisions.
The only parameters in the data path settings that can be specified are the subsystem ports
and this is optional. If specified they determine the ports to be zoned to the host server and
hence the data paths from the server to the subsystem. Notice that TPC 3.1 does not perform
mapping of volumes and hosts to specific subsystem ports. Volumes are accessible by a
server via all subsystem ports, and zoning limits the number of ports the server can use to
access the subsystem.
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
37
In the current implementation the workflows also support automatic port selection on SVCs
and DS4000s, intelligently selecting the optimum four ports to be used. In this case,
subsystem ports do not have to be specified because the workflows determine the optimum
ports to use based on existing port usage. If the Data Path Settings specify ports, these are
used in preference to the automatic selection. This automation further simplifies the job of the
storage administrator by making it unnecessary to spread the host data paths across all
subsystem ports.
If it is desired to specify the Data Path Settings, or is an ESS, DS6000, or DS8000 where
automatic selection is not supported, select Add Data Path Settings as shown in Figure 2-51
to specify the Data Path information.
Figure 2-51 Selecting Add Data Path Settings
The Data Path Settings enable all the attributes that define the path from the host to the
subsystem to be defined in one dialog. One Data Path Settings must be created for each path
from the host to the subsystem. If paths from a host to four ports on a storage subsystem are
desired, four Data Path Settings must be defined. Figure 2-52 shows the New Data Path
Settings dialog and the first port of a storage subsystem being specified.
Figure 2-52 Data Path Settings dialog
This dialog enables all the attributes to be defined explicitly by the storage administrator. As
discussed previously, a simple workflow implementation requires that each field is populated.
A more comprehensive workflow implementation such as the Windows NTFS workflows
automatically determines the appropriate values for most fields, greatly simplifying the
administrator's task. The implementation of the Windows NTFS workflows automatically
determines all the values apart from, optionally, the subsystem Fibre Adapter Port field.
38
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
For some subsystem types, the workflows are able to automatically determine the fibre ports
to be used and hence they do not have to be specified. This enables the Storage Template to
be used to provision storage to any server because there are no server specific values.
Where the user wants to determine the subsystem fibre ports to be used themselves, they
can be specified as shown in the following figures.
Figure 2-52 on page 38 showed the definition of the first FA port. Figure 2-53 here shows the
definition of a second FA port. The available FA ports can be determined from the Inventory
view of the storage subsystem and should be selected such that they are in different SAN
fabrics.
Figure 2-53 Data Path Settings dialog
Data Path Settings have to be created for each subsystem port through which the host will
access storage volumes on the subsystem. Figure 2-54 shows a completed Storage
Template with two subsystem ports specified. We recommend that four subsystem ports be
selected for optimal availability, and this is considered best practice.
Figure 2-54 Completed storage template to provision a Windows NTFS file system
Chapter 2. Implementing automated storage provisioning
39
2.7 Configuring the volume selection policy
When a new volume is required to satisfy a provisioning request, an existing unused volume
can be selected or a new volume can be created. To influence this selection behavior, a
variable can be defined for each storage subsystem that specifies, for this subsystem,
whether new volumes are created or whether a volume is selected from the existing available
volumes on the subsystem. By default, the policy is to select from available existing volumes.
The choice of whether to get an existing volume or create a new one depends on the
preference of the IT department and also on the type of storage subsystem. For the SVC it is
typically appropriate to create new volumes because the SVC's virtualization capabilities
allow volumes to be created and deleted without any overhead. On older subsystems such as
the ESS, volumes are typically predefined at specific sizes. In this case volumes are selected
from the existing pool as required and returned for reuse when no longer required.
To specify that a request for a volume from a subsystem results in the creation of a new
volume, define a variable on the subsystem with a Key of VolumePolicy and Value of Create.
Figure 2-55 shows the VolumePolicy variable defined for the SVC TEC_SVC with a value of
Create.
Figure 2-55 VolumePolicy variable defined for a subsystem
Any request for a new volume on this SVC causes the workflows to automatically create a
new storage volume in the specified Managed Disk Group. If not specified for a subsystem,
available volumes are searched for an appropriately sized volume of the desired RAID level.
If no volume matching the requirements is found, the workflow fails with an appropriate error.
40
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
3
Chapter 3.
Using automated storage
provisioning
In this chapter we look at how the Windows NTFS storage provisioning workflows can be
used to automatically provision storage capacity on Windows servers. We also discuss how
the TPC and TPM solution can add storage capacity to a host on demand.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
41
3.1 End-to-end provisioning workflows
TPM provides a number of built in end-to-end provisioning operations:
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
򐂰
Add Storage Volume Array to Host
Remove Storage Volume Array from Host
Add Storage To Host
Remove Storage From Host
These operations build on the basic storage device manipulation workflows provided by TPC
and the NTFS file system workflows to create a completely automated end-to-end
provisioning capability. We look at the usage of each of these workflows in detail. The
Windows NTFS device driver provides workflows to implement these operations in addition to
the file system workflows to enable the automated provisioning of storage capacity on the
Windows platform.
3.1.1 Add Storage Volume to Host
This operation takes as input an existing storage volume and performs the majority of the
tasks required to provision this SAN storage volume to a host system. This workflow performs
the storage subsystem tasks of LUN mapping and masking and the SAN fabric configuration
tasks to ensure that the host is zoned to the storage subsystem and the storage accessible.
In addition this workflow makes the assigned storage usable at the host by discovering the
newly assigned LUN and ensuring that the volume is mapped to the operating system. In
Windows terms, at this point the volume is presented to the OS as a physical volume, for
example, Disk1, Disk2.
3.1.2 Remove Storage Volume from Host
This operation performs the reverse of the add operation and unassigns a storage volume
from the specified host. Any file system on the volume on the host is removed, and the
volume is unmapped and unassigned from the host. If the zone providing the host access to
the storage subsystem is no longer required, it is also removed.
3.1.3 Add Storage To Host
This operation performs the complete end-to-end provisioning process from creating the
storage volume to creating the file system on the host. It builds on the Add Storage Volume
Array to Host operation to perform the whole operation. Using as input a Storage Template,
storage volumes are obtained from a storage subsystem and assigned to the host using the
Add Storage Volume Array to Host operation. Then, as specified by the Storage Template,
logical volumes and file systems are created on the physical volumes presented to the host.
3.1.4 Remove Storage From Host
Taking as input a TPM Volume Container (volume group) on a host, this operation removes all
file systems, logical volumes, and physical volumes in the Volume Container. If the Volume
Policy is to create new storage volumes, the returned storage volumes are deleted, otherwise
they are returned back for reuse as Available volumes.
42
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
3.2 Performing storage provisioning operations
The TPM user interface provides menu options to perform the end-to-end provisioning
operations. The Edit menu option on the server inventory General view provides access to the
four provisioning operations. These four operations are shown highlighted in Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1 Storage provisioning menu options
3.2.1 Using Add Storage To Host
This option is found under the Edit menu on the server General tab. Figure 3-2 shows the
input dialog as presented. The only input is the Storage Template to be used for the
provisioning operation.
Figure 3-2 Add Storage To Host dialog
The input field is defaulted to the first Storage Template, and you must select the desired
template. The pull-down menu lists all the available Storage Templates as in Figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3 Listing of available Storage Templates
Select the desired template from the list. The importance of a good naming convention for
templates becomes evident at this point. The name should be meaningful enough to the user
to enable them to select the appropriate template without having to go to the Inventory view
and look at each template to understand its usage. Click OK to initiate the provisioning
operation.
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning
43
If the Storage Template defines multiple volumes and file systems, these are all created at the
same time.
3.2.2 Using Add Storage Volume To Host
This option is found under the Edit menu on the server General tab. Figure 3-4 shows the
input dialog as presented. The three fields Storage Manager, Volume Container Settings and
Physical Volume Settings allow a user to select a specific Physical Volume Settings record to
be selected from any of the defined Storage Templates. This enables TPM to select a specific
set of Multipath Settings/Data Path settings to be used for the LUN Mapping and SAN fabric
configuration operations.
Figure 3-4 Add Storage Volume To Host dialog
Select an appropriate Physical Volume Settings from one of the offered settings from the
Storage Templates. With the current implementation of the End-to-end workflows, the only
unique parameter required from the Multipath Settings is the subsystem FA port definition in
the Data Path Settings. If no FA ports are specified, they are automatically determined where
this is supported (SVC and DS4000). Otherwise a valid Physical Volume Settings must be
selected to specify the FA ports to be used for the zoning and mapping operations.
From the Storage Pool/Storage Subsystem pull-down menu, select a storage pool or
subsystem from any of the available subsystems or pools. Note that there is no checking in
the dialog that the subsystem or pool selected is compatible with the Physical Volume
Settings and hence the Data Path Settings. You must perform this determination manually.
In the Storage Volume field, TPM presents a list of existing subsystem or storage pool
volumes to select from. When a volume is selected, the dialog shows the status of the
volume, whether it is available or already in use. In Figure 3-4, the selected volume shows as
already In_Use. Note that this dialog only presents the volume usage information a volume at
a time, which makes easy determination of the volume states of a subsystem with many
volumes difficult. Prior to selecting a volume in this dialog, we recommend that you check
which volumes are available by using the subsystem or pool inventory views.
Click OK to initiate the provisioning operation.
44
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
3.2.3 Using Remove Storage From Host
This option is found under the Edit menu on the server General tab. Figure 3-5 shows the
input dialog as presented. The only input is the TPM Volume Container from which all storage
is to be removed.
Figure 3-5 Remove Storage From Host dialog
This removes all physical volumes, logical volumes, and file systems defined in the specified
Volume Container (volume group) and the TPM container definition. Depending on the
Volume Policy in force for the subsystem owning the volumes, the Storage Volumes are
deleted or returned back to a Storage Pool as available volumes.
There is a major difference between the Add Storage To Host and Remove Storage From
Host operations. The Add Storage To Host operation can be run multiple times with different
templates to add additional volumes and file systems under a single Volume Container. The
Remove Storage From Host operation removes all volumes and file systems from the Volume
Container in one pass, irrespective of whether they were added using multiple Add Storage
To Host operations.
3.2.4 Using Remove Storage Volume From Host
This option is found under the Edit menu on the server General tab. Figure 3-6 shows the
input dialog as presented. The only input is the TPM Volume Container from which all storage
is to be removed.
Figure 3-6 Remove Storage Volume From Host dialog
Click OK to initiate the provisioning operation to remove the volume from the host.
3.3 Automated file system extension
An additional capability of the TPC and TPM solution is the ability to add storage capacity to a
host on demand. TPM workflows provide the ability to extend existing file systems and
volumes. With this capability, coupled with TPC's capability to monitor file system utilization,
extension can be automated to occur when TPC detects that the free space in a file system
has dropped below a predetermined threshold. Figure 3-7 shows the components of the
automated file system extension capability and the provisioning actions.
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning
45
Figure 3-7 File system extension components and actions
In addition to the TPC Fabric agent required for storage provisioning, TPC Data agents are
deployed on all Windows servers. The TPC Data agent is also deployed on the TPM server to
trigger execution of the file system extension workflows. To trigger file system extension, a file
system alert is defined in TPC to monitor the servers and file systems for which automated
extension is required. Figure 3-8 shows a file system alert defined in TPC to trigger when the
free space in a file system falls below 10%.
Figure 3-8 TPC file system free space alert definition
46
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
On triggering, this alert is configured to execute a command file on the TPM server to initiate
the file system extension workflows. To perform file system and volume extension, TPM
provides two built-in operations:
򐂰 Extend File System
򐂰 Extend Logical Volume
The WindowsNTFS device driver implements these as:
򐂰 WinNTFS_ExtendFileSystem.wkf
򐂰 WnNTFS_ExtendVolume.wkf
These workflows provide the capability to extend a Windows dynamic volume and NTFS file
system that have already been provisioned by TPC and TPM. The dynamic volume
underlying the file system is extended by the addition of a new physical volume being added
to the volume set, making a spanned volume. The size of the new physical volume is
determined by the workflows and the extension policy is currently set to be 50% of the size of
the first physical volume in the volume set. A new volume is created or selected on the same
subsystem as the existing physical volume, depending on the VolumePolicy defined for the
subsystem.
When the file system free space alert is triggered, TPC executes the command file,
ExtendFS.cmd, on the TPM server to initiate the file system extension.
This command file contains a SOAP command to execute the TPM workflow,
WinNTFS_ExecuteExtendFileSystem.wkf. The results of extending a file system are shown in
Figure 3-9.
Figure 3-9 Server file system view after extension
This figure shows how, after extension, a second volume physical volume has been added to
the NTFS logical volume and file system.
3.3.1 Configuring file system extension
The workflows are automatically installed during the WindowsNTFS device driver installation.
The only additional steps to configure file system and volume extension are to create a TPC
file system alert and to copy the ExtendFS.cmd file to the TPC for Data agent's scripts
directory on the TPM server.
Configuring TPC
First you create a new TPC file systems alert from the TPC navigation tree. This is shown in
Figure 3-10.
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning
47
Figure 3-10 TPC create file system alert
This presents the Create Alert dialog as shown in Figure 3-11.
Figure 3-11 Create file system alert dialog
In the Condition field, select the Filesystem Freespace Less Than option from the pull-down
menu. This should already be the default. The Value Units field should be set to the threshold
amount the alert should trigger on, the default is percent. If percent is selected, the Value field
should be set to the free space percentage below which the alert condition gets triggered.
In this example, the free space remaining percentage is set to 10%. In the Triggered Actions
pane, select the Run Script option. Click the Define button to specify the script to be
executed. The script definition dialog is shown in Figure 3-12.
48
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Figure 3-12 TPC free space alert script definition
In the Script Name field, enter the name of the script to be executed on the TPM server,
ExtendFS.cmd. In the Where to Run field, select the TPM server from the list of servers with
TPC for Data agents installed. Click OK to save the script definition.
On the Filesystems tab of the Create Alert dialog, specify the file systems for which
automated extension is required and save the alert as shown in Figure 3-13.
Figure 3-13 Configuring the file systems to be monitored for extension
After selecting the file system, save the completed alert by clicking the Save button, as shown
in Figure 3-14.
Figure 3-14 Saving the file system alert
When prompted for an alert name, specify a meaningful name to identify the alert as shown in
Figure 3-15.
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning
49
Figure 3-15 Specifying the file system alert name
The alert definition is now complete on the TPC server.
Configuring Tivoli Provisioning Manager
The ExtendFS.cmd executable can be found in the WinNTFS directory of the TPM scripts
repository when the WindowsNTFS device driver is installed. When TPM is installed in a
Windows environment, the default location is:
C:\Program Files\ibm\tivoli\thinkcontrol\repository\WinNTFS
The location of the ExtendFS.cmd file in a Windows environment is shown in Figure 3-16.
Figure 3-16 Location of ExtendFS.cmd file
You should copy the ExtendFS.cmd executable and place it in the TPC for Data agents'
scripts directory on the TPM server. The default location for this on a Windows server is:
C:\Program Files\ibm\TPC\ca\subagents\TPC\Data\scripts
50
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
The TPC scripts directory location for the ExtendFS.cmd file in a Windows environment is
shown in Figure 3-17.
Figure 3-17 TPC for Data scripts directory
Configuration of the TPM server is now complete.
3.3.2 Using file system extension
File system extension is performed automatically each time the file system alert is triggered
for the monitored file systems. TPC checks threshold alerts on file systems every time a
Probe is run against the monitored server, the frequency being determined by the schedule
defined for the Probe. A Probe to monitor the server TPMCLIENT is shown in Figure 3-18.
Figure 3-18 Probe for server TPMCLIENT
Ideally the Probe should be configured to run sufficiently frequently that a free space shortage
is detected prior to the file system running out of free space. This could be set to run daily or
even hourly as the overhead for probing a server is relatively low.
Chapter 3. Using automated storage provisioning
51
Each time the file system utilization reaches a level that the free space falls below the defined
free space threshold, the alert is triggered and file system extension is performed.
3.4 Using TPC and end-to-end workflows with TPM
To effectively use TPC and TPM as a storage provisioning solution, there are a number of
additional aspects that you must understand and consider when provisioning storage.
When TPC populates TPM with discovered hosts, these are placed by default into the
TPC_Pool server pool. If storage provisioning is to be used with server and application
provisioning, one requirement might be that the servers are placed in different pools. After
discovery, they can be moved to the desired pools.
TPC populates servers into TPM using the servers' fully qualified host names. This differs
from the usual TPM practice of using just the host name. The fully qualified host name can be
truncated down to just the host name, and storage provisioning is then unaffected.
The WinNTFS_RemoveStorageFromHost workflow reboots the server after removing all
storage volumes mapped in the volume container. In the current implementation, all SAN
attached volumes are registered under this volume container, and running the workflow
removes them all. When volumes are unassigned, SDD marks the paths as DEAD and these
paths are only removed on a reboot.
If the paths are left, the number of volumes that can subsequently be dynamically assigned
using the OperatingSystem.CreateSANPhysicalVolume workflow is limited, because only
4000 bytes can be returned to TPM from the SDD Datapath Query Device commands used in
the workflow implementation. Additionally, problems have been seen with SDD not
recognizing dynamically added volumes if all the existing path entries are DEAD. A reboot
resolves these two issues and ensures a clean starting position for the next provisioning
cycle. You can comment out this reboot if you plan to reprovision or reboot the server before
assigning more storage.
The reboot has a dependency on the OperatingSystem.SoftwareRebootAsync being
assigned to the OperatingSystem definition in TPM.
Check the workflow readme files for the latest information on features, supported
environments, and known restrictions.
52
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Related publications
The publications listed in this section are considered particularly suitable for a more detailed
discussion of the topics covered in this Redpaper.
Other publications
These publications are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center 3.1 Workflow Users Guide, SC32-0101
򐂰 Introduction to Storage Provisioning with Tivoli Provisioning Manager and TotalStorage
Productivity Center, REDP-3900
Online resources
These Web sites are also relevant as further information sources:
򐂰 SNIA Web site:
http://www.snia.org/ctp
򐂰 IBM Tivoli Open Process Automation Library (OPAL) Web site
http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/tpm/
How to get IBM Redbooks
You can search for, view, or download Redbooks, Redpapers, Hints and Tips, draft
publications and Additional materials, as well as order hardcopy Redbooks or CD-ROMs, at
this Web site:
ibm.com/redbooks
Help from IBM
IBM Support and downloads
ibm.com/support
IBM Global Services
ibm.com/services
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
53
54
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Index
A
Add Storage Manager dialog 19
AddStorageToHost workflow 34
architecture 5
automated file system extension 45
C
CIM interfaces 5
commands
SMdevices 13
create storage template 31
D
Data agent 11, 46
data center model 14
Data Path Settings 37
dialog 38
DCM ID 29
device discovery 5
Disk Partition Settings 36
DS4000 Storage Manager utilities package 13
N
NTFS file system device driver 12
NTFS provisioning workflows 4
NTFS Storage Manager 20
NTFS volume mapping device driver 13
P
Physical Volume Settings 34
pool and volume selection 36
R
RAID level considerations 35
RDAC device driver 13
Redbooks Web site 53
Contact us viii
Remote Execution and Access 28
RXA 6
RXA SAP workflow 30
RXA_Create_RXA_SAP workflow 28
S
Fabric agent 11
fabric agent 6
Fibre Adapter Port field 38
file system alert 46
file system extension 5, 47
File System Settings 34
SDD 52
setup workflows 15
simple dynamic volume 33
SMutils 13
software definition 23
Storage Managers 14
Storage Pool 14
storage provisioning
configuration 13
introduction 2
Storage Templates 30
Subsystem Device Driver 7, 13
SVC port selection 38
SVC storage pool 36
H
T
host access for TPM 28
host OS definition 23
hot_add utility 13
Tivoli Common Agent 11
Tivoli Remote Execute and Access 6
TPC agent considerations 11
TPC device driver 12
TPC installation 10
TPC_Configure workflow 15
TPC_Initialize workflow 15
TPC_Pool server pool 52
TPM data center model 14
TPM device drivers 11
TPM installation 11
E
end-to-end provisioning 42
ExtendFS.cmd 49–50
ExtendFS.cmd file 47
F
I
implementation 9
industry standards 5
IT Service Management initiative 7
M
multipathing drivers 13
V
Volume Container settings 32
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2007. All rights reserved.
55
volume mapping workflows 25
volume name 35
volume selection policy 40
SVC 40
W
Web services API 6
Windows NTFS File System device driver 11
Windows NTFS volume mapping device driver 11
Windows NTFS workflow 38
WindowsNTFS.tcdriver 11
WindowsNTFS_OS.tcdriver 11
WinNTFS directory 50
workflow
Add Storage To Host 42
Add Storage Volume to Host 42
OperatingSystem.CreateSANPhysicalVolume 52
Remove Storage From Host 42
Remove Storage Volume from Host 42
Using Add Storage Volume To Host 44
Using Remove Storage From Host 45
WinNTFS_ExecuteExtendFileSystem.wkf 47
workflows
Windows_CreateSANPhysicalVolumeIBM 25
Windows_RemovePhysicalVolume 25
workflowWinNTFS_RemoveStorageFromHost 52
56
Automated Storage Provisioning using TPC and TPM
Back cover
Automated Storage Provisioning for
Windows using TotalStorage
Productivity Center and
Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Learn how TPC and
TPM provide a
provisioning solution
Understand storage
provisioning
Implement automated
storage provisioning
The provisioning of SAN attached storage capacity to a server can
be a time consuming and cumbersome process. The task
requires skilled storage administrators, and the complexity of the
task can restrict an IT department's ability to respond quickly to
requests to provision new capacity. However, there is a solution
to this through automation.
This Redpaper looks at how an automated storage provisioning
solution can be realized for a Windows environment using IBM
TotalStorage Productivity Center 3.1 (TPC) and IBM Tivoli
Provisioning Manager 3.1 (TPM). Together with provisioning
workflows, these two products provide a complete solution to the
automated end-to-end provisioning of usable storage capacity on
the Windows platform.
As implemented for the Windows platform, this Redpaper
describes the solution for the automated provisioning of SAN
attached storage capacity on the IBM storage devices supported
by IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center 3.1.
®
Redpaper
INTERNATIONAL
TECHNICAL
SUPPORT
ORGANIZATION
BUILDING TECHNICAL
INFORMATION BASED ON
PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
IBM Redbooks are developed
by the IBM International
Technical Support
Organization. Experts from
IBM, Customers and Partners
from around the world create
timely technical information
based on realistic scenarios.
Specific recommendations
are provided to help you
implement IT solutions more
effectively in your
environment.
For more information:
ibm.com/redbooks