ViPR SRM data normalization?

Some of the greatest value in ViPR SRM is the ability to look at your entire storage   environment as a whole.  This manifests in the ability to understand end-to-end relationships (for example, in topology views, path details and chargeback reports) and to see global views that aggregate all of your storage.  Prior to v3.5, these capabilities were only available for EMC VMAX and VNX arrays.  One of the most important new feature sets in v3.5 is that these capabilities are being extended to other top storage platforms, from other vendors and EMC.

In order to accomplish this, we go through a process called “data normalization”.  To create end-to-end relationships within ViPR SRM, we need to correlate data from all the devices in the path, such as hosts, hypervisors, switches and arrays.  However, each of the APIs for the various devices has a different way of representing the data used for this correlation.  So, for a new array type, we have to modify this data to make it consistent with the representation by other devices.  Similarly, for global dashboards that aggregate capacity across all storage, derived metrics need to be created for each new array that meet a consistent definition for each capacity classification, so that like values can be added.

Normalization starts with a thorough engineering analysis for each array type, and then the dedicated expert teams for topology, global reports, data modeling and each array platform work together to create the integrated solution.

In v3.5, we are bringing new normalized capabilities to additional EMC and multivendor platforms including VPLEX, Isilon, XtremIO, NetApp, HDS, HP StorageWorks P9000, and IBM XIV, with others in the pipeline for future releases.

As an example of the end-to-end capabilities we are adding for the new arrays, below is a simple topology map that shows the relationship dependencies from the host to the storage.   The map can be expanded to see more detail as you select the different components along the data path you are presented with different reports such as performance from the host, switch or storage perspective.   You can view the path details and storage connectivity, capacity.   This level of visibility helps you troubleshoot performance problems.  So rather than going into multiple element managers to piece together a report that either proves you don’t or do have a problem, this can all be done within ViPR SRM.    And if you need to create a report to prove the storage infrastructure isn’t the culprit of the problem, creating a simple custom report is as simple as selecting the reports you need, saving it and emailing it. 

Here’s an expanded topology, this time for an IBM XIV array.

Additionally, we are adding new arrays into global reports and dashboards. For example, the capacity of these arrays is being added to the Enterprise Capacity Dashboard.

If you deep dive, you can see the same capacity views broken down just for a specific HDS array.

You can also view your storage all at once in other global views, such as Explore, where you can see your entire storage inventory:

In Usable Capacity by Pool, you can see the capacity of storage pools across all of the supported array types from one view.

The Array by Service Level report below provides a view into service level capacity in terms of used, free and the used trend.

These are just a few the examples of views that are normalized across many storage types in ViPR SRM v3.5.