You can use the IBM® Storage Tier Advisor Tool,
which is also referred to as advisor tool, to view performance data that is collected by IBM
Easy Tier® over a 24-hour operational
cycle. The advisor tool is the application that creates a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file that
you use to view the data when you point your browser to the file.
About this task
To download the Storage Tier Advisor Tool, click Downloads at this
website:www.ibm.com/support
To extract the summary performance data, follow these steps by using the command-line interface
(CLI).
Procedure
- Find the most recent dpa_heat.node_name.date.time.data
file in the clustered system
by entering the following command:
lsdumps node_id | node_name
where node_id |
node_name is the node ID or name to list the available dumps for.
- If necessary, copy the most recent summary performance
data file to the current configuration node. Enter the
following command:
cpdumps -prefix /dumps/dpa_heat.node_name.date.time.data node_id | node_name
- Use PuTTY scp (pscp) to copy the summary performance data
in a binary format from the configuration node to a local directory.
- From a Microsoft
Windows command prompt, use the advisor tool to
analyze the binary file (the results are stored in HTML files that are put into a local
directory).
- Point your browser to the HTML file in your local directory.
Results
The advisor tool displays the following statistical reports.
- System summary report
- The number of storage pools that are monitored
- The number of volumes that are monitored
- The total capacity that is monitored
- The estimated total hot data capacity
- List of storage pools that are monitored, including pool ID, capacity, tier configuration, tier
status, and data management status.
- System recommendation report
- A sorted list of suggested flash MDisks to add to the storage pools (sorted by estimated
performance improvement)
- A sorted list of suggested Enterprise MDisks to add to the storage pools (sorted by estimated
IOPS improvement)
- A sorted list of suggested Nearline MDisks to add to the storage pools (sorted by estimated
Bandwidth improvement)
- For each suggested MDisk: the estimated improvement
- Storage pool recommendation report
- For each storage pool: list MDisk's current IOPS utilization and projected IOPS utilization
- For each storage pool: show the workload distribution on each tier
- For each storage pool: A list of suggested flash MDisks to add to the storage pools
- For each storage pool: A list of suggested Enterprise MDisks to add to the storage pools
- For each storage pool: A list of suggested Nearline MDisks to add to the storage pools
- For each suggested MDisk: the estimated improvement
- Volume heat distribution report
- The distribution of hot data and cold data for each volume copy
- The configured capacity of a volume copy, along with the volume ID, copy ID
- The percentage of each volume copy's IO workload within the storage pool
- The capacity of each volume copy already on each tier
What to do next
You can view this information to analyze workload statistics and evaluate which logical
volumes might be candidates for
Easy Tier management. If you did not
enable the
Easy Tier function, you
can use the usage statistics that are gathered by the monitoring process to help you determine
whether to use
Easy Tier to enable
potential performance improvements in your storage environment.