Specifications

Escala Tower PL & S, E, T System Hardware
Chapter 3: External Storage and SAN Subsystems 47/116
9es3s1c3.doc
Rev 5.9
02/12/2003
Bull Navisphere Manager for AIX enables an efficient and easy management of the DAS subsystems,
and delivers the following services to AIX and DAS administrators:
•
An easy control of DAS configuration and status, with a tree representation of all the DAS
components (Storage Processors, enclosures, LUN, individual disks, LCC, power supplies, standby
power supplies, fans, …), and icons varying upon the component status.
•
Simple management of the storage resources (RAID and LUN creation, binding / unbinding, hot
spare management, …).
•
Performance management (read and write cache configuration, cache page size, cache prefetch
policy, rebuilt priority, cache hit ratio, I/O activity, disk errors statistics, …).
•
Diagnostic and maintenance operations (component status, event log display, firmware download,
…).
The Navisphere Manager for AIX is integrated in WebSM, and offers an easy-to-use Graphical User
Interface (GUI). A graphical terminal or X11 terminal is mandatory, like for any other WebSM
applications. A Java enabled Web browser may be used to access to the Navisphere Manager for AIX
from non-AIX environments.
The Navisphere Manager for AIX provides the same unified user interface for all the model of DAS
subsystems, thus reducing training of administrators.
The Navisphere Manager for AIX may be used locally to manage the DAS subsystems connected to
the AIX server on which it is installed. But storage administrators will be much more efficient using
the distributed mode of the Navisphere Manager for AIX, enabling to consolidate the management of
multiples DAS subsystems connected to multiple AIX servers. When operating in distributed mode,
the main Navisphere window displays all the managed AIX servers, and enables to manage all the
DAS subsystems connected to these servers from a single window.
The security policy of Navisphere Manager for AIX is the same as the other WebSM applications. It
relies on AIX and WebSM built-in security controls. All the users can view all the information. Only
root users can modify the DAS configuration.
Regarding the high availability aspect, a failure of the Navisphere Manager for AIX does not disturb
DAS operations, is fully transparent to the applications using the managed DAS, and does not prevent
ATF operations.
4.3.2. Product’s Deployment
The Navisphere Manager for AIX is based on a manager / agent architecture. The Navisphere agents
run on AIX servers connected to DAS subsystems and get information or send configuration orders
through Fibre Channel or SCSI connections, or through a serial line. The Navisphere manager
manages the information received from one or multiple DAS, and implements a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) for the administrators.