Release Notes

4 Configuring Dell Storage Manager for High Availability | 3272-BP-DSM
Executive summary
With Dell
™
Storage Manager (DSM) 2016 and later, services that run on the Data Collector server have
become a critical piece of infrastructure in the storage area network. Not only is the Data Collector server
used for daily administration and troubleshooting, but it also contains services that require high availability
such as:
• Live Volume Auto Failover tiebreaker
• VMware
®
vStorage APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) provider for VMware
®
vSphere
®
Virtual
Volumes™ (vVols)
• Application Protection Manager integration
• Dell Storage PowerShell and REST API endpoint
• Threshold and system alerting through SMTP or SNMP
• SMI-S provider used by Microsoft
®
System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM)
In most cases, short periods of downtime such as a maintenance window for a reboot after patching is
acceptable, but for the most part, these services need to remain highly available. For example, the VMware
VASA provider service must be available to power on virtual machines residing on VMware vVols, and Live
Volumes need the tiebreaker service available for auto-failover to mediate any array failures.
This guide discusses high-level techniques and strategies for protecting the DSM Data Collector server from
outages, reduce risk, and promote high uptime of its critical storage services.