International Business Machines Corporation

Larry Steven McGimsey

Sandeep Gopisetty

Aameek Singh

Kavita Chavda

James E Olson

David P Goodman

Ronald Earl Van Buskirk, Ii

Zhaohui Gao

The present invention provides an approach for automatic storage planning and provisioning within a clustered computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). The present invention will receive planning input for a set of storage area network volume controllers (SVCs), the planning input indicating a potential load on the SVCs and its associated components. Configuration data for a set of storage components (i.e., the set of SVCs, a set of managed disk (Mdisk) groups associated with the set of SVCs, and a set of backend storage systems) will also be collected. Based on this configuration data, the set of storage components will be filtered to identify candidate storage components capable of addressing the potential load. Then, performance data for the candidate storage components will be analyzed to identify an SVC and an Mdisk group to address the potential load.

Automated storage provisioning within a clustered computing environment

An approach for automatic storage planning and provisioning within a clustered computing environment is provided. Planning input for a set of storage area network volume controllers (SVCs) will be received within the clustered computing environment, the planning input indicating a potential load on the SVCs and its associated components. Analytical models (e.g., from vendors) can be also used that allow for a load to be accurately estimated on the storage components. Configuration data for a set of storage components (i.e., the set of SVCs, a set of managed disk (Mdisk) groups associated with the set of SVCs, and a set of backend storage systems) will also be collected. Based on this configuration data, the set of storage components will be filtered to identify candidate storage components capable of addressing the potential load. Then, performance data for the candidate storage components will be analyzed to identify an SVC and an Mdisk group to address the potential load.

Enabling storage area network (SAN) component migration are provided. An end-to-end systems management console, referred to as the hardware migration assistant, is provided to simplify the migration steps for a SAN administrator to replace key SAN components. The hardware migration assistant provides a single interface suitable for stepping the SAN administrator through the reconfiguring task faster and with fewer sources of error than the known distributed manual process. The hardware migration assistant of the illustrative embodiments provides an interface through which a user may specify a type of SAN component that is being replaced and identifies the particular SAN components that are being replaced. The hardware migration assistant provides a knowledge base for guiding the user through the replacement operation and the reconfiguring of the SAN components, including the new SAN components, based on the previous configuration of the replaced components.

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Mead, CO, United States of America

Larry Steven McGimsey