Storage Capacity Management with BCO

Q&A Session for BCO Webinar: Storage Capacity Management with BCO
Session number: 758850330
Date: 25 March 2014
Starting time: 14:42
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Q: Will NetApp Metrocluster be supported with the April 2014 release of the NetApp module?
A: NetApp Metrocluster are not supported in the version which will be released in April 2014- - please
contact BMC Product Management to discuss the product roadmap.
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Q: What NetApp versions will be supported with the April-2014 release?
A: Minimum supported version:
In 7-mode (traditional mode): Data OnTAP 7.3.1
In c-mode (cluster mode): Data OnTAP 8.1
Recommended version: Data OnTAP 8.2
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Q: Why don´t you have a connector for IBM DS? I assume that is because you didn´t have enough
business compelling event. .. But why is there the KM monitor for IBM DS then?
A: There are plans for supporting IBM DS6000/8000 Series also in BCO - please contact BMC Product
Management for more information.
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Q: Thanks. Is support for MC on your roadmap?
A: Yes, we are considering adding MC support in the future version- s - please contact BMC Product
Management for more information.
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Q: is the storage manager in BCO packaged with BCO? or is it a separate component / priced separately?
A: BCO provides core capabilities (analyses, models, reports, view) for storage capacity management.
The "Sentry Integration for BCO" is a BCO add-on that requires an additional license and includes
connectors (ETLs) for EMC, Hitachi and Dell/Compellent (support for additional technologies are planned
for future releases) and a cross-technology Storage Capacity view.
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Q: Can these capacity views be created by customers?
A: As for any data imported in BCO, customers can create their own views and reports. There are out of
the box views provided by "Sentry Integration for BCO" add at no additional cost with the supported
ETLs for the different storage technologies.
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Q: Will the NetApp ETL supersede the BMC one? Will the BMC one need to be replaced? Will it collect
LUN data?
A: The existing BCO connector for NetApp Data Fabric Manager is still supported in the current product
version. The Sentry NetApp ETL is expected to provide more capabilities - please contact BMC Product
Management for more information.
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Q: When will there be a solution for 3Par?
A: There are plans for supporting HP 3PAR - please contact BMC Product Management for more
information.
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Q: Currently, the km for Hitachi AMS does not report a bad disk in the array... due to the SMI-S provider
of Hitachi. Is anything being done to solve this problem?
A: This is still a limitation on the Hitachi SMI-S provider and is being worked on by Hitachi. Notice that
this in any case support for "bad disks" is not planned for BCO as this is not a capacity optimization use
case.
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Q: So, no such Report Creator/editor is present?
A: There is no special report creation/editor provided beyond the standard reporting capabilities that is
basic reports (that now can also be saved as templates in BCO 9.5) and advanced report templates (BIRT
format) that can created using BCO Integration Studio.
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Q: More of a Custom SQL Script?
A: BCO Provides out of the box a separate utility called "BCO Integration Studio" that allows to produce
custom reports in BIRT format.
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Q: Any plans for HP storage, more specifically 3PAR arrays?
A: There are plans for supporting HP 3PAR - please contact BMC Product Management for more
information.
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Q: But there is already an OOTB NetApp ETL. Is this a different software provider?
A: The out-of-the-box connector form BMC requires NetApp DataFabric Manager (DFM). The Sentry
connector will not require additional tool and will connect to the storage system directly.
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Q: Support for IBM XIV on the roadmap?
A: There are plans for supporting IBM XiV - please contact BMC Product Management for more
information.
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Q: So BCO does not include 'performance' data of VMAX cache utilization (example and something we
are struggling with).
A: The cache statistics are currently not available for Symmetrix/VMAX systems.- - please submit a
Request for Enhancement and contact BMC Product Management in case.
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Q: Is he disk IO shown workload characterized, so that we can see what is real work, what is backups,
what is virus scanning?
A: No, the statistics are not classified based on the application. They are global statistics.
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Q: Is the functionality being shown right now in this presentation OOTB? Or is this something in addition
to OOTB that has to be paid for?
A: The functionality being shown OOTB, whereas Sentry Integrations for BCO are separated packages
with a separated price.
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Q: When will the tool support IBM 7000 arrays?
A: There are plans for supporting IBM SVC and Storwize v7000 - please contact BMC Product
Management for more information.
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Q: Can you clarify - do you need the Sentry integrations (separately licensed) to get to the "OOTB"
reports that show utilization?
A: Yes. Both the direct integrations to storage arrays and the OOTB storage views are only available with
the "Sentry Integration for BCO package". Please consult the list of supported (MarketZone) connectors
provided by our partners here:
https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/bcmco95/Market+Zone+Direct+ETL+modules
This link I am sharing lists all the views and documentation associated with the storage integrations:
http://www.sentrysoftware.com/Products/bcoViewsRep
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Q: Can BCO identify if a storage pool is thin provisioned or not - speaker mentioned thin provisioning but
it wasn't clear how BCO identifies them?
A: Yes, the Sentry ETLs provide the storage pool type (i.e. if it's thin or not) in a dedicated metric
(ST_POOL_TYPE).
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Q: Will there be any increase in the metrics that are collected in the new Sentry ETL? IF so is there a
document that lists what will be available?
A: The list of the metrics provided will be available in April with the product release.
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Q: Sorry I mean the Sentry ETL for NetApp.
A: The list of metrics will be published along with the release of the new NetApp ETL in April.
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Q: Is there a roadmap for Centera support or is that limited because of the lack of SMI-S?
A: Correct. Centera is not supported due to its limitations in providing performance metrics.
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Q: What protection level of storage is referred here in the previous slide?
A: The protection level is the information provided by the vendor. Typically the RAID level.
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Q: What additional benefit does the Integrations give us?
A: The "Sentry Integration for BCO" package allows you direct integrations for EMC, Hitachi, Dell
Compellent and in an upcoming release also for NetApp storage systems. Moreover, a cross-technology
Storage view is also provided that provides visibility into the capacity of all the storage systems and the
ability to get proactive information such as saturation risks and over-subscription risks for storage pools.
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Q: Centera object count and any level of performance metrics are a priority for us as well.
A: Centera devices are not supported due to their limitation in providing performance metrics.
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Q: just so I'm clear... BCO out of the box will provide OOTB storage views... but in order to view EMC,
Hitachi, I would then need to purchase the ETL plugin for each particular storage device? or are those
included as part of OOTB?
A: The Storage view described in this session are only provided with the "Sentry Integration for BCO"
package.
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Q: Datadobi has found a way to pull Centera metrics - http://www.datadobi.com/centerasolutions/monitor-and-control-capacity-utilization.
A: Thank you for the link. We will look into it and see what they use to gather the metrics out of Centera.
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Q: I have a question about the known limitation of the SMI-S Agent. The capacity of FAST VP volumes
(dynamic tiering) is reported as fully subscribed in each of the underlying storage pools. Is this a
limitation of the ETL or is this how FastVP reports its metrics?
A: Sentry added FAST support in EMC ETL that will be released in April (version 4.0).
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Q: For the previous topic on unused and or abandoned storage, will the tool interact with ADDM
discovery to realign unused and reassigned storage?
A: Current version will not interact with ADDM.
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Q: Does the product have a report of the safety margins in effect?
A: If the question is referring to the thresholds used to alert when a storage box is reaching saturation,
there is a "thresholds" button in the view that allow to see and edit those values.
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Q: Are the reports in this section BCO Only out of the box or are they reports for the additional cost
Sentry version?
A: The reports that Maria is showing right now are produced with the out of the box "Time forecasting
model" feature. Sentry integration is used to load the storage data through ETLs, than the data is used
as input to the Time forecasting model.
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Q: For the previous topic on unused and or abandoned storage, will the tool interact with ADDM
discovery to realign unused and reassigned storage?
A: Currently there is no integration between BCO and ADDM to realign unused storage.
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Q: Does this product offer me any functionality for capacity management of our SQL Server
environment?
A: The functionality provided in relation to data analysis would be useful for Capacity Management.
There is a Microsoft SCOM ETL that extracts some SQL Server data. But this discussion would be outside
of the scope of this webinar.
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Q: Is there any OOTB integration for the IBM Pureflex solution?
A: PureFlex is IBM Storwize v7000 in the backend - there are plans for supporting Storwize v7000 please contact BMC Product Management for more information.
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Q: Do the Sentry ETLs replace the existing BCO OOTB storage connectors? We currently use the NetApp
connector. Will we have to switch to the sentry connecter?
A: In the current release the "NetApp Manageability SDK" ETL remains fully supported. The Sentry
NetAPP ETL will (when released) provide additional functionality beyond what the out-of-the-box ETL
provides.
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