When we replaced a Power 8 and a Power 9 at one data center with two Power
10's we went to external storage also. We were always internal storage
before that. We're not doing the Flash Copy for backups as we're pretty
happy with our software based replication for that and for our quarterly
switches. We are using Flash Copy to get daily copies we could restore to
dummy partitions in case of a serious malware attack. Safe Guarded Copy I
believe it's called.
You're right, BP's are really concerned about eliminating any single points
of failure when it comes to external storage. I was rather blown away at
how many ports on our dual brand new fiber channel switches were
immediately tied up for our setup. With the two systems, Flash System and
VTL.
All spinning disks and all SSD's are pulled from the market when it comes
to Power 10's. It's NVMe only now. Some of this change is only a month or
so old so you may remember other options originally for Power 10's.
BP's are really pushing internal NVMe for your VIOS partitions also instead
of using the SAN. Keep in mind that if any of that NVMe used by VIOS needs
fixing that it is a customer responsibility to handle the mirroring and all
options and the service rep is only responsible for pulling the old disk
out and putting the new disk in. Any damage caused by failure to do this
properly is solely the responsibility of the customer. Having had multiple
VIOS disks fail in previous systems I can attest that the CE's they send
out are blithering idiots when it comes to dealing with VIOS. Even when
they tried to help the first thing they tried at the VIOS command line was
STRSST and y'all know that immediately means they are clueless about VIOS.
Never got a job done without a call further up the chain with support.
IBM has issued a statement to this effect since.
I assume there's a NVMe version of this:
Client Tasks to be performed in order to prepare an IBM Power System for a
concurrent SAS or SSD disk replacement in AIX or VIOS
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6616709?myns=pwrmicro&mynp=OCTI0005E&mynp=OCTI000B2&mynp=OCTI0005G&mynp=OCTI000B1&mynp=OCTI0005F&mynp=OCTI000B3&mync=E&cm_sp=pwrmicro-_-OCTI0005E-OCTI000B2-OCTI0005G-OCTI000B1-OCTI0005F-OCTI000B3-_-E
Oh, and back when higher level of support did try to help you, heaven help
you if you were on an old version of VIOS out of support. The level of
hazing there would shut down a fraternity on ANY campus.
midrange.com
