cam demo guide 0.2

7/27/2019 CAM Demo Guide 0.2

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CAM Demo Kit v5.0

User's Guide

Draft 2

September 22, 2006

Revision History

Rev Purpose Author Date

0.1 Initial Draft Bob Handlin 9/20/06

0.2 Updates and comments to match initial kit Bob Handlin 9/22/06


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Table of Contents

The Common Array Manager (CAM) Value Proposition............................................................3Demonstrating Key Differentiation vs. Competitors................................................................3

How the CAM Demonstration Works..........................................................................................3

Installing the Demonstration.......................................................................................................4Demonstrating CAM....................................................................................................................4

Logging in and Discovering the Arrays...................................................................................4Using Pools and Profiles.........................................................................................................8

Creating Storage Pools......................................................................................................9Side Trip: Changing RAID or Segment Settings for a Pool..............................................10

Creating and Assigning Volumes..........................................................................................10Managing Snapshots............................................................................................................13Using Service Advisor...........................................................................................................15

Side Trip: Configuring E-Mail Notifications.......................................................................18


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The Common Array Manager (CAM) Value Proposition

Common Array Manager (CAM) is an excellent tool for Sun STK customers who purchasemodular storage array products and who require easy-to-use storage management

capabilities. CAM offers the following key benefits:

Fast time-to-benefit Wizard-based configuration and application-oriented storageprofiles dramatically simplify Sun array deployment.

Quick time-to-repair Integrated service advisor technology makes common servicetasks faster and easier, increasing application uptime.

Easy integration Common interfaces (using the ESM product suite) provideintegrated access to a broad range of array and SAN management technologies

Flexibility and choice Open interfaces (based on SMI-S) allow customers to choosefrom the broadest range of Sun and non-Sun management tools.

Demonstrating Key Differentiation vs. Competitors

When demonstrating CAM, you should be able to engage the customer in several importantconversations about the software:

Baked in best practices (using Storage Pools and Profiles) that automate the processof mapping array configuration to application needs -- saving both time and money

Sophisticated Service Advisor technology that automates processes for a wide varietyof system maintenance tasks -- increasing system uptime and dramatically loweringtime to repair

Scalable, secure web-based access that allows customers to access, configure,monitor and repair systems at any time, from almost anywhere.

How the CAM Demonstration Works

The demonstration comes in two pieces:

An array simulator, which installs three simulated arrays (a Sun STK 6140 and twoSTK 6540s) on your system. You run this simulator by double clicking an icon on yourdesktop.

A full working version of CAM, which starts up as a service when you boot your PC.This service lets you run a browser against the localhost web server on your PC,bringing up a full, working version of CAM.

Once The simulator has been launched, you simply run CAM and use the normal discoverymechanism to discover the simulated arrays. Once the arrays are discovered, most, but notall, of CAM's features can by demonstrated as described in this guide.

WARNING: The simulator is good, but far from perfect. It's not wise to deviate fromthe scripts in this guide unless you have tried the feature yourself in advance.


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Installing the Demonstration

The CAM Demo Kit 5.0.x is available from the following internal FTP site:

TBD (but you probably found it or you wouldn't re reading this.)

Download the file cam_demo_kit_1.0.zip to your Windows desktop

NOTE: This kit runs on Windows XP Professional. CAM does not run on XP HomeEdition

The .zip archive contains two installation files:

simulator.msi, which installs the Array Simulator

host_sw_windows_5.0.x.x.zip , which installs a full working version of CAM 5.0

To install the demo software:

1. Extract the two installation packages from the .zip file. You may want to create adirectory to house the extracted archives, as there are components placed in thesedirectories that might be useful later.

2. Run simulator.msi. This installs the Array simulator piece of the demo.

3. Extract host_sw_windows_5.0.x.x.zip and click Runme.bat. This kicks off an InstallWizard that places a full, working version of CAM on your system.

Demonstrating CAM

WARNING: The simulator is very good, but far from perfect. It's not wise to deviatefrom the scripts in this guide unless you have tried the feature yourself in advance.

Logging in and Discovering the Arrays

To launch the CAM demo:

1. Double click the Sun StorageTek Simulator icon on the Windows desktop. Acommand window displays that monitors simulator activity.

2. Minimize this window (don't close it, though, or the simulator will shut down) andopen a browser window.


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3. Enter the following URL: https://localhost:6789, then press Enter.

4. At the login screen, enter storage as the User Name and !storage as the password.

5. Press Log In.

6. Select Sun StorageTek(TM) Common Array Manager from the Storage menu.
https://localhost:6789/https://localhost:6789/https://localhost:6789/


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To register the simulated arrays:

1. Click the Register button in the Storage Systems window.

2. A wizard launches that walks you through the the system registration process.

3. The simulated arrays are on the local subnet. Click Next to start the scan.


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4. When the scan completes, the simulated arrays display.

5. Click Next. CAM analyzes the current array firmware. There may be errors displayedbecause CAM is not talking to real arrays. Ignore these errors.

6. Click Next. A summary screen displays. On real arrays, the system would offer toupgrade firmware on any older revision arrays, if needed.

7. Click Finish. CAM registers the arrays.

8. Click Close to complete the process.


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Using Pools and Profiles

Pools and profiles in CAM automate the best practices for configuring an array.Demonstrating this functionality is critical to helping customers understand how this softwareis different, and simpler, than storage configuration techniques they have used in the past.

To demonstrate pools and profiles:

1. Log into CAM.

2. From the main screen, expand the tree associated with one of the arrays.

3. Click Profiles.

Explain to the customer that profiles are used by CAM to automate the process ofconfiguring pools of storage to best match the needs of a particular application. CAMis pre-configured with 14 factory profiles, but the user can also create custom profileswhen none of the existing profiles matches their application needs.

4. To demonstrate creating a profile, click New.

5. Show the users examples of some of the available selections. And explain that theseselections don't actually get applied to disks until the user creates a volume.

6. Click OK to save the new profile definition you created.


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Creating Storage Pools

Profile definitions cannot be used to create volumes until you define a storage poolassociated with the profile. Storage Pools serve two primary purposes in CAM:

Establishing which storage options will be presented to the user when they create avolume

Grouping storage with like configuration into a capacity pool from which future volumescan be provisioned

To create a storage pool:

1. Log into CAM.


3. Click Pools.

4. To set up a new pool to contain the type of storage most suitable to the customer'sapplication, click New.

5. Give the Pool a name and a description, then select a profile for the pool from thedrop-down list. The list will include the 14 factory-configured profiles, plus any customprofiles you've created.

6. Click OK to save your selections and create the pool. No storage will actually beallocated to the pool until you create a volume. This maximizes flexibility by leaving asmuch storage as possible unconfigured for later use. Because the controller is capableof making storage mountable and usable while it configures the actual back endstorage, there is no penalty for leaving storage unconfigured until it's needed.


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Side Trip: Changing RAID or Segment Settings for a Pool

Because the storage controller is capable of re-configuring storage without first taking thestorage offline, the customer has flexibility to make configuration changes. The procedure is:Create a new profile and assign it to an existing pool. Be aware, however, that CAM restrictsthe user to one major change per new profile assignment. Example: To change both RAIDand Segment Size settings, it would require two separate profile change operations.

Creating and Assigning Volumes

Once you've created pools, using either factory of custom profiles, you can use these pools toallocate storage that will be configured on the fly to meet the customer's application needs. Todo this:

1. Log into CAM.


3. Click Volumes. A list of existing volumes displays.

4. Click New.

5. Pick a name and capacity for the volume you want to create.

6. Select a storage pool from the list presented. Point out at this point that the list ofpools includes only those pools the customer created. This allows the chief storageadministrator to control what options are presented to the administrator when

provisioning a volume. As long as the administrator selects the correct profile, thebehavior of the volume will be very predictable, based on the profile settings.


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7. Click Next.

8. Select a Virtual Disk creation mode. To take best advantage of the automation CAMprovides, pick Automatic. This will cause CAM to either create a new virtual diskbased on the profile for the pool, or to find space on an existing virtual disk if available.

Optionally, the administrator can select Create Volume on an Existing Virtual Disk,which presents a selection of virtual disks created previously, or Create Volume on aNew Virtual Disk, which allows the administrator to hand pick physical disks to build anew virtual disk. Point out the flexibility and control that this gives the administratorduring the provisioning process with options that are useful to both novice and expertstorage administrators.

9. Click Next.


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10.Select Map Volume, then click Next. This allows the administrator to assign a volumeto a host or set of hosts.

11.Click Next. A summary of the volume you want to create displays.

12.Click Finish. The volume creation process kicks off, but the volume displays and isready for use. Any background configuration of RAID sets takes place after the volumeis made available for use.


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Managing Snapshots

The data snapshot feature lets user make efficient copy-on-write copies of existing volumes.These copies use less space than a full copy of the volume, as they only consume spacewhen information is added or changed on an existing volume.

To manage the data snapshot feature using the demo:

1. Log into CAM.

2. From the main screen, expand the tree associated with the array called 6540Configured (this is the only array with a Snapshot license in the current release).

3. Click Volumes. A list of existing volumes displays.

4. Click on the volume name for the first volume listed.

5. Click Snapshot.


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6. Explain the parameters on the screen:

Name is the name you're assigning to this snapshot

Reserve volume is the name of the volume you want to create to storage thecopy-on-write data for this snapshot

Notification determines when a message is sent warning that the indicated

percentage of the snapshot reserve capacity has been consumed. Write Activity helps the system determine how big to make the snapshot

volume

Failure Handling tells the system what to do when the snap reserve is full

7. Click Next.

8. This screen picks the location of the snapshot volume. Click Next.

9. The next screen lets you map the snapshot volume to a host, if desired. For the

purposes of the demo, you may want to say that this snapshot is for nightly backup,and then select to assign it to the backup server.

10.Click Finish to create the snap definition.


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Using Service Advisor

Pools and profiles help the administrator achieve fast time to service by speeding up theprovisioning process. The Service Advisor speeds up time to repair by helping theadministrator find and quickly repair common system issues.

The demonstration of this feature shows how the error logs in CAM connect to service andrepair information in CAM's Service Advisor. To demonstrate this feature, you will manuallyfail a disk in the system, then view how CAM handles the resulting failure condition.

To demonstrate the Service Advisor:

1. Log into CAM.


3. Expand the Physical Devices section of the tree.

4. Click Disks.

5. Find a disk that has the role Data Disk. (This will only exist in arrays that havevolumes configured).

6. Click on the name of the disk you selected.

7. Click Fail to fail the disk.


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8. Open General Configuration in the navigation tree,and select Health Monitoring.

9. Click Run Agent. This causes CAM to check attached arrays for new system events.This may take a few minutes to complete.

10.Click the Service Advisor button at the top of the window.

11.The Service Advisor displays. Navigate the tree and find the disk you failed.

12.Click Reserve the CRM/CEM for maintenance. Explain how the procedure itself hashot links to the device you are working on.


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13.Click Back, then scroll down the page to show that there are other hot links.

14.Click to display the illustration of the disk drive replacement procedure.


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Side Trip: Configuring E-Mail Notifications

If the customer is curious as to how CAM sends notifications, open the GeneralConfiguration section at the bottom of the tree, then open the Notifications section, thenselect e-mail.

cam demo guide 0.2

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