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Abstract

The BVQ Offline Scanner scanner - for Storage, Compute or Network - is the application of choice to collect information for a BVQ analysis without installing any program. Start this application on any Windows, Linux or MacOS based server or laptop and let it collect configuration and performance information for a dedicated timeframe (hours up to days or weeks). This information is put into a single zip file which can be sent to a central BVQ service point (SVA or partners) where it will be analyzed for you. Transmission of the offline scanner zip file is encrypted by a https connection when sending it via SVA Sharefile.

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Info
titleSome thoughts before you use the offline scanner
  • Running the BVQ Offline Scanner scanner is easy and non-critical. No installation is needed and it can be run on any MS Windows, Linux or MacOS based client system with TCP/IP connection to the systems to scan.
  • Scan time is dependent on the objective of the scan:
    • 10 -14 days of scanning is sufficient to prepare for any kind of analysis like risk analysis or IO density analysis for storage planning. This timeframe is also used for a BVQ PoC.
    • 5-7 days of scanning is the minimum to prepare for a risk analysis.
    • 1-2 days of scanning can be used for short term performance issue analysis (e.g. peak latency analysis) given that the bottleneck actually happens in this time. (Please let us know, when exactly the performance issue occurred.)

  • There's a video tutorial available which shows how to use the scanner for SVC/Storwize:
    Video how to run the BVQ Offline Scannerscanner

  • Contact your BVQ partner or the BVQ team to prepare an analysis of the data:
    https://www.bvq-software.de/en/contact/ or send a mail to BVQ@sva.de

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Table of Contents
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Step 1: Download & Unpack the Offline

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scanner

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Download the Offline Scanner scanner on a Microsoft Windows or Linux system that has access to the system(s) which need to be scanned:

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Expand
titleClick here to see a picture ..

Unzip the Offline Scanner scanner to an existing or new folder.

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Expand

User authentication and user role

Provide login credentials for an user in the Administrator user group. Administrative rights are required because the offline scanner uses the cpdumps-command to copy data from all nodes in the cluster to the config node.

Performance statistics interval

Please adjust the interval in which statistical performance data is collected:

  • 5min intervals are best for risk or storage planning analysis
  • 1min intervals are best for short term performance issue analysis

This can be done using CLI command startstats -interval <time_in_minutes>

Note: If the systems are monitored by other products like IBM Spectrum Control oder IBM Storage Insights, then an interval < 5min cannot be set and the stats interval need to be changed in IBM Spectrum Control/IBM Storage Insights. Otherwise changes done on the CLI will be reset to whatever was configured on those tools.

Time synchronization

BVQ server as well SVC/Storwize systems need to be synchronized with NTP.

  • BVQ scanner system: time synchronization with NTP server option

  • SVC/Storiwze system: Run the following commands:
    settimezone -timezone <timezone_id>    ### run the command lstimezone to see a full list of available timezones
    chsystem -ntpip <ntp_server_ip_address>

Local filespace write access and free space

The data is collected in subdirectories and stored in the same filespace as the scanner binaries. Later in the process, this data will be packed into a zip file, typically stored into the directory 'My Documents'.
You need write access to this filespace and enough free space for the raw data and the .zip file.

The required capacity is mostly depending on the number of scanned volumes.

Some estimated values:

Number of volumes

Daily output

Scanner scanner directory

10 days output

Scanner scanner directory

Zipped 10 days output
for my documents
20070 MB700 MB180 MB
500170 MB1650 MB400 MB
1000330 MB3300 MB800 MB

5000

1700 MB16500 MB4000 MB
100003300 MB33000 MB8000 MB

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Step 3.2: Define a profile

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Offline Scanner scanner profiles allow to run more than one scanner in parallel. This is helpful in case multiple systems need to be scanned at the same time, e.g. two SVC systems in an remote copy partnership.

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In the next step, the offline scanner starts to collect data and copies the topology, eventlog and performance statistics in the according instance-directories.

Example: SVC Offline Scannerscanner


Note: If the tool is running for a longer timeframe, please check from time to time that the scanner is still running fine and still able to access the scanned system. The easiest way to do this, is to open the directory ./instances/<profilename> and check whether new data is coming in.

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