Event and audit log integration

The integration of system events into BVQ is a major improvement. In addition to performance and configuration information, BVQ now collects system event- and audit logs and makes included entries visible in a special tabular event view or in the Performance-View. You can switch on the display of events in the Performance-View from the option panel. This enables you to see impacts of certain events on performance easily.

The event table view can be opened from the main menu or by double clicking an event marker in the performance chart. The table view provides a tabular overview off all events with many different filter or sorting options.

Topology filtering

The topology filtering option isolate introduced in BVQ Version 4.0 is now enhanced with a attribute filter feature. This allows a user to reduce the number of objects in a Topology-View to those having a specific characteristic described by different attributes like capacity metrics, configuration parameters or performance indicators. Multiple attribute filters can be applied to each object type occurring in the topology path. For example, you can filter the object type "VDisk" to only show thin provisioned ones using the filter equation SEV real capacity > 0. All configured filter settings will be stored within the favorites you save or in your start layout. Simply click "Add filter" in the menu of a path object to add a filter - see below.

To reset all all isolate and attribute filters at once, the clear all filter button can be used. Attribute filters and isolate filters can be applied in parallel.

New system features supported

Cluster sites

Over time IBM added additional cluster modes to enhance robustness against site failures. To support this new features, controller, nodes and hosts can be assigned to a site. This is now reflected in BVQ with the object type Site (SVC).

To see an example of a site aware topology you can easily use the path /BVQ/Cluster/Site (SVC)/Node:

Enclosures

Enclosures occur in all types of systems like Storwize, Flash or SVC nodes with expansions enclosures attached. They are now integrated as an independent object type with all details available in the detail pane. Simply integrate Enclosure in your object path:

Global mirror with change volumes and Hyperswap

Global mirror with change volumes were introduced in SVC version 6.3. With IP Mirroring and Local Hyperswap additional functions based on this feature have been added. So we integrated the relationships between RC relationships and configured Change volumes (VDisks mapped to according Flash copy mappings). You now can browse such configurations with paths like /BVQ/RC relationship/FC mapping/VDisk.

Easy Tier load

Easy tier load is an attribute of MDisks used in Easy Tier configurations. It can be displayed in BVQ inside the detail pane of each MDisk and as a column inside a Treetable showing MDisks. You can also use it in the new attribute filter feature of the Topology-View

Quorum index

Quorum index is an attribute of selected MDisks or Drives. It can be displayed in BVQ inside the detail pane of these Object types and as a column inside a Treetable showing them. You can also use it in the new attribute filter feature of the Topology-View.

Ultra high resolution monitor support

Ultra High definition monitors (UHD) with resolutions up to 4k are increasingly used. With this release, BVQ is ready for use on such monitors and will benefit from the gained space and sharpness. We tested monitor scaling up to 175% on 27" and 32" 4k monitors with excellent results. Using the BVQ GUI on a two 32" 4k monitor environment is a good recommendation.

Improved date-axis in Performance-View

We improved the usability of the date-axis shown in charts of a Performance-View. Based on the visible time period, tick marks (vertical lines) and according labels are adjusted dynamically. This will make it easier to align observed performance events with the time they occurred.