BVQ 2024.H2
- Sabine Engel
- Dirk Beckmann
- Thomas Sikora
Please note |
|---|
Download BVQ downloads are available on the BVQ° Website |
Content
- 1 Highlights
- 1.1 Inventory
- 1.2 New Storage Platform: PureStorage FlashArray
- 1.2.1 Brief description
- 1.2.2 Licensing
- 1.2.3 Information gathering
- 1.2.4 Supported environments and pre-requisites
- 1.2.5 Object types
- 1.2.6 Object relations
- 1.3 New Storage Platform: Dell PowerStore
- 1.3.1 Brief description
- 1.3.2 Licensing
- 1.3.3 Information gathering
- 1.3.4 Supported environments and pre-requisites
- 1.3.5 Object types
- 1.3.6 Object relations
- 1.4 Linux x86 Agent on VMware VMs
- 1.5 GPU statistics for VMware vSphere hosts
- 1.6 NetApp REST API
- 1.7 NetApp Security
- 2 Requirements and restrictions
Highlights
Inventory
The new Inventory serves as a central entry point for managing your IT infrastructure.
Firstly, it offers a comprehensive overview of the layers, platforms, and systems you’re scanning in BVQ. This includes aggregated topology, performance, and capacity data, along with a comparison to the previous week.
Secondly, the Inventory acts as a complete directory, allowing you to easily locate every object in your scanned infrastructure and access detailed information for each one.
Currently providing high-level insights and object-specific details, the Inventory represents the first milestone in integrating the Expert GUI into BVQ’s web interface, paving the way for more advanced analysis capabilities in future releases.
New Storage Platform: PureStorage FlashArray
Brief description
BVQ has enhanced its storage portfolio by PureStorage FlashArray. Either standalone FlashArrays or ActiveCluster configurations are supported.
In this first release, the most common block storage features are supported and BVQ can help to:
find and monitor performance issues
view and analyze end-to-end connectivity from VMware or PowerVM through FC SAN to the FlashArray(s)
view and verify configurations for various components
monitor system health using BVQ's alerting engine with a set of predefined FlashArray alert rules
Licensing
PureStorage FlashArray is licensed per capacity in TiB.
In case the array is virtualized behind IBM Storage Virtualize and this platform is already licensed, then no additional costs are charged for the FlashArray platform.
Please see BVQ° License Entitlements for further information.
Information gathering
All information BVQ required from a PureStorage FlashArray is collected through its REST API.
Topology configuration data is collected once an hour (per default). BVQ then prepares the information in 13 object types containing a total of 211 attributes.
Performance statistics are gathered every 5 minutes (per default) which are then visualized in 6 objects types containing a total of 52 attributes.
Supported environments and pre-requisites
See Supported Environments - Storage layer for supported Purity versions
and FlashArray preparation for pre-requisites
Object types
In the first release of PureStorage FlashArray the following object types are supported by BVQ.
Group | BVQ Name | Performance? | Capacities? | Bemerkung |
|---|---|---|---|---|
System | Cluster | A Cluster can consist of one or two PureStorage Flasharrays (= Activecluster). | ||
Array |
| An Array represents the PureStorage FlashArray physical hardware. This can be any FlashArray type (X, XL, E, C, m) | ||
Controller | A PureStorage Array always has two controllers installed to manage and handle all I/O workload | |||
Storage Provider | Pool | Array | Array | A Pool corresponds to an array in context FlashStorage. This object type is required for BVQ Generic Storage. |
Pod |
|
| A Pod is a logical unit on a single array or across two arrays to manage synchronous replication. | |
Pod2Array |
|
| A pod can exist on a single array or can be stretched across two arrays. This object type represents the relationship between Pod and Array. | |
Storage Consumer | Volume |
|
| A Volume is a FC, iSCSI or NVMe block volume in a Cluster. |
Volume copy |
|
| A Volume copy represents a volume on a single array. If a volume is part of an ActiveCluster, BVQ will show two volume copies - one in each array. If a volume is not stretched, then a volume copy is a 1:1 copy of BVQ object type FashArray Volume. | |
Host |
|
| A Host can either be FC, iSCSI or NVMe | |
Connection |
| A Connection represents the mapping between a block volume and a host | ||
SAN | Host port |
|
| A Host port represents a FC, iSCSI or NVMe port on a host |
FC Port |
| FC Port in an PureStorage FlashArray controller | ||
Host login |
| A Host login is the connection between a host port and an FC or ethernet port on the FlashArray |
Object relations
The following graph shows the relationships between the different FlashArray object types in BVQ:
New Storage Platform: Dell PowerStore
Brief description
BVQ has enhanced its storage portfolio by Dell PowerStore support.
In this first release, the most common block storage features are supported and BVQ can help to:
find and monitor performance issues
view and analyze end-to-end connectivity from VMware or PowerVM through FC SAN to the PowerStore Cluster
view and verify configurations for various components
monitor system health using BVQ's alerting engine with a set of predefined PowerStore alert rules
Licensing
Dell PowerStore is licensed per capacity in TiB.
In case the array is virtualized behind IBM Storage Virtualize and this platform is already licensed, then no additional costs are charged for the PowerStore platform.
Please see BVQ° License Entitlements for further information.
Information gathering
All information BVQ required from a Dell PowerStore is collected through its REST API.
Topology configuration data is collected once an hour (per default). BVQ then prepares the information in 10 object types containing a total of 135 attributes.
Performance statistics are gathered every 5 minutes (per default) which are then visualized in 3 objects types containing a total of 45 attributes.
Supported environments and pre-requisites
See Supported Environments - Storage layer for supported PowerStore OS versions
and PowerStore preparation for pre-requisites
Object types
In the first release of Dell PowerStore the following object types are supported by BVQ.
Group | BVQ Name | Performance? | Capacities? | Bemerkung |
|---|---|---|---|---|
System | Cluster | A Cluster can consist of one to four Appliances | ||
Appliance |
| A solution containing a base enclosure and any attached expansion enclosures | ||
Node | A PowerStore Appliance always has two nodes installed to manage and handle all I/O workload. The node ist located inside the base enclosure. | |||
Storage Provider | Pool | Appliance | Appliance | A Pool corresponds to an appliance in context PowerStore. This object type is required for BVQ Generic Storage. |
Storage Consumer | Volume |
|
| A Volume is a FC, iSCSI or NVMe block volume in a Cluster. |
| Host | A Host can either be FC, iSCSI or NVMe | ||
| Volume 2 Host |
| A Volume 2 Host represents the mapping between a block volume and a host | |
SAN | Host port |
|
| A Host port represents a FC, iSCSI or NVMe port on a host |
FC Port |
| FC Port in an Dell PowerStore Node. | ||
Host login |
| A Host login is the connection between a host port and an FC or ethernet port on the PowerStore Node |
Object relations
The following graph shows the relationships between the different PowerStore object types in BVQ:
Linux x86 Agent on VMware VMs
The functionality of the Linux agent is extended to support x86 based systems. With this release, you can use the Linux Agent on x86 VMs within VMware vSphere.
Please see BVQ° License Entitlements for license information.
Check OS Agent preparation and Supported environments for pre-requisites and supported OS versions.
GPU statistics for VMware vSphere hosts
A new objecttype “GPU” now allows to monitor the statistics of each GPU inside a Host of a VMware vSphere platform. The most useful statistics are: % GPU utilization and % usage of the total GPU memory. Similar to the CPU usage of a host, you are now able to decide if your GPU is a bottleneck for your applications or your VDI environment. Two new BVQ° Alert rules have been added to monitor the utilization and temperature against predefined configurable thresholds.
NetApp REST API
The NetApp ONTAP performance scan now finally uses the new REST API for performance data. From ONTAP version 9.11 BVQ now automatically switches to the REST API. For versions < 9.11 the NetApp ZAPI interface is still used.
Customers with an ONTAP version 9.11 or higher can now deactivate the ONTAPI access and remove the ONTAPI application from the allowed login methods for the BVQ user on the system.
Attention: Since no direct aggregate performance metrics are available in the new API, these are now aggregated from the disk partitions. Therefore there are small differences in the available metrics.
NetApp Security
With the latest release of BVQ, additional NetApp objects and attributes have been included in order to perform additional security checks. 15 new alert rules check the configuration according to BSI specifications.
An additional report will follow in one of the upcoming releases.
Group | BVQ Name | Bemerkung |
|---|---|---|
Controller | Cluster | Additional security attributes |
SVM | SVM | Additional security attributes |
SVM Security | RBAC | Links role, user or group, application and authentication method |
SVM Application | Application (Protocol) a user can gain administrative access to a SVM. | |
User or Group | User or group created within a SVM | |
Role | Roles available for a SVM | |
Authentication Method | Authentication method available for RBAC access within the cluster |
Requirements and restrictions
Requirements of the HW/SW environment | Please see Supported Environments |
|---|---|
Minimum BVQ version required for an update |