InServ 2.31 Brings improved Admin GUI functions

[Richard Siemers]

With the version 2.31 of InServ due out Q4 2009, will be a new admin gui as well.

Rumor is that it will be backward compatible with InServ 2.24 and has several enhancements like the ability to do Dynamic Optimation aka move volumes from one CPG or raid type to another, and remote copy functions. Currently 2.24 users need to use the command line to perform these tasks.

More good news is the introduction of "Autonomic groups" which allow hosts and/luns to be grouped for easier management. Currently, when several luns are provisioned for a single host, each lun is exported 1 at a time to the host. With Autonomic groups, all the luns for a host can be grouped together, and then the group can be exported to the host. Host groups can also be created, for example a farm of VMware servers could be 1 group, or the nodes of a MSCS cluster, resulting in exporting a single group of disks to a single group of servers thus simplifying management, more so in large environments.

[Richard Siemers]

So I have the new 2.31 GUI installed and using it to manage my 2.24 InServe.

In the spirit of the holidays, I want to point out one ehancement to the GUI that I am most thankful for... and that is multiple selections when exporting LUNs. Now I can shift or control click multiple LUNS and export them to host(s) at one time. The old GUI used to require you to make a LUN ID # assignment per LUN, and thus export 1 lun at a time. Thanks 3Par developers and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

[Richard Siemers]

The shift click export feature makes some assumptions for you when assigning LUN IDs as you can see here. The GUI autopicks the fist available LUN ID for the host, which you can edit in one of the prior screens, but you only get to pick 1 LUN ID presumably assigned to the first LUN in the list and the rest get auto assigned sequential numbers.

Screenshot

Shift_click_export1.GIF (23.83 KiB) Viewed 27214 times

Hopefully a future version will allow assigning the LUN id to each VV manually.