Category Archives: SAN

IBM makes some very cool storage announcements

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

IBM has today announced a whole swag of planned new features across the entire IBM Storage product line.  You can read the announcement letter here and I have also dropped the text at the bottom of this blog post (to save … Continue reading →

Posted in DS8800, IBM, IBM Storage, IBM XIV, SAN, Storwize V7000 | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

IBM’s new SAN24B-5 16 Gbps FC Switch

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

IBM have announced a nice new Brocade sourced 24 port Fibre Channel switch (the SAN24B-5 based on the Brocade 6505).   This is a great addition to the family as it delivers two key features that I think are vital … Continue reading →

Posted in Brocade, IBM, IBM Storage, SAN | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What Cisco firmware do I recommend for your MDS Switches?

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

Right now I am working on giving a client a recommended version of firmware for their Cisco MDS Fibre Channel switches.  For FICON, the recommendations are easy, but for Open Systems there are so many choices.  So what am I … Continue reading →

Posted in Cisco, IBM Storage, SAN, System z, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Who on earth is Gold Major and why is he sending me emails?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

I got a great question recently: We just updated our Cisco MDS9509s to NX-OS 4.2.7b (from Cisco SAN-OS 3.3.1c) and now we are getting emails from this source:   GOLD-major. The actual message looks like this: Time of Event:2012-03-05 15:07:21 … Continue reading →

Posted in Cisco, IBM Storage, SAN | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Where on earth are the IBM VMware SRAs?

Posted on March 14, 2012 by

I always laugh when people say to me:  I wouldn’t know what to blog about! When you work in pre-sales support, you constantly get asked questions and each one of them could be the subject of a new blog post. … Continue reading →

Posted in DS8800, IBM Storage, IBM XIV, SAN, Storwize V7000, SVC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

IBM Storage WWPN Determination Guide version 6.5

Posted on March 1, 2012 by

I have updated my IBM Storage WWPN Determination Guide to version 6.5. You can find the updated guide on IBM Techdocs here. The main change is that new DS8800s are now presenting slightly different WWPNs, so I added three new … Continue reading →

Posted in DS8800, IBM Storage, IBM XIV, SAN, Storwize V7000, SVC | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Semmelweis could see the problem

Posted on February 2, 2012 by

I listened to another great podcast from the Freakonomics team recently in which they recounted the story of Doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, which inspired me to make a connection to something I see in my day to day job. Doctor Semmelweis … Continue reading →

Posted in Brocade, IBM Storage, SAN | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

New SVC Storage Performance Council SPC-1 benchmark breaks 500,000 IOPS barrier

Posted on January 31, 2012 by

The IBM SVC has has been setting records in SPC-1 (OLTP-like) benchmarks for many years.   However recently HP stole the crown with a 3Par benchmark of 450,212.66 IOPS. But in breaking news, the SVC is back on top with the very first … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM Storage, SAN, Storwize V7000, SVC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

IBM Storage Fix information as of January 29, 2012

Posted on January 30, 2012 by

My good friend Rob Jackard from the ATS Group has compiled this list of updates to the IBM Support site.   It is a very comprehensive list of updates, flashes, tips and warnings and it is well worth spending a … Continue reading →

Posted in Brocade, DS8800, IBM XIV, SAN, Storwize V7000, SVC, System z, Tivoli Storage, TPC | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Storwize V7000 and SVC Release 6.3.0.1 is available for download

Posted on January 28, 2012 by

The first update for Storwize V7000 and SVC release 6.3 is now available.   You will find it here for Storwize V7000 and here for SVC (note both links will require you to login to Fix Central with your IBM ID).    As usual … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM Storage, SAN, Storwize V7000, SVC | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments