Ibm System Storage SVC Easy Tier in 7 3

IBM System Storage SAN Volume
Controller IBM Easy Tier in 7.3.0 release
Kushal S. Patel, Shrikant V. Karve

IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement
July 2014
Copyright IBM Corporation, 2014
Table of contents
Abstract........................................................................................................................................1
Getting started.............................................................................................................................1
Introduction to Easy Tier.......................................................................................................................... 1
User transparency.................................................................................................................................... 1
Migration of extents.................................................................................................................................. 2
What is new in 7.3.0 release.......................................................................................................3

Limiting function ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Balancing function.................................................................................................................................... 3
Support for three tiers .............................................................................................................................. 4
Easy Tier licensing changes .................................................................................................................... 4
Easy Tier limitation................................................................................................................................... 5
Customer scenarios....................................................................................................................5
Upgrade to 7.3.0 version ......................................................................................................................... 5
Performance benefits............................................................................................................................. 14
Summary....................................................................................................................................15
Resources..................................................................................................................................16
About the authors .....................................................................................................................16
Trademarks and special notices..............................................................................................17
IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller IBM Easy Tier in 7.3.0 release
Abstract
This white paper provides a brief introduction to the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller
(SVC) cluster with the IBM Easy Tier feature in the 7.3.0 release. The paper gives information
regarding the Easy Tier configuration, management, and upgrade changes in detail.
This paper also provides guidance about configuring the Easy Tier feature in the SVC cluster. It
also describes the Easy Tier licensing changes in the 7.3.0 release compared to the 7.2.0
release, along with the upgrade considerations.
Getting started
This section gives a brief idea about the basics of the IBM Easy Tier feature along with the
implementation details.
Introduction to Easy Tier

IBM Easy Tier feature is supported with IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC), IBM
Storwize V7000, IBM Storwize V7000 Unified, IBM Storwize V5000, IBM Storwize V3700, and IBM
System Storage DS8000. This paper describes the functionality in SVC and Storwize products that are
specific to release 7.3.0
IBM Easy Tier is designed to automate data placement throughout the disk pool to improve the efficiency
and performance of the storage system. Easy Tier aims to relocate data (at the extent level) across up to
three-drive tiers automatically and without disruption to application I/O. These operations are transparent
to users and completely handled by the SVC code. This helps users to have the most frequently used data
or hot data accessible very fast and with lower latency, whereas the archaic data will be stored in a
relatively lower medium of storage. Easy Tier detects when any data extent is heavily in use and moves to
a higher tier of storage. As a result, data is available very fast, without having to shed huge costs.
The key benefit of Easy Tier in 7.3.0 to older versions is that it allows tiering between three tiers. This
increases the performance of the system. It supports data movement across three tiers, and therefore, the
data can be classified in to following three categories based on usage,
Heavily used data (also called hot data)

Moderately used data (also called warm data)
Cold data
Easy Tier stores hot data in the fastest type of disk, that is, on solid-state drives (SSDs) and warm data
and cold data are stored in enterprise disks and nearline SAS disks respectively. Easy Tier algorithm
works in such a way that it always puts heavily used data in the upper storage tier.
User transparency
The Easy Tier feature is completely transparent to the users and manages all data movement without any
explicit user intervention. Data across tier is being migrated when a certain condition is arrived. This
condition checking is automated in this feature. Users can see the extent of movement by cluster CLI
commands such as lsvdiskextent. Some of the transparency details include:
Moving of inactive data automatically on cheaper storage instead of high-cost SSDs can
save data retrieval time. This also saves the costumers money to buy additional SSDs.
When active hot data is moved from an enterprise disk to an SSD, the user can notice a
significant decrease in latency.
Previously, when only two tiers were supported, there was either fast accessibility or slow
accessibility. But with the introduction of the third tier and dividing the generic_hdd tier into
enterprise and nearline, it is possible to achieve better performance even when the tier is
not SSD disks in the system.
Easy Tier supports the load or performance rebalancing feature. Hence from a user's
perspective, latency has been minimized to a substantial level.
For inactive cold data, which is not used often and are mainly for archival purposes, there
is no need to store such data in costly, high-performance SSDs. Instead, it moved to a
cheaper medium: such as nearline, and whenever the data gets hot, it is automatically
moved to a better layer.
Migration of extents
With the extension of support for three tiers, migration attempts to preserve the tier of an extent after user
initiated migration, that is, if an extent is created from a managed disk (MDisk) of enterprise type, then
after migration, it attempts to preserve the tier of the extent, that is, it will seek to conserve it as an
enterprise tier. If an extent of the correct type is not available in the target pool, then it searches for a free
extent from the other tiers in the order: enterprise, nearline, SSD. This is the same order in which creation
and expansion will select extents from MDisks. However, it is possible to override the tier explicitly by
specifying the appropriate MDisks using the -mdisk option.
During user-initiated migration, Easy Tier management (including balancing function) will be disabled.
Easy Tier measurement continues during migrations if Easy Tier was enabled before the migration started
and will be enabled after the migration completes.
In Easy Tier function of 7.3.0 release, there are basically two types of migration based on tier levels:
Intra-tier migration: The extent migration between the same tier disks is nothing but intra-tier migration.
This type of load balancing is also known as balancing. If a system has some highly utilized disks and
some low-utilized disks, then some hot extents from the highly utilized disks are moved to the underloaded disks. Here, both the disks are of the same tier.
Inter-tier migration: The extent migration across the tier is also known as inter-tier migration. In this type
of migration, the extent of one tier moves to the other tier disk. This migration can happen if the destination
MDisk is the upper tier MDisk and has no performance downgrade after the migration and another MDisk
of lower tier has hot data. This migration can also be called as the extent promote operation. If the upper
tier MDisk has cold data, then this cold data is migrated to the lower tier disk, provided, the destination has
the capacity to accommodate the extent completely. This cold data migration to lower tier disk is also
known as the cold demote operation. Another scenario can be if the extents on the MDisks are extremely
hot and hitting the performance limit of the MDisk; then the extents are demoted to a lower tier in order to
protect the higher tier performance. This is known as the warm demote operation.
What is new in 7.3.0 release

There are mainly four new functions introduced in Easy Tier release 7.3.0
Limiting function This is a new function that handles performance monitoring and
denies extent to migrate if the destination disk is already overloaded or gets overloaded
after extent migration.
Balancing This function deals with extent migration within the same tier MDisks. This
function is out of Easy Tier licensing.
Support for three tiers Older Easy Tier supports two technology types, that is, SSD
and hard disk drive (HDD) which are considered as Tier0 and Tier1 respectively. Easy
Tier of 7.3.0 release cares about SSD, enterprise, and nearline. The generic_hdd tier is
split into enterprise and nearline tier. Therefore the "tier" can have the values "ssd,
enterprise, nearline".
Licensing changes Significant changes have happened in Easy Tier licensing in the
7.3.0 release. These changes are explained briefly in the following subsections.
Limiting function
Although SSDs have grown in size, they have not grown the same in performance. SSDs can have nasty
characteristics when overloaded; the performance might degrade significantly and abruptly when the SSD
reaches its load capacity. Easy Tier code implementation in versions before release 7.3.0 has nothing to
prevent it from putting too many extents on SSD. Due to this SSDs performance could actually become
worse. In Easy Tier 7.3.0 release, the limiting function is introduced. This limiting function takes care of the
SSDs performance and limits the extent migration to SSD when it reaches to performance limit. This
function helps to control extent movement in case of nasty behavior of SSD disks.
Also, in case of external MDisks, Easy Tier collects statistics about the utilization of MDisk. It calculates
the controller performance value and displays through lsmdisk CLI (detailed view only). These values
are sampled into low, medium, high, very_high and blank for array MDisks. The user can change the
controller performance value using the chmdisk command. The valid values can be default, low, med,
high, and very high. Choosing "default" causes the value to revert to the system determined value. The
"very_high" parameter to this command will only be valid if the tier is "ssd". If the controller performance is
"very_high" and the user changes the tier from "ssd" to "enterprise" or "nearline", the controller
performance value will automatically be changed to "high" (while converse is not true). This functionality is
not supported by cluster GUI.
Balancing function
Balancing is a feature that deals with extent migration within the same storage tier. The extent migration
between the same tier MDisks are nothing but intra-tier migration. If a disk is highly utilized (and the other
disks of the same tier than that first are low utilized) then some hot extents are moved to the low-utilized
disk if the low-utilized disk does not reach the performance limit after the migration. Here, both the disks
are of same tier. This feature of balancing is available in all types of tiers and is out of the purview of Easy
Tier licensing. The balancing function improves performance as hotter extents are distributed among
multiple disks of the same tier. This function plays an important role in overloading scenarios, where extent
migration improves performance by great extent.
Versions before release 7.3.0 require a balancing script to balance the extents across MDisks. By
rebalancing the extents from existing volumes onto new MDisks, existing volumes will get a performance
boost. This balancing script is not required from 7.3.0 release as the balancing function is invoked
immediately after the addition of an MDisk in an MDisk group..
IBM System Storage SVC supports balance capability for single-tier pools. The auto balancing function will
be on by default in SVC/Storwize. As most customers prefer to keep management and customer
decision making to a minimum, the best option is to just have that as the default.
Support for three tiers

Versions before Easy Tier release 7.3.0 supports two technology types: SSD and HDD which are
considered as Tier0 and Tier1 respectively. While assigning a value to tier, user can pick from a
technology type (generic_ssd, generic_hdd). In Easy Tier until release 7.2.0, this value of tier is used for
internal computation. This limitation in earlier versions has been overcome in Easy Tier 7.3.0 release.
In the 7.3.0 release of SVC, Easy Tier cares about SSD, enterprise, and nearline, and therefore, the "tier"
can have the values "ssd, enterprise, nearline". "generic_hdd" in Easy Tier is changed to "enterprise" with
the addition of "nearline". Lowest technology types (such as SSD, enterprise, or nearline) are used if an
MDisk is made from mixed disks rather than what user assigns or overrides.
Easy Tier has multitier support with two independent modes of action: Promotion and demotion (either can
cause a swap.) Promotion moves an extent up by 1 tier while demotion moves an extent down by one tier.
Easy Tier code does not cope up with moving an extent from tier 2 to tier 0 (or from tier 0 to tier 2) in one
go. But, if you have a pool of technology types (such as SSD and nearline) then SSD arrays are mapped
to tier 0 and nearline arrays are mapped to tier 1. Due to this, a two-tier promotion/demotion is avoided.
Easy Tier licensing changes

Easy Tier is a feature that requires a distinct license. The licensing is different for each product type. The
following license restrictions are applicable for various Storwize products.
SVC and Storwize V7000 do not require a license for Easy Tier
Storwize V3500 does not allow Easy Tier
Storwize V3700 requires a license and it is strictly enforced. Setting Easy Tier to on has
no impact if Easy Tier is not licensed and when the user acquires a license, Easy Tier
becomes active.
With Storwize V5000, the user is supposed to purchase a license for Easy Tier, but it is
not enforced. Instead, warning messages are produced if the user enables Easy Tier
without a license. Therefore, Easy Tier status will not automatically change to on when
upgrading to Storwize V5000. If a user acquires an Easy Tier license for Storwize V5000,
then Easy Tier status becomes active automatically without any additional user action.
This licensing change affects the easy_tier "auto" functionality. The easy_tier auto functionality translates
to on if Easy Tier is licensed or no license is required and is off if Easy Tier is not licensed and a license is
required. Changing Easy Tier from "auto" to "on" will enable Easy Tier when a license is required but the
license is not strictly enforced. It will have no effect if a license is required and the license is strictly
enforced. Also, changing Easy Tier to "measure" will not have any effect when a license is required and
the license is strictly enforced. Thus the "easy_tier" attribute can then take on the values auto, on, off,
and measure.
Similarly, the "easy_tier_status" attribute undergoes changes with licensing. The status, "active" will now
mean that Easy Tier is managing the multitier pools while it is balanced for a single-tier pool. A new value
"measured" indicates that Easy Tier statistics are being collected for all vdisks but no management is
taking place. The status, "inactive" means that Easy Tier is neither collecting statistics nor managing the
tiers.
Easy Tier limitation

If the Storwize V3700 setup with a 4 GB node memory reaches above 700k extents, then Easy tier
functionality gets automatically disabled and error message 020007 (storage optimization services
disabled) is flagged. This error disappears automatically after the addition of canister RAM or molding
setup to less than 700k extents.
Customer scenarios
This section includes customer scenarios namely upgrade to 7.3.0 version and performance benefits.
Upgrade section mainly includes CLI changes in upgrade to 7.3.0. The other subsections talks about the
performance benefits of the Easy Tier functionality of the 7.3.0 version. This includes performance benefits
of Easy Tier and snaps of performance statistics graphs.
Upgrade to 7.3.0 version

Upgrade is actually fairly simple. While upgrading from older versions to the 7.3.0 version, some changes
can be observed by custumers. Compatibility has two aspects namely, task commands and list
commands. With respect to task commands, 7.3.0 code continues to accept prior (now superseded)
values and map them to an appropriate value. If the user enters "generic_hdd" on the command line in a
situation where it is possible to specify a "tier" value, then that will be accepted and mapped to
"enterprise". Similarly "generic_ssd" will map to the ssd tier.
With respect to list commands, if the setting of pools (both single tier and multiple tiers) is
easy_tier = auto, it remains unchanged, and the status of the pool becomes easy_tier = active (if
permitted by licensing), and the volumes' setting remains unchanged, but the status gets updated
accordingly. For the volumes in the "auto" single-tier pool, the easy_tier_status will become "balanced",
and others remain same. A multitier MDisk group with "easy_tier" of "on" will be unchanged. A pool
(consisting of multiple tier and single tier) with "easy_tier" of "off" will be unchanged. For a single tier
MDisk group with "easy_tier" of "on", the status will be inactive. If Easy Tier is not licensed, a license is
required and it is strictly enforced. An MDisk group whose "easy_tier" attribute is "off" will be unchanged.
Figure 1: lsmdisk command output in 7.2.0 version
After upgrading to 7.3.0 build, MDisks tier values are changed. generic_ssd becomes ssd,
generic_hdd layer is split into enterprise and nearline tiers.
Figure 2: lsmdisk command output after upgrade to 7.3
7.2.0 Version shows below output (Figure 3) after execution of lsmdiskgrp command. Here mdiskgrp 0 is
made from all three types of tiers. This command shows easy_tier status along with tier_mdisk_count for
each tier in mdiskgrp.
Figure 3: lsmdiskgrp command detailed view of mdiskgrp 0 in 7.2.0 version
After upgrading to 7.3.0 version, if license is provided to the system or if it is not strictly enforced, then
hybrid tier pools MDisk group parameters that are easy_tier and easy_tier_status remains unaffected
If license is not provided in case it is strictly enforced, then the easy_tier parameter will as before
upgrade while easy_tier_status will be inactive. In this case, the generic_hdd tier is split into
enterprise and nearline tiers and all three tier values are shown as part of the lsmdiskgrp command.
Figure 4: lsmdiskgrp command output for mdiskgrp 0 after upgrade to 7.3.0 version
In the case of pool 1 which is made up from two MDisks, one is an enterprise MDisk and another is a
nearline MDisk. As versions before Easy Tier 7.3.0 has only two tiers, it is showing both as generic_hdd
and hence tier_mdisk_count is two. As Easy Tier 1 handles enterprise and nearline disks as
generic_hdd, the tier_mdisk_count of this pool is two.
Figure 5: lsmdiskgrp command a detailed view of mdiskgrp 1 in 7.2.0 version
After upgrading to 7.3.0 version, as three tiers are supported, all the entries of mdiskgrp are recalculated
and filled accordingly. Due to this, one pool1 MDisk is recognized as nearline and tier_mdisk_count is
recalculated as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: lsmdiskgrp command output for mdiskgrp 1 after upgrading to 7.3 version
10
Figure 7: lsmdiskgrp command output for single tier mdiskgrp 2 before upgrading to 7.3.0 version
11
Figure 8: lsmdiskgrp command output for single tier mdiskgrp 2 after upgrading to 7.3.0 version
12
Figure 9: Cluster GUI showing MDisks and tiers in a version before 7.3.0
Figure 10: Cluster GUI showing MDisks and tiers in 7.3.0 version
13
Performance benefits
After the Easy Tier feature is activated in the system, customers can see improved performance statistics.
This performance benefit is in terms of improved I/O rate and reduction in latency period. As Easy Tier
move hot extents to upper tier which has high performance capability, the overall performance of the
system increases and the read/write operation becomes faster.
Considering a scenario in which a volume is created from a pool of an SSD and a nearline MDisk. In this
example, volume extents are on the nearline MDisk and hence all read/write operations are on extents of
nearline disks. As Easy Tier is active in the system, it monitors all the I/O operations happening in the pool
and migrates hotter extents to the upper tier. In this case, the upper tier that is available in the pool is SSD.
The following screen captures show details of performance improvement due to extent migration by Easy
Tier.
Figure 11: Improvement in read I/O by Easy Tier extent migration
14
Figure 12: Improvement in write I/O by Easy Tier extent migration
Summary
This white paper provides a brief introduction to the IBM System Storage SVC cluster with the IBM Easy
Tier feature in the 7.3.0 release along with upgrade considerations. In the 7.3.0 version, three-tier support
is introduced along with the balancing function. The limiting function handles performance monitoring and
denies extent to migrate if the destination disk is already overloaded or gets overloaded after extent
migration. The balancing function deals with extent migration within the same storage tier. Due to the
balancing function, the balancing script is not required from the 7.3.0 release. Significant changes have
happened in Easy Tier licensing in the 7.3.0 release which is also covered in detail. The IBM Easy Tier
feature improves performance by moving hotter extents to upper high-speed tier and cold extents to the
lower tier disk. Moving of inactive data automatically on cheaper storage instead of high-cost SSDs can
save data retrieval time. This also saves the costumers money to buy additional SSDs.
15
Resources
The following websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper:
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld

ibm.com/partnerworld/systems
IBM Power Development Platform

ibm.com/partnerworld/pdp
IBM Power Systems Information Center

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp
IBM Redbooks
ibm.com/redbooks
About the authors

Kushal S. Patel is an associate software engineer in IBM Systems and Technology Group SVC and
Storwize family. As part of Easy Tier team, he was the member of functional test execution. You can reach
Kushal at kushpate@in.ibm.com.
Shrikant V. Karve is a storage architect in IBM Systems and Technology Group SVC and Storwize family.
As part of the Easy Tier team, he was the functional test lead. You can reach Shrikant at
shrkarve@in.ibm.com
16
Trademarks and special notices

Copyright IBM Corporation 2014.
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country.
IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ), these
symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at "Copyright and trademark information" at
www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind.
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer.
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published
announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims
related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products.
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice,
and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction.
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities. Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance, function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products. Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements. The information is
presented here to communicate IBM's current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers' future planning.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user's job stream, the I/O configuration, the
storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here.
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes. Changes may be incorporated in production models.
17
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites. The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk.
18

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IBM System Storage SAN Volume

Controller IBM Easy Tier in 7.3.0 release

Kushal S. Patel, Shrikant V. Karve

Copyright IBM Corporation, 2014

What is new in 7.3.0 release.......................................................................................................3

Introduction to Easy Tier

Heavily used data (also called hot data)

What is new in 7.3.0 release

Support for three tiers

Easy Tier licensing changes

Easy Tier limitation

Upgrade to 7.3.0 version

Figure 1: lsmdisk command output in 7.2.0 version

Figure 2: lsmdisk command output after upgrade to 7.3

Figure 3: lsmdiskgrp command detailed view of mdiskgrp 0 in 7.2.0 version

Figure 5: lsmdiskgrp command a detailed view of mdiskgrp 1 in 7.2.0 version

Figure 11: Improvement in read I/O by Easy Tier extent migration

Figure 12: Improvement in write I/O by Easy Tier extent migration

IBM Systems on PartnerWorld

IBM Power Development Platform

IBM Power Systems Information Center

About the authors

Trademarks and special notices

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