Hitachi Command Suite
Command Director
User Guide
© 2014 Hitachi, Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or stored in a database or retrieval system for any purpose without the express written permission of Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., reserves the right to make changes to this document at any time without notice and assumes no responsibility for its use. This document contains the most current information available at the time of publication.
When new or revised information becomes available, this entire document will be updated and distributed to all registered users.
Some of the features described in this document might not be currently available. Refer to the most recent product announcement for information about feature and product availability, or contact Hitachi Data Systems Corporation at https://portal.hds.com.
Notice: Hitachi, Ltd., products and services can be ordered only under the terms and conditions of the applicable Hitachi Data Systems Corporation agreements. The use of Hitachi, Ltd., products is governed by the terms of your agreements with Hitachi Data Systems Corporation.
Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd., in the United States and other countries.
Archivas, Essential NAS Platform, HiCommand, Hi-Track, ShadowImage, Tagmaserve, Tagmasoft, Tagmasolve, Tagmastore, TrueCopy, Universal Star Network, and Universal Storage Platform are registered trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems.
AIX, AS/400, DB2, Domino, DS6000, DS8000, Enterprise Storage Server, ESCON, FICON, FlashCopy, IBM, Lotus, MVS, OS/390, RS/6000, S/390, System z9, System z10, Tivoli, VM/ESA, z/OS, z9, z10, zSeries, z/VM, and z/VSE are registered trademarks or trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
All other trademarks, service marks, and company names in this document or web site are properties of their respective owners.
Microsoft product screen shots are reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
Notice on Export Controls. The technical data and technology inherent in this Document may be subject to U.S.
export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Act and its associated regulations, and may be subject to export or import regulations in other countries. Reader agrees to comply strictly with all such regulations and acknowledges that Reader has the responsibility to obtain licenses to export, re-export, or import the Document and any Compliant Products.
Contents
Preface... 11
Intended audience... 12
Product version...12
Release notes... 12
Document revision level...12
Referenced documents... 13
Document conventions... 13
Conventions for storage capacity values...14
Accessing product documentation... 15
Getting help...15
Comments...15
1 Overview...17
About Hitachi Command Director...18
Features...18
What's new in Hitachi Command Director...20
Setup workflow...20
Logging in... 23
Registering a license...24
Specifying an email address when you first log in... 26
Modifying your user profile...27
Hitachi Command Director graphical user interface... 27
Navigating the Help system...28
Logging out... 29
2 Using dashboards to quickly access vital system reports... 31
About the Hitachi Command Director dashboards... 32
Dashboard access and controls... 33
Overview of dashboard access and controls... 33
Specifying dashboard reports from the Settings dialog...34
Setting a default dashboard...35
Resizing the dashboard layout... 35
Exporting and downloading a dashboard to PDF... 36
Global and DataCenter dashboards default reports... 36
Total number of applications with SLO misses... 37
Response Time SLO Status report... 38
IOPS SLO Status report...38
DTR SLO Status report... 39
Application SLO Details report...40
Applications with Most SLO Misses in the Last 24 hours report... 42
Storage System Capacity Overview report...43
VMware Datastore Overview report...43
Hyper-V Filesystem Overview report...44
Pool Capacity Overview report... 45
Top 5 Busiest HNAS Nodes report... 47
HNAS Capacity Overview report... 48
HNAS Cluster Overview report... 49
Storage System Health Status report...49
Storage System Health Detail report...50
Storage System Performance Overview report...52
Planning dashboard default reports... 53
Pools dashboard default reports... 53
Top 20 Pool Utilization by Capacity report... 53
Storage Pool Health Status report... 55
Storage Pool Health Detail report... 56
Hosts dashboard default reports...57
Host Capacity Utilization Status report...57
Host Capacity Utilization Detail report...58
3 Managing resources... 61
About business views... 62
Using business views...63
Displaying business views...64
Custom business view...65
Logical Group view... 66
Hosts view... 68
File Servers view...69
Storage Systems view... 71
All Applications view... 73
Applications by pool view... 74
Applications by capacity view...75
Creating a new business view... 77
Business view modification restrictions...79
Managing business views...79
Deleting business views...80
4 Monitoring applications... 81
SLO overview...82
Application SLO types... 83
Understanding SLO profile recommendations... 84
Managing application SLO profiles... 84
About application SLO profiles... 85
Viewing application SLO profiles...86
Creating application SLO profiles...88
Editing application SLO Profiles...90
Deleting application SLO profiles...91
Accepting SLO profile recommendations... 91
Updating SLO profiles for volumes...93
Updating SLO profiles for application volumes... 96
Updating SLO profiles for pool volumes...99
Global SLO settings... 100
SLO Investigation Unit... 103
About SLO Investigation Unit... 103
Accessing the SLO Investigation Unit from the Dashboard...110
Accessing the SLO Investigation Unit from the Resources tab...111
5 Monitoring infrastructure... 113
Monitoring storage systems...114
Storage system health thresholds...114
Managing storage system monitoring profiles...114
Viewing storage system monitoring profiles... 115
Creating a storage system monitoring profile...116
Modifying a storage system monitoring profile... 117
Deleting a storage system monitoring profile... 117
Data metrics in storage system monitoring profiles... 118
Assigning monitoring profiles to storage systems...119
Storage system monitoring settings...121
Monitoring hosts... 123
Managing host monitoring profiles...123
Assigning monitoring profiles to hosts... 125
Host monitoring settings...127
6 Working with applications... 131
About applications...132
Application elements...132
Configuring applications...133
Application creation process flow... 133
Application notes... 135
Creating applications manually...135
Managing untagged applications... 142
Modifying applications... 143
Modifying a single application...143
Modifying multiple applications... 148
Deleting applications... 152
7 Reporting on applications... 155
Application reports... 157
Accessing application reports for a selected application... 158
Accessing application reports at the folder level in a business view... 159
Application Summary report... 159
SLO Status report...160
Storage System Performance report...161
Storage Allocation report...161
Filesystem Utilization report... 162
SLO Profile Details report... 163
Storage Allocation Trend... 164
Storage allocation forecast trend report... 166
Specifying criteria for the storage allocation forecast trend report...167
Application Response Time Trend report...168
IO Utilization Trend report...169
Storage allocation information... 170
Storage Allocation Details report... 170
Pool Utilization report...173
Storage Path report...176
Tier Definition report...177
Replication Details report...178
Total number of applications in a folder...178
Response Time SLO Status report...179
IOPS SLO Status report...180
Application List report...180
Application Capacity Comparison Trend report... 182
Specifying criteria for Application Capacity Comparison Trend report...183
DTR SLO Status report...184
Pool Tier Utilization Trend report...185
Pool Tier Utilization Forecast Trend report... 187
Specifying criteria for the pool tier utilization forecast trend report... 188
8 Reporting on hosts...191
Host reports...192
Available summary host reports...194
Summary host reports...194
Accessing summary host reports... 195
Storage Utilization report...195
Volume Manager Group report... 197
Available HNAS host reports...198
HNAS host reports... 198
Accessing HNAS host reports... 200
Filesystem IO Trend report... 200
Filesystem Load Trend report...201
HNAS Filesystem report...201
HNAS Pool Summary report... 202
HNAS Pool Details report... 203
HNAS Shares report... 204
Protocol Op/s Trend report... 204
Total Throughput Trend report... 205
Filesystem Utilization Trend report...206
Filesystem Utilization Forecast Trend report... 207
Hyper-V Server report...209
Accessing the Hyper-V server report...210
Hyper-V server report...210
VMware host reports... 211
Accessing VMware host reports...211
VMware Datastores report... 212
ESX Server VMDKs report... 212
Volumes Mapped to ESX Server VMs report...213
9 Reporting on storage systems... 215
Storage system reports...217
Accessing storage system reports for all storage systems... 218
Accessing storage system reports for a given type of system... 219
Accessing storage system reports for a specific system... 220
Storage System Performance Overview report... 222
Storage System Capacity Overview report... 223
Pool Capacity Overview report...224
Applications with Most SLO Misses (last 24 hours) report...225
Performance Overview by Storage System report...226
Storage System Capacity Trend report ... 227
Specifying criteria for Storage System Capacity Trend report... 228
Storage system capacity forecast trend report...229
Specifying criteria for the storage system capacity forecast trend report... 230
Pool Capacity Trend report... 231
Specifying criteria for Pool Capacity Trend report...233
Pool Capacity Forecast Trend report...233
Specifying criteria for the Pool Capacity Forecast Trend report...235
Pool Utilization report... 236
Application Capacity Utilization report... 238
Application Capacity by Storage Class report... 239
Specifying criteria for Application Capacity by Storage Class report... 242
Application Capacity Consumption by Storage System report... 243
Application Capacity Consumption Trend by Storage System for Application report.... 245
10 Using reports...247
Features available in the report viewer...248
About report viewer pagination controls...249
Refreshing the report view... 250
Sorting a report...250
Scheduling a report... 251
Exporting and downloading graphical reports in PDF... 252
Exporting and downloading a tabular report in Excel or XML...252
Customizing tabular reports... 253
Saving a report... 257
Pinning reports to a selected dashboard...259
11 Report gallery...261
About the report gallery...262
Utilization report gallery...263
Physical Capacity by Storage System report... 263
Pool Detailed Capacity Trend report...264
Pool Capacity by Storage System report...265
Pool detailed capacity trend for storage system pool... 268
Pool detailed capacity forecast trend... 269
Pool Usage by Application report...271
Performance report gallery...273
Storage Port Workload report...273
Pool Storage Performance report...274
Parity group utilization for pool...275
Top 20 Busiest Storage System Ports report... 275
Specifying criteria for Top 20 Busiest Storage System Ports report...276
Top 20 Busiest Parity Groups report...278
Top 20 Most or Least Busy Volumes report...278
Specifying criteria for Top 20 Most or Least Busy Volumes report... 280
Underutilized Volumes report... 281
Specifying criteria for Underutilized Volumes report...282
Application SLO Conformance report... 283
Application SLO Conformance Details report... 284
Specifying criteria for Application SLO Conformance Details report... 286
Application volume SLO conformance details (CSV only)...289
Storage economics report gallery...293
Top 10 Tiers by Capacity report...293
Underutilized Host Filesystems report... 294
Replication Capacity Distribution by Tier report... 294
Asset and Inventory report gallery...295
Storage System Inventory report...295
Filesystem Inventory report... 296
Physical Server Inventory report... 297
Storage Port Details report... 298
Capacity by Storage Class report...299
Chargeback report gallery... 300
Application Storage Allocation by Tier report... 300
Application Storage Allocation by Pool report...301
Storage Allocation by VMware VMs report...302
Accessing reports... 303
Accessing reports from the report gallery...304
Accessing reports from the Resources tab...304
12 Administering Hitachi Command Director... 307
Administration tasks overview... 308
Managing licenses... 309
Hitachi Command Director licenses...309
License types...309
Updating license information...310
Configuring Storage System Collectors... 312
About storage system data collection... 312
Viewing information about Storage System Collectors... 315
Prerequisites for configuring Storage System Collectors... 318
Configuring Storage System Collectors...319
Modifying Storage System Collectors... 321
Deleting Storage System Collectors... 323
Viewing storage system data collection history...324
Viewing details about a specific Storage System Collector... 326
Modifying how often data is refreshed... 326
Manually refreshing data... 327
Enabling and disabling Storage System Collectors...328
Enabling and disabling storage systems...328
Configuring Host Collectors... 330
Host discovery and agentless data gathering mechanism... 330
Host access requirements...331
Viewing Host Collector information...332
Enabling host discovery and data collection... 334
Prerequisites for host discovery on other subnets... 334
Configuring a new Host Collector... 335
Configuring a new vCenter Collector...336
Launching Host Collector to discover hosts... 338
Discovering hosts on the current subnet... 339
Discovering hosts by specifying a range of host IP addresses... 339
Discovering hosts by specifying a list of host IP addresses... 340
Modifying Host Collector...341
Refreshing Host Collector data... 342
Deleting Host Collectors... 342
Viewing information about discovered hosts...343
Viewing information about discovered ESX hosts... 344
Viewing information about discovered HNAS hosts... 345
Validating host connectivity...347
Specifying host login settings...347
Modifying host login settings for specific hosts... 349
Specifying data collection refresh frequency...351
Deleting hosts... 352
Organizing resources by tagging...352
Managing custom tags and tag categories... 352
Managing scheduled reports...354
Stopping scheduled reports... 355
...355
Configuring email servers...355
Configuring LUN Owner settings... 356
About LUN Owner configuration... 356
LUN Owner creation scenarios... 357
Impact of LUN Owner configuration changes on applications...359
Excluding volumes from LUN Owner...362
Including volumes in LUN Owner... 364
List of applications affected by LUN Owner volumes... 365
Specifying how applications are automatically created...366
Creating applications automatically...367
Impact of switching to a different auto-create option...368
Managing Hitachi Command Director users... 369
About user management... 369
Viewing user information...370
Deleting users... 371
A Using Host Collector in a secure environment...373
Host Collector in a secure environment... 374
Data gathered with and without root access...374
Ports and services used... 375
Ping (Initial discovery)...375
SNMP...376
Telnet... 376
Connection Protocols... 376
Protocols for UNIX systems...376
Protocols for Microsoft Windows systems...376
Common services that must be enabled... 376
Services on Windows hosts...377
Service on UNIX hosts...377
Network impact...377
Performance impact... 377
B Setting up configuration gathering operation using sudo... 379
Configuration gathering operation using sudo...380
Binary used for configuration gathering operation... 380
Commands used by Gather binary...380
Requirements for account used for configuration gathering operation ... 382
Sample content of sudoers file...382
Glossary... 383
Index... 395
Preface
This manual provides information about Hitachi Command Director (HCmD).
□ Intended audience
□ Product version
□ Release notes
□ Document revision level
□ Referenced documents
□ Document conventions
□ Conventions for storage capacity values
□ Accessing product documentation
□ Getting help
□ Comments
Intended audience
This document is intended for users of the Hitachi Command Director. You should have a working knowledge of the following:
• Hitachi Device Manager, Hitachi Tuning Manager, and Tiered Storage Manager
• Storage system and performance concepts
• Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) The use of Hitachi Command Director and all Hitachi Data Systems products is governed by the terms of your agreements with Hitachi Data Systems.
Product version
This document revision applies to Hitachi Command Director v8.0.1 or later.
Release notes
Read the release notes before installing and using this product. They may contain requirements or restrictions that are not fully described in this document or updates or corrections to this document.
Release notes can be found on the documentation CD or on the Hitachi Data Systems Support Portal: https://portal.hds.com/
Document revision level
Revision Date Description
MK-90HCMD001-00 November 2010 Initial release
MK-90HCMD001-01 December 2010 Revision 1, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-00
MK-90HCMD001-02 May 2011 Revision 2, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-01
MK-90HCMD001-03 August 2011 Revision 3, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-02
MK-90HCMD001-04 November 2011 Revision 4, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-03
MK-90HCMD001-05 March 2012 Revision 5, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-04
MK-90HCMD001-06 July 2012 Revision 6, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-05
Revision Date Description MK-90HCMD001-07 August 2012 Revision 7, supersedes and replaces
MK-90HCMD001-06
MK-90HCMD001-08 November 2012 Revision 8, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-07
MK-90HCMD001-09 February 2013 Revision 9, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-08
MK-90HCMD001-10 May 2013 Revision 10, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-09
MK-90HCMD001-11 October 2013 Revision 11, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-10
MK-90HCMD001-12 April 2014 Revision 12, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-11
MK-90HCMD001-13 August 2014 Revision 12, supersedes and replaces MK-90HCMD001-12
Referenced documents
The following Hitachi referenced documents are available for download from the Hitachi Data Systems Support Portal: https://portal.hds.com/
• Hitachi Command Director Installation and Configuration guide, MK-90HCMD002
• Hitachi Command Director Release Notes, RN-90HCMD003
• Hitachi Command Director CLI Reference Guide, MK-90HCMD004
• Hitachi Command Director API Reference Guide, MK-90HCMD005
• Hitachi Command Suite System Requirements, MK-92HC209
• Hitachi Command Suite documentation
• Hitachi Command Suite Tuning Manager documentation
• Hitachi Command Suite Tiered Storage Manager documentation
Document conventions
This document uses the following typographic conventions:
Convention Description
Bold Indicates text on a window, other than the window title, including menus, menu options, buttons, fields, and labels. Example: Click OK.
Italic Indicates a variable, which is a placeholder for actual text provided by the user or system. Example: copy source-file target-file
Note: Angled brackets (< >) are also used to indicate variables.
Monospace Indicates text that is displayed on screen or entered by the user. Example:
pairdisplay -g oradb
Convention Description
< > angled brackets Indicates a variable, which is a placeholder for actual text provided by the user or system. Example: pairdisplay -g <group>
Note: Italic font is also used to indicate variables.
[ ] square brackets Indicates optional values. Example: [ a | b ] indicates that you can choose a, b, or nothing.
{ } braces Indicates required or expected values. Example: { a | b } indicates that you must choose either a or b.
| vertical bar Indicates that you have a choice between two or more options or arguments.
Examples:
[ a | b ] indicates that you can choose a, b, or nothing.
{ a | b } indicates that you must choose either a or b.
This document uses the following icons to draw attention to information:
Icon Label Description
Note Calls attention to important or additional information.
Tip Provides helpful information, guidelines, or suggestions for performing tasks more effectively.
Caution Warns the user of adverse conditions or consequences (for example, disruptive operations).
WARNING Warns the user of severe conditions or consequences (for example, destructive operations).
Conventions for storage capacity values
Physical storage capacity values (for example, disk drive capacity) are calculated based on the following values:
Physical capacity unit Value
1 kilobyte (KB) 1,000 (10 3) bytes
1 megabyte (MB) 1,000 KB or 1,0002 bytes
1 gigabyte (GB) 1,000 MB or 1,0003 bytes
1 terabyte (TB) 1,000 GB or 1,0004 bytes
1 petabyte (PB) 1,000 TB or 1,0005 bytes
1 exabyte (EB) 1,000 PB or 1,0006 bytes
Logical storage capacity values (for example, logical device capacity) are calculated based on the following values:
Logical capacity unit Value
1 block 512 bytes
1 KB 1,024 (210) bytes
1 MB 1,024 KB or 1,0242 bytes
1 GB 1,024 MB or 1,0243 bytes
1 TB 1,024 GB or 1,0244 bytes
1 PB 1,024 TB or 1,0245 bytes
1 EB 1,024 PB or 1,0246 bytes
Accessing product documentation
Product user documentation is available on the Hitachi Data Systems Portal:
https://portal.hds.com. Check this site for the most current documentation, including important updates that may have been made after the release of the product.
Getting help
Hitachi Data Systems Support Portal is the destination for technical support of your current or previously-sold storage systems, midrange and enterprise servers, and combined solution offerings. The Hitachi Data Systems customer support staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you need technical support, log on to the Hitachi Data Systems Support Portal for contact information: https://portal.hds.com
Hitachi Data Systems Community is a new global online community for HDS customers, partners, independent software vendors, employees, and
prospects. It is an open discussion among these groups about the HDS portfolio of products and services. It is the destination to get answers, discover insights, and make connections. The HDS Community complements our existing Support Portal and support services by providing an area where you can get answers to non-critical issues and questions. Join the
conversation today! Go to community.hds.com, register, and complete your profile.
Comments
Please send us your comments on this document to [email protected].
Include the document title and number, including the revision level (for example, -07), and refer to specific sections and paragraphs whenever possible. All comments become the property of Hitachi Data Systems Corporation.
Thank you!
1
Overview
This module describes how to start using Hitachi Command Director.
□ About Hitachi Command Director
□ Features
□ What's new in Hitachi Command Director
□ Setup workflow
□ Logging in
□ Registering a license
□ Specifying an email address when you first log in
□ Modifying your user profile
□ Hitachi Command Director graphical user interface
□ Navigating the Help system
□ Logging out
About Hitachi Command Director
Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) centralizes storage management reporting across the Hitachi Command Suite by providing business application views of Hitachi storage infrastructures. Hitachi Command Director also provides a way to easily align Hitachi storage assets with the applications and business functions that rely on them.
By monitoring key performance indicators from various Hitachi Storage Suite products, Hitachi Command Director enables consolidated storage reporting by applications, business units, and storage tiers. Application specified storage service level objectives based on storage capacity and performance requirements can be established and proactively monitored to ensure that service levels are being met.
Hitachi Command Director correlates storage system configuration data from Hitachi Device Manager (HDvM), performance data from the Agent for RAID instances, storage tier data from Tiered Storage Manager (HTSM), and storage utilization data from the hosts (that is, your application hosts).
Host Collector discovers hosts on your network and gathers their file system and storage utilization information, providing end-to-end mapping of the path from the host to the storage system volumes.
Thus, Hitachi Command Director provides a single point of access for the following tasks:
• Monitoring application storage. Define corporate-wide standard Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for all your applications and issue proactive alerts when application SLOs are at risk.
• Monitoring Hitachi enterprise storage health. You can detect potential storage system performance problems. You can also outsource the function of keeping your storage systems running optimally and finding root causes of problems if they arise.
• Generating Key Performance Indicator reports that align your storage allocation, performance, and trend data with your business organization.
Related concepts
• Features on page 18
• Setup workflow on page 20
Features
Hitachi Command Director includes these key features:
• A global dashboard that provides you access to real-time enterprise
storage information that enables you to monitor the overall health of your storage resources.
When you first logon to Hitachi Command Director, you see the dashboard.
The dashboard provides a quick overview of the health of your storage environment. It enables you to quickly identify potential problem areas that need further investigation.
• The application SLO Investigation Unit that lets storage administrators quickly identify potential cause of application SLO miss and SLO violation.
When you view an SLO miss for a specific application on the global dashboard, you can use the SLO Investigation Unit to drill-down into the specific application details, understand the various factors that resulted in SLO miss, and apply your best practices for managing the miss and take pre-emptive actions before an SLO violation occurs.
• A report gallery that provides fast and simple access to performance and capacity utilization reports of your storage systems and servers. It
provides the ability to create your own fully-customized reports by simply choosing columns and sort criteria and save these reports for future reference or reuse.
The gallery includes these predefined reports:
○ Asset and Inventory reports that provide quick inventory of your data center assets such as storage systems and servers.
○ Storage economics reports that analyze your capacity and application data utilization with respective to Hitachi storage tiers.
○ Storage utilization reports for waste and reclaim identification or chargeback support.
○ Chargeback reports that provide insight into your capacity consumption and allocation at an application or host per tier or per pool level. This is useful when calculating charge back storage consumption with respect to application or host owners.
○ Storage performance reports that quickly identify busiest storage resources across the data center.
• Application tagging that provides the flexibility to map storage and application to your business structure.
• An option to create applications automatically from the LUN Owner
information, logical groups, or hosts discovered in your environment. Once set, this option enables automatic creation of applications when HCmD Host Collector performs agentless data gather from remote hosts and storage systems at specific intervals or on demand.
Related concepts
• About Hitachi Command Director on page 18
• What's new in Hitachi Command Director on page 20
• Setup workflow on page 20
What's new in Hitachi Command Director
Hitachi Command Director includes the following new or enhanced functionality:
• Support for installation of HCmD server and HCmD Host Collector on Red Hat Enterprise Linux v6.4 and v6.5.
• Separate user roles for Admin and View users enable you allow to users limited access, including viewing reports and business views, and
customizing dashboards. Users with the View role are not able to perform administrative tasks.
• Support for HNAS v11.3.
• Support for VMware ESXi 5.5.
• Enhanced reporting of the mapping of ESX (VMDK) to VM to LUNs with the Volumes Mapped to ESX Server VMs report.
• Reporting support for global-active device (GAD).
• Support for HNAS internal SMU setup.
Setup workflow
After installing Hitachi Command Director software, you must perform some initial setup tasks to configure the system. The following table summarizes the initial setup workflow.
Users with the View role cannot perform setup, except that they must specify an email address when they first log in.
Setup task Description Section reference
Log on to HCmD Web UI Initial logon to HCmD Web UI. This procedure also includes:
Registering the license key Specifying your email address
Logging in on page 23 Registering a license on page 24
Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26 Set up email server and
notification Set up the SMTP server to send email notifications automatically for Service Level Objective (SLO) alerts and scheduled reports.
Set up to receive email notifications.
Configuring email servers on page 355 Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26 Add Storage System
Collectors
Configure storage system data collection to enable HCmD to collect configuration data from Hitachi Device Manager and storage system performance data from Agent for RAID, and collect configuration data from supported third party storage systems.
Configuring Storage System Collectors on page 319
Add Host Collectors Add/configure Host Collectors to discover hosts in your network and gather their file system and storage utilization information.
Host discovery and agentless data
Setup task Description Section reference gathering mechanism on page 330
Set the option to create applications
automatically or create new applications manually.
Applications for the Device Manager Logical Groups are created automatically by default after installation. You can change the default configuration and set to create applications automatically from LUN Owners or hosts configured in your environment.
You can also choose to create new applications manually in a custom business view.
Creating applications automatically on page 367
or
Creating applications manually on page 135
Perform manual refresh to gather storage system or host data (optional)
Manual refresh gathers data before the next scheduled collection and updates reports with the latest information.
Manually refreshing data on page 327
Create custom categories/tags (optional)
Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) comes with predefined set of tags and tag categories you can use to create a custom business view that matches your organization structure.
If these predefined tags or tag categories do not apply to your business structure, you can create custom categories and tags to organize your resources according to your business structure.
Managing custom tags and tag categories on page 352
Create new SLO profiles or modify the default SLO profile (optional)
HCmD provides a default SLO profile that includes the Average Storage Response Time SLO type.
You can create new SLO profiles using the supported SLO types and assign them to applications, or modify the default SLO profile.
Creating application SLO profiles on page 88 or
Modifying application SLO profiles on page 100
Manage unassigned applications
Unassigned applications are created
automatically during the discovery of storage systems or hosts by HCmD. Unassigned applications are also those when you fail to assign them to custom tags. To monitor these applications, you must assign these
applications to a relevant tag in your business view.
Creating applications manually on page 135
Create custom business views if the
preconfigured business views does not suit your requirements. Or, use preconfigured business views that HCmD provides.
Create a custom business view that represents the organization of resources in your
environment.
You can also use preconfigured business views provided by HCmD to organize your resources.
Creating a new business view on page 77 or
Custom business view on page 65
Setup task Description Section reference
Log on to HCmD Web UI Initial logon to HCmD Web UI. This procedure also includes:
Logging in on page 23
Setup task Description Section reference Registering the license key
Specifying your email address Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26 Set up email server and
notification Set up the SMTP server to send email notifications automatically for Service Level Objective (SLO) alerts and scheduled reports.
Set up to receive email notifications.
Configuring email servers on page 355 Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26 Add Storage System
Collectors
Configure storage system data collection to enable HCmD to collect configuration data from Hitachi Device Manager and storage system performance data from Agent for RAID, and collect configuration data from supported third party storage systems.
Configuring Storage System Collectors on page 319
Add Host Collectors Add/configure Host Collectors to discover hosts in your network and gather their file system and storage utilization information.
Host discovery and agentless data gathering mechanism on page 330
Set the option to create applications
automatically or create new applications manually.
Applications for the Device Manager Logical Groups are created automatically by default after installation. You can change the default configuration and set to create applications automatically from LUN Owners or hosts configured in your environment.
You can also choose to create new applications manually in a custom business view.
Creating applications automatically on page 367
or
Creating applications manually on page 135
Perform manual refresh to gather storage system or host data (optional)
Manual refresh gathers data before the next scheduled collection and updates reports with the latest information.
Manually refreshing data on page 327
Create custom categories/tags (optional)
Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) comes with predefined set of tags and tag categories you can use to create a custom business view that matches your organization structure.
If these predefined tags or tag categories do not apply to your business structure, you can create custom categories and tags to organize your resources according to your business structure.
Managing custom tags and tag categories on page 352
Create new SLO profiles or modify the default SLO profile (optional)
HCmD provides a default SLO profile that includes the Average Storage Response Time SLO type.
You can create new SLO profiles using the supported SLO types and assign them to applications, or modify the default SLO profile.
Creating application SLO profiles on page 88 or
Modifying application SLO profiles on page 100
Manage unassigned applications
Unassigned applications are created
automatically during the discovery of storage systems or hosts by HCmD. Unassigned applications are also those when you fail to assign them to custom tags. To monitor these applications, you must assign these
Creating applications manually on page 135
Setup task Description Section reference applications to a relevant tag in your business
view.
Create custom business views if the
preconfigured business views does not suit your requirements. Or, use preconfigured business views that HCmD provides.
Create a custom business view that represents the organization of resources in your
environment.
You can also use preconfigured business views provided by HCmD to organize your resources.
Creating a new business view on page 77 or
Custom business view on page 65
Related tasks
• Registering a license on page 24
• Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26
• Logging in on page 23
Logging in
To log on to Hitachi Command Director (HCmD), you require the following information:
• Hitachi Command Director web URL
• User ID
• Password
• License key, if not already registered.
You can obtain this information from your administrator, who is responsible for setting up your user account in Device Manager.
To log on to Hitachi Command Director:
Procedure
1. In a web browser, enter the Hitachi Command Director URL:
http://HCmD-server-address:port-number
HCmD-server-address: IP address or host name of the Hitachi Command Director server.
port-number: Port number of the Hitachi Command Director server, default is 25015.
To access Hitachi Command Director in secure mode, enter the following URL:
https://HCmD-server-address:port-number
HCmD-server-address: IP address or host name of the Hitachi Command Director server.
port-number: The SSL port number of Hitachi Command Director server is 25016.
Note: If your administrator has set up a shortcut, you can launch Hitachi Command Director from the appropriate Start menu folder.
2. Enter a user ID and password to log in.
3. Click Login.
Result
The first time you log in, you are required to:
• Specify a valid license key.
• Enter your email address to receive Service Level Objective (SLO) alerts and scheduled reports.
When you log in to Hitachi Command Director, the dashboard appears.
Note: When using Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2012, the browser security setting for enhanced security is enabled by default. This might cause the following conditions:
• The animation that indicates the status of the loading process does not move.
• Files cannot be downloaded from servers on which HTTPS is enabled.
To resolve either of these conditions, disable the advanced security configuration in the Internet Explorer security settings.
When using Internet Explorer 9 or 10, the following events may occur:
• An error message prompting you to install Adobe Flash Player appears, even though the correct version of Adobe Flash is already installed.
• The help content is not displayed properly.
If either of these events occur, disable Active X Filtering, register the IP address or host name of the management server in the Internet Explorer Compatibility View Settings, and press F5 to refresh the browser window.
Related concepts
• About the Hitachi Command Director dashboards on page 32 Related tasks
• Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26
• Registering a license on page 24
Registering a license
Users with the View role cannot register licenses.
Register a license in any of the following cases:
• You are accessing Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) for the first time after installation. You cannot access the web UI without a license.
• A license is not registered.
• A license is expired.
• When adding licenses for additional capacity.
Procedure
1. Enter the Hitachi Command Director URL.
Note:
• If your administrator has set up a shortcut, you can launch Hitachi Command Director from the appropriate Start menu folder.
• If you are accessing Hitachi Command Director for the first time after installation, the License Configuration window appears. In this case, register the license key, and then log in.
2. In the login window, click License.
Figure 1-1 Initial license configuration
3. In the Device Manager pane of License Configuration window, specify the following license settings for Device Manager.
• IP Address: enter the IP address for Device Manager.
• Port: enter the Device Manager HTTP or HTTPS port (the default port is 22015 for HTTP and 22016 for HTTPS).
• SSL: select the check box to enable secure sockets layer (SSL) communication between the Hitachi Command Director server and Device Manager server (when selected, the port automatically changes to 22016).
Note: Before you select the SSL checkbox, make sure that SSL is enabled on the Device Manager server. For more information about enabling SSL on the Device Manager server, see the Hitachi Command Suite Configuration Reference Guide.
• User ID: this is the Device Manager instance user account used by the system, and the user ID is always system (you cannot change it).
• Password: enter the password of the system user account for Device Manager.
4. In the Enter License pane for Key, enter the Hitachi Command Director license key and click OK.
Result
If you are registering the license key for the first time, you are prompted for your email address.
After you register a license, the value in the Licensed Capacity column of the License Details pane shows the storage capacity from the registered
license. However, if you have registered an unlimited storage capacity license of any storage system, the licensed capacity displays Unlimited after you configure the Storage System Collectors in Hitachi Command Director, and refresh the gathered storage system configuration data.
Note: The model information for all storage systems is populated only after you perform a data refresh.
Related concepts
• Hitachi Command Director licenses on page 309 Related tasks
• Configuring Storage System Collectors on page 319
• Manually refreshing data on page 327
• Specifying an email address when you first log in on page 26
• Managing licenses on page 309
Specifying an email address when you first log in
Your email is associated with your user account and is used to send Service Level Objective (SLO) alerts and scheduled reports.
Note: Your administrator must configure the email server before you can specify your email address.
Procedure
1. In the User Email dialog box, enter your email address in the Email field.
2. Click Save.
Related tasks
• Modifying your user profile on page 27
Modifying your user profile
In your user profile, you can only change your email address. Email address is used to send you alerts and reports.
Note: You can only manage your own user account. You cannot manage other users, even if you are an administrator.
Procedure
1. In the control bar, click System to open the Edit User Profile dialog.
2. Modify the email address. Note that you cannot change your user ID, role, name, or description.
3. When you have finished, click OK.
Hitachi Command Director graphical user interface
The Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) graphical user interface (GUI) is organized into the following areas:
Dashboard
When you log in to Hitachi Command Director, the initial screen is the Global dashboard. You can launch reports that provide you with quick access to near real-time status of your applications and storage health of your enterprise.
There are also pre-configured dashboards labeled DataCenter, Planning, Pools, and Hosts.
You can customize all except the Global dashboard to show only the reports you want.
Navigation pane
Use the navigation pane to the left in the Resources and Administration tabs to access business views and administration settings. You can also access reports for hosts, applications and storage systems from the Reports tab.
Content pane
The content pane also includes the Additional Reports list, where you can select additional available reports for the selected folder, host, or application.
Control bar
Use the control bar to view and access the following information:
• User ID: When you are logged in, your user ID appears in the User button.
• License violation: The License button turns red when the license expires or the data exceeds the licensed capacity.
• Online Help: To view the Hitachi Command Director online help, click Help.
Global tabs area
Access the main features of Hitachi Command Director in the Dashboard, Resources, Reports, and Administration tabs.
About button
The About button provides a brief description of Hitachi Command Director and includes the current version and node ID.
Related concepts
• Setup workflow on page 20 Related tasks
• Navigating the Help system on page 28
• Using reports on page 247
Navigating the Help system
The Hitachi Command Director Help system is an information resource you can use to locate concept and task information applicable to your work objectives. Access the online Help by clicking Help on the control bar.
This Help system is also context-sensitive; when you click ? (question mark icon) from within a specific window in the web client, you are presented with information that pertains to the task you are performing.
From any topic, click Show All Contents to launch the navigation pane, access to the contents, index, search functions, and glossary.
In this Help, books are used to group topics that are related to the subject of the book. By default, when you launch the Help navigation pane, all books are closed. When you open a book, topic content is displayed in the right viewing pane. The topic content is displayed in the viewing pane until you open another book or topic.
Navigating among topics
• As you open books and browse to topics of interest, you may want to revisit topics that you have recently viewed. You can navigate among previously viewed topics by right-clicking in the current topic and selecting the applicable Back or Forward options from the menu.
• Use the links under Related topics to find information related to a specific topic.
• Use the breadcrumbs at the top of each topic to move to more conceptual information about a specific task or procedure.
Using the navigation buttons
• Contents
Open book icons in the navigation pane to reveal topic entries and sub sections. As you move through the Help, the contents tracks the different topics that you access by highlighting them.
• Index
Provides an alphabetical list of subjects contained in the Help. You can scroll though the entries, or type a word to navigate to related topics. Click an entry to view the topic information.
• Search
Allows you to search for occurrences of a word or phrase. Type in the word you want to search for and then click the search icon. In the resulting list, click a topic name to view the topic.
• Glossary
Provides brief explanations for the terms used in Hitachi Command Director.
Related concepts
• Setup workflow on page 20 Related tasks
• Logging in on page 23
Logging out
For security reasons, log out when you have finished using Hitachi Command Director.
To log out of Hitachi Command Director, click Logout on the control bar.
Related tasks
• Logging in on page 23
2
Using dashboards to quickly access vital
system reports
This module introduces the Hitachi Command Director dashboards, which include reports that show the status or health of your applications, enterprise storage components, datastores, and storage devices in your enterprise.
□ About the Hitachi Command Director dashboards
□ Dashboard access and controls
□ Global and DataCenter dashboards default reports
□ Planning dashboard default reports
□ Pools dashboard default reports
□ Hosts dashboard default reports
About the Hitachi Command Director dashboards
The Hitachi Command Director (HCmD) dashboards provide a quick and convenient means of accessing the status of your applications and storage health through a collection of relevant reports in the following categories:
• Global
• DataCenter
• Planning
• Pools
• Hosts
The dashboards are preconfigured with reports that provide a starting point.
All but the Global dashboard can be customized with reports of your choice or deleted. You can also create up to 5 additional dashboards and add your choice of reports to each one. All together, the Dashboard tab can display a total of 10 dashboards.
The dashboards reveal your application health, based on real-time service level objective (SLO) information, and provide a resource summary report that displays the capacity and performance data of your storage resources, and health of the datastores in your enterprise.
Application storage health
The Hitachi Command Director dashboards display a summary of status information for all applications that are currently monitored based on defined storage SLOs, which can match operation guidelines set for the
implementation of service negotiated under a service level agreement (SLA).
An SLO profile groups storage SLOs and associates the SLOs with an
application. When an application is assigned an SLO profile, the performance of its storage is monitored to ensure compliance with every SLO threshold (specified in the table below).
To enable storage-oriented service solutions (SOSS), you can:
• Monitor application storage SLOs to ensure that your storage infrastructure provides adequate service to your applications.
• Take timely action when SLO violations occur.
SLO status SLO violation
OK (green) None. The application storage is below its threshold (not in jeopardy) and working normally.
Borderline (yellow) Warning. The application storage has exceeded its threshold and is at a greater risk of failing.
Miss (red) Error. The application storage has exceeded its threshold. Immediate attention is required.
SLO status SLO violation
Unmonitored (gray) Not applicable. This application has not been assigned any SLO, and is therefore not monitored.
Hitachi enterprise storage health
The Hitachi Command Director dashboards provide a snapshot of your enterprise-wide storage system health. Application specified storage SLOs based on storage capacity and performance requirements can be established and proactively monitored to ensure that service levels are being met.
The dashboards also provide a quick overview of the physical capacity across all storage systems within your company. They help you gain insight into your storage capacity, identify unused capacity, and track storage utilization.
Hitachi Command Director complements Hitachi Command Suite by enabling Hitachi enterprise storage customers to streamline their business level storage reporting and provide further insights into how their Hitachi storage environments can be better utilized and optimized. It also reports on the storage consumption to help you assign storage effectively and plan new purchases of storage, if necessary.
Datastore health
The Hitachi Command Director dashboards provide information you need to monitor the health of datastores in discovered VMware servers in your environment.
The dashboards provide you with an insight into storage allocation, usage, and consumption details of each of these datastores. They also provide you with the current snapshot of your enterprise-wide Hitachi Dynamic
Provisioning (HDP) pool capacity and its usage.
Storage trends
You can use the dashboards to view trends for allocation and capacity. You can also access associated forecasts. This information enables you to plan and anticipate your storage requirements.
Related tasks
• Dashboard access and controls on page 33
Dashboard access and controls
Overview of dashboard access and controls
When you log on to Hitachi Command Director, the Dashboard tab is automatically selected and a set of available dashboards are shown that provide quick access to a predefined set of relevant reports. If the list of dashboards is hidden, you can click the arrow under the tab to display the list.
The following dashboards are provided, each with preconfigured sets of reports:
• Global
• DataCenter
• Planning
• Pools
• Hosts
Click a dashboard name to access the available reports. With the exception of the Global dashboard, you can customize the reports that are shown for a given dashboard through the Settings dialog or by opening a report and pinning it to a dashboard.
You can also add new dashboards and populate them with the reports that you want to access.
To add a new dashboard, click the + under the Dashboard tab to open the Add/Edit dialog. Enter a name and an optional description and click OK.
You can rearrange reports on a dashboard by dragging, or you can hide them by closing them. To show them again, you can use the Settings dialog.
Related tasks
• Specifying dashboard reports from the Settings dialog on page 34
• Setting a default dashboard on page 35
• Resizing the dashboard layout on page 35
• Exporting and downloading a dashboard to PDF on page 36
• Pinning reports to a selected dashboard on page 259
Specifying dashboard reports from the Settings dialog
You can specify which reports are displayed for a given dashboard.
You can access the same functionality from any report that is open in the report viewer by pinning it to a dashboard.
Procedure
1. In the Dashboard tab, select a dashboard where you want to pin a report.
2. Click Settings in the control bar to open the Settings dialog box.
Reports currently displayed on the Dashboard are shown under the
Show/Hide tab, from which you can choose which reports to display or hide.
Note: You cannot add or remove reports in the Global dashboard and the Add/Remove tab is unavailable.
3. Click the Add/Remove tab to view a listing of available and currently selected reports. You can limit the scope of reports in the listing by selecting one of the available categories:
• All: All default dashboard reports.
• Global: All reports on the Global dashboard.
• Gallery: Reports that can be added from Standard Reports in the Reports Gallery.
• Saved: Reports that you have saved in the Reports Gallery.
4. Click and highlight any report that you want to add to the dashboard, then click on the right facing arrows (>>) to add the report to the Pinned Reports list. You can highlight reports and remove them from the list by clicking on the left facing arrows (<<).
5. Click OK when you are through.
The reports you have selected for display are now shown for the dashboard.
Related tasks
• Pinning reports to a selected dashboard on page 259
Setting a default dashboard
You can select a default dashboard so it will display automatically when you log in.
Procedure
1. Click the dashboard you want to select from the list under the Dashboard tab.
2. Click Make Default in the control bar above the dashboard.
The selected dashboard moves to the top of the list and its reports display by default whenever you log in.
Resizing the dashboard layout
Change the dashboard layout to control the size of reports in the content pane and enable you to get an oversized view of reports or, alternatively, view more reports at a glance.
Procedure
1. Click the Layout button in the control bar above the content pane to open the Dashboard Layout slider.
2. Drag the slider button or click the desired point on the Zoom line to minimize or maximize the size of reports in the content pane.
Your chosen layout is preserved when you log out and log back in.
Exporting and downloading a dashboard to PDF
You can export a PDF of an entire dashboard and save or share it.
Procedure
1. Open the dashboard you are interested in and click the PDF button in the dashboard control bar.
2. When the File Download dialog opens, click Open to open the PDF or Save to save it to a location you select.
Global and DataCenter dashboards default reports
The Global and DataCenter dashboards display nearly the same default reports.
You cannot add or remove reports from the Global dashboard, but you can choose to show or hide reports.
Additional reports are available in the Settings menu.
The Global dashboard enables you to maintain a stable collection of
important system reports. You can use the DataCenter dashboard to add or remove reports to the list included in the Global dashboard.
• Total number of applications with SLO misses on page 37
• Response Time SLO status on page 38
• IOPS SLO status on page 38
• DTR SLO status on page 39
• Applications with most SLO misses in the past 24 hours on page 42
• Storage system capacity overview on page 43
• VMware datastore overview on page 43
• Hyper-V filesystem overview on page 44
• Pool capacity overview on page 45
• Top 5 busiest HNAS nodes on page 47
• HNAS capacity overview on page 48
• Storage system health status on page 49 Related tasks
• Specifying dashboard reports from the Settings dialog on page 34
