Intro to Unisphere session at #emcworld

  • Unified management platform for CLARiiON, Celerra and RecoverPoint
    • Unified look and feel across all aforementioned products
    • Support for all CLARiiON >= FLARE 19
  • Release data Q3 2010
  • Only functions at the presentation layer
    • Will not impact the CLI so scripts will not be impacted by Unisphere
  • Views
    • Dashboard
      • Unified alerting sorted by severity
      • System list in the top toll bar provides the ability to drill down from the domain level to the physical system to view details
    • System View
      • Graphical hardware depiction (finally)
    • Summary Views
      • Storage
        • Bye bye CAP reports!!!!!  (thank you)
      • Replication
    • Note:  View Blocks are widgets that are placed on the screen somewhere that Aggregate data graphically displaying utilization, capacity, etc…
      • Ability to customize views, these views are tied to the client not the user so they will stay on the client not move with the user
  • Right-click provides context menu similar to what is currently available in Navisphere
  • Array data is cached locally on Unisphere client
    • This will hopefully help out performance
    • Data collection from array is time stamped so you can ensure you are working with the correct data set
    • A refresh (manual) needs to be performed to query the array and refresh the Unisphere cache
    • Once the data is cached it can be manipulated
  • Context sensitive help and actions
  • Replication Manager (RM) and USM (Unisphere Service Manager) integration (via link and launch)
    • If apps not installed it launches PowerLink and grabs RM or USM
    • Performs the install
    • Launches the app
  • USM replaces NST and unifies the ability to perform service tasks on CLARiiON or Celerra
    • USM adds the ability to track FCOs, Support Advisories, etc… via RSS feeds
    • Also provides the ability to launch to the proper location to research things (e.g. – EMC Support Forums), USM remains as the presentation layer, no need to jump around between apps.
    • Service requests can be created directly from USM

Interoperability Matrix

Platform Native Managed
CLARiiON CX, CX3, CX4 FLARE R30+ FLARE R19+
Celerra DART 6.0+ DART 6.0+
CLARiiON AX4 TBD FLARE R23+
  • Navisphere Off-Array being replace by Unisphere client and server
    • Support for Navi Analyzer off-array
  • Navisphere manager license supports Unisphere, no need for an upgrade

Overall the app looks really nice considering most of us are used to using a fractured set of tools between CX, NS and RP.  Will be interested in seeing how Unisphere helps us map the use of the array.  It appears to still be a JAVA based application so the jury is out on performance until I see it.

Audience questions:

  • Can you get to engineering mode from Unisphere
    • Unanswered.  Translation: Assume access to engineering mode on the CX will still require us to log into Navisphere.
  • Support for Centera on the roadmap
    • Answered, Yes.  No timeframe given.
  • What is the user experience like on a very large CLARiiON that is busy
    • Answer, it depends.  Translation:  It will likely still be slow.

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