Operating Environment Software Instruction Manual

5 Matrix infrastructure orchestration storage management
Matrix infrastructure orchestration supports a range of storage provisioning capabilities to
appropriately match the customer environment. Administrators can choose to manually define
storage pool entries and manually provision storage, or can take advantage of the Matrix Operating
Environment integration with HP Storage Provisioning Manager (SPM).
SPM is automatically installed as part of Matrix OE. Matrix infrastructure orchestration communicates
with SPM to find or create storage resources that match the requirements in a request and makes
that storage available for use. When defining service templates within infrastructure orchestration
designer, the administrator can manually specify logical disk properties (for example, size, RAID,
tags) or can browse storage templates defined in SPM and make an appropriate selection.
During service provisioning, infrastructure orchestration searches for storage pool entries that meet
the logical disk needs, and can automatically create a storage pool entry if none is found (using
the service template logical disk information).
Matrix infrastructure orchestration works with SPM to provide storage services and automate several
operations related to storage. The interaction with SPM can take place during service provisioning,
or can be done in advance, for customers who want to manually create storage pool entries and
fulfill them through the SPM catalog. When storage requests are made to SPM (manually or
automatically created), an SPM storage template is used. The template can be selected in
infrastructure orchestration designer, or a default template is used. SPM will fulfill the request from
the service catalog, perhaps using pre-provisioned storage or on-demand provisioned storage
(based on the policies in the SPM storage template).
For more information, see “Populating the Storage Provisioning Manager catalog” (page 142), and
the HP Storage Provisioning Manager (SPM) User Guide at Matrix Operating Environment
Information Library.
NOTE: Storage pool entries can be created manually, or infrastructure orchestration can create
storage pool entries automatically. In both cases, the storage pool entries can be fulfilled through
SPM using pre-provisioned volumes or on-demand provisioning (based on customer need reflected
in the storage templates defined in SPM).
Auto-generated storage pool entries are created based on the logical disk storage needs defined
in a service template and follow certain conventions (for example, use of SPM, packing multiple
volumes into the same storage pool entry, and choices of SAN fabric). If your specific storage
configuration does not follow those conventions, a manually created storage pool entry is
appropriate. For example:
• SPM is not used
• Boot volume in a separate entry from other private data volumes
• Combinations of private and shared disks without NPIV
• Multiple non-redundant disks on different fabrics
• Redundant paths to disks across unusual fabric combinations
• Mix of redundant and non-redundant volumes
• A Virtual Connect module connected to more than one SAN fabric
When Matrix is in an environment with Virtual Connect modules whose uplink ports connect
to different SANs, the auto-generation of storage pool entries may not be sufficient. Matrix
OE infrastructure orchestration will choose one representative uplink for each VC module and
thus be aware of connectivity to that SAN (and not the SANs accessible through other uplinks
on that module). In those environments the storage pool entries should be created manually
(and can still be fulfilled manually or through SPM).
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