Technical White Paper

Dell EMC Unity: Unisphere Central

Next-generation storage monitoring

Abstract
This white paper introduces Dell EMC Unisphere Central, a network application
that enables administrators to remotely monitor multiple Dell EMC Unity Family,
Dell EMC UnityVSA, Dell EMC SC Series, VNX Series, and VNXe, and vVNX
Series storage systems residing on a common network. This paper provides a
detailed description of how to use this leading-edge application.

December 2021

H13827
Revisions

Revisions
Date Description
July 2019 Unisphere Central V4.0 SP8 release updates

July 2021 Unisphere Central V4.0 SP9 release updates. Removal of CLARiiON CX4.

December 2021 Unisphere Central V4.0 SP9.1 release updates. Added support for monitoring SC
Series.

Acknowledgments
Author: Ji Hong

Updated by: Kenneth Avilés Padilla

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this
publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Copyright © 2017 – 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its
subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. [12/27/2021] [Technical White Paper] [H13827.6]

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Table of contents

Table of contents
Revisions............................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Table of contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 6
1.1 Audience ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
1.2 Terminology ........................................................................................................................................................ 6
2 Monitoring VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems with Unisphere Central .....7
3 Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................................. 8
3.1 System Requirements ........................................................................................................................................ 8
3.2 Storage Array Requirements .............................................................................................................................. 8
3.3 Download and Deploy the Unisphere Central OVF Template ............................................................................ 9
3.4 Configure Unisphere Central Server .................................................................................................................. 9
4 Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central .......11
4.1 Verification of VNX Systems .............................................................................................................................11
4.2 Verification of VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems..........................12
4.3 Alternative Method to Add VNXe, VVNX, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere
Central ........................................................................................................................................................................13
4.4 Remove Storage Systems from Unisphere Central .........................................................................................14
5 Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface ..............................................................................................................16
5.1 Dashboard Page ...............................................................................................................................................16
5.2 Storage Systems Page .....................................................................................................................................19
5.3 Tags ..................................................................................................................................................................20
5.4 Profiles Page ....................................................................................................................................................21
5.5 Storage Menu ...................................................................................................................................................22
5.6 Migration Sessions Menu .................................................................................................................................22
5.7 Hosts Page .......................................................................................................................................................24
5.8 Alerts Page .......................................................................................................................................................24
5.9 Logs Page.........................................................................................................................................................25
5.10 Jobs Page .........................................................................................................................................................26
5.11 Performance Page ............................................................................................................................................27
5.12 Settings Menu ...................................................................................................................................................29
5.13 Preferences Dialog ...........................................................................................................................................32
5.14 Help Dialog .......................................................................................................................................................32

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Table of contents

6 Advanced Features ....................................................................................................................................................34

6.1 Predictive Pool Capacity Monitoring .................................................................................................................34
6.2 Single Sign-On (SSO) ......................................................................................................................................35
6.3 Profile-Based System Configuration.................................................................................................................36
6.4 Unified Search ..................................................................................................................................................37
6.5 Migration Support for Dell EMC Unity Systems ................................................................................................38
6.5.1 SAN Copy Push Detailed steps ........................................................................................................................39
7 Unisphere Central High Availability ............................................................................................................................45
8 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................46
A Technical support and resources ...............................................................................................................................47
A.1 Related resources.............................................................................................................................................47
B Performance Metrics ..................................................................................................................................................48
B.1 System Requirements with Metrics Collection Enabled ...................................................................................48
B.2 Metrics Configuration ........................................................................................................................................49
B.3 Performance Metrics ........................................................................................................................................49

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Executive summary

Executive summary
In the world of storage management, storage administrators need a way to access information quickly about
their environment especially when it relates to critical systems. This can be a difficult task when an
environment consists of multiple systems because navigating to each individual system would be time
consuming and identifying the systems that need immediate attention is critical.

To address these concerns, Dell EMC introduced Unisphere Central, a network application that remotely
monitors the status, activity, and resources of multiple Dell EMC SC Series, VNX Series, VNXe Series, vVNX,
Dell EMC Unity Family and UnityVSA storage systems all from a central location. The Unisphere Central
server obtains aggregated status, alerts, host details, performance and capacity metrics, and storage usage
information from the systems. This allows administrators to take a quick look at their entire storage
environment and rapidly access storage systems which need attention or maintenance.

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Introduction

1 Introduction
This white paper describes the Unisphere Central interface and explains how storage administrators can
easily monitor multiple VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA storage
systems. Also, it describes the Unisphere Central features and provides general usage guidelines. For step-
by-step instructions, refer to the Unisphere Central Online Help.

1.1 Audience
This white paper is intended for Dell EMC customers, partners, and employees who are considering using
Unisphere Central to monitor VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity (supported on both Flash and
Hybrid) and Dell EMC UnityVSA storage systems. Dell EMC assumes the reader is at least an IT generalist
with experience as a system or network administrator.

1.2 Terminology
• Open Virtualization Format (OVF) – A platform-independent, efficient, extensible, and open packaging
and distribution format for virtual machines.
• Unisphere – An interface for managing individual storage systems like VNX, VNXe, vVNX, Dell EMC
Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA.
• Unisphere Central – A Unisphere virtual application that collects and aggregates status information from
appropriately configured VNX, VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA
systems on a network. The Unisphere Central server is deployed as an OVF template integrated within a
VMware virtual environment.
• Virtual Application (vApp) – A container, such as a resource pool, that can contain one or more virtual
machines. vApps also share some functionality with virtual machines in that they can be powered on and
off and be cloned.

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Monitoring VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems with Unisphere Central

2 Monitoring VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and

Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems with Unisphere Central
Unisphere Central enables you to:

• Monitor up to 1000 VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems for
basic alerts and status information from a single interface.
• View aggregated alerts, system state, metrics storage, disk capacity, storage usage, and performance
data for managed systems.
• Control access to the monitoring interface by setting up local Unisphere Central users or integrating
existing Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) enabled users and groups.
• Organize logical views of all system types based on user-defined tags; for example, by location, type, or
department.
• Launch Unisphere for individual systems.
• Identify and display the hosts connected to these systems.
• Identify and display the storage resources used by hosts.
• Analyze storage capacity and performance metrics of monitored storage systems.
• Configure a single-stack (IPv4 or IPv6) or dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) network environment.
• Use Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality with VNXe3200 systems running code 3.1 or later, VNXe1600
systems, vVNX, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems.
• Initiate profile-based system configurations for VNXe3000 series systems running code 3.1.5 or later for
VNXe1600 systems, and for VNXe3200, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems.
• View predictive capacity reports for storage pools.

The Unisphere Central environment consists of a Unisphere Central server running on an ESXi server (stand-
alone or through vCenter), VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC UnityVSA storage
systems, and a remote system to access the Unisphere Central server (Figure 1).

Example of a Unisphere Central environment

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Getting Started

3 Getting Started

3.1 System Requirements

The following resources are required for deploying and using Unisphere Central:

At least one 64-bit ESXi server running ESXi version 6.0, 6.5, or 6.7 that meets the following requirements:

ESXi System Requirements

Component Base Configuration Recommended Configuration

CPU 2 4
Memory 3 GB > 8 GB
Network Interfaces 1 1
Storage 20 GB > 40 GB

The system requirements change when metrics collection is enabled in Unisphere Central. In this instance,
please refer to Table 2 and Table 3 in the Performance Metrics section for more information.

Note: High Availability configurations are only available when using ESXi servers are managed by a vCenter
server. A minimum of two ESXi servers are required.

• NTP server (optional but highly recommended).

• DNS server (optional in IPv4 or IPv6 single-stack environments. Required in dual-stack IPv4/IPv6
environments).
• An HTML5 compatible web browser or compatible device like a tablet to view the Unisphere Central
HTML5 GUI. Supported web browsers include:

- Google Chrome (v33 or later)

- Microsoft Internet Explorer (v10 or later)
- Mozilla Firefox (v28 or later)
- Apple Safari (v6 or later)

3.2 Storage Array Requirements

The following minimum code versions are required to add the storage arrays to Unisphere Central:

• VNXe systems running the following code versions:

- VNXe OE MR2 2.2.0 and later

• VNX systems running the following code versions:

- VNX Unified Systems:

> VNX for Block OE 05.33 and VNX for File OE 7.1 and later

- VNX Block-only Systems:

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Getting Started

> VNX for Block OE 05.33 and later

> Note: VNX1 and VNXe1 are supported up to Unisphere Central V4.0 SP8

• vVNX systems running the following code versions:

- vVNX OE 3.1.2 and later

• Dell EMC Unity systems running following code versions:

- Dell EMC Unity OE 4.0.0 and later

• Dell EMC UnityVSA systems running the follow code versions:

- Dell EMC Unity OE 4.0.0 and later

• Dell EMC SC Series systems running the following code versions:

- SCOS version 7.2 and later

Note: VNX File-only systems and VNX Gateway systems are not supported.

3.3 Download and Deploy the Unisphere Central OVF Template

Unisphere Central is deployed as a virtual machine (VM) built from an OVF template in a VMware
environment. You can download Unisphere Central from Dell EMC Online Support and assign the IP address
of Unisphere Central while deploying the OVF template within vCenter or in the console of the VM when
deploying the OVF template directly on an ESXi host.

The Dell EMC Unisphere Central Installation Guide, available from Dell EMC Online Support, provides
detailed installation instructions for Unisphere Central.

3.4 Configure Unisphere Central Server

After you deploy Unisphere Central and power on the VM, point your browser to the IP address or domain
name you specified during the installation.

Note: Unisphere Central installs with a default username, admin, and password, Password123#. When you
first launch Unisphere Central, you are required to change the administrator password.

In the Settings dialog, you can configure the following components in the Management Settings section (Figure 2):

• Server Name (Network Settings Tab) – The name of the Unisphere Central server (optional).
• NTP servers (Time Servers (NTP) Tab) – A protocol used to synchronize the system clock with other
nodes on the network (Highly recommended).
• DNS servers (DNS Servers Tab) – The network service that converts domain names to their
corresponding IP addresses (Optional in IPv4 or IPv6 single-stack environments. Required in dual-stack
IPv4/IPv6 environments).
• Security Policy (Security Policy Tab) – Select either manual verification (least secure) or automatic
verification (most secure, default, and Dell EMC recommended). Security policy settings apply to VNXe,
vVNX, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems only.

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Getting Started

- For manual verification, only the IP address of the Unisphere Central server must be configured on
the storage systems and the Unisphere Central administrator must verify the system manually before
it can be monitored.
- For automatic verification, the server hash and challenge phrase configured here are provided to the
storage system and the identities of the Unisphere Central server and storage system are verified
automatically when it connects to the Unisphere Central server. The Unisphere Central server and
storage systems always communicate through SSL encrypted connections and authenticate each
other by using X.509 certificates.

Settings Dialog

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Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central

4 Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and

Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central
Storage systems can be monitored by Unisphere Central without logging into each individual system. From
the Systems > Storage Systems page, click the Add icon and select either Add VNXe, Add VNX, Add
vVNX, Add SC, Add Unity or Add UnityVSA depending on the model of your storage system. This opens
the Add Storage System window (Figure 3). In this window, administrators can enter the IP address of one
of their storage system’s storage processors (SPs), verify the SP certificate for initial communication, and
provide admin credentials to add their storage system to Unisphere Central.

When adding a VNX system, Unisphere Central discovers and adds all other systems in the same local
domain of the system being added. To keep track of Unisphere domains, Unisphere Central assigns system-
defined tags. For more information about system-defined tags, please refer to the Tags section later in this
document.

Administrators can also use the wizard to add Multiple Storage Systems of the same type to Unisphere
Central consecutively. This is done by selecting the Multiple Storage Systems option and browsing to a text
file (*.txt) or a comma-separated value file (*.csv) containing a list of IP addresses (IPv4/IPv6). The list must
be in the following format:

• <SP_IP1>
• <SP_IP2>
• <SP_IP3>
• <SP_IP4>

Add Storage System Window

4.1 Verification of VNX Systems

For VNX systems, after adding the system, verification is needed within Unisphere Central before the system
is ready for monitoring. This is done by highlighting the added system in the Storage Systems list and
clicking the Verify button in the task bar to display the Verify Storage Systems window (Figure 5). The
verification process validates the certificates for every IP address associated with the system (that is SPA,

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Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central

SPB, CS0, CS1). Once verification is complete, Unisphere Central starts to collect data pertaining to the
selected system and monitors its activity.

4.2 Verification of VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell
EMC UnityVSA Systems
For VNXe, vVNX, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems, verification of the system’s security
certificate occurs automatically when Unisphere Central’s Security Policy (Figure 4) is set for Automatic
verification. This means that no manual configuration is required after the initial connection is established.

For SC Series, no additional verification steps are required.

A challenge phrase is a string that the Unisphere Central server uses to identify VNXe, vVNX, Dell EMC Unity
and, Dell EMC UnityVSA systems during the initial connection. This allows the Unisphere Central server to
automatically confirm that this is a valid client request. When the initial SSL connection is made from the
storage system to the Unisphere Central server, the server sends its certificate chain to the storage system.
By providing this server hash string, the Unisphere Central server confirms its identity to the storage system.

In this way, the challenge phrase allows the Unisphere Central server to confirm the system’s identity. The
server hash allows the system to confirm the identity of the Unisphere Central server. This mutual
identification is required only during the initial connection. After the initial connection, the server and the
storage systems use standard X.509 certificates for mutual authentication.

Configure Security Policy

If the security policy is set for Manual verification, administrators must manually verify the storage system’s
certificates just as for VNX systems. An unverified system displays a padlock icon in the Storage Systems
list. Selecting one or multiple unverified systems and clicking the Verify button brings up the Verify Storage
Systems dialog (Figure 5).

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Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central

Verify Storage Systems Dialog

4.3 Alternative Method to Add VNXe, VVNX, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell
EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central
Storage systems can also be added to Unisphere Central using Unisphere.

• Log in to the VNXe/vVNX/Unity/UnityVSA

- For VNXe/vVNX – Select Settings > Management Settings, and click the Network tab.
- For Unity/UnityVSA – Select Settings > Management > Unisphere Central.

• In the Unisphere Central Configuration section (Figure 6) for VNXe and (Figure 7) for Unity

- For VNXe systems – Select the Configure this VNXe (system) for Unisphere Central checkbox
and type the Unisphere Central IP address.
- For Dell EMC Unity systems – Select the Configure this storage system for Unisphere Central
checkbox and type the Unisphere Central IP address.

• If you set the security policy on the Unisphere Central server to Automatic, select the Use additional
security information from my Unisphere Central checkbox.

- Type the Unisphere Central Server Hash.

- Type the Challenge Phrase.

• If you set the security policy on the Unisphere Central server to Manual, type only the IP address of
Unisphere Central.
• Click Apply changes when finished.

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Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central

Unisphere Central Configuration in Unisphere for VNXe

Unisphere Central Configuration in Unisphere for Unity

4.4 Remove Storage Systems from Unisphere Central

To remove a VNXe, vVNX, VNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA system from Unisphere
Central, go to the Storage Systems page, select the system to be removed from the list, and click the
Remove button. Then confirm the removal by clicking Yes in the Remove System pop-up window. (Figure 8).

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Add VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA Systems to Unisphere Central

Remove System Dialog

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

5 Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

The following sections include details regarding the various pages that can be viewed in the Unisphere
Central GUI.

5.1 Dashboard Page

The Dashboard page displays customizable view blocks for all monitored storage systems (Figure 9).
Unisphere Central enables users to create, configure, and manage multiple dashboards. Each dashboard
appears as a tab in the dashboard window and displays a set of views.

Dashboard Page

The Dashboard page can be configured to display multiple dashboards containing any combination of the
following view blocks:

• Alerts – Displays a summary of alerts for all VNXe, vVNX, VNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell
EMC UnityVSA systems that are monitored by Unisphere Central (Figure 10). Users can also customize
the name of the view block, display the number of alerts within a specific time range, and display alerts
with a specific tag. To customize, users need to hover over the view block and click Configure icon (gear
icon). Clicking an alert icon brings the user to the Alerts page which is automatically filtered based on
what is clicked.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Alerts View Block

• Capacity – Provides a graphical summary of the storage capacity provisioned/used on the storage
systems that Unisphere Central monitors (Figure 11). The storage capacity provisioned/used on the
systems is represented as parts of a doughnut or circle chart. Tooltips provide the value of each part of
the chart by hovering over them. Users can also customize the name of the view block, display capacity
of systems with a specific tag, and show capacity based on storage resource (that is File Systems, LUNs,
and so on).

Capacity View Block

• Pools – Provides a snapshot view of 5 or 10 pools Unisphere Central monitors that have the most or
least available size or percentage of available size (Figure 12). Users can change the name of the view
block, customize how many pools are shown (5 or 10), show pools from systems with a specific tag, and
change the chart type (most available, least available, most percentage, or least percentage). Users can
also click a specific pool which brings them to the Pools page with the specified pool automatically
highlighted.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Pools View Block

• Pools Running out of Space – Provides a summary of the pools that are running out of space with an
estimated time until each pool is full within a week, month, and quarter (Figure 13). Users can customize
the name of the view block and display pools from systems with a specific tag. Users will only be able to
see pool out of space information when Unisphere Central has metrics collection storage available and
metrics collection is enabled on the storage systems. Clicking one of the categories brings the user to the
Pools page which is filtered based on what is clicked.

Pools Running out of Space View Block

• Health & Inventory – Shows the health state of all storage systems currently monitored by Unisphere
Central including some of the resources available on the systems (Figure 14). Users can customize the
name of the view block and display systems with a specific tag. Clicking a category brings the user to the
specified page with applicable filters.

Health & Inventory View Block

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

• Tier Capacity – Displays a summary of the free and used pool capacity in each tier of the storage pools
(Figure 15). Users can customize the name of the view block and filter the systems by a specific tag.

Tier Capacity View Block

5.2 Storage Systems Page

The Storage Systems page under Systems provides a list of all monitored VNXe, vVNX, VNX, SC Series,
Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems (Figure 16). The list can be sorted in many different ways
including severity status, name, model, and tags. In terms of basic functions, systems can be added, viewed
(details), removed, verified, and tagged from this page. For advanced functionality, users may create
configuration profiles for certain versions of VNXe, VNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA
systems. This is done using the profile-based system configuration feature which is explained in the
Advanced Features section of this document.

The Storage Systems page also allows users to filter the list of managed systems by table column content
by clicking the Filter icon. For example, users can filter systems based on certain severity levels like “Critical”
and “Major Problem”. This is useful when there are hundreds of systems in an environment and an
administrator wants to find the systems that need attention in a timely manner.

The Export icon allows users to export the list of systems to a CSV file. Lastly, the Customize icon allows
users to add more columns of different categories for personalized reporting.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Storage Systems Page

5.3 Tags
Storage systems monitored by Unisphere Central can have tags applied to them to help organize and identify
the systems in a quick and efficient manner. This is done by highlighting one or multiple systems, clicking the
Tags > Apply Tags button, creating/choosing the wanted tags, and clicking Apply. After a user assigns a tag
to a managed system, they can filter systems by tags in the storage systems list or in the customizable view
blocks on the Dashboard page.

To keep track of Unisphere domains for VNX systems, Unisphere Central automatically assigns system-
defined tags to every VNX system. System-defined tags cannot be renamed, removed from any system, or
deleted from Unisphere Central. These tags use the following format:

• VNX_domain_101, VNX_domain_102, VNX_domain_103, and so on.

User-defined tags can be managed using the Tags > Manage Tags button. In the Manage Tags dialog,
users can create tags, rename tags, and delete tags (Figure 17).

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Manage Tags Dialog

5.4 Profiles Page

The Profiles page allows administrators to create configuration profiles of supported VNXe, Dell EMC Unity,
and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems and push those profiles onto other VNXe, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and
Dell EMC UnityVSA systems so that they have the same settings (Figure 18). This is useful for administrators
with many storage systems that are about to be deployed and need the same configuration. The page allows
users to create, view, delete, apply, export, and import configuration profiles. Profiles can also be created and
applied to systems through the Storage Systems page using the More Actions button.

For more information about the profile-based system configuration feature, see the Advanced Features
section in this document.

Profiles Page

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

5.5 Storage Menu

The Storage menu provides detailed information about storage use and configuration of the storage
environment for the systems being monitored by Unisphere Central. The menu includes separate pages for
each type of supported storage resource including Storage Pools, LUNs (Figure 19), Consistency Groups,
File Systems, VMware Datastores, Microsoft Hyper-V storage, and Microsoft Exchange storage. Each storage
resource page can be filtered based on the available columns and can be exported to a CSV file.

LUNs Page

The frequency at which Unisphere Central collects storage and configuration data depends on the system
type. For VNX systems, Unisphere Central collects storage and configuration data once per hour unless it
receives an alert, in which case Unisphere Central polls for alerts every 5 minutes. For VNXe, vVNX, SC
Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems, data is collected once per hour regardless of alerts
or health state changes. Data is retained until a monitored system or storage resource is removed.

Detailed information about each instance of a storage resource is also available in the following categories:
general information, associated hosts, storage capacity, and storage pool utilization and associated disks.

5.6 Migration Sessions Menu

The Migration Sessions menu has the SAN Copy Pull Sessions and VNX Sessions pages. The SAN
Copy Pull Sessions (Figure 20) allows the user to create, view, modify, and delete migration sessions of
block resources from supported systems to Dell EMC Unity systems. This page and associated functions
leverage the existing SAN Copy Pull feature on Dell EMC Unity systems to provide an easy migration user
experience using Unisphere Central. The initial connectivity setup including configuring systems connections
is not orchestrated through Unisphere Central. Therefore, Unisphere Central assumes all initial setup work
has been done successfully and provides an easy-to-follow GUI workflow to configure migration sessions to
Dell EMC Unity systems.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

SAN Copy Pull Sessions Page

In the release of Unisphere Central v4 SP9, the support for migration of block resources from VNX to Dell
EMC Unity systems with SAN Copy Push was introduced. The VNX Sessions page (Figure 21) allows the
user to create, view, and modify the migration sessions of storage resources from VNX systems to Dell EMC
Unity systems. The page also includes the import sessions created with the Dell EMC Unity Native Import.

VNX Sessions Page

More detailed information can be found in the Migration Support for Dell EMC Unity Systems section of this
paper and step-by-step instructions to use the Migration Sessions page can be found in Unisphere Central
Online Help.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

5.7 Hosts Page

The Hosts page provides a list of hosts configured on the storage systems monitored by Unisphere Central
(Figure 22). The information displayed for each host includes the health state, host’s name, system,
description, network address, initiators, and operating system. Host data is collected once per hour and
retained until a monitored host or storage system is removed. The host list can be filtered based on column
content by clicking the Filter icon. Also, the list can be exported to a CSV file.

Hosts Page

5.8 Alerts Page

The Alerts page provides a list of aggregated alerts from all storage systems being monitored by Unisphere
Central (Figure 23). Users can use alerts to determine the source of an issue, symptoms and cause of the
issue, and actions that can be done to resolve it. Any actions taken to resolve an alert must be performed
directly on the system on which the alert was reported. The information displayed for each alert includes:

• Severity level
• Source storage system that generated the alert
• Log message
• Date and time
• Description

The alerts can be filtered by column content, and the entire list can be exported to a CSV file by clicking the
Export icon.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Alerts Page

5.9 Logs Page

The Logs page provides a list of log messages/events that Unisphere Central generates to record errors,
commands, and other information (Figure 24). The information displayed for each log includes:

• Severity level
• Date and time
• Source
• User that initiated the action
• Unique event identifier
• Description

The logs/events entire list can be exported to a CSV file.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Logs Page

5.10 Jobs Page

The Jobs page allows users to view information for Unisphere Central jobs including those that are active and
those that are completed or failed (Figure 25). To quickly determine the number of active jobs (those queued
or running) and view jobs progress, use the Jobs icon in the bottom status bar. The information displayed for
each job includes:

• State
• Percentage complete
• Date and time started
• Action
• Description
• User of the server
• If applicable, date and time finished

The jobs can be filtered by column content, and the entire list can be exported to a CSV file.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Jobs Page

5.11 Performance Page

The Performance page allows users to view and interact with charts that display historical performance data
for the storage systems currently being monitored by Unisphere Central. Figure 26 illustrates an example of a
performance metrics chart. Users can use the charts to analyze storage system performance and diagnose
any performance issues, such as:

• Compare changes in performance across multiple metrics like network traffic, bandwidth, and throughput
• Analyze data at both the aggregate and detailed levels
• Use preset or customized time ranges to view data collected within a specified time period
• Compare charts side by side in a two column layout

Before performance metrics can be seen, metrics collection must be enabled by allocating space for storing
the collected metrics data. This is done using the Create Metrics Storage window available in the Settings
dialog on the Metrics tab. Also, users can expand metrics storage by using the Expand Metrics Storage
dialog. To display and analyze metrics data from VNX systems, the system must have statistics logging
enabled. The VNX Unisphere Online Help describes how to enable statistics logging. For additional metrics
information and metrics storage sizing recommendations, refer to the Performance Metrics section.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Performance Metrics Page (Average CPU Utilization Chart)

Metrics are shown in Unisphere Central using line charts which display the aggregate information for a single
metric statistic. The line chart shows the metric’s value along the y-axis and the user-specified time range on
the x-axis. Users can hover over a data point on the line chart which displays a tooltip with the time, date, and
measurement associated with that data point. Hovering over a data point on one chart enables tooltips for all
other displayed charts (Figure 26).

The default time range displayed is All, and users can click other time range values (1 day, 1 week, 1 month,
6 months) using the links at the top of the page. A custom link is available to enter in specific start and end
dates for viewing. Also, a navigator bar can be seen near the top of the page which allows ease of time
control and affects all displayed charts. Lastly, next to the navigator bar is a refresh button which gathers the
latest captured data to display in the charts.

Users can also break down the aggregated data into more detailed views by selecting applicable data
contributors on the Configure dialog. The dialog can be found by clicking the gear icon when hovering over a
specific chart. Figure 27 illustrates an Average CPU Utilization chart for which two contributors (SPA and
SPB) have been selected. Each contributor shown is displayed as a different color line and users can quickly
remove and add each contributor by clicking its name in the legend. This filter process allows users to zero in
on a subset of data. When a filter is applied to a line chart, the system redraws the chart to only show the
metric values that reflect the filter criteria.

SP9.1 added support for monitoring SC Series but support for metrics is not available.

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Average CPU Utilization Chart with Selected Contributors

5.12 Settings Menu

The Settings menu, seen by clicking the Settings icon, allows users to configure Unisphere Central settings.
The menu contains the following tabs Software, Users and Groups, and Management.

Under Software, the following tabs are shown:

• Software Updates – The Software Updates dialog (Figure 28) lets users view current Unisphere
Central system software version, upload candidate software, and install candidate software.

Software Dialog

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

To upgrade the system software, there can only be one update candidate file on the system at a time.
Dell EMC highly recommends that users do not use the Unisphere Central server user interface
during an update. Also, Unisphere Central may be temporarily disconnected during the update, but
automatically reconnects after the update. Before upgrading, users can use vSphere to create a
current snapshot of the Unisphere Central VM and use the snapshot to revert the Unisphere Central
server to a previous version, if needed.

• Language Packs – View and install language packs.

• System Support Packs – View supported system versions, and update Unisphere Central to support
later releases of the systems it monitors by installing system support packs.

Under Users and Groups, the following tabs are shown:

• User Management – Create, modify, and delete users and user groups. The user roles available for
Unisphere Central are operator and administrator. A user must have administrator privileges to see and
manage the users and groups list.
• Directory Services – Configure and manage LDAP server certificates through this page. LDAP helps
centralize the management of network authentication and authorization operations. Integrating Unisphere
Central users into an existing LDAP environment provides a way to control management access based
on established user and group accounts within the LDAP directory. When this is set up, a user can use an
advanced feature called Single Sign-On (SSO). See the Advanced Features section for more information.

Under Management, the following tabs are shown:

• Network Settings – Set up the server name and network settings for the Unisphere Central server.
• Time Servers (NTP) – Set up Network Time Protocol (NTP) settings to synchronize time with application
hosts. The accuracy of time on the Unisphere Central server is important to proper function of Unisphere
Central. It is highly recommended to configure an NTP server during the install process.
• DNS Servers – Set up Domain Name Servers (DNS) to resolve host names on a network. One or more
DNS Servers are required for dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 environments.
• Security Policy – Configure the security policy to specify how storage systems are verified when
connecting to Unisphere Central. Automatic verification automatically verifies storage systems when they
connect to Unisphere Central using a preconfigured security certificate hash and passphrase. Manual
verification requires users to manually verify connected storage systems.
• Metrics – Configure and manage metrics storage (Figure 29). Use this tab to do the following:

- Start metrics collection if collection was not automatically started after storage creation
- Create, expand, and delete metrics storage
- View current metrics storage usage
- Monitor the status of storage allocation
- Change the time schedule for data retention

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Metrics Configuration Tab

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

5.13 Preferences Dialog

The Preferences dialog, seen by clicking the Preferences icon, allows users to modify user preference
settings including:

• Preferences – Set graphical interface user language, optimize the server for remote management
access, and clear user cache (Figure 30). Language packs need to be downloaded and installed before
they can be chosen in this dialog.
• Change Password – Change the password of the currently logged in user account.
• Logout – Log out of the current user session. If Single-Sign On (SSO) is enabled, all other user sessions
currently managed through SSO are logged out as well.

Unisphere Central Preferences

5.14 Help Dialog

The help options are seen by clicking the Help icon, provides user access to the many support options
available to Unisphere Central including:

• Support – Provides instant access to online support information and communities. It is a central location
for self-help resources, and it provides links to resources where users can learn about and get assistance
with Unisphere Central.
• Service Dell EMC Unisphere Central – Diagnose, troubleshoot, and repair the Unisphere Central server
through this dialog (Figure 31). To access this dialog, users must type the service password which is
configured during installation. The page provides tools to collect service information to assist a service
provider with a service request, export metrics data, change the service password, enable/disable Secure
Shell (SSH), and reboot the server. The Unisphere Central V4 SP9 release adds support to configure the
TLS mode. The user can set which TLS protocols are allowed for both inbound and outbound SSL
connections with Unisphere Central (Figure 32).

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Unisphere Central Graphical User Interface

Service Dell EMC Unisphere Central Dialog

Configure TLS Mode Dialog

• Online Help – Central repository for all help topics and procedures. From this repository, users can locate
a wide variety of information including instructions for monitoring systems, detailed explanations, and
instructions for servicing Unisphere Central.
• Help for <Page> – When navigating through the Unisphere Central interface, users can access this help
link to be redirected directly to a page-specific help topic in the Unisphere Central Online Help. Also,
window dialogs provide a help icon that serves the same purpose as the help link.
• About – Provides the current version number of the Unisphere Central server.

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Advanced Features

6 Advanced Features
Unisphere Central is a useful tool for monitoring VNXe, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity and Dell EMC
UnityVSA storage systems in a customer’s environment. Beyond this basic functionality of the server,
Unisphere Central offers administrators an extra feature set for different use cases. The advanced features
available to Unisphere Central are:

• Predictive pool capacity monitoring

• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Profile-based system configuration
• Unified search
• Migration support for Dell EMC Unity

6.1 Predictive Pool Capacity Monitoring

Within the Pools page, there is a column available to users called Days to Full (Figure 33). The column
displays the predicted number of days until there is no more space in the configured pools on the monitored
systems. The column can be displayed by clicking the Customize icon and selecting it for display in the table.

Days to Full Column on the Pools Page

The feature helps users monitor the amount of space remaining on pools in their storage environment and
plan for future capacity needs. On the Dashboard page, users can also display Pools Running out of
Space view block which predicts pools being full in the following ways:

• Within a week (7 days)

• Within a month (8-30 days)
• Within a quarter (31-90 days)

To use the feature, users must have metrics collection enabled and metrics storage available through the
Create Metrics Storage wizard and metrics/statistics collection enabled on monitored storage systems. Also,
Unisphere Central needs a minimum of 7 days of historical capacity metrics before making a prediction for a
pool.

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Advanced Features

Unisphere Central uses a forecasting algorithm that identifies repeated patterns to predict future events. The
algorithm starts forecasting on the 8th day (after 7 days of historical capacity metrics data collection) with
daily patterns and can identify future patterns as data accumulates. A full quarter forecast would be available
after 15 months of collected data. The forecasting algorithm runs once per day.

6.2 Single Sign-On (SSO)

The Single Sign-On (SSO) feature provides an easy way to log in to VNXe (version 3.1 or later), vVNX, Dell
EMC Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems without requiring the user to reauthenticate. SSO eliminates the
time needed to enter usernames and passwords to manage individual systems and brings ease of
management to administrators. Using SSO, users can:

• Log in to Unisphere Central, then select and launch Unisphere on a VNXe system, vVNX, Dell EMC
Unity, or Dell EMC UnityVSA system without reauthenticating.
• Log in to a storage system, open another browser window, and launch another Unisphere session for a
different storage, by entering the URL of that system, without having to reauthenticate.

The following are the requirements to use SSO:

• Unisphere Central server version 4.0.1 or later.

• VNXe/vVNX systems (running version 3.1 or later) or Unity/UnityVSA system.
• Both Unisphere Central storage systems must be configured for the same AD/LDAP directory (Figure 34).
• LDAP user must be directly mapped to a Unisphere role for both Unisphere Central and storage systems.
• Each storage system must have SSO enabled.
• User must log in using an LDAP user.

Also, the feature provides a Single Sign-Off capability to users which allows the ability to log off from all
systems in an SSO environment from a single system. For more information about enabling SSO, please see
the Unity Security Configuration Guide on Dell EMC Online Support.

LDAP Server Settings Tab

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Advanced Features

6.3 Profile-Based System Configuration

The profile-based system configuration feature allows users the ability to capture the system configuration of
a VNXe/Unity/UnityVSA system monitored by Unisphere Central by creating a profile (Figure 35) and using
that profile to apply (push) the same configuration to other storage systems of the same model. This feature is
useful for administrators with many newly deployed storage systems in their environment that require the
same configurations. Users will have to use the local admin account to create system profiles. Although if
SSO is enabled, users will have to use a configured LDAP admin user to create a system profile. Profile-
based system configuration supports the following configuration settings:

• DNS
• NTP
• Alerts
• LDAP
• Security
• SMTP Server
• Support
• Location
• User

Depending on the configuration, the following additional tabs are displayed:

Systems Configuration
System OE version Additional tab or tabs
Dell EMC Unity Role, FAST Cache, FAST VP, Storage Pool
Dell EMC UnityVSA Role, FAST VP, Storage Pool
VNXe 3.1.3 Role, FAST Cache
VNXe 3.1.x, Excluding 3.1.3 Role, FAST VP, Storage Pool
VNXe 2.4 DNS Configuration, Storage Pool

Configuration profiles can be created, deleted, applied, imported, and exported from the Profiles page under
the Systems menu. Exported profiles are saved in a JSON format and can be imported to other Unisphere
Central server instances. Profiles can also be created and applied through the Storage Systems page
through the More Actions menu.

The following are the requirements to use the profile-based system configuration feature:

• Unisphere Central server version 4.0.1 or later.

• VNXe systems (running version 2.4 or later) or Unity/UnityVSA systems.
• To push FAST Cache settings, there must be available flash disks on the destination system.
• To push Storage Pool configurations, the following conditions must be met:

- No Storage Pools can currently be configured on the destination system.

- The destination system must have the available disks and necessary spare disks for the Storage Pool
configurations.

Note: Storage Pool configuration capture is not supported for VNXe1600 systems.

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Advanced Features

Configuration Profile

6.4 Unified Search

Unisphere Central includes a unified search feature which allows users to search for objects based on string
text criteria. This adds convenience when trying to find a particular object’s page or finding related objects for
various purposes. The feature can be used by clicking the Search icon at the upper right of the Unisphere
Central interface and inputting the search criteria (Figure 36).

Unified Search

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Advanced Features

6.5 Migration Support for Dell EMC Unity Systems

In the release of Unisphere Central v4 SP8, the support for migration of block resources to Dell EMC Unity
systems was introduced. This feature provides a user-friendly front-end mechanism to migrate block data to
Dell EMC Unity systems from supported arrays like SC Series systems. The feature uses the existing SAN
Copy Pull feature on Dell EMC Unity systems, so the same feature restrictions and limitations apply, but since
SAN Copy Pull is a CLI-only feature on Dell EMC Unity, Unisphere Central provides a more enhanced user
experience by initiating migration sessions through an easy-to-follow GUI wizard. Unisphere Central does not
provide management capabilities for this feature so all pre-requisites for SAN Copy Pull and migration
sessions must be completed prior to initiating a new migration session within Unisphere Central.

To use SAN Copy Pull for Dell EMC Unity systems to migrate block data, the Dell EMC Unity system must be
running OE 4.4 or later and the system connections from the source array should be connected either over
iSCSI or FC connections. For more detailed information and step-by-step instructions on initial system
connection setup, see the white paper titled Dell EMC Unity Migration Technologies and the user guide titled
Dell EMC Unity Family Third-Party System Migration using SAN Copy Pull on Dell EMC Online Support.

Once system connectivity is established between a Dell EMC Unity system and source array and the
destination resource has been created successfully, then a new migration session can be initiated directly
from Unisphere Central instead of through Unisphere CLI. Note that the Dell EMC Unity system must be
added as a monitored system within Unisphere Central, but the source array does not need to be monitored.
To start a new migration session, go to the SAN Copy Pull Sessions page under Migration Sessions and
click the Add button. The corresponding wizard (as seen in Figure 37) then guides the user to initiate the new
migration session and provides different session options like “I/O Rate” for migration data transfer speed
throttling and “Session Tag” for session tracking purposes.

Create Migration Session Wizard – SAN Copy Pull

Once the session is running successfully, the corresponding properties window displays detailed information
like Size Remaining for data transfer and Estimated Time of Completion (as seen in Figure 38). Migration
session’s information within the Migration Sessions page is automatically updated every 5 minutes. To

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Advanced Features

manually refresh and pull the latest migration session information for a specific session, should close and
reopen the properties window for that session.

Migration Session Details Page

6.5.1 SAN Copy Push Detailed steps

In the release of Unisphere Central v4 SP9, the support for migration of block resources from VNX to Dell
EMC Unity systems with SAN Copy Push was introduced. Like the SAN Copy Pull feature above, Unisphere
Central provides the creation of the migration sessions through an easy-to-follow GUI wizard. A new migration
session can be created from the VNX Sessions page under Migration Sessions and click Add which opens
the Create Migration Session wizard as seen in Figure 39. See section 6.5.1 for pre-requisites and detailed
steps.

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Advanced Features

Create Migration Session Wizard – SAN Copy Push

1. As a pre-requisite, check if the SANCopy and SnapView enablers are already installed on the source
VNX. Navigate to the Software tab within the Storage System Properties window that shows which
enablers are installed on the system. In Figure 40 below, the enablers have been installed, which is
denoted by the -SnapView and -SANCopy entries in the Packages list. If the enablers are not installed,
install them by using Unisphere Service Manager.

SANCopy and SnapView enablers

2. In this example, we will be leveraging iSCSI. Configure two iSCSI interfaces (for SPA and SPB) on Dell
EMC Unity from Storage > Block > iSCSI Interfaces.
3. Configure two iSCSI interfaces (for SPA and SPB) on VNX from Settings > Network > Settings for
Block (Systems > Hardware > Storage Hardware for Block only systems).
a. Notes: Do not use the MirrorView port. Check the port status before configuration, making sure to
choose the links that are up.

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Advanced Features

To check the port status, use the following command:

naviseccli -h 10.0.1.1 -User sysadmin -Scope 0 port -list

4. Create a connection between Dell EMC Unity and VNX as shown below:

Right-click the system > iSCSI > Connection Between Storage Systems

Connection Between Storage Systems > Add…

Add Connection

5. Update the SAN Copy connections from Storage > Data Migration > SAN Copy and from the right task
pane under Data Migration click Update SAN Copy Connections as shown in Figure 44.

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Advanced Features

Update SAN Copy Connections

6. From VNX, test that the iSCSI connections are working.

Test Connection

Test iSCSI Connection Results

7. From Dell EMC Unity, confirm that the initiators are shown from the Access > Initiators page.

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Advanced Features

Access > Initiators

8. Confirm that the initiator paths are shown from the Access > Initiator Paths page.

Access > Initiator paths

9. If none are available, add import interfaces from Protection & Mobility > Interfaces.

Protection & Mobility > Interfaces

10. Navigate to Protection & Mobility > Import > Connections. Click Create Import Connection, as shown
in Figure 50, to create a new remote connection.

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Advanced Features

Protection & Mobility > Import > Connections

11. Go to the Unisphere Central GUI, navigate to the VNX Sessions page under Protection & Mobility >
Migration Sessions. Click Create Import Session, as shown in Figure 51, to create a migration session.
Follow the Create Migration Session wizard as shown in Figure 39.

Protection & Mobility > Migration Sessions > VNX Sessions

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Unisphere Central High Availability

7 Unisphere Central High Availability

Unisphere Central Server software runs on a dedicated virtual machine. This is hosted on a VMware ESXi
host. High availability (HA) configurations are only available when using ESXi servers are being managed by
a VMware vCenter server. A minimum of two ESXi servers are required.

To achieve HA, Unisphere Central takes advantage of VMware HA support provided by the VMware vSphere
environment. VMware HA is a feature of the host cluster. The vSphere environment provides several levels of
high availability:

• Host-level High Availability – For the highest level of HA, Unisphere Central runs in a cluster of (at
least) two hosts. This is the recommended HA level for Unisphere Central services. At any given moment,
the Unisphere Central Server VM runs on a single host. When vSphere detects failure of the current
Unisphere Central host (loss of heartbeat), or the failure of the Unisphere Central VM, the Unisphere
Central VM is restarted on the other host in the cluster. For this level of HA, the Unisphere Central VM
must reside on storage shared by both hosts.
• VM-level High Availability – When only a single host is available for Unisphere Central, HA still can be
configured; however, it does not protect against ESXi failures. In this case, the Unisphere Central host
must still be a part of the single-host cluster, which is configured properly for HA. When vSphere detects a
VM failure (loss of heartbeat), the VM is restarted on the same host.
• Application-level High Availability – Application-level HA in the Unisphere Central virtual machine is
handled internally. No user setup is required. However, if the Unisphere Central virtual machine fails more
than three times in 10 minutes, it is not restarted anymore. In that situation, the administrator needs to
reboot the Unisphere Central virtual machine using the vSphere GUI. If that does not help, the VM is
apparently corrupted and needs to be restored from a previously backed-up virtual machine snapshot.

The Dell EMC Unisphere Central Installation Guide on Dell EMC Online Support provides more information
about HA configurations in vSphere.

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Conclusion

8 Conclusion
Unisphere Central was designed with the philosophy of “keep it simple.” It provides remote monitoring of the
status, activity, and resources of multiple VNXe, VNX, vVNX, SC Series, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC
UnityVSA systems and the hosts connected to those resources making it easier for administrators to oversee
their environment.

Unisphere Central’s support ecosystem puts a world of resources at the administrator’s fingertips.
Comprehensive online documentation, help, training, and how-to videos are provided to expand the user’s
knowledgebase and answer questions. All these features make Unisphere Central a powerful and easy-to-
use tool.

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Technical support and resources

A Technical support and resources

Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support.

Storage technical documents and videos provide expertise that helps to ensure customer success on Dell
EMC storage platforms.

The Dell EMC Unity Family Info Hub provides detailed documentation on a variety of topics.

A.1 Related resources

The following resources can be found on Dell EMC Online Support:

• Introduction to the EMC VNX2 Series – A Detailed Review

• Introduction to the EMC VNXe1600 – A Detailed Review
• Introduction to the EMC VNXe3200 – A Detailed Review
• Introduction to the VNX Series – VNX5100, VNX5300, VNX5500, VNX5700, and VNX7500
• Dell EMC Unity: Introduction to Platform
• Dell EMC Unity XT: Introduction to the Platform
• Dell EMC Unity: Operating Environment (OE) Overview
• Dell EMC UnityVSA
• Unisphere Central 4.0 Installation Guide
• Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

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Performance Metrics

B Performance Metrics
Unisphere Central gathers metrics from the monitored VNXe, VNX, vVNX, Dell EMC Unity, and Dell EMC
UnityVSA storage systems and displays them in the Performance page.

The metrics functionality requires additional storage space to store the data collected from the storage
systems. This storage space is allocated from a VMware Datastore to the Unisphere Central vApp using a
simple wizard.

Note: To display and analyze metrics data from VNX systems, the VNX system must have statistics logging
enabled. The VNX Unisphere Online Help describes how to enable statistics logging.

B.1 System Requirements with Metrics Collection Enabled

Due to the increased processing power required by Unisphere Central when metrics collection is enabled, the
ESXi server must meet the requirements listed in Table 3 and Table 4.

System Requirements

System Requirements Small Medium Large

Disks 5000 10000 20000

vCPU 2 4 8

Memory (GB) 4 6 8

Recommended Storage Size 25 65 120

(GB)

Metrics Collection Enabled

Storage Environment Size Small Medium Large

Systems (VNX) 10 25 50

Systems (VNXe) 75 150 300

Systems (Dell EMC Unity) 75 150 300

Storage Resources
10000 25000 50000
(LUNs, File Systems)

The total number of objects in small, medium, or large VNXe/Unity environments is substantially lower than
the number of objects in the corresponding VNX environments. As a result, the recommended storage size
provides more than enough metrics storage for VNXe/Unity environments.

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Performance Metrics

B.2 Metrics Configuration

Before users can use the metrics functionality, metrics collection must be enabled and users must allocate an
initial amount of space for storing the collected metrics using the Create Metrics Storage wizard located in
the Metrics tab of the Settings dialog. During the wizard, users can set the metrics data retention period.
Unisphere Central allocates approximately 10 GB of storage immediately and the remainder of the storage in
a background process.

Note: You must allocate storage space before you can enable metrics collection.

Users can monitor metrics storage space utilization using the Metrics tab. If needed, users can expand the
metrics storage by using the Expand Metrics Storage dialog.

Metrics Data Retention Period

Sampling Interval Default Retention Period Maximum Retention Period

5 minutes 2 weeks 4 weeks

1 hour 12 weeks 12 weeks

1 day 52 weeks 104 weeks

B.3 Performance Metrics

The Performance page allows users to view performance metrics for monitored VNXe, VNX, vVNX, Dell EMC
Unity, and Dell EMC UnityVSA systems in the environment. Table 6 and Table 7 list out the available VNXe
3.x/Unity and VNX performance metrics that are available, respectively. For a complete list of metrics that can
be collected by Unisphere Central, see Unisphere Central Online Help.

Available VNXe /Unity Performance Metrics

Resource Metric Description

Cache* Cache Dirty Size Amount of data in the write

cache, in MB, that has not yet
been flushed out to disks.
FAST Cache Dirty Pages Ratio of dirty pages to total
pages in the storage processor
FAST Cache, expressed as a
percent.
Total SP Cache Throughput Total number of I/O requests,
in I/O per second, passing
through the storage processor
cache.

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Performance Metrics

CIFS Average CIFS I/O Size Average size of CIFS I/O

requests, in KB, across all
ports in the storage system.
Total CIFS Bandwidth Total amount of CIFS I/O
requests, in KB/s, across all
ports in the storage system.
Total CIFS Throughput Total number of CIFS I/O
requests, in I/O per second,
across all ports in the storage
system.

CPU Average CPU Utilization Total number of processing

cycles, as a percentage,
across all cores in the storage
system SPs.

Disk* Average Disk Queue Length Average number of disk I/O

requests in the system queue,
across all disks in the storage
system.
Average Disk Response Time Average time spent completing
disk I/O requests, in
microseconds, across all disks
in the storage system,
including time spent in the
queue.
Average Disk Service Time Average time spent completing
disk I/O requests, in
millisecond, across all disks in
the storage system, not
including time spent in the
queue.
Total Disk Bandwidth Total amount of disk I/O
requests, in KB/s, across all
disks in the storage system.
Total Disk Throughput Total number of disk I/O
requests, in I/Os per second,
across all disks in the storage
system.

FC* Total Fibre Channel Bandwidth Total amount of Fibre Channel

I/O requests, in KB/s, across
all ports in the storage system
Total Fibre Channel Throughput Total number of Fibre Channel
I/O requests, in I/O per
second, across all ports in the
storage system.

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Performance Metrics

File System Average File System I/O Size Average size of file system I/O
requests, in KB, across all file
systems in the storage system.
Total File System Bandwidth Total amount of file system I/O
requests, in KB/s, across all
file systems in the storage
system.
Total File System Throughput Total number of file system I/O
requests, in I/O per second,
across all file systems in the
storage system.

iSCSI Total iSCSI Bandwidth Total amount of iSCSI I/O

requests, in KB/s, across all
ports in the storage system.
Total iSCSI Throughput Total number of iSCSI I/O
requests, in I/O per second,
across all ports in the storage
system.

LUN Average LUN I/O Size Average size of LUN I/O

requests, in KB, across all
LUNs in the storage system
Average LUN Queue Length Average number of LUN I/O
requests in the system queue
across all LUNs in the storage
system.
Average LUN Response Time Average time spent completing
LUN I/O requests, in
microseconds, across all LUNs
in the storage system.
Total LUN Bandwidth Total amount of LUN I/O
requests, in KB/s, across all
LUNs in the storage system.
Total LUN Throughput Total number of LUN I/O
requests, in I/Os per second,
across all LUNs in the storage
system.

NFS Average NFS I/O Size Average size of NFS I/O

requests, in KB, across all
ports in the storage system.
Total NFS Bandwidth Total amount of NFS I/O
requests, in KB/s, across all
ports in the storage system.
Total NFS Throughput Total number of NFS I/O
requests, in I/O per second,
across all ports in the storage
system.
*Not available on Dell EMC UnityVSA

51 Dell EMC Unity: Unisphere Central | H13827

Performance Metrics

Available VNX Performance Metrics

Resource Metric Description

Cache Cache Dirty Size Ratio of cache, as a

percentage, written but
not flushed to disk
Cache Hit Ratio Total number of read
requests, as a
percentage, fulfilled by
retrieval from cache

CPU Average CPU Utilization Total processing cycles,

as a percentage, across
all cores in the storage
processors used by the
storage system

Disk Disk Bandwidth Total amount of disk I/O

requests, in bytes per
second, across all disks
in the storage system
Disk Errors Total number of disk
errors encountered by
all disks in the storage
system
Disk Response Time Average time, in
millisecond, required for
one request to pass
through a system
component, including its
waiting time
Disk Queue Length Average number of disk
I/O requests in the
system queue, in MB/s,
across all disks in the
storage system
Disk Service Time Average time spent
completing disk I/O
requests, in millisecond,
across all disks in the
storage system, not
including time spent in
the queue
Disk Throughput Total number of disk I/O
requests, in I/Os per
second, across all disks
in the storage system

52 Dell EMC Unity: Unisphere Central | H13827

Performance Metrics

LUN LUN Bandwidth Total amount of LUN

I/O requests, in bytes
per second, across all
LUNs in the storage
system
LUN Response Time Average time, in
millisecond, required for
one request to pass
through a system
component, including its
waiting time
LUN Queue Length Average number of LUN
I/O requests in the
system queue across all
LUNs in the storage
system
LUN Throughput Total number of LUN
I/O requests, in I/Os per
second, across all LUNs
in the storage system

Port Port Bandwidth Total amount of I/O

requests, in bytes per
second, across all ports
in the storage system
Port Throughput Total number of I/O
requests, in packets per
second, across all ports
in the storage system

Protocol Protocol Throughput Total number of

protocol I/O requests, in
I/Os per second,
handled by the storage
system

File System File System Bandwidth Total amount of file

system I/O requests, in
KB/s, across all file
systems in the storage
system
File System Throughput Total number of file
system I/O requests, in
I/O per second, across
all file systems in the
storage system

53 Dell EMC Unity: Unisphere Central | H13827