Re: IBM XIV?

We are using XIV as storage backend for many activities, including ESX, Linux and AIX file systems, and large+busy DB2 databases. For a short while, we also tested and Oracle setup where the Oracle server was using an XIV storage backend (we dropped it again, but not because of XIV issues).

We have been using it in production for around ½ a year now. No problems so far, and great performance. When I say "great performance", it's due to

• impressions during daily operations
• from extensive benchmarks using tools like fio, iozone, and bonnie++; the results on XIV were very impressive, compared to other storage solutios that we use

We monitor it using SNMP.

Due to it's active-active multipathing, it's super-simple to configure on the hosts, because you don't have to worry about setting up correct preferred paths, path-failover stuff, etc.

Some minor drawbacks:

• The GUI user interface of the XIV is too flashy for my taste, making it hard to use over a remote X session, for example. (I haven't used the command line interface, so I can't comment on that.)
• XIV doesn't accept passwords containing special charaters like &
• IBM is somewhat secretive about the XIV; for example:
  • There is a MIB for XIV, but you can't find it anywhere public. But your XIV reseller should be able to provide you with it.
  • There is an interesting whitepaper about optimal DB2 setup when using XIV which contains some rather interesting advice, but the whitepaper isn't publicly available. Maybe there are other whitepapers like that (one for Oracle+XIV?). Again: Your XIV reseller should be able to provide it for you.

I can highly recommend the XIV for any database-like usage.

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Troels