New Features and Changes with ProSphere 2.0

The new and changed functionality in ProSphere 2.0.

Network-attached storage (NAS) support

You can use ProSphere to manage all critical operations for EMC Celerra® NAS and EMC VNX® (block and file) devices with the following configurations:

• Integrated (or embedded, file only)
• NAS Gateway
• Unified NAS (file and block modes)

Corresponding to these NAS configurations, ProSphere discovery, performance, capacity, alerting and group features have been enhanced.

Note: Performance data is only collected for the block portion of Unified NAS configuration.

• Discovery:

     New Configuration Item dialog boxes are available for NAS Gateway, NAS Integrated, NAS Unified, and ESX network file system (NFS) data stores.

     The Configuration Item dialog boxes also include topology Map, attributes, data movers, file shares, path details, connectivity, and capacity

     graphs as relevant to the specific NAS configuration type.

     The Objects List view now includes viewblocks for arrays (block storage only), NAS Integrated and NAS Gateway (file storage only), and Unified

     (unified NAS - block and file storage).

• Capacity metrics and views:

     The Dashboard includes Block Capacity (named Capacity in earlier releases) and File Capacity with new and enhanced graphs.

     The Explore > Storage viewblocks now includes Storage Systems (named Arrays in earlier releases), File Capacity, and Block Capacity.

• Alerting and Groups:

     Also support NAS devices.

     Note: Manage Groups options is moved to Admin > System.

Alerting enhancements

ProSphere can now consolidate, process for display, as well as send email and trap notifications for the alerts from the following devices in your environment:

• Cisco switches
• EMC VNX® (block and file)
• EMC Celerra® NAS (legacy)
• EMC CLARiiON®

Additionally, migration of alert data during upgrade is limited to only alerts lesser than or equal to 90 days of age. This change improves the upgrade process significantly.

SRM Suite Integration — Watch4net

The new option Configure SRM Suite Integration in the Admin > System tab enables viewing of ProSphere Performance metrics in the EMC Watch4net user interface.

The collection interval of ProSphere performance data for configuration items in Smart groups is also customizable.

Customizable performance data retention

The Manage Data Retention option in the Admin > System tab can be used to customize the retention period (1 - 730 days) of Path Performance Collection data. Based on the retention time specified, ProSphere uses the date of data creation to determine which

data (hourly, weekly, and monthly) should be purged from the Historical Database.

Topology view for arrays

In previous releases, when opening the Configuration Item dialog box for arrays, you could right-click on an array port and select Add Related Hosts to Map to add the display of hosts to the topology View. In release 2.0, this option has been renamed to Show related CIs on map and moved to the Show On Map column of the Details – Connectivity table.

Enhanced chargeback for virtual hosts

Service levels for chargeable capacity for virtual hosts enhanced with:

• Shared hosts — VMDK, Raw Device Mapping (RDM) and replicas behind RDM.

     Note: Primary and total chargeable capacities do not include any capacities derived from NFS as capacity metrics do not support NFS.

     Non-shared hosts — Snapshot rollup space, Swap rollup space, and other virtual machine files' rollup space.

Audit logs and Elastic Search

A new Audit Logs option in the Admin > System tab enables Security and System administrators to view the audit trail for operations performed in various ProSphere components. These audit logs display such details as the user IDs of the ProSphere user who performed the operations, the affected component and sub-component, status of the operations, and so on.

For efficient indexing and faster retrieval of the audit data, a new component, Elastic Search, has been introduced.

Customizable login banner

The Customize Login Banner option in the Admin > Users and Security tab allows insertion of corporate security compliance messages into a login banner. Users must acknowledge the security compliance requirements before logging into ProSphere.

REST API

The REST API support is now expanded to include:

• CAS Authentication using PowerShell's Invoke-RestMethod
• Customization of the login banner URIs
• Hierarchy of alert URIs
• Hierarchy of storage capacity NAS URIs
• Hierarchy of storage Group capacity URIs

More details available here https://support.emc.com/products/15995_ProSphere