This chapter gives a brief overview of the DS8910F Model 993 and positioning and includes the following topics:

The IBM DS8900 family offers a new all-flash array model, DS8910F Model 993, to meet the demand for higher-speed storage in a smaller footprint.

The DS8910F Model 993 adds a modular rack-mountable enterprise storage system to the 533x all-flash machine type family. As such, it does not come in its own rack, but can be integrated into a standard 19-inch wide rack that conforms to EIA 310D specifications. The standard 19-inch wide rack installation (Feature Code 0939), requires a minimum of 15U contiguous space to mount the modules.

Figure 1-1 shows the DS8910F Model 993 with the maximum configuration (two pairs of HPFE Gen2) that requires 19U contiguous space, not including the optional KVM.

The DS8910F Model 993 is designed for clients with small capacity requirements who want to boost performance, in particular in mainframe environments.

The DS8910F Rack Mounted Storage System supports continuous operation, data security, and data resiliency. For high-availability, the hardware components are redundant.

The modular system can be integrated into a 15U contiguous space of an IBM z14 Model ZR1 (Feature Code 0937) and IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper II (z14 Model LR1, Feature Code 0938) as shown in Figure 1-2.

When integrated in either of those IBM Z® racks, only one HPFE Gen2 enclosure pair is supported. The added 1U KVM brings the total to 16U contiguous space.

For more information about how to integrate the DS8910F, see Chapter 3, “DS8910F installation and integration” on page 27.

The DS8910F enables you to take advantage of the DS8900 advanced features and limits data center footprint and power infrastructure requirements. The modular system contains IBM POWER9™ processor nodes, an I/O enclosure, High-Performance Flash Enclosures Gen2, a management enclosure (which includes the Hardware Management Consoles [HMCs]), Ethernet Switches, and Rack Power Control [RPCs]).

For more information about the DS8910F architecture, hardware, and components, see Chapter 2, “DS8910F hardware configuration” on page 5.

The DS8910F provides a mid-level product with the same advanced functions as larger DS8900 family systems, with support for IBM Z Systems or distributed hosts. It is an ideal replacement for older IBM Storage systems, small-capacity DS8700, and DS8800 systems with comparable capacity requirements.

The DS8910F delivers the following hardware features:

Functions are licensed as for the others DS8900F models:

The Base Function license is required for each DS8910F storage system. The licensed functions include Database Protection, Encryption Authorization, IBM Easy Tier®, the Operating Environment License, and Thin Provisioning.

The z-synergy Services include IBM z/OS® functions that are supported on the storage system. The licensed functions include transparent cloud tiering, High-Performance FICON for z Systems, SuperPAV, HyperPAV, PAV, and z/OS Distributed Data Backup.

Copy Services features help you implement storage solutions to keep your business running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by providing data duplication, data migration, and disaster recovery functions. The licensed functions include Global Mirror, Metro Mirror, Metro/Global Mirror, Point-in-Time Copy/IBM FlashCopy®, z/OS Global Mirror, Safeguarded Copy, and z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync (RMZ).

You can use the DS8000 Storage Management GUI and the DS command-line interface (DS CLI) to manage and logically configure the storage system.