It’s been a prolific week for PowerScale! Hot on the heels of the OneFS 9.10 launch comes the unveiling of the new InsightIQ 5.2 release. InsightIQ delivers powerful performance monitoring and reporting functionality, helping maximize PowerScale cluster performance. This includes advanced analytics to optimize applications, correlate cluster events, and accurately forecast future storage needs.
So what new goodness does the InsightIQ 5.2 release deliver? Added functionality includes expanded ecosystem support, enhanced reporting, and streamlined upgrade and migration.
The InsightIQ (IIQ) ecosystem is expanded in 5.2 to now include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions 9.4 and 8.10. This allows customers who are running current RHEL code to use InsightIQ 5.x to monitor the latest OneFS versions. Additionally, InsightIQ Simple can now be installed on VMware Workstation 17, allowing IIQ 5.2 to be deployed on non-production lab environments for trial or demo purposes – without incurring a VMware charge.
On the reporting front, dashboard and report visibility has been enhanced to allow a greater number of clusters to be viewed via the dashboard’s performance overview screen. This enables users to easily compare a broad array of multi-cluster metrics on a single pane without the need for additional scrolling and navigation.
Additionally, IIQ 5.2 also expands the maximum and minimum range for a sample point across all performance reports. This allows cluster administrators to more easily identify a potential issue with the full fidelity of metrics displayed, whereas previously down sampling to an average value may have masked an anomaly.
Support and serviceability-wise, IIQ 5.2 brings additional upgrade and migration functionality. Specifically, cluster admins can perform simple, non-disruptive in-place upgrades from IIQ 5.1 to IIQ 5.2. Additionally, IIQ 4.4.1 instances can also now be directly migrated to the new IIQ 5.2 release without the need to export or import any data, or reconfiguring any settings.
| Function | Attribute | Description |
| OS Support | Simple ecosystem support | InsightIQ Simple 5.2.0 can be deployed on the following platforms:
· VMware virtual machine running ESXi version 7.0U3 or 8.0U3 · VMware Workstation 17 (free version) InsightIQ Simple 5.2.0 can monitor PowerScale clusters running OneFS versions 9.3 through 9.10, excluding 9.6. |
| Scale ecosystem support | InsightIQ Scale 5.2.0 can be deployed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 8.10 or 9.4 (English language versions). InsightIQ Scale 5.2.0 can monitor PowerScale clusters running OneFS versions 9.3 through 9.10, excluding 9.6. | |
| Upgrade | In-place upgrade from InsightIQ 5.1.x to 5.2.0 | The upgrade script supports in-place upgrades from InsightIQ 5.1.x. |
| Direct database migration from InsightIQ 4.4.1 to InsightIQ 5.2.0 | Direct data migration from an InsightIQ 4.4.1 database to InsightIQ 5.2.0 is supported. | |
| Reporting | Maximum and minimum ranges on all reports | All live Performance Reports display a light blue zone that indicates the range of values for a metric within the sample length. The light blue zone is shown regardless of whether any filter is applied. With this enhancement, users can observe trends in values on filtered graphs. |
| More graphs on a page | Reports are redesigned to maximize the number of graphs that can appear on each page.
· Excess white space is eliminated. · The report parameters section collapses when the report is run. The user can expand it manually. · Graph heights are decreased when possible. · Page scrolling occurs while the collapsed parameters section remains fixed at the top. |
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| User interface | What’s New dialog | All InsightIQ users can view a brief introduction to new functionality in the latest release of InsightIQ. Access the dialog from the banner area of the InsightIQ web application. Click About > What’s New. |
| Compact cluster performance view on the Dashboard | The Dashboard is redesigned to improve usability.
· Summary information for six clusters appears in the initial Dashboard view. A sectional scrollbar controls the view for additional clusters. · The capacity section has its own scrollbar. · The navigation side bar is collapsible into space-saving icons. Use the << icon at the bottom of the side bar to collapse it. |
Meanwhile, the new InsightIQ 5.2 code is available on the Dell Support site, allowing both installation of and upgrade to this new release.