## 3.1 General planning rules 

Important:  At the time of writing, the statements provided in this book are correct, but they might change. Always verify any statements that are made in this book with the IBM SAN Volume Controller supported hardware list, device driver, firmware, and recommended software levels that are available at the following websites: 

GLYPH<SM590000> Support Information for SAN Volume Controller: 

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1003658 

GLYPH<SM590000> IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC): 

https://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/ssic/interoperability.wss 

To maximize benefit from the SAN Volume Controller, pre-installation planning must include several important steps. These steps ensure that the SAN Volume Controller provides the best possible performance, reliability, and ease of management for your application needs. The correct configuration also helps minimize downtime by avoiding changes to the SAN Volume Controller and the Storage Area Network (SAN) environment to meet future growth needs. 

Note:  Make sure that the planned configuration is reviewed by IBM or an IBM Business Partner before implementation. Such a review can both increase the quality of the final solution and prevent configuration errors that could impact solution delivery. 

This book is not intended to provide in-depth information about the described topics. For an enhanced analysis of advanced topics, see IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 Best Practices and Performance Guidelines , SG24-7521. 

## 3.1.1 Basic planning flow 

The general rule of planning is to define your goals, and then plan a solution that can be shown to meet these goals. Always remember to verify that each element of your configuration is supported. 

Below is a list of items that you should consider when planning for the SAN Volume Controller: 

GLYPH<SM590000> Collect and document the number of hosts (application servers) to attach to the SAN Volume Controller. Identify the traffic profile activity (read or write, sequential, or random), and the performance requirements (bandwidth and input/output (I/O) operations per second (IOPS)) for each host. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Collect and document the following information: 

– Information on the existing back-end storage that is present in the environment and is intended to be virtualized by the SAN Volume Controller. 

– Whether you need to configure image mode volumes. If you want to use image mode volumes, decide whether and how you plan to migrate them into managed mode volumes. 

– Information on the planned new back-end storage to be provisioned on the SAN Volume Controller. 

