Leveraging SSDs and IASPs with BRMS Migration

One significant change in IBM i 7.2 is the modernization of storage tiering in the BRMS migration function. In prior releases, the migration function in BRMS works only for library migration between auxiliary storage pools (ASPs) based on the specified policies for frequency of use. However, in IBM i 7.2 with PTF SI57831 applied, the BRMS migration function is enhanced to support the migration to independent ASPs (IASPs), migration of *LNK lists for IFS files, and migration of database files to different SSD and HDD storage tiers within the same ASP.

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Planning for Solid State Drives

IBM i has supported Solid State Drives (SSDs) for quite some time now. The operating system has built-in support for optimizing the use of SSDs as well as commands and parameters that you can use to control data placement on SSDs versus spinning disks. Support for SSDs started with the 5.4 release and has been enhanced in both 6.1 and 7.1, This blog isn’t going to go into the details of those capabilities, but rather will talk about how you can determine whether SSDs can provide you with performance advantages.

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