Prerequisites
- Two years general storage technical sales experience and six or more months IBM Storwize family experience, supplement to midrange technical certification.
- Understand the concepts of planning and deployment of storage (e.g., RAID levels, connectivity, performance, storage networking, and basic concepts of I/O disk operations).
- Experience with SAN storage concepts and deployment.
Course Content
The IBM Storwize Family Technical Solutions Certified Specialist provides pre-sales technical assistance during the sales cycle and understands the workload characteristics that differentiate among the members of the Storwize family. This specialist can utilize all available IBM tools to design a solution based on the most appropriate Storwize family member that meets customer requirements. The specialist can support the implementation of all Storwize family members.
IBM products included on this certification exam include the Storwize Family, specifically IBM Storwize V7000, IBM Storwize V7000 Unified, IBM Storwize V5000 (V5010, V5020, V5030), and V3700; IBM FlashSystem V9000; IBM Spectrum Control; IBM Spectrum Protect; IBM Spectrum Suite; IBM SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize software; Hybrid Cloud; SDS concepts, and IBM components of VersaStack.
This specialist can perform the following tasks without assistance: identify access protocols required for authentication (file-based), including LDAP, Active Directory, NTP, etc.; identify networking protocols required to meet customer requirements (FCoE, iSCSI, FC, TCP/IP, CIFS, NFS, etc.); position the IBM Storwize family within the IBM portfolio and with competitive offerings; understand the customer's current environment and how a specific IBM Storwize family member will fit; design a complete IBM Storwize family solution that incorporates connectivity and storage software (IBM Spectrum Control and IBM Spectrum Protect); understand disk technology as it relates to supporting applications; understand configuration of storage pools as it relates to proper system design (e.g., Easy Tier, RAID level, drive type, etc.); understand the differences between advanced functionality for block access data and file access data; understand the functionality of the Storwize family (per IBM data sheet); provide pre-sales technical assistance for the IBM Storwize family; understand the different management techniques (e.g., CLI, GUI, Spectrum Control); identify components and functions included in a standard software license, what is optional and/or chargeable, and what is included with IBM Spectrum Control; differentiate among IBM Storwize family members; understand the initial configuration process for the IBM Storwize family; understand the processes for maintenance, updates, and upgrades for the IBM Storwize family.
This specialist can perform the following tasks with assistance: describe the difference between crash consistency vs. application consistency and how to create each; determine the optimal replication configuration for different IBM Storwize family members; perform advanced user authentication for the Storwize family; perform data migration; and perform pre-sale/pre-install Technical Delivery Assessment (TDA).