8.5 General preferred practices integrating FlashSystem 900  with ProtecTIER This section describes some preferred practices that you can use when working with  ProtecTIER and IBM FlashSystem 900: Deploy FlashSystem according to your environment needs: For more details about IBM FlashSystem 900, see the following publications: GLYPH<SM590000> Implementing IBM FlashSystem 900 , SG24-8271 GLYPH<SM590000> FlashSystem 900 Product Guide , TIPS1261 – Create metadata volumes according to the ProtecTIER Metadata Planner output. GLYPH<129> Ensure file systems take into account future growth considerations. GLYPH<129> Max 170 file systems in a ProtecTIER deduplication repository. – Create at least 40 user data volumes of equal size. User data volumes map to  repository file systems: – Use 12-module FlashSystem 900 in a RAID 5 configuration. GLYPH<SM590000> Entire ProtecTIER repository (user data and metadata): GLYPH<SM590000> High I/O per second (IOPS) host structures and ProtecTIER metadata. – Determine metadata capacity and layoutbased on ProtecTIER Metadata Planner tool. – Use any number of supported FlashSystem 900 modules in RAID 5 configuration  according to the required repository metadata capacity. GLYPH<SM590000> ProtecTIER metadata only: GLYPH<SM590000> The suggested zoning is to use four paths between each FlashSystem volume and each  ProtecTIER Server. GLYPH<SM590000> Always use RAID 5 Configuration with FlashSystem 900. GLYPH<SM590000> Make sure that you use ProtecTIER v3.3.5.2 or later. 122  IBM ProtecTIER Implementation and Best Practices Guide