3.1 General planning rules 3.1.1 Basic planning flow 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: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ssg1S1003658  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. 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: – Information on the planned new back-end storage to be provisioned on 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 existing back-end storage that is present in the environment and is  intended to be virtualized by the SAN Volume Controller. GLYPH<SM590000> Collect and document the following information: 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> Support Information for SAN Volume Controller: GLYPH<SM590000> IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC): 46  Implementing the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller with IBM Spectrum Virtualize V8.2.1