IBM Storage Protect MCP Server

The IBM Storage Protect Model Context Protocol (MCP) server exposes Storage Protect administration as structured tools for MCP-compatible AI clients. Describe an administrative task in natural language and the AI client invokes the appropriate dsmadmc-backed tool.

What It Provides

• Monitoring and investigation of Storage Protect servers
• Client, storage, policy, and system administration
• Operational tools for protection, maintenance, rules, and diagnostics
• Unified and fine-grained MCP server deployments
• stdio/SSH and HTTP/SSE transport options
• Privilege-aware tool registration and audit correlation

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or later
• A reachable IBM Storage Protect server
• The dsmadmc CLI on the MCP server host
• A dedicated non-root operating-system user
• Storage Protect administrator credentials with the required privilege

Full prerequisite details and verification steps are in docs/guides/planning-guide.md and docs/guides/install-guide.md.

Install & Configure

Follow the guides in docs/guides/ in order. Each guide links to the next.

1. Plan — docs/guides/planning-guide.md

Choose a deployment topology (co-located on each SP server host, or centralised on a single control host), inventory your Storage Protect servers, plan service accounts and SSH keys, and confirm system prerequisites.

2. Install — docs/guides/install-guide.md

Set up the OS user and working directory, create a Python virtual environment, install the package and its dependencies, write the .env credential file with 0600 permissions, configure TLS certificates for HTTP transport, and verify the Storage Protect connection.

Key steps at a glance:

# Create the virtual environment and install
python3.11 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[sse]"          # or: pip install -r requirements-sse.txt

# Write credentials (owner-read-only)
install -m 600 /dev/null .env
echo "SP_ADMIN_ID=mcp-svc-system"     >> .env
echo "SP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<password>"   >> .env
echo "SP_SERVER_ADDRESS=your-sp-host" >> .env
echo "SP_SERVER_PORT=1500"            >> .env

Full topology-specific instructions (co-located vs centralised, SSH key deployment, TLS setup) are in install-guide.md.

3. Configure — docs/guides/configure-guide.md

Register the MCP server in your AI client (Claude Desktop, VS Code Copilot, or similar). Choose a transport:

Transport	When to use
stdio over SSH	Single-client, local, or Claude Desktop deployments
http with OIDC	Enterprise, multi-client, or REST gateway deployments

Example stdio + SSH entry for Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sp-admin": {
      "command": "ssh",
      "args": [
        "-i", "~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sp_mcp",
        "-o", "StrictHostKeyChecking=yes",
        "mcp-runner@your-sp-server",
        "/opt/sp-mcp-server/.venv/bin/python3",
        "-m", "sp_mcp_server.main",
        "--mode", "full"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Authentication modes, privilege scoping, multi-server configurations, and HTTP/OIDC setup are covered in configure-guide.md.

Usage

Full usage reference is in docs/guides/user-guide.md. The sections below summarise the most common starting points.

Starting the server manually

The MCP client normally launches the server for you via the configured command. For testing or offline use, start it directly:

cd /opt/sp-mcp-server
source .venv/bin/activate

# Full administrative access
python3 -m sp_mcp_server.main --mode full

# Monitoring / read-only (safest for first run)
python3 -m sp_mcp_server.main --mode read-only

Specialised server modules

Instead of the unified main server you can launch a focused module that exposes only the tools for one administrative domain:

Module	Command	Scope
Client core	mcp-server-clients-core	Node and group management
Client config	mcp-server-clients-config	Node options and settings
Storage pools	mcp-server-storage-pools	Storage pool and volume management
Storage hardware	mcp-server-storage-hardware	Library and drive management
Storage device	mcp-server-storage-device	Device class and data-mover configuration
Policies lifecycle	mcp-server-policies-lifecycle	Policy sets and activation
Policies management	mcp-server-policies-management	Management classes and copy groups
System admin	mcp-server-system-admin	Administrators and licensing
System config	mcp-server-system-config	Server options, schedules, and monitoring
Operations	mcp-server-ops	Status, sessions, and activity log
Ops protection	mcp-server-ops-protection	Backup rules and recovery
Ops maintenance	mcp-server-ops-maintenance	Database, log, and media maintenance
Ops rules	mcp-server-ops-rules	Administrative schedules and rules

Privilege tiers

The server narrows the registered tool set to match the IBM SP privilege class of the active account:

Privilege class	Tools available
System	All tools — full administrative scope
Policy	Policy management + all read-only tools
Storage	Storage management + all read-only tools
Operator	Operations (sessions, media, jobs) + read-only tools
Any-admin (no class)	Read-only QUERY tools only

Use --mode read-only to restrict to read-only tools regardless of privilege class.

Authentication modes

Mode	SP_MCP_AUTH_MODE value	Best for
Static tiered service accounts (default)	service_account	Automated pipelines, daemons, single-tenant bots
Dynamic challenge-response	dynamic	Interactive chat (Claude Desktop) — users authenticate per session

See user-guide.md for session lifecycle, audit records, and safe usage practices.

Troubleshooting

Startup errors, credential failures, connection problems, SSH issues, and runtime diagnostics are covered in docs/guides/troubleshoot.md.

Documentation

Path	Contents
docs/guides/	End-user guides: planning, install, configure, use, troubleshoot
docs/architecture/	System and module architecture
docs/design/	Security and design specifications
docs/implement/	Implementation specifications
docs/analysis/	Design and security analysis
docs/traceability/	Requirements traceability, gap analysis, and independent audit report
docs/reference/	Product reference material
docs/example/sample-prompts.md	Example administrator prompts and task patterns

Contributing

Contributions are welcome through Pull Requests. To contribute:

1. Fork the repository and create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
2. Follow the existing code style and conventions.
3. Test your changes thoroughly before submitting.
4. Submit a pull request with a clear description of your changes.
5. Sign the Developer's Certificate of Origin (DCO) by adding your name and email address to DCO.md in your pull request.

For issues, questions, or feature requests, open an issue in the repository.

Disclaimer

This software is provided "as is" without any warranties of any kind, including, but not limited to, warranties related to installation, use, or performance. IBM is not responsible for any damage, charges, or data loss incurred with the use of this software. You are responsible for reviewing and testing any scripts you run thoroughly before you use them in any production environment. This content is subject to change without notice.