PowerStore: Dell Virtual Storage Integrator 10.0 (VSI)

vSphere remote plug-ins run on their own appliance and operate with limited set of privileges and support instances across SSO domains. This blog provides a quick overview of how to deploy Dell VSI and how to recover Datastores with the VSI plug-in in vCenter.

With the new Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI) 10.0 plug-in for vSphere, you can configure PowerStore virtual volumes, advanced management of snapshots, metro volumes, and space reclamation tasks.

Components of VSI

VSI consists of two components—a VM and a plug-in for vCenter that is deployed when VSI is registered for the vCenter. The VSI 10.0 OVA template is available on the Dell Technologies support website and is supported with vSphere 6.7 U2 (and later) through 7.0.x for deployments with an embedded PSC.

Deployment

  The VSI VM must be deployed on a network with access to the vCenter server and PowerStore.

When the VM is deployed and started, you can access the plug-in management with https://.

Register VSI plug-in in vCenter

A wizard helps you register the plug-in in a vCenter. Initial setup only requires that you set the VSI password for the internal database, and supply vCenter address with username/password.  Multiple vCenters can be registered if they are in a linked mode group

After the VSI VM is configured, it takes a few minutes for the VM to come online.

From the Dell VSI dashboard , select storage systems and the + sign to add the PowerStore system.

Restore Datastore with Snapshots

Restoring a virtual machine with the VSI plug-in requires three steps:

1. Create and map a volume to ESXi hosts.
2. Configure the snapshot policy for a protected volume
3. Map snapshot to ESXi hosts

The following example adds a snapshot policy to our selected datastore, which already has an existing ESXi host mapped.

1. Create and map a standard volume in vSphere.

The VSI Create Datastore wizard leads us through the configuration. 

2. Create & Select snapshot policy for the newly created volume.

Snapshot policy is created on the PowerStore system. From PowerStore UI Manager, Protection>Protection Policies

3. From the datastore tab within vCenter, Dell VSI > Create Snapshot 

4. From the datastore tab within vCenter, Configure> Dell VSI> Snapshots> Select Snapshot policy

5. Restore the datastore from the snapshot.
The VSI “restore snapshot wizard” leads us through the configuration. 

The video below discusses and demonstrates how Dell Technologies PowerStore administrator can use the Virtual Storage Integrator for advanced management capabilities.