PowerStore: Useful terms and definition

Appliance

Solution containing a base enclosure and any attached expansion enclosures. The size of an appliance could be only the base enclosure or the base enclosure plus expansion enclosures.

Base enclosure

Enclosure containing both nodes (node A and node B) and 25x NVMe drive slots

Cluster

One or more appliances in a single grouping and management interface. Clusters are expandable by adding more appliances to the existing cluster, up to the allowed amount for a cluster.

Expansion enclosure

Enclosures that can be attached to a base enclosure to provide additional storage.

Fibre Channel (FC) protocol

Protocol used to perform IP and SCSI commands over a Fibre Channel network.

File system

Storage resource that can be accessed through file-sharing protocols such as SMB or NFS.

iSCSI

Provides a mechanism for accessing block-level data storage over network connections.

Network-attached storage (NAS) server

File-level storage server used to host file systems. A NAS server is required to create file systems that use SMB or NFS shares.

Network File System (NFS)

An access protocol that allows data access from Linux or UNIX hosts on a network.

Node

Storage controller that provides the processing resources for performing storage operations and servicing I/O between storage and hosts. Each PowerStore appliance contains two nodes.

NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)

Protocol used to perform Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) commands over a Fibre Channel network.

NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP)

Protocol used to perform Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) commands over an Ethernet network.

PowerStore Command Line Interface (PSTCLI)

Interface that allows a user to perform tasks on the storage system by typing commands instead of using the user interface.

PowerStore Manager

An HTML5 user interface used to manage PowerStore systems.

PowerStore Representational State Transfer (REST) API

Set of resources (objects), operations, and attributes that provide interactive, scripted, and programmatic management control of the PowerStore cluster.

PowerStore T model

Container-based storage system that is running on purpose-built hardware. This storage system supports unified (block and file) workloads, or block-optimized workloads.

PowerStore X model

Container-based storage system that runs inside a virtual machine that is deployed on a VMware hypervisor. Besides offering block-optimized workloads, PowerStore also allows users to deploy applications directly on the array.

Server Message Block (SMB)

An access protocol that allows remote file data access from clients to hosts on a network. SMB is typically used in Microsoft Windows environments.

Snapshot

A point-in-time view of data stored on a storage resource. A user can recover files from a snapshot, restore a storage resource from a snapshot, or provide access to a host.

Thin clone

Read-write copy of a volume, volume group, file system, NAS server, or snapshot that shares blocks with the parent resource.

Volume

A block-level storage device that can be shared out using a protocol such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel.

vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI)

A VMware API that improves ESXi host utilization by offloading storage-related tasks to the storage system.

vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA)

A VMware vendor-neutral API that enables vSphere to determine the capabilities of a storage system. This feature requires a VASA provider on the storage system for communication.

vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols)

A VMware storage framework which allows VM data to be stored on individual Virtual Volumes. This ability allows for data services to be applied at a VM-level of granularity and according to SPBM. Virtual Volumes can also refer to the individual storage objects that are used to enable this functionality.