- Notes, cautions, and warnings
- Introduction
- Revision history
- Accessing PowerFlex appliance components
- PowerFlex appliance deployment types
- Managing components with PowerFlex Manager
- Add licenses to PowerFlex Manager
- Configuring VMware vCenter high availability
- Enable or disable SSH on the VMware ESXi host dynamically
- Performing maintenance activities in a PowerFlex cluster
- Monitoring system health
- Monitor system resources
- Manage compliance
- Enabling SupportAssist
- Managing events and alerts
- CloudLink Center
- Network management
- Storage management
- Protection domains
- Fault sets
- Storage data servers
- Storage pools
- Acceleration pools
- Devices
- Volumes
- NVMe targets
- Hosts
- Storage management for PowerFlex controller nodes
- Configuring replication on PowerFlex nodes
- Redistribute the MDM cluster using PowerFlex Manager
- Set rebuild and rebalance settings
- Enabling or disabling SDC authentication
- Log in to PowerFlex using scli
- Prepare for storage data clients authentication
- Configure storage data client to use authentication
- Enable storage data client authentication
- Disable SDC authentication
- Expand an existing PowerFlex cluster with SDC authentication enabled
- Add a Windows or Linux authenticated SDC
- PowerFlex file storage
- Multitenancy
- NAS server
- Create a NAS server for NFS (UNIX-only) file systems
- Create NAS server for SMB (Windows-only) file systems
- Change NAS server settings
- Configure settings of an existing NAS server
- Manage the network routes between the NAS server and the supported external services
- Modify or configure the NAS server naming services
- NAS server sharing protocols
- NAS server protection and events
- Managing NAS server configuration
- NAS server settings
- NAS server security
- Create a global namespace
- File systems
- Quotas
- Shares and exports
- File protection
- Create a protection policy
- Create snapshot rules
- Create a snapshot
- Modify a snapshot
- Delete a snapshot
- Assign a protection policy to a file system
- Unassign a protection policy
- Modify a protection policy
- Delete a protection policy
- Modify a snapshot rule
- Delete a snapshot rule
- Refresh a file system using snapshot
- Restore a file system from a snapshot
- Clone NAS server and file system
- Clone the file system
- Create a thin clone using a snapshot
- Reconfiguring MDM roles
- Set rebuild and rebalance settings
- Enabling or disabling SDC authentication
- Log in to PowerFlex using scli
- Prepare for storage data clients authentication
- Configure storage data client to use authentication
- Enable storage data client authentication
- Disable SDC authentication
- Expand an existing PowerFlex cluster with SDC authentication enabled
- Add a Windows or Linux authenticated SDC
- Enabling replication on existing PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes
- Prerequisites
- Workflow
- Remove a PowerFlex hyperconverged resource group from PowerFlex Manager
- Create and configure replication port groups
- Preparing the SVMs for replication
- Shut down the SVM
- Add network adapters
- Record the MAC address of the newly added network interface controllers
- Modify SVMs
- Install SDR RPMs on the SDS nodes (SVMs)
- Exit SDS maintenance mode
- Adding the Storage Data Replicator to a PowerFlex appliance
- Create and copy certificates
- Add replication networks to PowerFlex Manager
- Add the hyperconverged resource group back to PowerFlex Manager
- Enabling replication on existing PowerFlex storage-only nodes
- Prerequisites
- Gather the MDM IP address information
- Install SDR
- Configure replication networks
- Create static routes
- Add SDRs to PowerFlex Manager
- Add firewall rules for SDR
- Remove existing storage-only resource group from PowerFlex Manager
- Add replication networks to PowerFlex Manager
- Add the storage-only resource group back to PowerFlex Manager
- Add peer replication systems
- Create the remote consistency group
- Secure component verification and TPM enablement on the PowerFlex nodes
- Administering the CloudLink Center
- Add the CloudLink Center license in PowerFlex Manager
- Adding and managing CloudLink Center licenses
- Configure syslog and audit logs in CloudLink
- Manage a self-encrypting drive (SED) from CloudLink Center
- Manage a self-encrypting drive from the command line
- Release a self-encrypting drive
- Release management of a self-encrypting drive from the command line
- Backup and restore
- Powering on and off
- Power on a Technology Extension with PowerScale
- Power on a PowerFlex appliance
- Power on the PowerFlex management controller 2.0
- Power on the PowerFlex management node
- Power on the VMware NSX Edge nodes
- Power on PowerFlex storage-only nodes
- Power on PowerFlex file nodes
- Power on all PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes
- Power on PowerFlex compute-only nodes
- Complete the powering on of PowerFlex appliance
- Power off a PowerFlex appliance
- Deactivate protection domain and power off PowerFlex storage-only node using PowerFlex Manager
- Power off PowerFlex compute-only nodes with VMware ESXi
- Power off PowerFlex file nodes
- Power off PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes with VMware ESXi
- Power off the VMware NSX Edge nodes
- Power off the PowerFlex management controller 2.0
- Power off the PowerFlex management node
- Complete the powering off of PowerFlex appliance
- Power off a Technology Extension with PowerScale
- Usernames and password management
- PowerFlex servers
- PowerFlex Manager
- Virtualization
- Management VMs
- Change CloudLink passwords
- Manage EmbeddedOS15.3 users credentials for the jump server
- Changing the IPI appliance password
- Changing a user account password on the IPI appliance
- Changing the operating system password
- System logs and audit logs
- PowerFlex Manager logs
- VMware vCenter logs
- CloudLink logs
- Network logs
- Configuring syslogs and audit logs
- Configure syslogs using VMware ESXi
- Configure and forward the syslogs using VMware vCenter
- Configure syslog and audit logs in CloudLink
- Configure audit logs in SVMs and PowerFlex storage-only nodes
- Configure iDRAC for audit logging
- Retrieve SDNAS audit logs
- Configuring syslogs for Dell PowerSwitch and Cisco Nexus switches
- PowerFlex audit log
- Migrating to NVMe over TCP on VMware ESXi
Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x Administration Guide
PowerFlex appliance deployment types
PowerFlex appliance has several options for deployment.
PowerFlex runs on PowerFlex appliance nodes to operate the management and customer storage and tie in workloads. PowerFlex has the following components:
- Storage data client (SDC): Consumes storage from the PowerFlex appliance
- Storage data server (SDS): Contributes node storage to PowerFlex appliance
- PowerFlex metadata manager (MDM): Manages the storage blocks and tracks data location across the system
- Storage data replication (SDR): Enables replication on PowerFlex storage-only nodes
NOTE:PowerFlex R660 nodes and
PowerFlex R760 nodes come with software defined persistent memory (SDPM).
PowerFlex R650 nodes and
PowerFlex R750 nodes come with NVDIMM. The software using these resources do not always distinguish between them in the user interface. As a result, this document will reference NVDIMM components.
PowerFlex enables flexible deployment options by allowing the separation of SDC and SDS components. PowerFlex Manager allows you to specify a non-root user instead of the root user when you configure a template for a compute-only, storage-only, hyperconverged, or PowerFlex file deployment. It addresses data center workload requirements through the following PowerFlex appliance deployment options:
| Deployment type | Description |
|---|---|
| Full hyperconverged | Consists of
PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes, which contribute both compute and storage resources to the virtual environment.
Front-end (application) and back-end (storage) traffic share the same PowerFlex data networks. This includes PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes and PowerFlex storage-only nodes with NVMe. NVDIMM data compression is supported on PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes and PowerFlex storage-only nodes. |
| Two-layer | Separates compute resources from storage resources, allowing the independent expansion of compute or storage resources.
Consists of PowerFlex compute-only nodes (supporting the SDC) and PowerFlex storage-only nodes (connected to and managed by the SDS). PowerFlex compute-only nodes host end-user applications. PowerFlex storage-only nodes contribute storage to the system pool. |
| Hybrid hyperconverged |
Consists of PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes, PowerFlex compute-only nodes, and PowerFlex storage-only nodes. Some PowerFlex nodes contribute both compute resources and storage resources (PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes), some contribute only compute resources (PowerFlex compute-only nodes), and some contribute only storage resources (PowerFlex storage-only nodes). |
| Storage-only | Consists of nodes that contribute storage resources to the virtual environment. The back-end traffic shares the same
PowerFlex data networks. The storage-only
PowerFlex appliance provide volumes to an external customer compute limited to
Dell PowerEdge servers.
storage data replication (SDR) is installed to enable native asynchronous replication on the
PowerFlex storage-only nodes.
No SDC components are installed on these nodes. |
| Dual network | Consists of a solution integrated into your existing software-defined network (SDN), such as, Cisco application centric infrastructure (ACI). Only
PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes and
PowerFlex compute-only nodes are affected and have two NICs cabled to a pair of customer access/leaf switches. Aggregation switches by default are tied into the customer SDN border for Layer-2 or Layer-3 access.
The solution uses two new customer access switches, two additional network ports on the host, and a new distributed virtual switch to carry traffic seamlessly into the software-defined network. |
Two-layer deployments allow rebooting of VMware cluster nodes without PowerFlex ramifications.
When designing initial deployment or specifying later growth, use PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes if both PowerFlex compute-only nodes and PowerFlex storage-only nodes are needed. You can add PowerFlex compute-only nodes or PowerFlex storage-only nodes as needed.
To control the number of processors or cores, consider separating the compute for the application from the
PowerFlex nodes that support storage. This deployment is a pure two-layer deployment. Extra workloads are supported or added on:
- PowerFlex hyperconverged nodes
- Two-layer PowerFlex compute-only nodes
- PowerFlex storage-only nodes
PowerFlex appliance is configured with a single VMware vCenter, consisting of separate datacenters for controller and customer nodes. To access controller nodes, use the PowerFlex management controller. To access customer nodes, use the PowerFlex operating system for the customer cluster.
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