Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x Technical Overview

PowerFlex file services support

• Support for PowerFlex file services deployments for PowerFlex rack and PowerFlex appliance
  • Ability to deploy new PowerFlex file services resource groups and import existing PowerFlex file services resource groups for PowerFlex rack and PowerFlex appliance. This enables the capabilities of the File menu.
  • Deployment of compute-only resource groups for PowerFlex file services. Before deploying a PowerFlex file services compute-only resource group, deploy a PowerFlex cluster with a hyperconverged or storage-only resource group that uses the block legacy PowerFlex gateway.
  • PowerFlex file services template settings.
  • PowerFlex File sample template, which can be cloned to generate a template that has the correct settings.
  PowerFlex Manager configures the required network on the PowerFlex node and top-of-rack (access) server-facing ports, and the required network on the control plane. When you deploy a PowerFlex file services template, PowerFlex Manager automatically creates control volumes for the deployment.
• Support for new PowerFlex file services deployments for software-only management
  • Ability to deploy new PowerFlex file services resource groups for software management environments. PowerFlex Manager does not support importing existing deployments for software management PowerFlex file services compute-only environments.
  • PowerFlex file services template settings, and support for resource group operations such as node expansion, node removal, and maintenance mode.
  • PowerFlex File - SW Only sample template, which can be cloned to generate a template that has the correct settings.
    NOTE:Installation, network configuration, and setup of the host operating system are prerequisites that the system admin must perform before running the PowerFlex file services deployment from PowerFlex Manager.
• Support for PowerFlex file services operations for PowerFlex rack and PowerFlex appliance
  • Ability to expand the number of nodes, remove nodes from the resource group, and put nodes in maintenance mode. If necessary, you can also remove the resource group as a whole.
  • Ability to expand the cluster up to a maximum of 16 nodes. PowerFlex Manager requires a minimum of two nodes in a PowerFlex file services cluster.
  • Ability to remove PowerFlex file services nodes from the resource group, but not actually delete them. When you remove a resource, it PowerFlex Manager removes the deployment information, but does not make configuration changes to the resource itself. You can remove a PowerFlex file services resource group, which only removes the resource group from the appliance. The cluster still exists and can be added back to the appliance.
• Support for PowerFlex file services serviceability
  • Embedded Service Enabled (ESE) integration for PowerFlex file services alerts
  • SNMP support for PowerFlex file services
  • Backup
  • Troubleshooting bundle
  • CloudIQ integration
• Single namespace
  • Ability to create a global namespace (GNS) supported by the NAS cluster with a single export
  • Allows all hosts with correct access permission to access existing and newly added file systems to the namespace without needing to explicitly mount them on each client
  • Consists of several file systems that may be SMB or NFS
• Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA)
  • Support for CEPA, which is part of the Common Event Enabler (CEE) package
  • Ability to receive file event notifications
  • Ability to use CEPA to see events on some or all my NFS and SMB file systems