Dell PowerFlex 4.6.x Technical Overview

PowerFlex file services support

This section describes PowerFlex file services support.

• NAS Server and file system cloning
  • PowerFlex file users can clone their NAS server and file system for environment repurposing.
  • Clone a user file system and an entire NAS server.
  • Select any existing NAS server or file system and clone it.
  • Clone a file system from an existing snapshot.
• File-level retention (FLR)
  • File-level retention is a feature for protecting files from modification or deletion until a specified retention period. Protecting a file system using file-level retention enables you to create a permanent, and unalterable set of files and directories. File-level retention ensures data integrity and accessibility, simplifies archiving procedures for administrators, and improves storage management flexibility.

  There are two levels of file-level retention:

  • Enterprise: Protects data from changes that are made by users and storage administrators using SMB, NFS, and FTP. An administrator can delete a file-level retention enterprise file system which contains locked files.
  • Compliance: Protects data from changes that are made by users and storage administrators using SMB, NFS, and FTP. An administrator cannot delete a file-level retention compliance file system which contains locked files. File-level retention compliance complies with the SEC rule 17a-4(f).
• Multi-tenancy
  • NAS servers can be used to enforce multi-tenancy. This is useful when hosting multiple tenants on a single system, such as for service providers. Since each NAS server has its own independent configuration, it can be tailored to the requirements of each tenant without impacting the other NAS servers on the same appliance.
  • Each NAS server is logically separated from each other, and clients that have access to one NAS server do not inherently have access to the file systems on the other NAS servers. File systems are assigned to a NAS server upon creation and cannot be moved between NAS servers.
• 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.
  • 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 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 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 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 administrator 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 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 supported by the PowerFlex file services cluster with a single export.
  • Allows all hosts with correct access permission to access existing and newly added file systems to the namespace without explicitly mounting them on each client.
  • Consists of several file systems that may be SMB or NFS.
• Common Event Publishing Agent:
  • Support for Common Event Publishing Agent, which is part of the Common Event Enabler package.
  • Ability to receive file event notifications.
  • Ability to use Common Event Publishing Agent to see events on some or all my NFS and SMB file systems.