Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x Administration Guide

Lifecycle mode

If you add an existing resource group that includes an unsupported configuration, PowerFlex Manager might put the resource group in lifecycle mode. This mode limits the actions that you can perform within the resource group.

Lifecycle mode allows the resource group to perform only monitoring, service mode, and compliance upgrade operations. All other resource group operations are blocked when the resource group is in lifecycle mode. Lifecycle mode is used to control the operations that can be performed for configurations that have limited support.

When you add an existing resource group, PowerFlex Manager puts the resource group in lifecycle mode if the configuration you want to import includes any of the following:

• Invalid server inventory
• Missing network settings

  The minimum required IP addresses are one data IP and one PowerFlex IP for a storage-only resource group, and one data IP, one PowerFlex IP, and one ESXi IP for a hyperconverged resource group.

• Unsupported NIC (a 1 GB QLogic NIC, for example)
• Unsupported server configurations (an unsupported SD Boot device, for example)
• Unsupported NIC teaming policies, an unsupported switch port configuration, or an unsupported access facing port configuration
• Network configuration without a PXE VLAN setting
• No switch configuration
• PowerFlex MDM cluster without virtual IPs
• DAS cache
• vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) VMs on local storage

When you add an existing resource group, PowerFlex Manager checks to see whether there are any vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS) VMs on local storage. If it finds any, it puts the resource group in lifecycle mode and lets you migrate the VMs to shared storage.

PowerFlex Manager also puts a resource group in lifecycle mode if you select a minimal compliance version that includes firmware only for the resource group.

When PowerFlex Manager must put a resource group in lifecycle mode, the Summary page for the Add Existing Resource Group wizard displays a warning message indicating the reason.

In some situations, an imported configuration might not meet the minimal requirements for lifecycle mode. In this case, PowerFlex Manager does not allow you to add the resource group.

For missing virtual IPs or no switch connectivity, you can correct the error and use Update Resource Group Details to take the resource group out of lifecycle mode.

If you have manually added NSX to a cluster outside of PowerFlex Manager, click Update Resource Group Details on the resource group, so it will correctly reflect the environment with NSX, which will be lifecycle mode.