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Pure Storage FlashArray Volume Driver for OpenStack Release Notes

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This page contains release notes for the Pure Storage FlashArray Volume Driver for OpenStack® Cinder.

IPv6 support

When used with FlashArrays running Purity 5.3.0 or higher, all Pure Storage OpenStack Cinder Driver releases support IPv6. For full IPv6 functionality, the underlying platform where the Pure Cinder driver is deployed must also support IPv6.

OpenStack Release Timeline

Release Release Date Driver Versions
2024.1 (Caracal) [In Development] expected March 2024 PureISCSIDriver  18.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      18.0.fc
PureNVMEDriver 18.0.nvme (RoCE & TCP)
FlashBladeShareDriver 7.0
2023.2 (Bobcat) October, 2023 PureISCSIDriver  17.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      17.0.fc
PureNVMEDriver 17.0.nvme (RoCE & TCP)
FlashBladeShareDriver 6.0
2023.1 (Antelope) April, 2023 PureISCSIDriver  16.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      16.0.fc
PureNVMEDriver 16.0.nvme (RoCE only)
FlashBladeShareDriver 5.0
Zed October, 2022

PureISCSIDriver  15.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      15.0.fc
PureNVMEDriver 15.0.nvme (RoCE only)
FlashBladeShareDriver 4.0

Yoga April, 2022 PureISCSIDriver  14.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      14.0.fc
FlashBladeShareDriver 3.0
Xena October, 2021 PureISCSIDriver  13.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      13.0.fc
FlashBladeShareDriver 2.0
Wallaby April, 2021 PureISCSIDriver  12.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      12.0.fc
Victoria October, 2020 PureISCSIDriver  11.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      11.0.fc
Ussuri May, 2020

PureISCSIDriver  10.0.iscsi
PureFCDriver      10.0.fc

Train October, 2019 PureISCSIDriver    9.0.x    
PureFCDriver        7.0.x
Stein April, 2019 PureISCSIDriver    8.0.x    
PureFCDriver        6.0.x
Rocky September, 2018 PureISCSIDriver    8.0.x    
PureFCDriver        6.0.x
Queens February, 2018 PureISCSIDriver    7.0.x    
PureFCDriver        5.0.x
Pike September, 2017 PureISCSIDriver    7.0.x    
PureFCDriver        5.0.x
Ocata February, 2017 PureISCSIDriver    6.0.x    
PureFCDriver        4.0.x
Newton October, 2016 PureISCSIDriver    5.0.x    
PureFCDriver        3.0.x
Mitaka April, 2016 PureISCSIDriver    4.0.x    
PureFCDriver        2.0.x
Liberty October, 2015 PureISCSIDriver    3.0.x    
PureFCDriver         1.0.x
Kilo October, 2014 PureISCSIDriver    2.0.6

Release Notes for 2023.2 (Bobcat)

Release: October, 2023

This release supports the OpenStack 2023.2 (Bobcat)release

New Features

  • NVMe-TCP Driver
    NVMe driver enhanced to support TCP transport protocol in addition to existing RoCE protocol. New parameter pure_nvme_transport added to select the required protocol. Options are tcpor roce. Default is roce.
    NB: Minimum Purity//FA version for NVMe-TCP driver is 6.4.2

  • Consistency Groups
    Added support for replication enabled consistency groups.

Fixes

  • Fixed issue with cinder replication failover failing due to incorrect REST call.

Release Notes for 2023.1 (Antelope)

Release: March, 2023

This release supports the OpenStack 2023.1 (Antelope) release

New Features

  • TriSync Replication
    Added support for 3-site replication, aka trisync. Requires two replication devices to be created, one async and one sync, plus the addition of new parameters pure_trisync_enabled and pure_trisync_pg_name.
  • Replication Capability
    Added replication capability to backend pool information. Response will be asyncsync or trisyncsync implies support for async and trisync implies support for sync and async.

Release Notes for Zed

Release: October, 2022

This release supports the OpenStack Zed release

New Features

  • NVMe Driver
    New driver added to complement the iSCSI and FC drivers. This driver supports NVMe-RoCE. New configuration CIDR options. pure_nvme_cidr_list for setting several network CIDRs for NVMe target connection. When used, superceeds new parameterpure_nvme_cidr

Fixes

  • Fixed array failover incorrectly handles loss of an array due to network issue.

Release Notes for Yoga

Release: April, 2022

This release supports the OpenStack Yoga release

New Features

  • Active/Active Replication
    This allows users to configure FlashArray backends in clustered environments.

  • Volume Metadata
    Volume metadata is added describing the backend array name (array_name) and volume name (array_volume_name). This allows easier identification and location of a cinder volume when multiple clusters are using the same backend arrays, or when the cinder scheduler has multiple backends to choose from.

Upgrade

  • Minimum Purity//FA version increased to 5.3.0

Release Notes for Xena

Release: October, 2021

This release supports the OpenStack Xena release

New Features

  • iSCSI CIDR
    Added configuration option pure_iscsi_cidr_list for setting several network CIDRs for iSCSI target connection. Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported. The default allows all IPv4 targets. When used, superceeds pure_iscsi_cidr

Upgrade

  • Minimum purestorage SDK version increased to 1.17.0

Fixes

  • Parameter pure_iscsi_cidr is now IPv4/v6 agnostic.

  • Fixed issue where cloning a consistency group containing volumes with very long names causes a crash [IBM PowerVC only].

  • Fixed issue with an incorrect internal mechanism for checking REST API of backend array. This has no external effect on users.

  • Fixes issue when cloning multiple volumes [IBM PowerVC only].

  • Fixed issues with multi-attched volumes being disconnected from a backend when still listed as an attachment to an instance.

Release Notes for Wallaby

Release: April, 2021

This release supports the OpenStack Wallaby release

New Features

  • Quality of Service
    Add support for backend Quality of Service
  • Active / Active
    Enabled support for Cinder Active/Active controllers to both the iSCSI and FC driver

Fixes

  • Ensure unmanaged volumes do not exceed FlashArray volume name length limits
  • Add missing support for host_personality in Fibre Channel driver

Release Notes for Victoria

Release: October, 2020

This release supports the OpenStack Victoria release

New Features

  • Revert to Snapshot
    Add support for revert to snapshot

Fixes

  • Resolve issue where CIDR filters are not correctly enforced with synchronous replication.

Release Notes for Ussuri

Release: May, 2020

This release supports the OpenStack Ussuri release

New Features

No new features for the Cinder driver

Release Notes for Train

Release: October, 2019

This release supports the OpenStack Train release.

New Features

  • Host Personality Support
    Pure Storage FlashArray driver has added configuration option pure_host_personality for setting the host personality upon host creation (existing hosts are not affected).
  • VLAN Support
    Pure Storage FlashArray driver has added configuration option pure_iscsi_cidr for setting a network CIDR for iSCSI target connection. The default value will allow connections to all iSCSI targets.

Release Notes for Stein

Release: April, 2019

This release supports the OpenStack Stein release.

New Features

  • FlashArray Replication Configuration options
    Pure Storage FlashArray driver has added configuration options pure_replication_pg_name and pure_replication_pod_name for setting the names for replication PGs and Pods.

Release Notes for Rocky

Release: September, 2018

This release supports the OpenStack Rocky release.

New Features

  • ActiveCluster support
    Pure Storage Volume Drivers for ActiveCluster using the standard replication APIs are available.
  • Multiattach Support
    FlashArray driver now supports multiattach

Compatibility Notices

  • The driver now requires Purity Python REST Client version 1.13 (or later) if using ActiveCluster based replication in Cinder
    This version is included when you install the Pure Storage Python SDK.

Release Notes for Queens

Release: February, 2018

This release supports the OpenStack Queens release.

Removal Notices

  • Default policy.json is removed
    Cinder now uses default policies. A policy file is only needed if overriding one of the defaults.

Deprecation Notices

  • Cisco Fibre Channel Zone Manager marked as unsupported
    enable_unsupported_driver will need to be set to True in the driver’s section in cinder.conf to continue to use it. If its support status does not change, they will be removed in the Rocky release.
  • The Consistency Group APIs have now been marked as deprecated
    Generic Volume Group APIs should be used instead

Upgrade Notices

  • The default value for pure_replica_interval_default used by Pure Storage volume drivers has changed from 900 to 3600 seconds.

Release Notes for Pike

Release: September, 2017

This release supports the OpenStack Pike release.

Deprecation Notices

  • Volume driver configuration settings are deprecated in the [DEFAULT] section
    Volume driver configuration settings must instead be placed in named backend sections. In the Pike release, having volume driver configuration entries in the [DEFAULT] section generates an error.
  • Consistency groups are planned to be deprecated in a future release
    Generic volume groups, a new Cinder feature, are planned to replace consistency groups.

Release Notes for Ocata

Release: February, 2017

Deprecation Notices

  • Volume driver configuration settings are deprecated in the [DEFAULT] section
    Volume driver configuration settings must instead be placed in named backend sections. In the Ocata release, having volume driver configuration entries in the [DEFAULT] section generates an error.
  • Consistency groups are planned to be deprecated in a future release
    Generic volume groups, a new Cinder feature, are planned to replace consistency groups.

New Feature

  • Generic volume groups
    The Pure Storage volume drivers support consistent_group_snapshot_enabled type groups that work the same way as consistency groups did previously and are interpreted as representing Purity protection groups.

Release Notes for Newton

Release: October, 2016

Deprecation Notice

  • Volume driver configuration settings are deprecated in the [DEFAULT] section
    Volume driver configuration settings must instead be placed in named backend sections. In Newton, having volume driver configuration entries in the [DEFAULT] section generates a warning. In the OpenStack O release or a later OpenStack release, we expect this not to be supported and to generate an error.

Compatibility Notices

  • The driver now requires Purity Python REST Client version 1.6 (or later).
    This version is included when you install the Pure Storage Python SDK.

Release Notes for Mitaka

Release: October, 2016

Compatibility Notices

  • This release is compatible with Purity FlashArrays that support the Pure Storage REST API 1.2 or higher.
  • We recommend at a minimum Purity 4.0.20 or 4.1.0 for this release.
  • Some features require REST API 1.4 or higher.

New Features

  • Cinder v2.1 (cheesecake) Replication
    The Volume Drivers now support the host-based replication in Cinder with the ability to create replicated volumes and failover the Cinder Volume backend from one FlashArray to another
  • Improved Custom Scheduler Filter Functions
    There are now a significantly larger number of metrics exposed to the Cinder scheduler from the FlashArray which can be used in driver filter and/or goodness functions.
  • TRIM/Discard/UNMAP
    You can now allow for Cinder volumes to get TRIM/Discard/UNMAP commands when used with VM's provisioned with libvirt (KVM, qemu, etc as supported by hypervisor).
  • Automatic Volume Eradication
    New config option to allow for automatically eradicating Pure volumes upon deletion in Cinder. It is disabled by default.
  • Disable Automatic Oversubscription Ratio
    New config option to allow for disabling the automatic calculation of oversubscription ratio given to Cinder scheduler by the Volume Drivers. When disabled the drivers will respect the configured oversubscription ratio.
  • Validating HTTPS Management Requests
    The Cinder volume drivers now can be configured to validate HTTPS requests to the FlashArray management REST API. Custom certificates can be configured.

Release Notes for Liberty

Release: October, 2016

Compatibility Notices

  • This release is compatible with Purity FlashArrays that support the Pure Storage REST API 1.2 or higher.
  • We recommend at a minimum Purity 4.0.20 or 4.1.0 for this release.
  • Some new features (such as the Cinder import feature) require REST API 1.4 or higher.   

New Features

  • Fibre Channel Volume Driver
    In addition to the PureISCSIDriver, there is now a PureFCDriver which has the same level of support and functionality. Going forward all core driver features will be supported on both unless otherwise specified.
    This allows OpenStack deployments using Fibre Channel and Pure FlashArrays. The PureFCDriver is fully compatible with the Cinder Fibre Channel Zone Manager, which allows for automatic zoning.
  • Glance Image Caching
    Support has been added to Cinder to allow for caching Glance images. When enabled for Pure Drivers, Glance image caching provides significant performance improvements when creating volumes from images.
  • Custom Scheduler Filter Functions
    You can now specify custom filter functions for Cinder's scheduler. The most important use of this is to allow for filtering on total volumes on the Array to prevent hitting the volume limit. In the future, this can be expanded to allow for scheduling based on other metrics reported by the Array.
  • Manage/Unmanage Snapshot
    Two new API's for Cinder have been added in Liberty to allow for managing and unmanaging snapshots. This functionality is almost identical to the older manage/unmanage volume commands, but allows for using existing snapshots. Support has been added to the Pure drivers for this.
  • Create Consistency Group from Consistency Group (clone CG)
    A new API to allow for cloning Cinder Consistency Groups from a source Consistency Group or Consistency Group Snapshot was added in Liberty. Support for these has been added to the Pure drivers.

Fixes

  • Re-typing a volume that would cause a volume to stay on the same Pure FlashArray no longer requires a migration.
  • Cinder thin-provisioning now allows for individual volumes to be larger than the free space left on array.
  • Previously iSCSI volumes would not always be detached from initiators correctly. The migration to os-brick in Nova and Cinder has resolved this issue.

Release Notes for Kilo

Release: October, 2016

Compatibility Notices

  • This release is compatible with Purity FlashArrays that support the Pure Storage REST API 1.2 or higher.
  • We recommend at a minimum Purity 4.0.20 or 4.1.0 for this release.

New Features

  • Consistency groups
    Utilizes Pure protection groups to provide application consistent local snapshots for user specified volumes.
  • Automatic Host Creation
  • The cinder driver will automatically create the host it needs to connect volumes with the iSCSI network. Previously this was a manual step.
  • Improved CHAP support
  • Enable chap support via the pure_use_chap option for each backend in cinder.conf. This will automatically generate a username and random password when creating a host with automatic host creation. Passwords are stored in the Cinder database.
  • Support for Manage/Unmanage-exisiting commands in cinder CLI
  • Allows user to convert an existing volume/snapshot in the array to be a cinder managed volume. This action renames the volume on the array.
  • Using Pure Storage Python SDK internally
  • Self explanatory. Previously the driver was using a custom class to interface with the Purity array. Now it uses the standard PureStorage pypi module. Cinder nodes must have https://pypi.python.org/pypi/purestorage installed.
  • Thin-provisioning support with Cinder Scheduler
  • In Kilo the capacity filter for the scheduler has been made aware of thin provisioning/data reduction and backends can now report an over subscription ratio. Our driver calculates this value automatically based on current usage for an array. Where previously we recommended disabling the capacity filter it will now work correctly and see the benefits of the FlashArray's data reduction.

Resources