vSphere Plugin User Guide: Using the Home Screen
Many of the Pure Storage Plugin for the vSphere Client features are purposefully built-in to the native screens of the vSphere Client interface, to more seamlessly integrate feature functionality. Certain features of the plugin do not map directly to native vSphere objects (VMs, datastores, folders, etc) and are therefore placed in the home screen of the plugin.
The home screen of the plugin can be accessed by clicking on the top Menu dropdown in the vSphere Client and choosing Pure Storage in the list.
Once accessed, tasks like authenticating the plugin to Pure1 or specific FlashArrays can be run and as well as other array functions.
For information on authentication, refer to the following article:
vSphere Plugin User Guide: Configuring Authentication
For details on Register Storage Provider or Import Protection Groups, please refer to the plugin guide section on Virtual Volumes:
vSphere Plugin User Guide: Virtual Volumes (vVols) Management
Feedback
In vSphere plugin versions 5.3.1 and later, feedback can be submitted directly to Pure Storage through the vSphere plugin. Left-click the (1) FEEDBACK button at the upper right of the plugin's home screen.
From the drop-down menu, select the Pure Storage (1) product that feedback will be submitted for, select the (2) type of feedback to submit, populate the (3) description of the feedback, optionally provide an (4) email address for follow up and left-click (5) SEND.
Pure1 Tags
If Pure1 connectivity has been configured, the Pure Storage Plugin for the vSphere Client will pull all of the tags created within Pure1 for that particular array. The tags will be displayed in the Pure1 Tags column next to the array:
And also below if an array is selected and the Pure1 Tags tab is chosen.
Tags can currently not be created, edited, or deleted with the vSphere Plugin. If tags are not appearing, it is for one of the following reasons:
- Pure1 is not authenticated with the plugin
- The selected FlashArray is not in the authenticated Pure1 organization. This usually means that your company has more than one Pure1 organization. Currently the plugin can only store authentication for a single Pure1 organization.
If you would like to create, edit, or delete Pure1 tags, please either login directly to Pure1.purestorage.com, or use REST API integrations like the Pure1 PowerShell module or the Pure Storage Plugin for vRealize Orchestrator.
Current use cases, besides viewing them can be to copy/paste the tags into vSphere tags on datastore or VMs that are hosted by that particular array. There are future plans to further integrate Pure1 tags into the vSphere Plugin.
Pure1 Load Meter
The Pure1 Load metric (sometimes referred to as the "busy" meter) provides an easy-to-understand metric to help decide if the array performance is near a limit. This metric is returned as a percentage and reflects how much of the arrays current resources in aggregate are being used to run the current workload. 0% means the array is idle. 100% means that the array is entirely consumed with its workload.
For more details on the load metric itself, please refer to this article:
When the plugin has been authenticated with the Pure1 REST API, the load metric will be available in the plugin. This metric (and its historical value) can be retrieved by selecting an array in the array list and choose the Load tab below the array list.
If load is not available, it is for one of the following reasons:
- Pure1 is not authenticated with the plugin
- The selected FlashArray is not in the authenticated Pure1 organization. This usually means that your company has more than one Pure1 organization. Currently the plugin can only store authentication for a single Pure1 organization.
The load metric is not a live value, so it can be delayed by up to an hour, though usually less. The chart allows 4 levels of granularity, the last 3 hours, the last day, the last week or the last month. The Pure1 load metrics is kept for up to 30 days in Pure1, so the plugin shows the maximum time window.
To change the time window, select the dropdown on the right-hand side and choose the desired duration:
Furthermore, you can select either to show average values (each data point is the average of the underlying sampled granularity) or the maximum (each data point is the maximum value of that granularity).
The timestamp is set in UTC time (the time zone advertised in the Pure1 REST API). Localization of this timestamp in the plugin is being considered as a future enhancement.
Volume Groups/QoS Management
When selecting an array under the Pure Storage Plugin for the vSphere Client home screen, a tab called Volume Groups appears. For this tab to be accessible a customer must be on Purity 5.1 or later.
Viewing and Searching for Volume Groups or Volumes
When you choose the volume groups tab, the plugin will list all related volume groups and volumes to the current VMware environment.
For a volume to appear in this list, it must be in use as a VMFS datastore (RDMs currently do not appear in this list). Volumes in use as vVols are also not shown--they will be listed under the corresponding virtual machines under the vSphere Client VM and Templates view.
The panel will also list all of the volume groups that are either empty or have volumes hosting a VMFS datastore in the VMware environment.
Volume groups will appear as folders:
Datastores will appear as standalone volumes.
If a volume group has both an unrelated volume and a VMFS datastore volume, it will appear, but the unrelated volume information will be obscured.
You can search through the volumes and volume groups by specifying, a FlashArray volume name, a VMFS datastore name, a volume group name, or a pod name.
For example: to search for all volumes in a pod named "activeDRPodA" enter the name of the pod plus to colons.
Creating a Volume Group
To create a new volume group, click Create Volume Group:
You can then enter a name and optionally an IOPS and/or bandwidth limit.
You can click on a volume group and more information will appear to the right of the volume listing.
Editing a Volume Group
This will display any QoS limits applied to that volume group. You can rename the volume group or alter its limits by clicking Edit Volume Group.
To remove a limit, clear the value (do not put in a zero) and click Edit to confirm the change.
In order to apply QoS limits to a volume group or individual volumes, the underlying array must be running Purity 5.3.x or later. Furthermore, if a volume in the group has its own limit set, a limit cannot be set on the group until the volume limit is cleared.
If you click on a volume, it will show the volume information as well as volume group information if it is in one.
Editing a Datastore
To change the configuration of the datastore, you can click on Edit Datastore.
Here you can change a variety of configurations:
- Volume name: Rename the FlashArray volume.
- Datastore name: Rename the datastore name. Generally it is recommended to keep this consistent, but you can deselect the option "Same as volume name" if you wish to configure the names differently.
- Volume group: the volume group it is in. If a volume is in a pod it currently cannot also be in a volume group. This is a Purity limitation. To remove a volume from a group, choose the option "None". Only volume groups that are empty or currently have volumes in use as VMFS datastores in the current VMware environment will appear in the list. Requires Purity 5.1+
- Pod: The pod it is in. If a volume is in a volume group it cannot be put into a pod without first removing it from the volume group--if the volume is in a volume group this option will be grayed out. If a pod is stretched or has an active replica link, a volume cannot be moved into it. Only new volumes can be placed in stretched or replica link-enabled pods. Requires Purity 5.1+
- Size. Changing this will resize the volume and grow the VMFS datastore to consume the new capacity. The datastore can only be grown--it cannot be shrunk.
- Volume bandwidth limit. This dictates the total amount of bandwidth (read or write) that can be sent to that volume. This cannot be set if the volume is in a volume group that has its own limit set. To remove a limit, clear the value (do not put in a zero) and click Edit to confirm the change. Requires Purity 5.3+
- Volume IOPS limit. This dictates the total amount of IOPS (read or write) that can be sent to that volume. This cannot be set if the volume is in a volume group that has its own limit set. To remove a limit, clear the value (do not put in a zero) and click Edit to confirm the change. Requires Purity 5.3+
Video Demo