Managing Pure Storage Protection Groups

A Pure Storage Protection Group is a collection of volumes, hosts, or host groups protected together with point-in-time consistency. This is achieved using snapshot schedules. Members of a protection group share common retention criteria and snapshot schedules.

Protection groups use asynchronous replication, retaining snapshots locally and replicating them to target storage systems based on a predefined replication schedule. A single protection group can contain multiple volumes, hosts, or host groups, and a single volume can belong to multiple protection groups.

Creating a Protection Group

Use the purepgroup create CLI command:

usage: purepgroup create --hgrouplist HGROUPS |--hostlist HOSTS | --vollist VOLS --targetlist TARGETS PGROUP

Common arguments:

• PGROUP: Protection group name
• --hgrouplist HGROUPS: Host groups
• --hostlist HOSTS: Hosts
• --vollist VOLS: Volumes
• --targetlist TARGETS: Target arrays

pureuser@FlasharrayX90> purepgroup create PG-LXPROD01 --vollist LXPROD01-0,LXPROD01-1 --targetlist FlasharrayX50

Name        Source          Targets         Host Groups     Hosts   Volumes
PG-LXPROD01 FlasharrayX90 FlasharrayX50     -               -       LXPROD01-0
                                                                    LXPROD01-1

Enabling Protection Group Features

Enable the group for snapshots or replication (or both):

usage: purepgroup enable --replicate --snap PGROUP

Possible arguments are:

• PGROUP: Protection group name
• --replicate: Enable replication schedule
• --snap: Enable snapshot schedule

pureuser@FlasharrayX90> purepgroup enable --replicate PG-LXPROD01

Name        Schedule        Enabled Frequency       At      Blackout
PG-LXPROD01 snap            False   1h              -       -
            replicate       True    4h              -       -

Setting a Replication Schedule

Use purepgroup schedule:

common usage: purepgroup schedule --snap-frequency FREQUENCY --replicate-frequency FREQUENCY PGROUP

Common arguments:

• PGROUP: Protection group name
• --snap-frequency FREQUENCY: Take snapshots at this frequency. N[s/m/h/d/w] e.g. 15m, 1h, 2d, 3w
• --replicate-frequency FREQUENCY: Take and replicate snapshots at this frequency. N[s/m/h/d/w] e.g. 15m, 1h, 2d, 3w

pureuser@FlasharrayX90> purepgroup schedule --replicate-frequency 30m PG-LXPROD01

Name        Schedule        Enabled Frequency       At      Blackout
PG-LXPROD01 snap            False   1h              -       -
            replicate       True    30m             -       -

How to create Protection Group in Pure Flash Array using CLI

A pure Flash Array protection group is a collection of volumes, hosts, or host groups that are protected together with a point-in-time consistency across the member volumes. To achieve point-in-time consistency, Flash array uses snapshot schedules. The snapshot is an immutable representation of the volume data at that point in time that are either direct members of the protection group or are linked to any of the protection group's hosts or host groups. The members in a protection group will have common retention criteria and a snapshot schedule to achieve data integrity. 

How to decrease the provisioned size of a volume in Pure Flash Array storage using CLI

The pure Flash array uses Purevol setattr command to increase the provisioned storage space for volume. Similarly, Flash Array also gives an option to reduce the allocated storage space for a volume. The purevol truncate command reduces the provisioned volume size. As per pure CLI, the volume size cannot be reduced below 1 megabyte and cannot be increased greater than 4 petabytes. 

How to Create Protocol endpoints in Pure Flash Array using CLI

A Protocol Endpoint(PE) in Pure Storage terminology is a zero-capacity volume with a unique configuration that effectively functions as an ESX vVol mounting point. It is the only Pure FlashArray volume that requires a manual connection to ESX hosts in order to use ESX vVols. The vVols are connected to VMs through PEs acting as Sub-luns.

How to Upgrade 3PAR SSMC Appliance

 3PAR SSMC has minimum version upgrade requirements and it automatically checks the version compatibility when we upload the latest package and it will display an error message if there are any version compatibility issues. We had SSMC 3.4 version and when we tried to upgrade to 3.8 version, we got an error message along with the minimum required upgrade version. Finally, we had to upgrade to 3.5 version first followed by 3.7 and then 3.8 respectively. in this article, we will try to help you with the steps which are needed to perform while performing the SSMC appliance upgrade. 

How to increase the provisioned size of a volume in Pure Flash Array storage using CLI

In a "storage administrator" profession, it is quite common to receive requests for space
expansion/increase on SAN volumes. Pure Flash Array has both CLI and GUI options available to increase provisioned space of a storage volume. in this article, we will be exploring the possible CLI options for the same. 

How to Connect Volume to a Host in pure Flash Array

Volumes must be connected to hosts for the hosts to read and write data on them. To make SAN volumes available to a host after a host has been created and WWNs are added on Pure Flash Array, we must establish a connection between the host and volumes. 

How to add a host in Pure Flash Array storage using CLI

 Pure Flash Array storage uses the "host" option/attribute to define server-storage relation. A host can be configured in Pure Flash array by using GUI as well as CLI.  In this article, we will be exploring the CLI option to configure/add a host in Pure Flash Array storage. To create a host entry in Pure Flash Array Storage, we use the "purehost create" command. 

How to create volume in pure storage using CLI

 To create volumes on Pure Flash Array we use Purevol create Command. The purevol create command creates one or more FlashArray virtual storage volumes with the --size parameter set.

How to find Serial number of Pure Storage Array using CLI

 To find the serial number and hardware information of the Pure Flash array, we use "purehw list" command. The purehw list command returns information on array hardware components. The output is mostly useful for troubleshooting hardware issues.