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PowerStore achieves new levels of operational simplicity and agility. It uses a container-based microservices architecture, advanced storage technologies, and integrated machine learning to unlock the power of your data. PowerStore is a versatile platform with a performance-centric design that delivers multidimensional scale, always-on data reduction, and support for next-generation media.
PowerStore brings the simplicity of public cloud to on-premises infrastructure, streamlining operations with an integrated machine-learning engine and seamless automation. It also offers predictive analytics to easily monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot the environment. PowerStore is highly adaptable, providing the flexibility to host specialized workloads directly on the appliance and modernize infrastructure without disruption. It also offers investment protection through flexible payment solutions and data-in-place upgrades.
This section provides a brief overview of PowerStore. To learn more about specific PowerStore models and features, see the resources at PowerStore Product Documentation and Videos.
PowerStore provides several tools for managing and configuring a single- or multiple-appliance PowerStore system known as a cluster. Available management tools are:
PowerStore Manager UI provides a single pane of glass into the PowerStore system. It is the primary management and configuration tool for PowerStore and offers the following benefits:
The PowerStore Manager CLI is intended for users who want to interactively manage a PowerStore system from an operating system command prompt. Users can also use CLI commands in scripts for automating routine tasks. Some task examples are:
For more information, see CLI User Guide and CLI Reference Guide on the PowerStore Info Hub.
Every PowerStore platform also has a RESTful API available for administrators who want to automate management tasks. The REST API interface is accessible by using a web browser and going to the following address:
https://<management_IP_of_the_PowerStore_appliance>/swaggerui
For additional information about Swagger, see swagger.io.
PowerStore models are 2U rack-mountable enclosures and are configured at the factory in one of two base-model appliance configurations: PowerStore T or PowerStore X. Each base model is available in multiple physical hardware configurations with different CPU and memory capacities to provide different storage options:
With the initial PowerStore 1.0 release and continuing into release 2.0, the following models were available:
Four additional models with dual CPU sockets are now available with PowerStore 3.0:
PowerStore 2.X and PowerStore 3.0 also offer the PowerStore 500, a single CPU socket, 12 core @ 2.2 GHz with 96 GB memory that supports unified storage only.
Note: This paper discusses PowerStore T models with Elastic Stack. Configuring Elastic Stack on PowerStore X models is also possible. However, when deploying Elasticsearch on PowerStore X, a larger PowerStore X model may be required than what would be required in a PowerStore T model. Larger PowerStore X models may be required because half of the PowerStore X resources are reserved for the PowerStore operating system. The larger PowerStore X model is needed so there are sufficient PowerStore resources available for deploying and hosting an Elastic Stack environment. On average, Elasticsearch data nodes tend to require 8 to 16 CPU cores with 64 GB memory.
One 2U PowerStore appliance is also known as a single-appliance cluster. PowerStore 2.0 supported a scale-out configuration for both PowerStore T and PowerStore X and allowed a maximum of four single-clustered appliances. PowerStore 1.0 supported scaling-out PowerStore T models.
On the main dashboard of PowerStore Manager, an icon is displayed indicating the number of appliances in the cluster.
PowerStore automatically manages the underlying storage for maximum performance and capacity, eliminating the need for administrators to configure the storage pool. Manually setting or configuring these options is unnecessary in PowerStore. The underlying drive configuration and management are automatic and require no management.
You can configure storage pools with a minimum of six drives in the base enclosure. If required, you can expand storage pools up to 100 drives through the remaining slots in the base enclosure and extra expansion enclosures. The total disk capacity does not automatically guarantee disk performance. There must be enough drives to meet I/O and capacity demands.
PowerStoreOS 2.0 introduced support for NVMe drives. NVMe drives provide higher bandwidth and lower latency when compared to SAS drives. NVMe NVRAM drives are reserved for system write cache in PowerStore x200 T models. User and system metadata are written to the other drive types (NVMe SCM, NVMe SSD, SAS SSD).
With PowerStore 2.0, NVMe drives were only available in the base enclosure. If scaling-up a PowerStore 2.0 was a requirement, SAS expansion shelves would be needed. A maximum of three 25-drive SAS expansion shelves are supported in a scale-up configuration in PowerStore 2.0.
Starting with PowerStore 3.0, only NVMe expansion shelves are available for scaling-up PowerStore. Using NVMe expansion shelves is a major improvement over PowerStore 2.0. NVMe expansion shelves eliminate the SAS-to-NVMe performance bottleneck experienced when SAS expansion shelves were used to scale up a NVMe base enclosure in PowerStore 2.x. Using NVMe expansion shelves provides a complete, end-to-end NVMe model for improved performance in PowerStore 3.0.
To achieve the end-to-end NVMe model, NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) is used. The NVMe/FC protocol does not require much protocol translation, making it lightweight in terms of overhead. It also inherits all NVMe features.
Expansion shelves in a PowerStore appliance must either be all NVMe or SAS. Mixing NVMe and SAS expansion shelves is not supported. Also, NVMe SCM SSDs are not supported in NVMe expansion shelves.
PowerStore 3.0 prioritizes the NVMe drives in the base enclosure as the first choice for metadata, providing the best possible performance for internal metadata. NVMe drives can also be:
For the PowerStore 500, a 4-port 25 GbE optical mezzanine card is required to support NVMe expansion shelves using reserved ports 3 and 4.
For the new PowerStore 3.0 models, the embedded module v2 comes with the system. A two-port 100 GbE card on the embedded module v2 is optional and is only required if NVMe expansion shelves will be used. Embedded module v1 only ships with PowerStore x000 models and is required for SAS expansion shelves.
For more information, see the document Dell PowerStore: Technical Primer.
When deploying PowerStore for large Elasticsearch solutions demanding greater performance requirements, consider using PowerStore models x200 since they support NVMe expansion shelves.
PowerStore inline data reduction (compression and deduplication) includes the core features of zero detection, compression, and deduplication. While the amount of reduction varies depending on the type of data, the system automatically selects the best option for reducing the data footprint. Data reduction works seamlessly in the background with PowerStore, is always enabled, and cannot be disabled.
A top concern for many businesses is application data security, including drive encryption requirements like data at rest encryption. Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE), a feature of PowerStore, is enabled by default. No configuration steps are necessary to protect the drives. Lost or stolen data can critically damage a business to the point it may not survive. Dell Technologies engineered PowerStore with D@RE by using self-encrypting drives and array-based, self-managed keys. When activated, data are written to disk using the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This security feature is provided without adding overhead to administrative tasks or to the application. It also avoids potential performance impact to the application and has no performance impact on the array.
PowerStore Manager provides online support, context-sensitive help, and general support, which make up the primary reference material for optimal configuration of PowerStore. This white paper provides extra guidance beyond these resources. For supplemental information, see the section References.
Note: For links to other PowerStore documentation including a hands-on lab, see the PowerStore Info Hub. For PowerStore product documentation, see www.dell.com/powerstoredocs.