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The following table provides definitions for some of the terms that are used in this document.
Term | Definition |
Appliance | Solution containing a base enclosure and any attached expansion enclosures. The size of an appliance could be only the base enclosure or the base enclosure plus expansion enclosures. |
Base enclosure | Enclosure containing both nodes (node A and node B) and 25x NVMe drive slots |
Cluster | One or more appliances in a single grouping and management interface. Clusters are expandable by adding more appliances to the existing cluster, up to the allowed amount for a cluster. |
Expansion enclosure | Enclosures that can be attached to a base enclosure to provide additional storage. |
Fibre Channel (FC) protocol | Protocol used to perform IP and SCSI commands over a Fibre Channel network. |
File system | Storage resource that can be accessed through file-sharing protocols such as SMB or NFS. |
iSCSI | Provides a mechanism for accessing block-level data storage over network connections. |
Network-attached storage (NAS) server | File-level storage server used to host file systems. A NAS server is required to create file systems that use SMB or NFS shares. |
Network File System (NFS) | An access protocol that allows data access from Linux or UNIX hosts on a network. |
Node | Storage controller that provides the processing resources for performing storage operations and servicing I/O between storage and hosts. Each PowerStore appliance contains two nodes. |
NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) | Protocol used to perform Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) commands over a Fibre Channel network. |
NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP) | Protocol used to perform Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) commands over an Ethernet network. |
PowerStore Command Line Interface (PSTCLI) | Interface that allows a user to perform tasks on the storage system by typing commands instead of using the user interface. |
PowerStore Manager | An HTML5 user interface used to manage PowerStore systems. |
PowerStore Representational State Transfer (REST) API | Set of resources (objects), operations, and attributes that provide interactive, scripted, and programmatic management control of the PowerStore cluster. |
PowerStore Q model | Container-based storage system that is running on purpose-built hardware. This storage system supports unified (block and file) workloads, or block-optimized workloads. The PowerStore Q model supports Quad-Level Cell (QLC) NVMe SSDs for data storage. |
PowerStore T model | Container-based storage system that is running on purpose-built hardware. This storage system supports unified (block and file) workloads, or block-optimized workloads. |
Server Message Block (SMB) | An access protocol that allows remote file data access from clients to hosts on a network. SMB is typically used in Microsoft Windows environments. |
Snapshot | A point-in-time view of data stored on a storage resource. A user can recover files from a snapshot, restore a storage resource from a snapshot, or provide access to a host. |
Thin clone | Read-write copy of a volume, volume group, file system, NAS server, or snapshot that shares blocks with the parent resource. |
Volume | A block-level storage device that can be shared out using a protocol such as iSCSI or Fibre Channel. |
vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI) | A VMware API that improves ESXi host utilization by offloading storage-related tasks to the storage system. |
vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) | A VMware vendor-neutral API that enables vSphere to determine the capabilities of a storage system. This feature requires a VASA provider on the storage system for communication. |
vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) | A VMware storage framework that allows VM data to be stored on individual Virtual Volumes. This ability allows for data services to be applied at a VM-level of granularity and according to SPBM. Virtual Volumes can also refer to the individual storage objects that are used to enable this functionality. |