When completing the Initial Configuration Wizard, the PowerStore system scans for other appliances on the network. PowerStoreOS 4.0 and later added support for the PowerStore 3200Q model. If a T or Q model is selected as the primary appliance, T and Q models will be displayed to potentially be added to the cluster. To add extra appliances to the cluster, click the Select Additional Appliances button. The resulting view shows all available appliances that are eligible to be a part of the cluster.

The following figure shows an example of selecting a multi-appliance cluster. For more information about the discovery process, see the document PowerStore: Introduction to the Platform.

Figure 4.   Multi-appliance selection

PowerStore T/Q cluster

Below are some general guidelines to consider when creating a multi-appliance PowerStore T/Q cluster for the first time. Unified mode and block-optimized mode are detailed in the following sections of the white paper.

• The final cluster size cannot exceed four appliances.
• You can only select healthy and uninitialized appliances.
• Each appliance is configured synchronously starting with the primary appliance.
• Only the primary appliance can be in unified mode if selected.
• All additional appliances are automatically rebooted into a block-optimized configuration when added into a cluster.
• The appliances must be able to communicate with each other with untagged VLAN and IPv6 addresses on the bonded interfaces of the PowerStore system.
• The system bonds of all appliances should be on the same native VLAN.

Unified cluster

When setting up a cluster for the first time, determine if the cluster will use file services. If a decision has not been made, we recommend deploying a unified cluster to provide the most flexibility in the future. As mentioned in the section Primary appliance, file services only run on the primary appliance of a unified cluster. If other appliances are configured in the cluster, those appliances are deployed in a block-optimized configuration.

The following figure shows an example of creating a multi-appliance cluster. The primary appliance is set to unified, and the other appliances are rebooted into a block-optimized configuration.

Figure 5.   Reboot non-primary appliances to block optimized configuration

If file services are not used, you can configure a cluster to be block optimized to deliver the highest possible block performance. The following figure shows an example of a multi-appliance cluster that will be configured as block optimized. The primary appliance is set to block optimized configuration. This means that all the appliances that are selected must be automatically rebooted into a block-optimized configuration before the cluster can be configured.

Note: You cannot change the configuration type (unified or block optimized) of the cluster after the cluster is configured.

Figure 6.   Reboot all appliances in block-optimized cluster