The DVD for the APEX Cloud Platform for Azure with PowerFlex consists of two guides. The accompanying design guide provides a conceptual and architectural overview of the solution and details the integration testing performed in the Dell Technologies engineering labs. This implementation guide contains step-by-step instructions for configuring your MC nodes and network infrastructure to consume block storage from PowerFlex clusters. This guide also describes how to perform common Day 2 operational tasks such as creating and expanding Azure Stack HCI Cluster Shared Volumes (CSVs) from PowerFlex block storage and how to store virtual machines (VMs) on these volumes.
Terminology
The following table provides definitions for some of the terms that are used in this document:
Term | Definition |
MC Node | Multicloud (MC) nodes are Dell PowerEdge servers that have been intelligently designed and deliberately configured specifically for the APEX Cloud Platforms. For APEX Cloud Platform for Azure, MC nodes run the Azure Stack HCI operating system, which consists of Hyper-V and Storage Spaces Direct. This guide uses MC node and Azure Stack HCI cluster node interchangeably. |
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) | Storage Spaces Direct is a software-defined storage feature of Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server that allows you to share storage resources in your hyperconverged IT infrastructure. It enables you to combine internal storage drives on a cluster of physical servers (2 and up to 16) into a software-defined pool of storage. This storage pool has cache, tiers, resiliency, and erasure coding across columns—all configured and managed automatically. |
Cluster Shared Volumes | Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) enable multiple nodes in an Azure Stack HCI cluster to simultaneously have read/write access to the same disk. |
Dell PowerFlex | Dell PowerFlex is an enterprise-class software-defined storage solution. With its exceptional performance, scale, and ability to consolidate diverse workloads, PowerFlex instills confidence in your infrastructure to securely deliver under extreme requirements and enables businesses to remain competitive and respond quickly to changing conditions. |
PowerFlex Manager | PowerFlex Manager is the unified management and orchestration platform for Dell PowerFlex with automation to enable high availability, serviceability, scalability, efficiency, and agility. |
Storage Data Client (SDC) | A storage data client (SDC) is a client kernel driver that provides front-end volume access to operating systems, applications, or hypervisors. It acts like a virtual HBA and presents PowerFlex volumes as local block devices. The SDC maintains peer-to-peer connections with all storage nodes and enables parallel I/O with native multipathing. |
Storage Data Server (SDS) | A software service, running on a PowerFlex node that contributes disks to the storage cluster. Working together, several SDSs abstract local storage, maintain storage pools, and present volumes to the SDCs. Each SDS node is a fault unit, and the distributed mesh-mirror copies of data are never placed on the same fault unit. |
Protection Domain | A protection domain is a logical entity that consists of a group of SDSs that provide data protection for each other. Each SDS belongs to one (and only one) protection domain. By definition, each protection domain is a unique set of SDSs. Protection domains can be added during installation and modified post installation. |
PowerFlex Storage Pool | A PowerFlex storage pool is a set of physical storage devices within a protection domain. Each storage device belongs to one (and only one) storage pool. A volume is distributed over all devices residing in the same storage pool. |