What’s New in PowerStoreOS 2.1.1
Tue, 19 Apr 2022 10:00:08 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
New releases continue to pile on for PowerStore, and today marks the most recent release with PowerStoreOS 2.1.1. This new release unlocks a lot of content for a service pack, but to fully understand what it delivers, we’ll need to revisit the previous release, PowerStoreOS 2.1.
PowerStoreOS 2.1 packed a lot into a minor release, including several key features on top of continued performance improvements and general enhancements. The anchor features were front-end NVMe/TCP access and integration with SmartFabric Storage Software. However, this release also included DC support for PowerStore 500, dynamic node affinity for improved storage intelligence, and various management, security and serviceability features.
The first service pack for PowerStoreOS 2.1, also known as PowerStoreOS 2.1.1, is supported on all PowerStore models, including PowerStore T and PowerStore X. If you recall, with the PowerStoreOS 2.1 launch in January, the new software was only made available to PowerStore T appliances. With this latest release, all software features introduced in PowerStoreOS 2.1 are now available on PowerStore X. Besides bringing the new set of features to PowerStore X, this release introduces several general system enhancements to both platforms, and specific improvements to PowerStore X models.
PowerStoreOS 2.1.1
PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 brings the features of PowerStoreOS 2.1 to PowerStore X appliances, plus some general system enhancements. Beyond the capabilities of PowerStoreOS 2.1, PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 also introduces vSphere 7 for PowerStore X, a brand new capability available in this latest release.
PowerStoreOS 2.1 for PowerStore X
Since PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 unlocks the new features of PowerStoreOS 2.1 on PowerStore X, it makes sense to recap those features here. The following features were all introduced in the previous release, and they are now fully supported on PowerStore X models:
NVMe/TCP: Support for host connectivity using NVMe over Ethernet fabrics with NVMe/TCP on existing embedded and IO module Ethernet ports.
- SmartFabric Storage Software (SFSS) support: A software product that enables an end-to-end automated and integrated NVMe/TCP fabric connecting NVMe hosts and targets.
- Dynamic node affinity: Dynamically-set node access when mapping volumes to hosts and the ability to automatically change node affinity for load balancing purposes.
- Customizable login message: Enables storage administrators to create, enable and disable a customizable login message.
- Application tags: Allows users to create application tags to label volumes for better organization and management.
- Thin packages and upgrades: Adds support for off-release packages such as hotfixes, disk firmware or improved health checks.
For more detail on the PowerStoreOS 2.1 release, make sure to check out the blog What’s New with the Dell PowerStoreOS 2.1 Release?.
vSphere 7 for PowerStore X
The jump from vSphere 6.7 to vSphere 7 delivers significant improvements to the ESXi nodes, which serve as the foundation of any PowerStore X cluster. A multitude of security enhancements ensure that your system has all the newest developments and improvements that were captured in vSphere 7.
Another change introduced in vSphere 7.0 is called vSphere Cluster Services (vCLS). This is a modification on how both vSphere DRS and vSphere HA are implemented for the ESXi cluster. This change ensures the continued functionality of vSphere DRS and vSphere HA in the event the vCenter Server instance becomes unavailable. Since both features are crucial to any PowerStore X cluster, this change will certainly be noticed by any observant virtualization administrator. Although hidden in the standard inventory view, the vCLS components appear as virtual machines when viewing the PowerStore vVol datastore.
After you deploy a PowerStore X cluster running PowerStoreOS 2.1.1, you can confirm the vSphere version running on the hosts by selecting them directly in vSphere. Note that as additional updates are released for PowerStore, the exact version of vSphere may not match the version captured in the screenshot below. Make sure to reference the PowerStore Simple Support Matrix to get the most up-to-date information on supported versions.
In addition to vSphere, PowerStore Manager also captures this information. From the Dashboard page, simply navigate to Compute > Hosts & Host Groups and note the ESXi Version column. This column is not enabled by default and must be added using the Show/Hide Columns option to the right of the table.
Upgrading to PowerStoreOS 2.1.1
All these new features sound great, but the next logical question is: How do I get this code running on my system? Thankfully, PowerStore fully supports a non-disruptive upgrade (NDU) to PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 on both PowerStore T and PowerStore X appliances.
PowerStore T upgrades
While much of the new content in PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 is directed toward PowerStore X systems, there are still several general system enhancements and bug fixes that will benefit PowerStore T appliances. PowerStore T upgrades are fully supported on systems running PowerStoreOS 1.X or 2.X. Make sure to download the latest version of the PowerStore Release Notes to determine which software upgrade packages are required based on the current version of code you are running. For all PowerStore upgrades, see the Dell EMC PowerStore Software Upgrade Guide on dell.com/powerstoredocs.
PowerStore X upgrades
PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 upgrades are fully supported on PowerStore X clusters running PowerStoreOS 2.0.X. If the cluster is running an earlier version, you can first perform an upgrade to PowerStoreOS 2.0.X. Once that is satisfied, ensure that the vCenter Server connected to the PowerStore X cluster is running a supported version of vSphere 7.0. To view the current list of supported vCenter Server versions, see the VMware Licensing and Support for PowerStore X table in the PowerStore Simple Support Matrix. Finally, make sure to see the Dell EMC PowerStore Software Upgrade Guide on dell.com/powerstoredocs.
Conclusion
The PowerStoreOS 2.1.1 release provides new capabilities to PowerStore X systems, unlocking NVMe/TCP, SmartFabric Storage Software support, vSphere 7, dynamic node affinity, and much more. Adding to these new features, several system enhancements and bug fixes are delivered for both PowerStore X and PowerStore T model appliances. With easy, non-disruptive upgrade options for all PowerStore models, this is a great release for any currently deployed system.
Resources
- Dell PowerStore: Technical Primer
- What’s New with the Dell PowerStoreOS 2.1 Release?
- PowerStore Simple Support Matrix
- Dell.com/powerstoredocs
Author
Ethan Stokes, Senior Engineering Technologist
Related Blog Posts
What's New In PowerStoreOS 3.0?
Wed, 06 Jul 2022 11:44:44 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Introduction
Dell PowerStoreOS 3.0 marks the third major release for the continuously modern PowerStore platform. While it is the third release, 3.0 is the largest PowerStore release to date, with over 120 new features. This release includes 80% more features compared to the PowerStoreOS 1.0 release! Beyond new features, there were radical performance and scalability boosts packed in too. Up to 50% faster mixed workloads, 70% faster writes, 10x faster copy operations, and 8x more volumes ensure PowerStore can handle all your workloads. Let’s take a quick look at all the new content in this release.
PowerStoreOS 3.0
PowerStoreOS 3.0 is a major release for PowerStore, including new software capabilities alongside the first PowerStore platform refresh.
- Platform: New PowerStore models bring newer Intel® Xeon® processors and secure boot capabilities with hardware root of trust (HWRoT) to the PowerStore family. Additional improvements include a brand new all NVMe expansion enclosure and a 100 GbE front end card for even faster Ethernet connectivity.
- Data Mobility: File replication, vVol replication, and synchronous Metro Volume replication greatly enhance PowerStore’s data mobility capabilities.
- Enterprise File: File gets a boost with CEPA support for file monitoring, file level retention (FLR), and file on all ports through user defined link aggregations.
- VMware Integration: Beyond the data mobility enhancement with vVol replication, PowerStore adds VMFS and NFS virtual machine visibility, VMware file system type for NFS datastores, and vVol over NVMe.
- Security: External Key Manager (KMIP) and FIPS 140-2 certified NVRAM drives all enhance the security of PowerStore.
- Native Import: Support for two new source platforms, Fibre Channel import connectivity, and native file import make it easier than ever to migrate resources to PowerStore.
- PowerStore Manager: A multitude of additional enhancements makes PowerStore even simpler, more intelligent, and incredibly efficient to manage.
Now that I’ve summarized the newest release, let’s dive into the details to really understand what’s being introduced.
Platform
PowerStore Family
PowerStore is a 2U, two node, purpose built platform that ranges from the PowerStore 500 up to the new PowerStore 9200. The two model types (PowerStore T and PowerStore X) are denoted by the letter T or X at the end of the model number. In PowerStoreOS 3.0, four new PowerStore T models have been introduced, ranging from PowerStore 1200T up to PowerStore 9200T. These appliances feature the same dual-node architecture with upgraded dual-socket Intel® Xeon® processors and are supported on PowerStoreOS 3.0 and higher software.
The following two tables outline the next generation PowerStore models, including the PowerStore 500 and the new 1200-9200 models (Table 1), and the original PowerStore models available at the launch of PowerStoreOS 1.0 (Table 2).
Table 1. PowerStore 500 and 1200-9200 model comparison1
| PowerStore 500T | PowerStore 1200T | PowerStore 3200T | PowerStore 5200T | PowerStore 9200T |
NVRAM drives | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
Maximum storage drives (per appliance) | 97 | 93 | |||
Supported drive types | NVMe SCM2, NVMe SSD | ||||
4-port card | 25/10 GbE optical/SFP+ and Twinax3 | 25/10 GbE optical/SFP+ and Twinax or 10GbE BASE-T | |||
2-port card | 10 GbE optical/SFP+ and Twinax | 100 GbE QSFP 4 | |||
Supported I/O modules | 32/16/8/4 Gb FC 100 GbE optical/QSFP and copper active/passive5 25/10 GbE optical/SFP+, and Twinax 10 GbE BASE-T | ||||
Supported expansion enclosures | Up to three 2.5-inch 24-drive NVMe SSD enclosures per appliance |
1 PowerStore 500 and 1200 through 9200 models only offered as a PowerStore T.
2 NVMe SCM SSDs only supported in base enclosure.
3 Ports 2 and 3 on the 4-Port card on PowerStore 500 are reserved for NVMe expansion enclosure.
4 2-port card is reserved for back-end connectivity to NVMe expansion enclosure on PowerStore 1200 through 9200
5 PowerStore 500 does not support the 100 GbE I/O module.
Table 2. PowerStore 1000-9000 model comparison
| PowerStore 1000 | PowerStore 3000 | PowerStore 5000 | PowerStore 7000 | PowerStore 9000 |
NVRAM drives | 2 | 4 | |||
Maximum storage drives (per appliance) | 96 | ||||
Supported drive types | NVMe SCM1, NVMe SSD, SAS SSD2 | ||||
4-port card | 25/10 GbE optical/SFP+ and Twinax | ||||
2-port card | - | ||||
Supported I/O modules | 32/16/8 Gb FC or 16/8/4 Gb FC 100 GbE optical/QSFP and copper active/passive (PowerStore T only) 25/10 GbE optical/SFP+/QSFP and Twinax (PowerStore T only) 10 GbE BASE-T (PowerStore T only) | ||||
Supported expansion enclosures | 2.5-inch 25-drive SAS SSD |
1 NVMe SCM drives only supported in base enclosure.
2 SAS SSD drives only supported in SAS expansion enclosure.
NVMe Expansion Enclosure
Starting In PowerStoreOS 3.0, the PowerStore 500, 1200, 3200, 5200, and 9200 model systems support 24-drive 2U NVMe expansion enclosures (see Figure 1) using 2.5-inch NVMe SSD drives for extra capacity. NVMe expansion enclosures do not support NVMe SCM drives. The base enclosure can support all NVMe SSDs or a mix of NVMe SSDs and NVMe SCM drives (for meta data tier) with an NVMe expansion enclosure attached. Prior to attaching an NVMe expansion enclosure, all drive slots 0 to 21 in the base enclosure must be populated. Each appliance in a PowerStore cluster supports up to three NVMe expansion enclosures.
This enables each appliance to scale to over 90% more expansion capacity when compared to using a SAS expansion enclosure. The NVMe expansion enclosure (as shown here) can result in a 66% increase in the maximum effective capacity of a cluster. PowerStore can now support over 18 PBe capacity on each cluster!
100 GbE Front End Connectivity
PowerStoreOS 3.0 also introduces a new 100 GbE optical I/O module that supports QSFP28 transceivers running at 100 GbE speeds. The 100 GbE I/O module must be populated into I/O module slot 0 on each node of the PowerStore appliance. This I/O module supports file, NVMe/TCP, iSCSI traffic, replication, and import interfaces.
Data mobility
Metro Volume
PowerStoreOS 3.0 and higher supports synchronous block replication with the Metro Volume feature. Metro Volume can be used for disaster avoidance, application load balancing, and migration scenarios. This provides active-active IO to a metro volume spanned across two PowerStore clusters. It supports FC or iSCSI connected VMware ESXi hosts for VMFS datastores. A Metro Volume can be configured easily and quickly in as little as six clicks!
File Replication
Starting with PowerStoreOS 3.0, asynchronous file replication is now available. Asynchronous replication can be used to protect against a storage-system outage by creating a copy of data to a remote system. Replicating data helps to provide data redundancy and safeguards against failures and disasters at the main production site. Having a remote disaster recovery (DR) site protects against system and site-wide outages. It also provides a remote location that can resume production and minimize downtime due to a disaster.
vVol Replication
PowerStoreOS 3.0 brings support for asynchronous replication for vVol-based virtual machines. This feature uses VMware Storage Policies and requires VMware Site Recovery Manager instances at both sites. Asynchronous replication for vVol-based VMs uses the same snapshot-based asynchronous replication technology as native block replication.
Enterprise File
Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA)
PowerStoreOS 3.0 introduces Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA). CEPA delivers SMB and NFS file and directory event notifications to a server, enabling them to be parsed and controlled by third-party applications. You can implement this feature for use cases such as detecting ransomware, monitoring user access, configuring quotas, and providing storage analytics. The event notification solution consists of a combination of PowerStore, the Common Event Enabler (CEE) CEPA software, and a third-party application.
File Level Retention (FLR)
PowerStoreOS 3.0 also introduces File-Level Retention (FLR). FLR is a feature that can protect file data from deletion or modification until a specified retention date. This functionality is also known as Write-Once, Read-Many (WORM).
PowerStore supports two types of FLR: FLR-Enterprise (FLR-E) and FLR-Compliance (FLR-C). FLR-C has other restrictions and is designed for companies that must comply with federal regulations. The following table shows a comparison of FLR-E and FLR-C.
Table 3. FLR-E and FLR-C
Name | FLR-Enterprise (FLR-E) | FLR-Compliance (FLR-C) |
Functionality | Prevents file modification and deletion by users and administrators through NAS protocols such as SMB, NFS, and FTP | |
Deleting a file system with locked files | Allowed (warning is displayed) | Not allowed |
Factory reset (destroys all data) | Allowed | |
Infinite retention period behavior | Soft: A file locked with infinite retention can be reduced to a specific time later | Hard: A file locked with infinite retention can never be reduced (an FLR-C file system that has a file locked with infinite retention can never be deleted) |
Data integrity check | Not available | Available |
Restoring file system from a snapshot | Allowed | Not allowed |
Meets requirements of SEC rule 17a-4(f) | No | Yes |
File On All Ports
Starting with PowerStoreOS 3.0, you can configure user-defined link aggregations for file interfaces. This ability enables you to create custom bonds on two to four ports. The bond can span the 4-port card and I/O modules, but these components must have the same speed, duplex, and MTU settings. These user-designed link aggregations support NAS server interfaces, and allow you to scale file out to any supported Ethernet port.
VMware Integration
VMware Visibility
PowerStore natively supports visibility into vVol datastores, pulling all virtual machines hosted on PowerStore vVol datastores into PowerStore Manager for direct monitoring. With the introduction of PowerStoreOS 3.0, this VMware visibility is expanded to include NFS and VMFS datastores backed by PowerStore storage. File systems and volumes on PowerStore that are configured as NFS or VMFS datastores in vSphere will reflect the datastore name within PowerStore Manager. Any virtual machine deployed on those datastores will also be captured in PowerStore Manager and visible from both the virtual machines page or within the resource details page itself.
VMware File System
Starting with PowerStoreOS 3.0, an option to create a VMware file system is added. VMware file systems are designed and optimized specifically to be used as VMware NFS datastores. VMware file systems support AppSync for VMware NFS, Virtual Storage Integrator (VSI), hardware acceleration, and VM awareness in PowerStore Manager.
NVMe Storage Containers
PowerStoreOS 3.0 adds support to create either SCSI or NVMe storage containers. Before this release, all storage containers were SCSI by default. SCSI storage containers support host access through SCSI protocols, which include iSCSI or Fibre Channel. NVMe storage containers support host access through NVMe/FC protocols and allow for vVols over NVMe/FC.
Security
KMIP
PowerStoreOS 3.0 supports using external key-management applications. External key managers for storage arrays provide extra protection if the array is stolen. The system does not boot and data cannot be accessed if the external key server is not present to provide the relevant Key Encryption Key (KEK).
FIPS
Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE) in PowerStore uses FIPS 140-2 validated self-encrypting drives (SEDs) by respective drive vendors for primary storage (NVMe SSD, NVMe SCM, and SAS SSD). PowerStoreOS 3.0 also supports FIPS 140-2 on the NVMe NVRAM write-cache drives. With PowerStoreOS 3.0, all PowerStore models can now be FIPS 140-2 compliant.
Native Import
PowerStoreOS 3.0 introduces native file import. This feature enables you to import file storage resources from Dell VNX2 to PowerStore. This feature enables administrators to import a Virtual Data Mover (VDM) along with its associated NFS or SMB file systems. The creation, monitoring, and management of the migration session is all completed by PowerStore and has a similar user experience to native block import.
PowerStore Manager
PowerStoreOS 3.0 added a number of enhancements and new features to PowerStore Manager to improve the usability and efficiency of the system. I’ve summarized some of the key features in the management space below:
- Host Information – Initiators: The new initiators pane added to the Host Information page displays all initiators and initiator paths in one pane of glass for all supported protocols (iSCSI, FC, NVMe/FC, and NVMe/TCP).
- Snapshots Column: This new column added for the volumes, volume groups, file systems, and virtual machine list pages allows you to easily see how many snapshots are associated with a particular object.
- View Topology: This feature provides a hierarchy as a graphical family tree, making it easy and efficient to visualize the family relationship of a volume or volume group, snapshots, and thin clones.
- Performance Metrics: New five-second metrics allow you to specify certain resources with enhanced granularity, and even compare up to 12 resources of the same type in a single window.
- Automatic Software Downloads: With support connectivity enabled, this feature automatically downloads software packages to PowerStore to make upgrades even easier.
- Language Packs: This feature translates texts and adds specific local components for different regions.
Conclusion
As you can see, PowerStoreOS 3.0 is a huge release delivering a new second generation platform refresh and a huge set of features to allow our customers to boost their performance, innovate without limits, and remain continuously modern with the PowerStore platform.
Resources
Author: Ethan Stokes, Senior Engineering Technologist