PowerFlex Management Platform: How to set up a BYO Linux PFMP for Appliance Deployment

Summary: This knowledge article describes how to set up a Bring Your Own (BYO) Linux PowerFlex Management Platform (PFMP) for Appliance Deployment with PowerFlex 4.x. This environment is only supported using a Request Process Qualification (RPQ) approval. ...

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Instructions

The following instructions require RPQ approval.

 
Future RPQs are referred to: PowerFlex Management Platform - How to Set up Appliance Deployment on a BYO Hypervisor

This KB article is maintained for existing RPQs approved with this link as a reference.


High-Level Guidelines

  1. See the following Appliance Network Guide for guidance about network requirements for the Bring Your Own (BYO) Linux option: Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x Network Planning Guide | Dell US
  1. See the following sections, Deploying into a Linux management environment and Troubleshooting a PowerFlex management platform deployment in the PowerFlex Software Installation Guide for guidelines about the BYO management setup options: https://dl.dell.com/content/manual33459856-dell-powerflex-4-5-x-install-and-upgrade-guide.pdf                          
  • If using an internal disk for the partitions, see the following section Create partitions and mount points.         
  • Stop and disable the firewalld on the installer and Kubernetes (k8s) before deploying the PFMP cluster.                        
  • Ensure that the docker-ce package is installed, as it is not bundled with all distros.                                             
If you plan to use your installer image on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) provided, make sure to install the docker-ce package in addition to the other packages as part of the prerequisites section in the Installation and Upgrade Guide above.
For example, in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL7), the bundled Docker package is docker-ce-23.0.1-1.el7.x86_64.

3. Once the PowerFlex Manager platform (PFMP) is deployed successfully. See the PowerFlex Appliance Admin\Install guide with the steps to configure the PowerFlex Manager platform (PFMP) for an Appliance Deployment, see: Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x Administration Guide 
 
 
BYO Linux Use Cases
Non-VMware on PowerFlex Appliance Management Nodes
Choosing this option means the following from a support perspective:
  • If customers choose this option, they remove Dell's ability to manage the virtual machine (VM), OS, and node hardware. This should be managed like an unmanaged node.
  • Customers are responsible for OS installation, network configuration, Hypervisor setup if applicable, and VM setup if applicable.
  • Customers are responsible for Hardware Life-Cycle Management, OS Life-Cycle Management (LCM), the Hypervisor layer, and VM updating.  
  • There is no official Quick Emulator (QEMU) Copy On Write (QCOW) image. Customers are also responsible for the VM OS. Only the PFMP elements are updated.
  • Dell owns the PFMP installation on the supported OS after the prerequisites and network connectivity are set up.
  • Dell owns hardware replacement support after the node is shut down for Field replacement operations.


Non-VMware on Appliance Compute Only Nodes
Choosing this option means the following from a support perspective:
If customers choose this option, they remove Dell's ability to manage the VM, OS, and hardware maintenance steps of the node. This should be managed like an unmanaged node.

  • Customers are responsible for OS installation, network configuration, Hypervisor setup if applicable, and VM setup if applicable.
  • Customers are responsible for Hardware Life-Cycle Management, OS Life-Cycle Management (LCM), the Hypervisor layer, and VM updating.  
  • There is no official QCOW image. Customers are also responsible for the VM OS. Only the PFMP elements are updated.
  • Dell owns PFMP installation support on supported OS builds after prerequisites and network connectivity is set up.
  • Dell owns hardware replacement support after the node is shut down for Field replacement operations.


Non-VMware in Customer Environments
Choosing this option means the following from a support perspective:

  • Customers supply the OS or VM that runs PFMP with relevant OS prerequisites and network configuration.
  • Dell owns PFMP installation support on supported OS builds after prerequisites and network connectivity are set up.

Additional Information

Generic Limitations:

  • Customer admins own management of the hardware hosting the Bring Your Own (BYO) Linux management option.
  • Customer admins own management of the OS (Deployment and Upgrade).
  • Installer Virtual Machine (VM) is not managed as it is temporary.
  • Supported operating system (OS) for Bring Your Own (BYO) Linux:

 

This RPQ Testing was done with SLES 15 SP3 and that is the recommended OS of choice.


Life-Cycle Management Limitation:

  • PowerFlex Manager does operating system (OS) and hardware (HW) life cycle manager (LCM) for Appliance nodes.
  • OS maintenance for the Linux instances under the PowerFlex Manager (PFMP) is not in scope for PowerFlex Manager and documentation how to perform it is not included.
  • Customers own updates but must be aware of software only (SWO) support matrix for all life cycle manager (LCM) operations on these Linux PowerFlex Manager (PFMP) instances.
  • This follows the software only flow when upgrading PFMP. See the following link for guidance: Dell PowerFlex 4.5.x Install and Upgrade Guide | Upgrading PowerFlex Manager from a local repository path

Affected Products

PowerFlex rack, PowerFlex appliance R650, PowerFlex appliance R640

Products

VxFlex Ready Nodes, PowerFlex custom node, PowerFlex appliance R6525, PowerFlex appliance R660, PowerFlex appliance R6625, Powerflex appliance R750, PowerFlex appliance R760, PowerFlex appliance R7625, PowerFlex appliance R740XD , PowerFlex appliance R7525, PowerFlex appliance R840 ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000216278
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 21 Nov 2025
Version:  11
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