PowerFlex Management Platform - How to Set up Appliance Deployment on a BYO Hypervisor

Summary: This article describes how to set up a Bring Your Own (BYO) Hypervisor for the PowerFlex Management Platform (PFMP) in an Appliance Deployment use case with PowerFlex 4.x.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Instructions

Pre-requisites

  • The following instructions require Request Process Qualification (RPQ) approval.
  • There are specific network requirements for PFMP.  Ensure that they are met by the environment by referring to the Dell PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x - Network Planning Guide.

 

Resolution

Option 1: Hosting the PFMP VMs on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor 

  1. With PowerFlex 4.6.2 and above, you can now host PFMP on a Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor.
  2. For detailed info, see: Deploying Dell PowerFlex Manager on Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor
  3. This can be an existing customer, Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor, or a new XC order for this use case.
  4. Once PFMP VMs are deployed on the Nutanix cluster and the relevant network connections have been set up, Dell PowerFlex Professional Services proceeds with the PFMP install process to set up PFMP. 

Option 2: Customer KVM\ESXi cluster (Hypervisor)

DELL provides virtual machine images to support the BYO Hypervisor use case:

  1. QCOW format
    Note: All required VMs are in the same download file.
  2. OVA format:
    1. Install Virtual Machine
    2. Management Virtual Machine (MVM)

Example:

Drivers and downloads page

Drivers and downloads page

 

Supported configurations:

  1. The KVM use case can be deployed as QCOW VMs (Provided by PowerFlex) running on a KVM hypervisor or OpenShift Virtualization. Source image to be used by Services - PowerFlex 4.6.2 QCOW image.
  2. The ESXi use case can be any version of ESXi able to run Dell OVA - tested versions include ESXi 7.x and 8.x.
  3. The installation requires three instances of the MVM and one (temporary) instance of the installer virtual machine to be deployed.

 

In a Customer-managed Hypervisor use case, the PowerFlex supplied images (available from 4.6.1 and above) include the following support statements:  

  1. The DELL PowerFlex virtual machine images come preconfigured with all the Operating System (OS) prerequisites and configuration required to deploy PFMP.
  2. The OS updating support for the VM is owned by the PowerFlex upgrade process.
  3. The OS license aspects for the embedded OS on the VM are owned by the PowerFlex offering.

 

Once PFMP is deployed successfully, see the PowerFlex Appliance install guide with the steps to configure PFMP for an Appliance Deployment (requires SOLVE access): PowerFlex Appliance with PowerFlex 4.x Deployment Guide.

Rack and Appliance Storage System Deployments are Done by Professional Services Engagements

See the following table for clarification on support ownership for various customer use cases:

Hardware (HW) Configuration Choosing this option means the following from a support perspective
PowerFlex Appliance Management Nodes (nodes ordered from DELL)

If a customer chooses this option, it removes Dell's ability to manage the Hypervisor OS and HW maintenance steps of the node - it should be managed like an Unmanaged node going forward. 

  • The customer is responsible for OS install, network configuration, setup of Hypervisor if applicable, and VM setup if applicable.
  • The customer is responsible for HW Life-Cycle Management (LCM), OS LCM, and the Hypervisor layer update.
  • DELL owns PFMP install support on supported QCOW \ OVA images after prerequisites and network connectivity are set up.
  • DELL owns the updating of the MVM OS.
  • DELL owns HW replacement support after the node is shut down for field replacement operations.
Non-VMware in a customer environment

If a customer chooses this option, it removes Dell's ability to manage the Hypervisor OS and HW maintenance steps of the node - it should be managed like an Unmanaged node going forward. 

  • The customer is responsible for OS install, network configuration, setup of Hypervisor if applicable, and VM setup if applicable. 
  • The customer is responsible for HW LCM, OS LCM, and the Hypervisor layer update. 
  • DELL owns PFMP install support on supported QCOW \ OVA images after prerequisites and network connectivity are set up. 
  • DELL owns the updating of the MVM OS. 
  • DELL owns HW replacement support after the node is shut down for field replacement operations.
PowerFlex Appliance Compute Only Nodes
  • The customer is responsible for OS install, network configuration, setup of Hypervisor if applicable, and VM setup if applicable. 
  • The customer is responsible for HW LCM, OS LCM, and the Hypervisor layer update. 
  • DELL owns PFMP install support on supported QCOW \ OVA images after prerequisites and network connectivity are set up. 
  • DELL owns the updating of the MVM OS. 
  • DELL owns HW replacement support after the node is shut down for field replacement operations.

Additional Information

Generic Limitations

  • Customer admin owns the management of the HW, hosting the BYO Hypervisor
  • Customer admins own the management of the Hypervisor OS (Deployment and Upgrade)
  • The Installer VM is not managed as it is temporary
  • Supported OS for the BYO Hypervisor management

 

Install Options

  • Nutanix AHV 10.1
  • ESXi 7.x and ESXi 8.x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10/9.x with KVM Hypervisor 
    • Rocky\Alma Linux that is Red Hat compatible with the above versions
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 SP4\5\6 with KVM Hypervisor

 

LCM Limitation

  • PFMP manages the HW LCM and OS for Appliance nodes
  • OS maintenance for the customer-deployed Linux Hypervisor OS instances hosting PFMP is not in scope for PFMP, and documentation on how to perform it is not included
    • Refer to the following guidelines on how to gracefully perform maintenance operations on PFMP VM instances: Maintenance for a PowerFlex controller node

Products

PowerFlex rack RCM Software
Article Properties
Article Number: 000339284
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 03 Sept 2025
Version:  4
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