PowerStore 3.0 New Features

PowerStore 3.0 Main New Features

 

Hardware: 

New Models:

• Next generation nodes for PowerStore appliances PS9000 and PS7000 are replaced with the PS9200 featuring dual SkyLake 28-core processor running at 2.2GHz per node
• PS5000 is replaced with the PS7200 featuring dual SkyLake 24-core processors running at 2.2GHz per node
• PS3000 is replaced with the PS3200 featuring dual SkyLake 16-core processors running at 2.1GHZ per node
• PS1000 is replaced with the PS1200 featuring dual SkyLake 10-core processors running at 2.4GHz per node

The next generation nodes provide increased IO performance along with hardware enabled security components to ensure a safe and stable storage platform.

 New NVMe Expansion Enclosures:

• NVMeoF expansion capabilities using the new ENS24 expansion enclosure.
• 24x2.5” expansion enclosure only occupying 2U of rack space
• Utilizes 100GbE for back-end connectivity
• Available with four various NVMe SSD drive capacities (1.92TB, 3.84TB, 7.68TB, and 15.36TB)
• Compatible with both Gen1* and Gen2 hardware

*Only compatible with Gen1 after the customer has upgraded to the Embedded IO Module v2.

       New Embedded IO Module v2:

• Allow for new Embedded IO Module v2 to be used in PowerStore Gen1 hardware. The Embedded IO Module V2 has one 4-port card slot used primarily for intercluster connectivity, one 2-port card slot primarily used for 100GbE expansion enclosure connectivity, and two embedded 1GbE ports.
• Provides support for a new Embedded IO Module v2 to be used for PowerStore Gen1 hardware. This new IO Module allows for better performance and support for a 100GbE Mezz to be used with the new NVMe expansion enclosure.

       New 100GbE optional IO cards:

• Customers can purchase either one or two pair of 100GbE optional IO cards for frontend connectivity. Dual 100GbE ports that can be used to serve front-end Ethernet traffic.
• Supported for all PowerStore 1000-9000 and 1200-9200 models
• PowerStore 500 will not be supported due to performance limitations
• The module hardware is a ConnectX-5 based WaterskyX 2-Port 100GbE module
• For use in I/O Module Slot 0 only.

 

Data Protection:

       Native Block Metro Volume:

• This feature provides support for VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster.
• Provides Active-Active IO to a Metro Volume across two PowerStore Clusters
• Supports FC/SCSI or iSCSI connected VMware ESXi hosts
• Non-Uniform and Uniform host connectivity
• Used for disaster avoidance, application load balancing and migration scenarios.

You can use two PowerStore systems connected in a metro cluster configuration to increase a block volume’s availability. The primary application target is VMware vSphere Metro Storage Cluster.

 

      Space Utilization Enhancement:

• PowerStore supports mixing Dynamic Resiliency Engine (DRE) RAID widths within a resiliency set.
• If an appliance was initialized with a certain width, but enough drives have been added to the system to support a larger width, the larger width may be used for new data allocations.
• Using the larger width improves the usable capacity of the appliance in scenarios where significant additional capacity is added after initialization.
• Single drive failure tolerance – 4+1 and 8+1 widths can be mixed in a resiliency set (Resiliency set maximum drive count = 25 drives)
• Double drive failure tolerance – 4+2, 8+2, and 16+2 widths can be mixed in a resiliency set (Resiliency set maximum drive count = 50 drives)

Cluster:

       Add Appliance Without Requiring NDU:

• Allows a new PowerStore appliance with a different PowerStore OS version to be added to an existing PowerStore cluster without completing the prerequisite steps of manually synching the PowerStore OS version on the new appliance with the version on the existing cluster.
• Simplifies the Add Appliance process by automating the steps for synching the PowerStore OS version on the new appliance.
• If unconfigured appliance is not at the same version of code, user will perform a sync operation.
• PowerStore primary appliance will copy its image to the unconfigured appliance.

Host Connectivity:    

        Enhancements to the SmartFabric Storage Software (SFSS) integration for NVMe/TCP:

• Adds support for the automatic discovery of the SFSS/CDC IP and sending a kickstart discovery request command to initiate pull registration.

Networks Connectivity:

       Internal Network Enhancements:

• This ICM/ICD network for a single PowerStore T appliance now routes internally (within the appliance backplane).
• System bond is only required with Clustering
• A single PowerStore T appliance in Unified mode no longer requires system bond cabling.
• System bond is now optional with iSCSI, replication, import, and NAS.

       Link Aggregation:

• Added the ability for the user to aggregate front-end Ethernet ports into a LACP bond.
• Scale NAS storage to additional ports and IO Modules.
• Separates NAS server traffic to different ports and IO Modules
• Improved throughput and high availability for NAS
• User created Link Aggregation is supported for PowerStore T only
• Support aggregating 2 to 4 ports at once. Ports must have the same speeds, duplex settings, and MTU.
• User created Link Aggregation is only supported for NAS interfaces (No support for block resources at this time).

Storage File:

      New Asynchronous Replication:

• Add support for asynchronous replication for PowerStore File systems.
• Configure Storage Network (data transfer). Storage Network is an existing PowerStore concept used for iSCSI and NVMe/TCP host traffic, replication, and native block import. File Replication uses the Storage Network tagged for replication (does not require a new Storage Network, existing networks can be leveraged).
• Configure File Mobility Network (control plane). File Replication requires connectivity between source and destination SDNAS. SDNAS containers on each cluster communicate control information over this network. Only one File Mobility Network required per system.

A public routable network based on the 1 GbE management ports. File Mobility Network is also leverage for Native File Import.

• Replication provides business continuity by copying data to a remote system, enabling data access in situations where the primary system is not accessible.

        File Level Retention:

• File Level Retention (FLR) enables locking files to prevent them from being modified or deleted for a specified retention period. It’s also known as Write Once, Read Many (WORM)
• FLR Enterprise (FLR-E): Does not prevent file system (FS) deletion by storage administrators if FS has locked files.
• FLR Compliance (FLR-C): Prevents FS deletion by storage administrators if FS has locked files (Dell support will not be able to delete an FLR-C FS with locked files).

        Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA):

• Supports CEPA for NFS and SMB file system level event publishing (File System Auditing).
• CEPA allows third party applications to take event driven actions on PowerStore to prevent ransomware, manage user access, and other analytics use cases
• Provides the integration point for vendors such as Varonis, Stealthbits, and DefendX
• Audit events such as open, create, delete, rename, close, etc.

       VMware File Enhancements:

• Add an optimized File System for VMware workloads and plugin support for VAAI and VSI.
• Optimization of VMware File Systems performance. VAAI support for advanced features, such as Fast Clone.
• New filesystem type called VMware File System
• VMware File Systems should only be used as VMware NFS Datastores
• Does not support Quota and FLR

Virtualization:

       vVols over NVMe/FC:

Added support for vVols over NVMe/FC

• External host support only (No NVMe-vVol support for internal hosts and AppsON virtual machines)
• New NVMe-vVol host type added when creating a new ESXi host (Add Host from PowerStore Manager).
• New NVMe-vVol Initiator Type displayed on the Host & Host Groups page
• An NVMe Storage Container must be created to support NVMe-vVol

         VMware Visibility:

• Provide end-to-end visibility of user VMs, datastores, and the underlying storage
• Show associations between datastores and backend storage
• Display information about VMs stored on vVol, VMFS, or NFS datastore (Supported for VMs hosted on both external and internal storage).
• Show association between VMs and their datastores
• Virtual Machines deployed onto VMFS or NFS Datastores now shown in PowerStore Manager

         vVol Replication:

• Support end to end vVol asynchronous replication use cases with VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM).
• PowerStore supports VMware SRM 8.3 and snapshot protection for vVol-based VMs using VMware storage policies.
• Provides customers the ability to leverage SRM for replicating vVol-based VMs.
• Support PowerCLI commands that relate to replication management.
• VMware SRM can leverage array-based replication software (VASA 3.0).
• VM protection (snapshot schedule and replication) is configured through vSphere Storage Policy-Based Management (SPBM) in VMware SRM.
• VMware SRM leverage PowerStore snapshot and replication rules.
• vSphere supplies a Storage Policy with Protection Rule to PowerStore during vVol creation/policy update.
• PowerStore creates a read-only Protection Policy and associate it with protected vVols.
• VASA API is used for vVol / protection configuration.

Import:

        File Import:

• Allows a user to migrate NAS Servers with its configuration and data from an existing source VNX2 storage system to a destination PowerStore appliance. This feature provides a built-in capability for NFS-only and SMB-only NAS Servers with minimal or no disruption to clients.
• Expands the import capability of a PowerStore appliance to include file-based import from a VNX2 storage system.
• Leverages the In-Band Migration Tool (IMT). Allows customer to easily import file resources with minimal disruptions. Known in the GUI as Import External Storage

           Block Import:

• Added support for Back-end connectivity over Fibre Channel (FC).  Allows users to leverage Fibre Channel (FC) as back-end connectivity, expanding the number of customers who can leverage Destination PowerStore to migrate from XtremIO, VNX, Unity or Storage Center arrays. Both Non-disruptive Import and Agentless Import are supported
• Expands the support for Agentless Import: ▪ VMAX3 ▪ PowerMax ▪ NetApp
• The non-disruptive import feature supports additional operating systems. This enhancement is based on the support for RHEL 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3, Windows Server 2019, and vSphere 7.0 for host OS. For the most up-to-date supported versions of software and systems, see the PowerStore Simple Support Matrix for PowerStore.

Security:

• Support for FIPS validation of the NVRAM cache. Enables FIPS validation of the D@RE NVRAM cache card.
• LDAP servers can be configured using a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
• Support external key managers for Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE). Provides additional flexibility to customers by allowing them to use the key management solution of their choice

To have a complete list of all the new features please consult the latest release note !

One link for all the PowerStore documentation: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000130110/powerstore-info-hub-product-documentation-videos?lang=en

Hope you enjoy!