What is Dell Technologies PowerStore – Part 17, Managing the array via VMware vCenter with the VSI 8.4 Plugin

So far, we have covered the following aspects of Dell Technologies PowerStore:
High Level Overview, Hardware, AppsON, vVols, File Capabilities, User Interface , Importing external storage, PowerStore local protection works , remote replication , VMware SRM integration , resource balancer , the integration with an upstream Kubernetes and / or RedHat OpenShift & The integration with VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, CloudIQ , AppSync & Ansible

Where it comes to plugins integration, the vCenter plugin, is the most requested one

It allows you to manage your PowerStore array from within the VMware vCenter UI, it works with the vCenter HTML5 UI

For the initial release, the plugin will support the following functions:

• PowerStore Registration

If VSI detects the storage system has not been registered as a VASA Provider, a VASA Provider step is added to the wizard.
• Click the Register as VASA Provider if you plan to use VMware vVols.
• Note: Supports registering all vCenter servers in linked mode groups
• Click NEXT

Viewing PowerStore Details

The view the users or groups that have access to a specific storage system, expand the storage system row and click User Access

To Grant access to the PowerStore, click the add (+) icon
• In the Grant Storage Access modal, select the vCenter users and groups
you want to grant access.
• Click GRANT ACCESS
• Note: Only owners of the array (the user that registered the storage) can grant or revoke access

To revoke PowerStore access, select users or groups in the User
Access datagrid, and click the delete (X) icon
• In the Revoke Storage Access modal, confirm the users and groups you have selected.
• Click REVOKE ACCESS

Managing VMFS Datastores PowerStore

vCenter Users who have privileges to create datastores can do so in VSI using the storage they have been granted access to.
• To create a datastore on Dell EMC, right click off of a host or cluster and
select Dell EMC VSI Actions -> New Datastore
• Note: The host must exist on the PowerStore storage system

In the Type step of the wizard, select the type VMFS
• Note: VSI currently supports VMFS and vVol datstores on PowerStore storage systems• Click NEXT

In the Storage Settings page, Select the capacity of the datastore, the performance policy, and a protection policy (optional)
• Click NEXT

Viewing VMFS Datastores

To view VMFS datastore back end storage details, select the datastore, Configure, Dell EMC VSI, Storage.
• Here you can see the General and Capacity information

• Editing VMFS Datastores

Users who have access to the storage can also Increase the size and change performance and protection policies
• To Increase the size of the datastore, click INCREASE under the capacity card.
• In the Increase Datastore Capacity modal, modify the size
• Click SAVE

To change the performance policy, click CHANGE POLICY under the Policy card.• In the Change Performance Policy modal, select a different policy
• Click SAVE

To change or assign a protection policy, click CHANGE POLICY under the Protection card.
• In the Change Protection Policy modal, select a policy, or select None to remove from protection.
• Click SAVE

Creating vVol Datastores

Users that can create vVol (block) datastores in vCenter can do so using the Dell EMC storage systems they have access to
• To create a datastore, select a cluster or host and select Dell EMC VSI Actions -> New Datastore

To create a vVol datastore, select vVol Block (vVol File for Unity
only/not yet supported on PowerStore)
• Note: Creating a vVol Block datastore on PowerStore will create the back end storage container.
• Click Next

Editing vVol Datastores

You can Edit the Capacity Quota by click EDIT under the Capacity card
• To set a quota, select the Enabled vVol datastore capacity quota checkbox.
• Select the Maximum capacity and a High Water Mark.
• Click SAVE

You can view the back end storage details for VMFS and RDM disks on a
VM by selecting a VM, Dell EMC VSI, Disks on Dell EMC
• Select a disk to view its details below
• Similar to VMFS datastores, you can edit performance and protection policies using the EDIT buttons
• Note: Viewing VMs on vVols is planned for the next release.

Viewing Host Settings

You can view a Host’s settings compared to the best practices by selecting a Host, Configure, Dell
EMC VSI, Host Best Practices
• The icon in the first row indicates whether the setting (displayed in the Value column) is meeting the best practice
• Hover over the info icon to display a detailed description of the host setting.
• Click EDIT to set the Best Practices for the Host