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

Lastly, on our last post, we covered managing the PowerStore array and applying host best practices, directly from the VMware vCenter UI

Now, that’s all great if you are using the vCenter UI, but what happens if you want to automate it all or use automation as part as your storage provisioning, protection etc flows? That’s where vRealize Orchestrator is coming in.

vRealize Orchestrator is a drag-and-drop workflow software that simplifies the automation of complex IT tasks, and integrates with vRealize Suite and vCloud Suite to further improve service delivery efficiency, operational management and IT agility.

As part of the PowerStore lunch, we have just released the vRO plugin for it, what workflows exist in this version:

• Plugin Settings: Add Cluster, Update Cluster, List Clusters, Remove Cluster
• PowerStore Discovery: workflows to discover cluster, hosts, host groups, host initiators, volumes and volume groups, volume clones, volume and volume group snapshots, volume group replication sessions, protection policies, replication and snapshot rules, replication sessions
• Host and Host Group Management: create host/host group, modify host

properties, add/remove initiators, update iSCSI initiators), modify host group

(properties, add/remove hosts), remove hosts/host group

• Protection Policy Management: create/delete protection policies, create/delete snapshot rules
• Volume Management: create volume, create volume clone, expand volume, modify volume (properties, assign/remove protection policy, modify performance policy), refresh volume, map volume to host/host group, unmap volume from host/host group, delete volume
  • Volume Snapshot Management: create snapshot, modify snapshot, restore snapshot, create clone from snapshot, delete snapshot
  • Volume Group Management: create/ delete volume group
  • VMware Integration: create VMFS datastore for ESXi host/cluster on a new/existing PowerStore volume, expand VMFS datastore with PowerStore volume, modify VMFS datastore (modify backing PowerStore volume performance policy, assign remove protection policy), mount existing vCenter VMFS datastore to additional ESXi host/cluster, mount existing PowerStore volume as datastore to ESXi host, unmount VMFS datastore from ESXi host/cluster, delete VMFS datastore and PowerStore volume for ESXi host/cluster

Plugin Installation

vRO Control Center

https://<vRO server>:8283/vco-controlcenter/config/#/

Plugin Settings Workflows

• Add Cluster
• List Clusters

  List all clusters in cache

• Remove Cluster
• Update Cluster

If cluster has been upgraded/downgraded, it is required to run this workflow.

Plugin Inventory

Cluster

• Volumes
• Snapshots
• Replication Sessions
• Volume Groups
• Snapshots
• Replication Sessions
• Hosts
• Initiators
• Hosts Groups
• Protection Policies
• Snapshot Rules
• Replication Sessions

Plugin Inventory (cont.)

Reload Object to get all properties

Refresh Cluster Object use Get Cluster or Get Clusters workflows

PowerStore Discovery Workflows

Get single object

Get Host, Get Host Group, Get Volume, etc. Get objects

Get Hosts, Get Host Groups, Get Volumes, etc. List names (or Ids) of objects

List Hosts, List Host Groups, List Volumes, etc.

PowerStore Host Operations Workflows

Host

• Create Host
• Modify Host
• Modify Host Name or Description
• Modify Host Add Initiators
• Modify Host Remove Initiators
• Modify Host Update iSCSI Initiators
• Delete Host

PowerStore Host Operations Workflows (cont.)

Host Group

• Create Host Group
• Modify Host Group
• Modify Host Group Name or Description
• Modify Host Group Add Hosts
• Modify Host Group Remove Hosts
• Delete Host Group

Protection Policy Operations Workflows

PowerStore Data Protection Operations

Protection Policy Operations

• Create Protection Policy
• Delete Protection Policy

Snapshot Rule Operations

• Create Snapshot Rule
• Delete Snapshot Rule

Volume Provisioning Workflows

• Volume create, delete, expand
• Map volume to host or host group
• Unmap volume from host or host group
• Volumes and clones handled in similar manner
• Modify volume protection and performance policies
• Modify volume replication properties

Volume Protection Workflows

• Create clones and snapshots of volume
• Create clones from a snapshot of volume
• Refresh volume from another clone or snapshot in family
• Restore a volume from a snapshot

Volume Groups

• Limited support for volume groups in 1.0 release of vRO plugin
• Creation and deletion of volume groups
• Addition of volume to volume group on volume creation

VMFS Datastore Provisioning

• Support for standalone ESXi host or ESXi cluster
  • Separate workflows for each class
• Create, delete, modify, expand, mount, unmount datastore
• Provision a new PowerStore volume as a VMFS datastore
• Provision an existing PowerStore volume as a VMFS datastore
• Mount and unmount datastore
• Assign or change protection policy of datastore
• Provision of single volume datastores only
  • Datastore can be dynamically expanded when required

Below you can see a demo showing how to provision a VMFS datastore using the plugin

• Visit the Dell EMC vRO Support Site for vRO download and documentation.  Also available on VMware Solution Exchange