PowerFlex 4.x Concepts

Question 1

What is software defined storage?

Answer 1

means that physical storage that forms aggregate nodes are pooled together to create volumes

volumes are mapped to targets allowing an application to have access to storage

Question 2

What are the IP based protocols used by PowerFlex?

Answer 2

file level TCP/IP
NVMe/TCP
proprietary TCP/IP

Question 3

What is the scaling capability of PowerFlex?

Answer 3

4 node minimum - up to thousands of nodes

Question 4

How does PowerFlex manage workloads?

Answer 4

can consolidate heterogenous workloads while maintaining performance/throughput levels by aggregating resources from underlying nodes in the cluster

Question 5

How is PowerFlex scaling achieved?

Answer 5

by building a large and distributed pool that eliminates IO bottlenecks present in any single node by itself

each node contributes bandwidth to maximize throughput

Question 6

What happens when you add or remove a node in the cluster?

Answer 6

system rebalances automatically - can also take nodes offline for maintenance reasons without cluster impact

Question 7

What is software only PowerFlex?

Answer 7

intended for large enterprise implementations where robust onsite hardware is already available

Question 8

What must customers do if they want to purchase software only PowerFlex?

Answer 8

must commit to licensing in the hundreds of thousands of nodes over a predefined time period

Question 9

What is the R640/50 PowerFlex node?

Answer 9

single rack unit (great for CPU core density)

best for compute only/HCI nodes

provides 10 drive slots for max 76.8TB capacity`

Question 10

What is the R6525/7525 PowerFlex node?

Answer 10

6525 - 1U 7525 - 2U

similar to other node types but w/ AMD procs

AMD proc servers can only be used as compute only nodes in PowerFlex

Question 11

What are R740/750xd PowerFlex nodes?

Answer 11

2U - greater storage density

ideal choice for storage only nodes

max capacity of 124TBs - 24 drive slots

provides greater expansion in form of full height PCI cards for dual GPUs (make it good HCI node candidate also)

Question 12

What is the R840/50 PowerFlex node?

Answer 12

2U

same benefits of R750 (storage density/expansion) but w/ 4 CPU sockets instead of 2

additional cores provide more storage density and compute power

best for HCI nodes

Question 13

What does the MDM have to do w/ volume creation?

Answer 13

as volumes are created, MDM provides the information application servers need to connect the cluster’s virtualized storage

Question 14

What does the MDM have to do with resource utilization?

Answer 14

ensures the even distribution of writes to ensure balanced utilization

Question 15

How does the MDM ensure data integrity?

Answer 15

runs periods background processes to verify protection

Question 16

How does the MDM interact with user data?

Answer 16

user data never passes through the MDM

Question 17

How are MDM nodes typically deployed?

Answer 17

in a cluster to ensure availability

Question 18

How is SDS run on PowerFlex?

Answer 18

instance of SDS is run on every node that contributes storage - manages the capacity of that single server

Question 19

Besides storage management what else is the SDS responsible for?

Answer 19

performs requested SDC back end IO operations

performs MDM rebuild and rebalance operations

Question 20

How is the SDC installed in PowerFlex?

Answer 20

runs on every application server

Question 21

How does the SDC work?

Answer 21

an application issues an IO request

SDC fulfills the request regardless of what SDS the requested blocks reside on

Question 22

How does the SDC communicate with other nodes?

Answer 22

over TCP/IP

Question 23

What IO does the SDC interact with?

Answer 23

only the IO that are directed at the volumes that belong to PowerFlex

Question 24

What is FTP?

Answer 24

standard network protocol used to transfer files over a TCP based network

Question 25

What does SDT do?

Answer 25

manages host connections and controllers that are connected over NVMe/TCP

Question 26

How does the SDT work?

Answer 26

sends admin and IO commands forward to the SDS programmatically such that the SDS is oblivious to the source of the IO

makes SDT traffic look like it’s coming from SDC

Question 27

How is the SDR installed?

Answer 27

installed alongside any node w/ SDS that have volumes that has potential to be replicated

Question 28

How does the SDR work?

Answer 28

intercepts write IO from the SDC for replication and pass it to the SDS for storage

if data written is being replicated IO redirected to the SDR

SDR appears as an SDS to the SDC and appears as an SDC to the SDS

Question 29

What is the Lighweight Installer Agent (LIA)?

Answer 29

installed on every node during PowerFlex deployment

used to upgrade the component on which it is installed and is required for many maintenance operations

Question 30

What authentication method can you use with LIA?

Answer 30

LDAP

Question 31

What does PowerFlex Manager do?

Answer 31

automates deploying, configuring, managing, and upgrading system

Question 32

How does CLI run on PowerFlex?

Answer 32

runs directly on PowerFlex node by invoking “scli” command

Question 33

How is the scli command structured?

Answer 33

command | parameter | value format

Question 34

What does the query group of commands do on PowerFlex manager?

Answer 34

provides general information about the health and operations of the system

allows detailed examination of components

Question 35

What is PowerAPI?

Answer 35

PowerFlex REST API

allows users to automate deployment, configuration, and management tasks

Question 36

What are the two types of calls for PowerAPI?

Answer 36

PowerFlex Block API

PowerFlex Manager API

Question 37

How is PowerAPI installed?

Answer 37

as part of the PowerFlex gateway package

adheres to standard REST API call/response structure