SMI Lab 18 January Plugfest Learnings
A few weeks back I attended the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Symposium and Storage Management Initiative (SMI) Plugfest. I spent my time at the plugfest to work with Swordfish, and I was not disappointed the most! The best thing about this plugfest was the setup of the Redfish and Swordfish emulators and Swordfish Basic Web Client. The [...]
One Pure Storage PowerShell Module to Rule Them All.
We have developed PowerShell Modules to support management and automation for the FlashArray, VMware, Windows Server, Exchange, Pure1 and soon FlashBlade. As we continue our [...]
Consistent API Experience for On-Premises and the Cloud
In my previous post I discussed how to achieve data mobility between on-premises and the cloud which focused on a Microsoft SQL Server production and dev/test use case. In [...]
Data Mobility from On-Premises to the Cloud
Today Pure announced Cloud Block Store for AWS which offers a way for the Pure Storage platforms to be extended into public cloud. There are many different use cases that [...]
Join the Pure/Code() Slack Team
We have had a Slack team for our Pure/Code() community but joining was more word of mouth, get a Slack invite from one of our Systems Engineers or Solutions Architects.
I [...]
Tech Preview of the Pure Storage Extension for Windows Admin Center
Today we are announcing the Tech Preview of the Pure Storage Extension for Windows Admin Center! The Pure Storage Extension for Windows Admin Center provides the ability to [...]
Updated PureStoragePowerShellToolkit 1808.24
There was a formatting problem discovered by a customer with the New-FlashArrayCapacityReport which is fixed in version 1808.24.
The issue was related to output [...]
Data Mobility Demo Journey from Pure//Accelerate
At Pure//Accelerate 2018 Cody Hosterman and I delivered a session on "Moving Data Between Cloud and On-Premises Virtualized Environments". The focus of this session was on [...]
Update: Pure Storage PowerShell SDK 1.13.1.12
We have updated the PowerShell SDK to fix a bug with a few cmdlets returning incorrect return values. One example shown below uses Get-PfaArrayAttributes cmdlet and returns [...]
New PowerShell SDK Release 1.13!
I am happy to announce a HUGE release of the PowerShell SDK, version 1.13. With this new release the version naming adopts the REST API version that is supported as part of [...]
New Version of PowerShell Toolkit (1805.11.1)
In a previous post I detailed out the issue with Get-MPIOSetting value returns. This problem caused the Test-WindowsBestPractices cmdlet to not work. This new version of the [...]
Pure/Hack(1) Kicks-Off!
Today we launched the Pure Storage Hackathon! We ran a hackathon at Pure//Accelerate 2017 and we got a few participants so this year we went a bit bigger to allow more [...]
CLI Scripting by Miranda Steele, Guest Blogger
I'd like to introduce my first guest blogger, Miranda Steele. Miranda works on our REST API and FlashArray programmability team. She is extremely knowledgeable about our API, [...]
Troubles with Get-MPIOSetting in Windows Server
There have been a number of customers that have hit an issue with the Test-WindowsBestPractices cmdlet which is part of the PowerShell Toolkit. The problem started to manifest [...]
Updated: Restoring Protection Group Volume Snapshots
FlashRecover protection groups can be defined at all the different object levels the FlashArray supports; volumes, hosts and host groups. Whenever a snapshot is created, the [...]
New-FlashArrayCapacityReport cmdlet in Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit 1802.13
New-FlashArrayCapacityReport has been updated in the latest release of the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit 1802.13. The report that is generated provides a view of the [...]
Check Provisioning Type of a Windows Server Volume
I had a question asked about how to determine whether or not a connected volume to a Windows Server host is thin provisioned or not. I put together the below PowerShell script [...]
SQL Server Database Clones –> AWS Direct Connect –> AWS EC2
In August 2017 we announced the release of our >Hybrid Cloud with AWS and the demonstration in this blog is a follow-up to show how to leverage FlashRecover Snapshots with [...]
“The PowerShell Scripting Song”
There are no words for my appreciation to Chappy, Kyle, Charlies, Jon, Daniel, Arthur, John, Joe and a host of others for creating this song.
Enjoy the sounds of [...]
Creating Volumes from Protection Group Sources (Part 2)
In Part 1 of creating volumes from Protection Group (PGroup) sources I discussed how to get a specific snapshot to use for a disaster recovery (DR) restore. In the case of [...]
Creating Volumes from Protection Group Sources (Part 1)
When creating new volumes (Copy Volume) from a Protection Group snapshot the naming convention is the devil in the details. Below is an example using the PowerShell SDK . The [...]
Update! Setup Active Directory Integration with the PowerShell SDK
Update 10/6/2017 — Updated the PowerShell script to support the cmdlets in the PowerShell SDK (1.7.4.0+).
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Having Active Directory integration [...]
Thank you MS_Ignite Attendees!
Microsoft Ignite 2017 was all about the cloud, Office 365, Dynamics 365, Teams, Azure Cloud, Cloud Shell and more. Prefix or suffix a word with "Cloud" and that was the topic [...]
New Microsoft Platform Guide Released!
I am happy to announce the availability of the new Microsoft Platform Guide on the Pure1 Support site. The new platform guide is a complete re-write from the old Windows [...]
A Brief History of Time with PowerShell and Pure Storage
September 6, 2017 ---
Feeling a little nostalgic today. What an incredible journey the work on our PowerShell SDK has taken over the last 3+ years. It's hard for me to [...]
Start-Transcript -PathTo ‘Best Practice’
This is just a quick post to recommend that Pure Storage customers or partners working on automation workflows using PowerShell with Server and SAN infrastructure should [...]
New Release! Pure Storage Hybrid Cloud with AWS Design Guide
At Pure//Accelerate 2017 we announced a ton of new innovation, including a new Hybrid Cloud solution for AWS. If you missed it, check out my breakout session on Building [...]
Using Python Toolkit with Visual Studio Code
I have been using Visual Studio Code more than the PowerShell ISE nowadays for script development, C# and a few other projects. I mostly focus on Microsoft integrations but [...]
Purity//FA comes with Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)
Offloaded Data Transfers (ODX) was introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2012 to provide direct data transfer within or between storage arrays by bypassing the host system. [...]
DevOps Pipeline Demo of CloudSnap to AWS
At //Accelerate 2017 we announced a lot of new features for Purity//FA and one of the more interesting is CloudSnap. Omer Asad wrote a great blog that provides an [...]
Basic Storage Workflow using Overwrite
This is a follow-up blog based on Overwriting a Volume in Windows Server.
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Our snapshots offer an incredible amount of flexibility. One of the greatest [...]
New Pure/Code() Slack Team
Update 7/5/2017 -- Added https://pscodeinvite.azurewebsites.net/ using slackin for quick and easy sign-up!
Along with the upcoming hackathon we have introduced a new [...]
Pure/Code() Hackathon at //Accelerate 2017
Pure//Accelerate 2017 starts next week and I wanted to build up some excitement for the Pure/Code() Hackathon that will be happening during the event. This will be an event [...]
Overwriting a Volume in Windows Server
I have been asked the question about how do you overwrite a volume using the PowerShell SDK that is connected from a Windows Server a few times so here is how its done!
In [...]
Cisco PowerTool for setting up FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure
This is a great example of using the Cisco UCS PowerTool Suite for Microsoft PowerShell to setup a FlashStack. The Cisco UCS manager can be a bit overwhelming with all of the [...]
Access FlashBlade using the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK
In the latest release of the PowerShell SDK (1.7.4.0) we included a new cmdlet for sending CLI commands to the FlashArray. We added this cmdlet in case any new REST APIs had [...]
Using Protection Groups with VSS Snapshots
A common question I get about the Pure Storage Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) provider is; "How can I replicate a VSS snapshot?" Our VSS provider takes FlashProtect [...]
Pure Storage PowerShell SDK 1.7.4.0 Released
This new release adds support for connecting to Pure Storage FlashArray using IPv6. The only change in the connectivity process using New-PfaArray is using an IPv6 address for [...]
New! Scale-Out Files Services with Windows Storage Server 2016
Rolling out of the lab and into production a new Pure Storage reference architecture (Download) for deploying a highly-available and scale-out Microsoft® File Server [...]
New! FlashStack™ Mini CI for Microsoft Applications with Hyper-V
Hot off the presses, the new FlashStack™ Mini Converged Infrastructure Design Guide for Microsoft Applications with Hyper-V (Download). This new FlashStack uses the UCS Mini [...]
Pure Storage Non-Disruptive Video Series – Chapter 3, the FINALE!
The final chapter in the Non-Disruptive Video Series is now available! In this chapter we focus on upgrading from a Pure Storage FlashArray//m20 to a FlashArray//m50. Just as [...]
Pure Storage PowerShell ISE Add-on
We all have ideas we all come up with daily based on customer interactions, self-learning or working with engineering. But the chance to make one of those ideas a reality is [...]
Simple Provisioning Script to Create Multiple Volumes and Adding to a PGroup
Got this question today that a customer was looking for a provisioning script that allowed them to create several hundred volumes with assigned prefixes and then add them to a [...]
New Release! Pure Storage PowerShell SDK 1.6.6.0
This new release of the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK provides easier access to IO and Space reporting metrics. For those customers that are interested in creating reports this [...]
Checking for Active Remote Assist Session
Pure Storage support uses Remote Assist to help customers upgrade and troubleshoot should an issue arise. There have been a few requests from our System Engineers about [...]
Ignite, Ignite, Ignite
Microsoft Ignite is always a great show because I finally get a chance to nerd out with like minded people. This year I am even more excited because of the further investments [...]
Best Practice: Disable Disk Fragmentation Scheduled Task
By default Windows Server creates a scheduled task for defrag. Connected drives from a Pure Storage FlashArray do not need this defragmentation operation performed as it [...]
Create a Hierarchy Tree of Hosts, Volumes & Snapshots
The following script creates a visual hierarchy to show the Host to Volume to Snapshot relationship.
PowerShell script:
Clear-Host
$return = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter the [...]
Get GitHub Download Release Metrics
Cody Hosterman, Argenis Fernandez and I have posted a lot of content to GitHub and one of the details I always wanted to know was "# of downloads for project X". Although [...]
Find All Disconnected Volumes
Updates
5/2/2017 - Added size of disconnected volume output.
5/1/2017 - Fixed bugs.
There are many ways to determine what volumes are connected to a host or host group, [...]
Retrieving Members of Directory Service Configuration
Once Pure Storage FlashArray Directory Services has been configured seeing who has been added to the different defined groups (Array_Admin_Group, ReadOnly_Group or [...]