[Updated: 5/16/2017]
I created the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit with two major goals; (1) as a way to automate the various operational tasks to manage our FlashArray. Tasks like creating volumes, hosts, taking snapshots and querying the array for statistics and reporting and (2) as an example of how to use the Pure Storage FlashArray REST API from PowerShell hence the reason I posted to Github.
On my todo list I had the action item to create a Visio solution for visualizing a FlashArray to provide reporting for IT/Storage Administrators. As you can imagine my todo list is quite long and to my surprise I jumped on email one day and had an message from colleague Alex Johnson (Systems Engineer, who I now refer to as my personal “Pure PowerShell Hero”), with a subject reading “PureVisio Tool”. After opening that message I was so excited to see an implementation of the PowerShell Toolkit outside of the normal automation tasks using Visio!.
Alex did an amazing job of using PowerShell in all its glory. He leveraged (1) the VisioAutomation library from CodePlex to create the diagrams (yes it works with 2013) and (2) the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit to create some great reports to visualize volumes, hosts, connectivity and overall data reduction.
Step 1: Import a Pure Storage FlashArray
Action: Importing Data
Action: Visio 2013 is automatically started and the “report” is created dynamically. This first screenshot is of the system implemented. In my lab I have a FA-420 + 2×5.5TB shelves.
Action: Next, each volume is enumerated along with totals, capacity, and other data reduction numbers,
Action: Next, each host that is connected to the FlashArray is enumerated with either this IQN or WWN. In my example the FlashArray is connected via FiberChannel.
The other feature Alex implemented was to create a base template to customize yourself. It is a basic (1) pick your FlashArray type then (2) how many storage shelves and Select.
In my example below as you can see from above I selected to create an FA-450 with 6 storage shelves and below is the result.
Thanks Alex for demonstrating the power of using the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit and as a teaser v2.0 is coming soon! Here is a screenshot, coverage of 97% REST APIs.
Cheers,
Barkz