Smarter Storage Is the Key to the Future of IT. How the most recent version of PowerStore gets you ready for the future.
That is altered by Dell PowerStore. “Software-first” by design, PowerStore offers the flexibility and efficiency needed for fully-orchestrated deployments due to its distinctive autonomous active/active architecture, always-on data reduction (guaranteed at 5:1), and programmable ecosystem support. PowerStore adjusts to your changing IT needs so that your storage complements rather than detracts from contemporary workloads.
Introduction of PowerStoreOS 4.1
The largest and most extensive Dell PowerStore release since the product’s initial launch was PowerStore Prime, which was unveiled at Dell Technologies World 2024 last year. For Dell PowerStore customers worldwide, PowerStoreOS 4.0 increased performance, resilience, and efficiency. The upcoming version builds on the success of PowerStoreOS 4.0 by providing even more improvements in networking, security, data protection, performance monitoring, file management, and other areas. PowerStoreOS 4.1 is now available.
Benefits of PowerStoreOS 4.1
Some of the key benefits that PowerStoreOS 4.1 offers the clientele are highlighted below.
File resource Quality of Service (QOS)
The Quality of Service (QoS) capability is being extended to accommodate file resources with PowerStoreOS 4.1. This makes it possible to restrict the bandwidth of NAS servers, file systems, and their thin clones. A File IO Limit Rule and File QoS Policy must be defined in order to configure file QoS. Because they have different characteristics, file IO limit rules and QoS policies are distinct from blocks. Resources cannot be blocked by file policies, and the opposite is also true. Names for policies and rules must also be distinct for each file and block.
Setting QoS limitations for file resources guarantees that important applications receive the highest priority over other workloads. Typical QoS use cases include:
- Enabling service providers to impose restrictions in accordance with their service-level agreements (SLAs) with clients.
- Preventing loud neighbor situations in which a single application dominates the appliance’s performance.
- restricting non-essential tasks like testing and development in order to priorities important applications.
File secure snapshots
With PowerStoreOS 4.1, you can now make secure snapshots of files on file systems and thin clones. A secure snapshot is an optional configuration that secures the snapshot from deletion until a specified retention date. This provides a level of security against ransom attacks and inadvertent deletion of snapshots together with the parent file system or thin clone.
A snapshot rule or manual file secure snapshot must contain a retention date and time. When the retention date and time are up, the system automatically deletes them. Although it can be extended, the retention date cannot be shortened. System administrators and other PowerStore users cannot manually remove file secure snapshots.
Capacity accounting for file resources
PowerStore 4.0 brought improvements to capacity accounting at the block, storage container, appliance, cluster, and virtual machine levels. Administrators can use this information to estimate growth trends, plan for future capacity expansions, make well-informed judgements on data placement, and make sure the system satisfies Dell Technologies’ data reduction guarantee. File resources can now be used for capacity accounting.
The resource family’s capacity accounting values are computed for file systems, thin clones, and NAS servers. All of the file systems and thin clones on the NAS server are combined to form the NAS server data. Because they belong to the same resource family, thin clones of file systems have the same capacity accounting values. Because they belong to a different resource family, thin clones of NAS servers may have differing capacity accounting values. Metrics related to file capacity accounting are gathered every five minutes, an hour, and a day.
Read more on Network Attached Storage Security, Use Case And NAS VS SAN
Native file import-additional configuration support
Moving file storage resources from another file storage platform to PowerStore is possible with native file import. PowerStore manages the migration session’s creation, monitoring, and administration. No further software, appliances, agents, third-party tools, or host-based migration applications are needed. This capability facilitates a smooth and easy migration of configuration, data, and file resources.
Data protection
Storage Direct connectivity enhanced
By integrating PowerStore and PowerProtect, Storage Direct Protection offers users a streamlined native backup solution via a single administration user interface. Users may instantly backup block resources, obtain remote snapshots, and start instant access sessions by configuring remote backup sessions via PowerStore Manager.
Even with Storage Direct installed, users can now tag several storage networks for replication purposes in the PowerStoreOS 4.1 release. This enables connectivity to many PowerStore appliances as well as multiple Dell PowerProtect appliances over various physical networks. A Storage Direct performance improvement that allows for up to four times improved restore performance is also included in this edition.
Networking
Gather LLDP info directly from PowerStore
Network devices use the industry-standard Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to advertise their identification, capabilities, and other information on the local area network (LAN). By giving end users better network visibility, LLDP makes it much easier to spot and fix network-related problems. By using the PowerStore REST API or CLI, end users can now access and view LLDP data from the PowerStore system.
IPv6 support for deployments
IPv6 networks are supported by PowerStore for management, block storage connectivity, and PowerStore NAS server access. A PowerStore appliance can now be found via IPv6 by connecting to its service port with the IPv6 service address.
Security
Expanding Multi-Factor Authentication to support CAC/PIV
PowerStoreOS 4.1 provides Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) with Common Access Card or Personal Identity Verification cards (CAC/PIV). Through the use of US government-issued smart cards that have a signed x.509 certificate identifying the user, CAC/PIV allows users to authenticate to a PowerStore cluster that is STIG-enabled. When a user enters in using PowerStore Manager or PowerStore Command Line Interface (CLI), the PowerStore web server utilises this certificate for authentication and, eventually, for mapping to a PowerStore role for authorisation reasons. According to the user-defined name policy, a user’s identity is extracted from the certificate.
Temporary qualifications
In order to connect and authenticate to the PowerStore system for uses like remote replication, PowerProtect DD, and VMware vCenter integration, end users can now create a temporary ID and secret using the new Temporary Credentials capability. Ten minutes after they are generated, the temporary ID and secret expire. It is strongly advised to take this procedure rather than utilising a username and password.
Performance
Tracking offload performance
Advanced offload commands like copy offload, space reclamation, and zero offload are supported by PowerStore for SCSI and NVMeoF. With this release, new performance measures have been provided to track offload commands. The user is better able to comprehend what is being supplied to the appliance as a result. Read, Write, and Total IOPs are among the metrics that users can compare these new ones against. PowerStore Manager and the REST API now display metric data for Xcopy (copy offload), Unmap (space reclamation), and Write same (zero offload).
In conclusion
Building upon an already extensive feature set, PowerStoreOS 4.1 offers a plethora of new capabilities and system improvements. As you explore this version, remember that updating to the most recent PowerStore code optimizes your return on investment in a number of ways.
