The Everpure Plugin for the vSphere Client does not have a native ability to provision an RDM, but this can still be achieved via combination of datastore provisioning in the plugin and native vSphere Client functions. At a high level:
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Add the volume a virtual machine as an RDM.
Right-click on a ESXi cluster object and choose Everpure > Create Datastore. Choose VMFS as the option.
1) Right-click on a cluster
2) Click Everpure, then Create Datastore
3) Choose VMFS
Choose a name, size and confirm the hosts to provision to (you can only choose one cluster upon initial provisioning, but you can add it to additional ones later).
1) Choose a name and size
2) Confirm the host or cluster to provision to
On the storage page, you can choose what FlashArray and optionally what pod to put the new datastore in.
If you do not see the FlashArray listed (and the desired pod) it means that the FlashArray is not yet registered with the plugin or there is no correct host group created on the FlashArray. Verify both configurations and retry.
There are three tabs; Local, Clustered, and Continuous. Local means a volume not in a pod, or a pod that has no ActiveCluster or ActiveDR relationship. Clustered refers to pods that are enabled for ActiveCluster, and Continuous refers to pods that are enabled for ActiveDR. Click Continuous and choose your desired pod.
If you do not see Continuous as an option it means that you are not using vSphere Plugin version 4.4.0 or later. Upgrade and retry.
The table will show the local pod, the remote pod (and their respective FlashArrays), the current replication direction and the current replication lag. There will be a small note if the remote pod is currently in the promoted status--this is informational only and is not a cause for concern.
Click Next. If there are any protection groups in the pod you may also choose to place that new volume in one or more protection groups to provide scheduled snapshot protection.
As of Purity 6.0.0 protection groups in an ActiveDR pod only support local snapshots--they do not also support traditional snapshot replication. But it is important to remember that standard volume snapshots and protection group snapshots do get replicated by ActiveDR to the remote pod anyway--as ActiveDR not only replicates writes but also your snapshots and their configuration.
Click Next. You may optionally also assign a bandwidth or IOPS limit. Click Next again review your choices and then click Finish.
Once provisioned, click on the new VMFS datastore, then the Configure tab, then Device Backing and take note of the device name (NAA). The last 5 numbers or so should be enough to identify it, but record the entire number to be sure.
1) Click on the VMFS datastore
2) Click Configure then Device Backing
3) Take note of the NAA number
Next, right-click on the new VMFS datastore and choose Delete Datastore. Do not click on Everpure > Destroy Datastore as that will remove the entire provisioned volume.
1) Right-click on the datastore
2) Choose Delete Datastore
3) Confirm Deletion
You can now add that volume to a virtual machine as an RDM. Right-click the VM, choose Edit Settings, then add
1) Right-click the target VM
2) Choose Edit Settings
3) Choose Add New Device then RDM Disk
The RDM will appear in this list (verify the NAA number). Choose it and click OK then OK again to confirm the addition of the RDM.