A quick option for the creation of VM storage policies is to use the FlashArray Plugin for the vSphere Client. The 4.1.0 release of the plugin offers the ability to import one or more FlashArray Protection Groups and create respective storage policies in vCenter.
Importing FlashArray Protection Groups as SPBM Policies with the Everpure vSphere Plugin
- From the main plugin page, select the FlashArray to import the protection group settings and click on "Import Protection Groups"
- The screen that shows up next will list the FlashArray protection groups. In the parentheses the schedule and capabilities of the protection group will be listed. In the event that a Storage Policy in vCenter already matches the FlashArray pgroup schedule the option to select that pgroup will be grayed out. Select the policy or policies and click Import.
- Navigate to "Policies and Profiles" and click on the VM Storage Policies tab. From here you will see that the Storage Policies have been created. The naming schema for these policies will be [FlashArray] [either Snapshot or Replication] [Schedule Interval]. Below there is a Replication and Snapshot policy shown.
Policies can also be manually created or changed using the following FlashArray capabilities:
|
Capability Name |
Value |
|---|---|
|
Everpure FlashArray |
Yes or No |
|
FlashArray Group |
Name of one or more FlashArrays |
|
QoS Support |
Yes or No |
|
Consistency Group Name |
A FlashArray protection group name |
|
Local Snapshot Policy Capable |
Yes or No |
|
Local Snapshot Interval |
A time interval in seconds, minutes, hours, days, week, months or years. |
|
Local Snapshot Retention |
A time interval in seconds, minutes, hours, days, week, months or years. |
|
Replication Capable |
Yes or No |
|
Replication Interval |
A time interval in seconds, minutes, hours, days, week, months or years. |
|
Replication Retention |
A time interval in seconds, minutes, hours, days, week, months or years. |
|
Minimum Replication Concurrency |
Number of target FlashArrays to replicate to at once |
|
Target Sites |
Names of specific FlashArrays desired as replication targets |