SRM User Guide: Configuring and Using Preferred Protection Groups

Connect to Source and Target FlashArray with PowerShell

You will need to be using the PowerShell SDK2 in order to get the correct information and to set the tag. Please ensure that the Everpure PowerShell SDK2 is installed prior to running through this guide.

The first step is connecting with both the source and target arrays. Here is an example of setting variables for the source and target FlashArray connections

$SourceFlasharray = Connect-Pfa2Array -Endpoint 'source-fa-ip' -Credential (Get-Credential) -IgnoreCertificateError

$TargetFlasharray = Connect-Pfa2Array -Endpoint 'target-fa-ip' -Credential (Get-Credential) -IgnoreCertificateError

Getting the FlashArray UUID with PowerShell

Next go ahead and get the UUID for the source and target arrays. Make note of the target array UUID in particular as it will be required for tagging the protected volumes.

(Get-Pfa2Array -Array $SourceFlasharray).Id

(Get-Pfa2Array -Array $TargetFlasharray).Id
            

Getting the FlashArray Protection Group UUID with PowerShell

From the target array you will need to get the array target protection group's UUID. The protection group name will be in the format of "source-array-name:pgroup-name". If the array name is not in front of a ":" then you are not looking at a target protection group.

(Get-Pfa2ProtectionGroup -Array $TargetFlasharray -Name 'source-fa:srm-pg-01').Id

Setting the Preferred Protection Group Volume Tag with PowerShell

The standard format for setting the preferred protection group volume tag will as follows:

The tags need to be copyable so the snapshots and volumes copied out from the snapshots retain this tag. The namespace needs to be the puresra namespace. The key and value are fairly straight forward. While this can be done from the purecli, since you are already going to be in PowerShell and connected with the array, may as well tag the volume here.

Set-Pfa2VolumeTagBatch -Array $SourceFlasharray -ResourceNames "sourceVolume-name" -TagKey 'preferred-pgroup-1b3b6626-dd3a-44c8-xxxx-a4434365dad9' -TagValue 'a492f65b-4b62-d5c5-xxxx-941b5ecce9a5' -TagNamespace 'puresra'  -TagCopyable $true

While this example is only showing the tag being set on one volume, in practice there will likely be more than one volume needing to have this set.

Best practice here should be to ensure that all volumes that are protected in the SRM protection group be part of the same preferred pgroup. You do not want to have volumes in the same SRM protection group having different preferred pgroups.

PowerShell Example of all the Steps Together

Here is an example of running through all of the steps

## Connecting to the Arrays ##
$SourceFlasharray = Connect-Pfa2Array -Endpoint 'source-fa-ip' -Credential (Get-Credential) -IgnoreCertificateError

$TargetFlasharray = Connect-Pfa2Array -Endpoint 'target-fa-ip' -Credential (Get-Credential) -IgnoreCertificateError

$SourceFlasharray

ArrayName    ApiVersion
---------    ----------
source-fa-ip 2.34

$TargetFlasharray

ArrayName     ApiVersion
---------     ----------
target-fa-ip 2.34

## Getting Array UUID ##
$SourceArrayId = (Get-Pfa2Array -Array $SourceFlasharray).Id

$SourceArrayId
36c08e57-2d34-4e36-xxxx-42a4bcf520bd

$TargetArrayId = (Get-Pfa2Array -Array $TargetFlasharray).Id

$TargetArrayId
1b3b6626-dd3a-44c8-xxxx-a4434365dad9

## Getting Target Protection Group UUID ##
$TargetPgId = (Get-Pfa2ProtectionGroup -Array $TargetFlasharray -Name 'source-fa:srm-pg-01').Id

$TargetPgId
a492f65b-4b62-d5c5-xxxx-941b5ecce9a5

## Setting Preferred Protection Group Tag on the Protected Volume ##
## First set a variable for the source volume or volumes ##
$sourceVolume = Get-Pfa2Volume -Array $SourceFlasharray -Name 'prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'

##Then set the tag ##
Set-Pfa2VolumeTagBatch -Array $SourceFlasharray -ResourceNames $sourceVolume.Name -TagKey "preferred-pgroup-$($TargetArrayId)" -TagValue $TargetPgId -TagNamespace 'puresra'  -TagCopyable $true

Copyable  : True
Key       : preferred-pgroup-1b3b6626-dd3a-44c8-xxxx-a4434365dad9
Namespace : puresra
Resource  : @{Id='e06f8100-792a-f3ab-xxxx-c4558a8bddc5'; Name='prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'}
Value     : a492f65b-4b62-d5c5-xxxx-941b5ecce9a5

There are going to be several ways that this can be done in a more automated fashion, but the purpose of this guide is to show the standard process.

In the event that I do run a failover and re-protect, then here is an example of setting the tag for the reversed relationship.

## Getting the new Target Volume ##
$targetVolume = Get-Pfa2Volume -Array $TargetFlasharray -Name 'prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'

## Getting the new Target Pgroup UUID on the old source array ##
$SourcePgId = (Get-Pfa2ProtectionGroup -Array $SourceFlasharray -Name 'target-fa:srm-pg-01').Id

$SourcePgId
d5a43459-e730-9fe6-xxxx-d1d8ad023e06

## Setting the Tag ##
Set-Pfa2VolumeTagBatch -Array $TargetFlasharray -ResourceNames $targetVolume.Name -TagKey "preferred-pgroup-$($SourceArrayId)" -TagValue $SourcePgId -TagNamespace 'puresra'  -TagCopyable $true

Copyable  : True
Key       : preferred-pgroup-36c08e57-2d34-4e36-aab4-42a4bcf520bd
Namespace : puresra
Resource  : @{Id='97bd6fe2-7e07-d541-1801-ed1953305878'; Name='sn1-xl130-c12-17-prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'}
Value     : d5a43459-e730-9fe6-f3d3-d1d8ad023e06

## I can then check on the tagging to confirm that we are fully re-protected and using preferred pgroups ##
Get-Pfa2VolumeTag -Array $TargetFlasharray -Namespaces 'puresra'

Copyable  : True
Key       : preferred-pgroup-1b3b6626-dd3a-44c8-xxxx-a4434365dad9
Namespace : puresra
Resource  : @{Id='97bd6fe2-7e07-d541-xxxx-ed1953305878'; Name='prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'}
Value     : a492f65b-4b62-d5c5-xxxx-941b5ecce9a5

Copyable  : True
Key       : preferred-pgroup-36c08e57-2d34-4e36-xxxx-42a4bcf520bd
Namespace : puresra
Resource  : @{Id='97bd6fe2-7e07-d541-xxxx-ed1953305878'; Name='prod-vcsa-vmfs-ds-01'}
Value     : d5a43459-e730-9fe6-xxxx-d1d8ad023e06