A Protocol Endpoint on the FlashArray can be viewed and connected from either the FlashArray UI or CLI.
Using the FlashArray UI to Manage the Protocol Endpoint
When its first VASA provider is registered, a FlashArray automatically creates a PE called pure-protocol-endpoint. The pure-protocol-endpoint can be filtered in the Volumes view. A PE can be connected from the PE volume view or from a Host/Host Group view in the FlashArray UI.
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From the Storage -> Volumes view Click on the options and select Show Protocol Endpoints
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This view will display the Protocol Endpoints for the FlashArray
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From the PE View the PE can be connected to a Host or Host Group Best Practice is to connect the PE to a Host Group and not Hosts individually.
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From the Connect Host Groups page you can select one or multiple Host Groups to connect the PE to
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Using the FlashArray CLI to Manage the Protocol Endpoint
From the FlashArray CLI a storage admin can manage the Protocol Endpoint. This includes listing/viewing, creating, connecting, disconnecting or destroying a protocol endpoint.
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Protocol endpoints that have been created can be listed with purevol list --protocol-endpoint |
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A protocol endpoint can be created with purevol create --protocol-endpoint |
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To connect a protocol endpoint use either purehgroup connect or purevol connect |
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A protocol endpoint can be disconnected from a host and host group with purevol disconnect. However, if there are any active sub-lun connections this operation will fail as disconnecting the PE would cause a sev-1 and data path failure to that ESXi host. |
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A disconnected Protocol Endpoint can be destroyed with purevol destroy. DO NOT DESTROY THE DEFAULT PURE-PROTOCOL-ENDPOINT! |
A FlashArray’s performance is independent of the number of volumes it hosts; array’s full performance capability can be delivered through a single PE. PEs are not performance bottlenecks for vVols, so a single PE per array is all that is needed.
Configuring a single PE per array does not restrict multi-tenancy. Sub-lun connections are host-specific.
A FlashArray automatically creates a default pure-protocol-endpoint PE when its first VASA provider is registered. If necessary, additional PEs can also be created manually. However, in most cases the default pure-protocol-endpoint is fine to use. There is no additional HA value added by connecting a host to multiple protocol endpoints.
Do not rename, destroy or eradicate the pure-protocol-endpoint PE on the FlashArray. This namespace is required for VASA to be able to storage required metadata for VASA to correctly work with the FlashArray.
BEST PRACTICE: Use one PE per vVol container. All hosts should share the same PE and vVol to host bindings are host-specific, so multi-tenancy is inherently supported.
More than one PE can be configured, but is seldom necessary.
As is typical for the FlashArray architecture, vVol support, and in particular, the PE implementation are as simple as it is possible for them to be.