With vSphere plugin versions 5.5.0 and later, the ability to manage Fusion fleets has been introduced. While the vSphere plugin has greatly simplified the management of fleets, the prerequisites for Fusion are still required and will need to be configured before use.
Adding One or More FlashArrays through Pure1
For environments with many FlashArrays, or environments where the addresses of all FlashArrays may not be known, an administrator can leverage the Pure1 Connection to register a fleet of FlashArrays at once.
For plugin versions 5.5.0 and later, select the (1) Fleets section and click (2) ADD ARRAY OR FLEET.
For plugin versions before 5.5.0, go to the Everpure Plugin home screen and click Add:
Click on the Import Arrays from Pure1 tab. The plugin will reach out to Pure1 and retrieve all FlashArray and Cloud Block Store arrays registered in the target Pure1 organization. The plugin will then:
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Pull all of the FlashArray or Cloud Block Storage VIR0 (virtual IP 0) addresses and the array names from the Pure1 REST API
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Attempt a DNS lookup for the FQDN. If there is no address found the IP will be used for the URL, if one is found it will use the FQDN
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Test network connectivity to the discovered FQDNs or IPs. If an array is not available on the network, it will not be filtered out; instead, it will be marked as offline
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Filter arrays out that are already authenticated in the plugin
There is then the option to individually add credentials for each array or if they all share the same credentials, select the Use the same credentials for all arrays box. If that is selected, only the credentials for the first array need to be entered.
If an array is marked with the following icon:
It means the array address is not reachable from vCenter.
Once the credentials have been added, select the arrays that are being authenticated.
Note that if the top "select all" box is selected in the upper left of the table:
It will only select all of the arrays on that particular page. Click the next arrow and repeat to authenticate all discovered arrays. This ensures that the user confirms and verifies all selected arrays before completion:
When all of the desired arrays have been selected, click Add in the lower right hand corner:
The plugin will attempt to authenticate all arrays and will report all of the arrays that succeeded and any that failed:
If there are arrays with errors, hover over the information tooltip for more information:
Click Done with finished.
Adding a FlashArray Manually
For plugin versions 5.5.0 and later, select the (1) Fleets section and click (2) ADD ARRAY OR FLEET.
For plugin versions before 5.5.0, login to the vSphere Client and click on the Menu drop-down and choose Everpure:
Click on the +Add button shown under the Everpure icon:
Choose Add a Single Array:
Enter in:
- Array name. This does not have to be the actual FlashArray's domain name, but it is recommended. This name is not verified--but should be descriptive either way
- Array URL. In the form of an IP address or fully-qualified domain name representing a FlashArray virtual address. FQDN is always preferred
- Username. A username of either a local user or a directory attached user
- Password. The corresponding password of selected user
The virtual address can be verified from the array on Settings > Network > Subnets & Interfaces:
FQDN can be verified with nslookup or similar tools.
Editing a FlashArray Connection
For plugin versions 5.5.0 and later, select the (1) Fleets section and click (2) ADD ARRAY OR FLEET.
For plugin versions before 5.5.0, select the connection and click Edit:
From here, the alias, the URL, the username, and/or the password can be altered. Enter the change(s) and click Submit. To make any change, the username and password need to be entered- this can be the existing credentials or new ones:
In the above case the array name (alias) was changed, and the existing credentials were re-used:
Remove Credentials to Fleet
An administrator might want to remove credentials from the vSphere plugin’s Fusion workflows for a fleet to prevent management activities on the fleet from being performed from that vSphere account.
From the Fleet view, left click the (1) ellipses and select (2) Remove Credentials.
Review the dialogue and (1) REMOVE the Fusion admin credentials.
Remove Fleet
To remove an entire Fusion fleet, in the Fleet view of the vSphere plugin, click the (1) ellipses then select (2) Remove Fleet.
Confirm the name of the fleet to be removed and click (1) REMOVE.
Join Fleet
To join a FlashArray to an existing Fusion fleet, the array Join Fleet workflow can be used.
Click the (1) ellipses and click (2) Join Fleet.
Select the fleet (1) Name from the dropdown then click (2) SUBMIT.
Create Fleet
To create a Fusion fleet by starting with a FlashArray, the Create Fleet workflow in the vSphere plugin’s home screen can be followed.
Left click the (1) ellipses on a single array not in a Fusion fleet and select (2) Create Fleet.
Populate a fleet (1) Name and click (2) CREATE.
Authorize Array
Authorizing an array might be required when the array was imported from Pure1 without credentials the vSphere plugin was able to import.
From the vSphere plugin home screen, select the (1) Fleets view, select the (2) ellipses and click (3) Authorize Array.
The (1) array name will likely be pre-populated but can be modified. Enter the (2) array URLin the format https://ArrayFQDN (shown) or https://ArrayManagementIPAddress. Populate the pertinent (3) Username and (4) Password then click (5) SUBMIT.