FlashBlade: Purity //FB 3.2 Overview
[ NOTE: machine translation with the help of DeepL translator without additional proofreading and spell checking ]
A few weeks ago, in addition to the new FlashArray release (6.1), a new version of the Purity operating system (OE = Operating Environment) for FlashBlade was introduced - Purity //FB 3.2. There are also some innovations here, which I briefly introduce in this article. With the release of 3.2 above all substantial core functionalities of the so-called "UFFO" (Unified Fast File and Object) were further developed. A continuous development of the Purity operating systems can also be seen in FlashBlade.
Compared to the usual NFS & S3 performance, a rather "poor" SMB stack was implemented in FlashBlade until now. Therefore SMB was a rather unseen use case in previous FlashBlade versions. This was due to the software architecture in which the SMB protocol was operated "on-top of" NFS. After re-engineering and a complete redesign of the SMB stack within Purity OE, there is now a breakthrough in SMB performance. The primary use cases addressed by Purity //FB 3.2 for the time being are high-performance SMB performance for SQL backups and healthcare/PACS. High-performance is not an exaggeration at this point!
Familiar FlashBlade functionalities are already given with release in the new SMB stack - the main features:
SMB 2.1 for small/large files
NFTS folder ACLs
Active Directory Kerberos login
File-Locking
File System Quotas
File System Snapshots
File System SafeMode
Asynchronous File Replication
File System Rollbacks
SMB Symbolic linking "Symlinks
Further new Features
A compact overview is provided by the chart of the official press release from February 16.
Sparse File Support
With the support of sparse files it is now possible to get exact information about the used space of individual files. In short, in the comparison between occupied physical and logical blocks. This provides improved efficiency especially for applications like VMware (with thin provisioning) and CommVault (with deduplication).
Object Storage Enhancements
It is possible to set up access control for individual object users via policies. You can now assign individual access policies for your object store or buckets and determine which rights each user has for their buckets (objects).
Examples of rights of individual policies:
bucket-list
bucket-info
bucket-configure
bucket-create
bucket-delete
object-list
object-read
object-write
object-delete
version-delete
full-access
safemode-configure
Granular Real-Time Insights
Flashblade displays real-time data (IOPS and bandwidth) for individual file system users. This information can be accessed via the REST and CLI. The file system protocols NFSv3, NFSv4.1 are supported, directory services are used to convert the numeric user IDs into respective user/group names. A single file system can be used by multiple users, which usually does not allow granular monitoring. Thanks to Insights, FlashBlade administrators are able to perform performance monitoring of FlashBlade "power users".
Innovations in the system settings
The system settings menu has also been completely revised. For security reasons, an alarm has also been integrated, as with Purity //FA 6.1 and from 5.3.7, which is activated if the default credentials are retained.
Integrations - REST
Finally, there were new features for various automation integrations. An Ansible playbook is available for FlashBlade, which performs FlashBlade management for activities such as configuring file systems, buckets, replication, host mount operations.
It is now also possible to use OAuth 2.0 as an authentication method via the Python SDK and REST API 2.x.
More info - Links
All officially published setting options in the GUI but also CLI can be read via the "on-board" user guides of the Pure Storage systems.
Click on "Help" in the Purity main menu.
The User Guide is structured like the main menu and can be opened downwards. A search function is also integrated - within here you can also search for keywords.
WEB: Pure Storage (Pure1) support portal - Ticket system and support *(requires registered FlashSystems)
PHONE: Pure Storage phone support: GER - (+49) (0)800 7239467; INTERNATIONAL - (+1) 650 7294088
WEB: Pure Storage OFFICIAL blog