FlashBlade: Purity 3.0 //FB 3.0 is out! - great feature enhancements for Pures File-Object Storage.
[ NOTE: machine translation with the help of DeepL translator without additional proofreading and spell checking ]
Pure Storage released a new operating system for its file object storage - FlashBlade - during its annual Sales Kick-Off (SKO) in San Francisco. Purity //FB 3.0 delivers a large bank of new features - Purity //FB 3.0 is officially GA.
In the course of the Public Release Notes of 12.02.20 it was announced, Purity //FB 2.3.XX is end-of-life, with 2.2.16 remaining as a Long Life Release.
I want to keep this blog short and sweet, but as long as necessary to cover the essential new features. More information can be found in the Pure Storage "Purity//FB 3.0.x Release Notes" in the documentation (www.support.purestorage.com).
The new features are essentially the breakthrough towards replication for FlashBlade. Those who know Pure Storage products know: no new feature availability without countless tests and guaranteed uncompromising stable functionality.
New features in detail
Key Features
File replication
Purity//FB 3.0 now offers filesystem replication for FlashBlade.
FlashBlade file replication enables asynchronous snapshot-based replication of data from a source FlashBlade array to a target FlashBlade array. It enables replication for disaster recovery and provides protection against site and data center outages.
(Instant) Object replication
Purity //FB 3.0 enables replication of objects/buckets.
Two FlashBlade arrays or a FlashBlade and an AWS S3 target can be connected together, enabling asynchronous object replication from a bucket on the array to a bucket on the second array or S3 target. Object replication automatically replicates objects (immediately/instantly) when they are written to the source bucket.
S3 Fast Copy
S3 copy operations within the same FlashBlade bucket now use Fast Copy, so-called "reference-based copies". With Fast Copy, data is no longer physically copied - so the physically required memory requirement also does not necessarily increase - which means that a copy operation is also completed much faster by means of referencing. Fast Copy does not apply to S3 uploads and copy operations or copy operations between different buckets.
File System Rollback
File systems can now be restored from a snapshot to an earlier point in time. When restoring a file system, the data is "rolled back" to a snapshot - the data from the snapshot overwrites the contents of the file system.
FlashBlade Management REST API 1.9
FlashBlade Management REST API 1.9 is the REST version for Purity//FB 3.0.0.
For information about the FlashBlade Management REST API for this version, see the FlashBlade Management Rest API Release Notes. (www.support.purestorage.com).
Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP)
A new process for configuring a FlashBlade system after hardware installation is complete. With ZTP, it no longer requires a direct connection to the serial console to deploy FlashBlade.
ZTP simplifies system deployment by allowing setup to be completed remotely, it automatically obtains an IP address through the management port via DHCP. Using a REST token ("PURESETUP") allows access to the array with a set of shared APIs to perform basic configuration of the array and static management network. After the setup is complete, the "PURESETUP" token becomes invalid and DHCP is terminated.
Kerberos for NFS 4.1.
Purity //FB 3.0 supports the Kerberos network authentication protocol (krb5) for NFSv4.1. clients in addition to auth_sys. With Kerberos, NFSv4.1 clients must be authenticated by a Key Distribution Center (KDC) to receive a session ticket. They must present this session ticket to the FlashBlade array to gain access to the NFSv4.1 file system. Keytab files can be generated by a KDC for a FlashBlade array and then imported and managed by FlashBlade.
SNMP
FlashBlade now supports SNMP versions v2c and v3.
The FlashBlade Management Information Base (MIB/MIB file) describes the variables and can download them from the array to the local machine via the GUI or display them via the CLI or REST API.
Auditing for FlashBlade
As you know it from Purity //FA (for FlashArray), every action on the system is logged and you can track corresponding interventions. With FlashBlade this did not work until now. With Purity //FB 3.0 auditing is now available for create, update and delete operations.
You can now call this history as usual via GUI, CLI and REST API.
Other
When customizing a mail relay/SMTP setting, a port number can now be specified.
By default, newly created snapshots under Purity //FB 3.0 created by policies now include the date and time in the snapshot name.
GUI Enhancements
In addition, a few visual changes were made to the GUI:
Of course, as usual with every software update, system bugs have been fixed and further software optimizations have been made to constantly improve Purity.
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