Dell Storage Automation User Manual

Technical White Paper

Storage Automation with the Dell EMC PowerMax Plug-in for VMware vRealize Orchestrator

Abstract

This document describes how the Dell EMC PowerMax plug-in for VMware vRealize Orchestrator enables automation of storage arrays to accelerate and simplify provisioning operations and business processes.

October 2019

H18024

Revisions

Date	Description

November 2019	Initial release

Acknowledgements

Author: Bryan McFeeters

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

Copyright © 2021 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. [2/23/2021] [Technical White Paper] [H18024]

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Table of contents
Table of contents
Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................		2
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................................................................		2
Table of contents ................................................................................................................................................................		3
Executive summary.............................................................................................................................................................		4
1	Introduction...................................................................................................................................................................	5
2	PowerMax plug-in for vRO ...........................................................................................................................................	6
3	Installing the plug-in and registering PowerMax arrays ...............................................................................................	8
4	Creating datastores for a new ESX cluster ................................................................................................................	10
5	Scheduling snapshots ................................................................................................................................................	12
6	Automatically exporting storage to new hosts in an ESXi cluster ..............................................................................	17
7	Expanding a volume and the datastore on it ..............................................................................................................	19
8	vRealize automation integration .................................................................................................................................	20
9	Conclusion..................................................................................................................................................................	21
A	Technical support and resources ...............................................................................................................................	22

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Executive summary

With so many data center resources and tools available to IT administrators today, combining them with an incredibly fast Dell EMC™ PowerMax storage array and automated workflows from VMware® vRealize® Orchestrator™ (vRO) can be revolutionary. The PowerMax vRO plug-in builds upon the VMware vRealize platform ecosystem and enables automation to accelerate frequent, simple provisioning operations as well as complex, value-added, and multi-stage business processes. VMware vRO integrates with the vRealize and vCloud suites to further improve service delivery efficiency, operational management, and IT process agility.

This document describes the vRO plug-in and use cases that enable organizations to consume storage from the data center while consuming storage from the cloud. It also shows how to maximize investment in a powerful storage array with code-based provisioning at top speed and scale, bridging the path to self-service and beyond.

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Introduction

1 Introduction

Managing and delivering enterprise-class storage as a service can be tedious and repetitive, requiring valuable time, hard-to-find expertise, and multiple distinct tools. Many architects and administrators would rather spend their time innovating, planning, and developing code-based infrastructure to alleviate manual chores that can hinder business progress. To optimize the storage delivery process, the Dell EMC PowerMax vRO plug-in provides basic automation building blocks that can be chained together and integrated with other data center infrastructure and software services, helping eliminate unneeded delays and configuration issues due to manual errors.

Deploying and configuring the plug-in simply requires a VMware vRO server, the PowerMax plug-in (35 MB) from Dell.com/support, and access to the Unisphere™ for PowerMax REST API server. These simple requirements make it easy to get started with a proven orchestration platform.

Once connected to PowerMax arrays, users can begin by creating small workflows that perform atomic operations to accomplish a task. Users can realize the full potential of the plug-in through integration with data and object relationships provided by other vRO plug-ins and other external systems in the environment. Whether built in to vRO or available through the community marketplace online, additional plug-ins can bridge the gap between storage, network, and compute systems to deliver further returns on process automation.

VMware vRO with the PowerMax plug-in provides the code and visual workflow-building capability needed to reduce the learning curve of automation and orchestration. Creating and maintaining workflows, their subactions, and associated code is relatively easy with familiar drag-and-drop and copy/paste interactions. Execution can be tailored to the portal of choice depending on the end user, and can include the vRealize Automation portal, the vRO Java or HTML5 client, or other interfaces through additional plug-ins or REST API calls to the vRO server.

The vRO plug-in offers nearly unlimited options to increase the intelligence within code and tailor automation workflows. This allows organizations to match the exact standards, specifications, and processes needed to keep business-critical data, and the data center configuration that supports it, moving as fast as possible.

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PowerMax plug-in for vRO

2 PowerMax plug-in for vRO

The vRO plug-in is comprised of Java and JavaScript (scriptable actions) code along with defined actions and workflows as part of a standard VMOAPP package.

The base underlying Java code is responsible for translating workflow and action functionality into REST GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE calls to the appropriate Unisphere-for-PowerMax server endpoints. In the background, the 96 workflows and 69 actions provided use the JavaScript-based scriptable tasks within vRO. These call methods through scripting classes and can query the array model for a view of the current inventory configuration.

Three types of workflows (Table 1) make it easy to get started with orchestration and automation. They can be viewed, edited, and executed using the vRO Java desktop or HTML5 GUIs.

Workflow types

Workflow type	Workflow description	Example flowchart

Basic workflows	These manipulate an atomic resource
	and a manage a discrete piece of array
	functionality.
	Examples include Create Volume,
	Modify Port Group, Delete Masking
	View.

Composite	These are made from basic workflows
workflows	and involve multiple steps that could
	work on different types of resources.

Custom workflows These generally have advanced business logic and more complex steps operating across many resource types or at a larger scale than other workflows.

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PowerMax plug-in for vRO

Composite workflows available in the PowerMax Provisioning group integrate with the VMware vCenter vRO plug-in. These are a great example of how data and relationships can be used from multiple plug-ins to achieve more complex functionality. Some workflows performing operations that may remove access to storage also have measures to avoid inadvertent data unavailability, similar to an Are you sure? prompt in the Unisphere for PowerMax UI. These warnings appear when executing workflows through a GUI and can be bypassed if necessary, during programmatic execution such as through the vRO REST API.

Certain workflows also have a retry mechanism that allow administrators to identify issues encountered in the middle of a workflow, resolve them, and then continue to execute the workflow. The alleviates the need to clean up any resources or artifacts created at the beginning of the workflow or the need for complex roll-back code logic.

Overall, the transparency of simple workflows from the plug-in, along with flexibility and power of the combinations, present an easy-to-use platform for custom control of storage provisioning automation.

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