Author: Danilo

A friend of mine asked me to help solve an issue related to an entire vSAN cluster going down after changing MTU values. Because this subject can sometimes seem complex and confusing, I created this simple post to explain it. So, let’s explore some MTU, VDS and VMKernel details. What is the issue? Let’s explain it. The vSAN cluster is a standard cluster with four ESXi nodes. The vCenter Server is embedded in this cluster, and the customer has several production VMs running. The top-of-rack switches are Cisco-based, and the configured MTU is 9000 bytes. It means that all node…

Creating an SMB File Server with PowerFlex shows how to create a File Server using the PowerFlex solution. First and foremost, our PowerFlex solution is a lab environment made of nested virtual machines (VMs). We are running the 4.5.2 version! PowerFlex can work as a file-based storage system, providing SMB and NFS shares to network clients. Before starting and creating our shares, we must deploy a Resource Group. The Resource Group will create a cluster from a pre-configured Template. This cluster will serve volumes through NAS protocols such as SMB and NFS. The following picture shows that our Resource Group…

PowerFlex SCLI Basics show some useful commands for managing a PowerFlex cluster by command line. PowerFlex CLI (SCLI) is installed as part of the MDM component. It can be found in the following operational systems: Before using most SCLI commands, you must log in using the following command (for the 4.5.2 version, for example): As we can see in the following picture, the “scli –login“ command has worked; however, since this MDM node is not the “Primary MDM node,” all subsequent commands fail: As showed you before, our Primary MDM is the “SDS03”. To switch the Primary MDM ownership to…

Working with Fault Sets on PowerFlex shows what Fault Sets are and how they can be used.This is a simple example of how we can work with Fault Sets. All tests were performed in a lab environment using virtual machines (nested lab). The PowerFlex version is 4.5.2. First and foremost, what is Dell PowerFlex? Dell PowerFlex is a software-defined storage platform that combines storage and compute resources into a single system. It offers high performance, scalability, and flexibility for modern data center needs. PowerFlex supports block storage in two-layer (compute and storage separate) or single-layer (hyper-converged) deployments (we can also mix both types of implementation). It is ideal for applications like…

Replacing a Failed Disk on an SDS node shows all the necessary steps to replace a faulty disk on an SDS node part of a PowerFlex cluster. Replacing failed disk devices is a common task for any storage administrator. Because of that, it is fundamental to understand what steps are necessary to replace a failed disk correctly. In this case, for instance, we are running a PowerFlex Cluster in a lab environment (PowerFlex Software-Only), and we will show how to replace a failed disk on an SDS node. Our lab was made based on Linux (SLES 15 SP4). A rebuild…

Performing a Clean Shut Down and Power On of a PowerFlex Cluster shows how to shut down and power on the PowerFlex cluster. So, a “clean” shutdown and power-on means to perform these activities safely, preserving the data stored in the SDS devices. We used the following public Dell KB as a base for our post: Important: Our PowerFlex cluster has the 4.5.2 version! 1- Check the clients/SDC activity. Access the MDM primary node by SSH and apply the following command. With that, we can see all connected SDCs and if they are performing any IOPS: As we can see…