Flashy Pure opens kimono for VMware's vCenter

Convergence rules. Pure Storage is making its arrays better citizens in the VMware world by better integrating its admin services with vCenter.

Forget Purity, so to speak. VMware vCenter admins can drive Pure Storage replication, snapshots and provisioning though Site Recovery Manager and a Pure plug-in.

Pure Storage’s FlashArray 400 boxes run the Purity Operating Environment and it offers FlashRecover Replication, snapshots and data protection policies to its admins.

Pure has built a Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) to integrate these features with vCenter’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to give VMware admins the ability to:

• Set up automated vCenter cluster-wide data protection and replication policies for the array to execute
• Support replication topologies between dissimilar Pure Storage FlashArrays
• Have differentiated policies for vSphere data stores and datastore clusters
• Automated failover and failback policies set by SRM and instantiated by the Pure array software
• Non-disruptive disaster recovery policy testing

On the flip side of that coin Pure has also improved its vSphere Web Client Plug-in, so VMware administrators get better access to the Pure array’s data protection and provisioning features. This includes:

• Automated provisioning of new datastores to vSphere hosts and clusters
• Automated datastore capacity increases
• Automated optimal settings for storage performance and availability
• Providing FlashRecover snapshot and replication policies to vSphere clusters and data stores
• Monitoring storage performance and capacity

Both these things should make Pure’s FlashStack converged systems template architecture with Cisco and VMware more appealing. Think FlexPod-like ref architecture.

Pure Storage’s SRA is certified VMware-compatible for vSphere SRM versions 5.5, 5.8 and future releases. The Pure Storage SRA and Purity FlashRecover are available now at no additional cost, and customers can download them for free from my.VMware.com or the Pure Storage Community.

The new Pure Storage Web Client Plug-in is compatible with vSphere version 5.1 and higher, as well as future releases. It’s available to customers at no cost and ships in the Purity 4.1.1 release this month (February). ®