Pure Storage — Quick Guide¶
Summary¶
Reference designs for mixed workloads using Pure Storage arrays, plus quick integration notes for Kubernetes and virtualization.
Architecture at a glance¶
- FlashArray//X or //XL: NVMe performance tier for databases, VMs, and latency-sensitive apps.
- FlashArray//C: capacity/QLC tier for colder data or replicas; cost/TB similar to hybrid.
- FlashBlade/Object: S3/NFS repository for backups, logs, and analytics.
- ActiveCluster / ActiveDR: synchronous/asynchronous protection between sites.
Hybrid layout (SSD + capacity/QLC) for mixed workloads¶
1) Hot tier (SSD/NVMe): volumes on FlashArray//X with thin provisioning, data reduction on, optional QoS.
2) Capacity tier (QLC or external HDD target): scheduled snapshots/replicas to FlashArray//C or a low-cost NFS/S3 target.
3) Policies: protection groups with hourly snapshots + daily replicas; adjust retention by workload tier.
4) VMware/Proxmox: use iSCSI with multipath or NFSv3/v4.1; enable VMware VAAI / vSphere Plugin for clone/offload.
Quick best practices¶
- Kubernetes: use the official CSI;
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer;allowVolumeExpansion: truefor online growth. - Volume classes: tag volumes by performance (
gold/silver/bronze) with QoS and map them to StorageClasses. - Reclaiming: frequent snapshots/clones (
purevol copy) for dev/test;reclaimPolicy: Deletein dev,Retainin prod. - Observability: Purity exporter for Prometheus to track latency, IOPS, and data reduction.
Minimal CLI provisioning example¶
purevol create db-prod 2T --thin
purevol setattr --qos 20000 --latency 1ms db-prod
purevol connect --host esx01 db-prod