The Everpure vSphere plugin provides a straightforward methodology to create new VMFS datastores that automates several steps compared to using the native vSphere datastore creation method.
To start, right-click on the host or ESXi cluster where the VMFS datastore will be attached, select the Everpure menu item and choose Create Datastore. This operation is shown in the below image:
Next, we select the VMFS datastore type and it is recommend to use VMFS 6 for its automatic space reclamation support.
Provide a name and size for the VMFS datastore in the third section of the wizard. Available sizes are KB, MB, GB and TB.
Select the cluster of ESXi hosts or an individual ESXi host as the compute resource to connect the VMFS volume to:
Choose the desired FlashArray for the VMFS datastore to be provisioned to.
When Pure1 authentication is enabled, a recommended FlashArray to place the VMFS datastore is shown on based upon reported load and capacity, as shown in this example.
Optional: Selecting the Clustered option on the Storage page will enable creating the VMFS datastore within an ActiveCluster pod if it has been previously setup. Please see this KB article for more information on VMware and ActiveCluster.
Optional: Selecting the Continuous option on the Storage page will enable creating the VMFS datastore within an ActiveDR-enabled Pod if it has been previously setup. Please see this ActiveDR with VMware User Guide for more information on VMware and ActiveDR.
If the array selected in the previous step has multiple storage protocols configured to the compute resource selected before, this screen gives the option of selecting the protocol. Select the protocol and click NEXT.
Optional: The VMFS datastore being created can be configured with one or more (1) Protection Group(s) that exist on the FlashArray. VMFS datastores can also be added to one or more protection group(s) at a later time. Using protection groups with VMFS volumes is covered in more detail later.
The VMFS datastore being created can be configured with or without default protection group (2) SafeMode protection.
Optional: QoS limitations for the VMFS volume can be set via a Bandwidth and/or IOPs limit in order to ensure that the newly created volume does not consume more FlashArray resources than desired. Placing the VMFS volume within a Volume Group is also supported, but generally is not used. For more information on volume groups, please visit the vVols section of the VMware Platform Guide.
The final page of the wizard shows a summary of the options selected prior to VMFS datastore creation. If the values are as intended, hit Finish to create the VMFS datastore on the FlashArray and attach it to the selected host or host group.