Everpure Cloud Dedicated is designed to maximize the efficiency of cloud-based storage by utilizing features provided by the Purity operating environment - specifically data reduction, thin provisioning, and elastic scalability. These capabilities allow organizations to align cloud storage usage closely with workload demands, helping to reduce waste and control costs.
To realize the full benefit of these features, it is critical to properly size Everpure Cloud Dedicated arrays based on workload-specific performance and capacity requirements. In Microsoft Azure, Everpure Cloud Dedicated supports non-disruptive scaling operations, enabling both capacity increases and upgrades to higher-performance controller VM SKUs. This flexibility allows for incremental scaling of performance and storage as application demands evolve.
However, native support for downgrading to a smaller capacity point or to a less powerful controller VM is not available in Everpure Cloud Dedicated for Azure. In certain scenarios, such as workload decommissioning, cost optimization, or resource consolidation, the ability to reduce allocated resources may be required in order to fully align the Everpure Cloud Dedicated configuration with updated business needs.
In all downgrade scenarios, deployment of a new Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance and data migration is required. The new instance must be configured to match the new desired performance and/or capacity specifications. This document outlines the process for performing downgrades of Everpure Cloud Dedicated arrays with both Azure VMs and Azure VMware Solution (AVS) deployments.
Downgrade Everpure Cloud Dedicated for Azure VMs
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As a first downgrade step, a right-sized Everpure Cloud Dedicated array is deployed. All deployment prerequisites must be satisfied, as with the original Everpure Cloud Dedicated deployment - these can be reviewed here.
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For deployment using the Azure Portal, please refer to the following documentation here. Alternatively, Bicep, Teraform or Azure CLI are available as methods for deployment.
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With the new array deployed, hosts can be configured and connected, as described in the Everpure Cloud Dedicated Management documentation here.
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Data can then be moved from the old array to the new array. Pure native replication methods can be used (e.g. asynchronous replication) to move the data.
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At that point, hosts should be fully served by the new array.
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To decommission the old/original array, follow the documentation here. Doing so will ensure that the Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance removal is reflected accurately and accounted for in the Pure-as-a-Service subscription on Pure1.
Downgrade Everpure Cloud Dedicated for Azure VMware Solution
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Similarly to the Azure VM use-case, the downgrade starts by deploying a new, right-sized Everpure Cloud Dedicated array. As a first step, all prerequisites must be satisfied, as with the original Everpure Cloud Dedicated deployment. The prerequisites can be reviewed here.
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For deployment from Azure Portal, please refer to the following documentation here. Alternatively, Bicep, Teraform or Azure CLI are available as methods for deployment.
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As the new Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance will most likely be used with the same AVS SDDC, it is important that it be deployed within the same Availability Zone, as highlighted in the documentation article here.
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As the next step, the connection between the newly deployed Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance and the AVS SDDC must be established. This process is documented here.
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Once the new array is accessible from the SDDC, Storage vMotion can be used to migrate disk files from the original array to the newly deployed one.
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At this point, AVS SDDC should be fully served by the new array.
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To decommission the old/original array, follow the documentation here. The proper steps will ensure that the Everpure Cloud Dedicated instance removal is reflected accurately and accounted for in the Pure-as-a-Service subscription on Pure1.