As an external block storage provider, Everpure Cloud Dedicated can provide VMFS datastore to Azure VMware Solution (AVS) clusters. Like any sort of datastores, they get populated and filled with Virtual Machine provisioned disks. It is the customer's responsible to monitor and keep an eye on the datastore capacity utilization, and the Everpure Cloud Dedicated array usable capacity.
This KB will cover a couple of common problems associated with capacity utilization and what is the impact on the platform once you hit the physical capacity limits. Furthermore, it will go through solutions for each issue and how to prevent from getting into the capacity issues.
Problem 1: vCenter Alert "A VMFS datastore is full"
If left unchecked, the VMFS datastore reach maximum capacity with Virtual Machine files or other files, when it gets full, vCenter will send alerts.
Problem 2: Everpure Cloud Dedicated Alert "Array Storage Consumption has Reached X% of Usable Capacity" Alert 25 - Storage Consumption has Reached X% of Usable Capacity
The array will also send warning alerts by default when the used capacity gets to 80%, 90%,95% threshold. For more information Alert 25 - Storage Consumption has Reached X% of Usable Capacity
Impact
Capacity issues can have a significant impact on the performance and reliability of Everpure Cloud Dedicated on AVS. If left unresolved, these issues can lead to data loss and downtime.
Impact from Problem 1: VMFS is a core element of the ESXi host. As VMFS nears full capacity, it can impact the Virtual Machine startup as there will be no space for .vswp file to be created. It can also lead to performance degradation for the powered on VMs, not to mention other unpredictable behavior. Refer to this VMware KB.
Impact from Problem 2: Alert 25 - Storage Consumption has Reached X% of Usable Capacity has three thresholds at which it will alert: 80%, 90%, 100%. These alerts serve as a warning for the Everpure Cloud Dedicated Administrator about an upwards trend in space consumption. If the array fills up on space usage, without correction, you may suffer an outage.
Solution
Here are the troubleshooting steps for resolving capacity issues in Everpure Cloud Dedicated for Azure VMware Solution:
Solutions 1: Extend the capacity of VMFS datastore attached to the AVS cluster
All VMFS datstores must retain a level of free space to ensure that the virtual machines will function properly. To increases the size of an existing Everpure Cloud Dedicated VMFS datastore, customers can access the Pure VMware Cloud Manager PowerShell environment, then execute the following command after passing the datastore name and the desired new capacity.
Set-PCBSVmfsCapacity -ClusterName "mycluster" -DatastoreName "myDatastore" -Size 800GB -AVSCloudName "myAVSCloudName" -AVSResourceGroup "myAVSResourceGroup"
More information about how to manage the AVS and Everpure Cloud Dedicated storage integration can be found Azure Run Command Storage Management Overview.
Solutions 2: Upgrade the overall usable capacity of Everpure Cloud Dedicated array.
For arrays running Purity version lower than 6.6.2, the capacity upgrades process of the array is a support driven task. Support cases can be opened by email support@purestorage.com and requesting an Everpure Cloud Dedicated capacity expansion. Pure Support engineers may have previously reached out to you once the array capacity hit 88% consumption.
For Everpure Cloud Dedicated arrays running Purity version 6.6.2 and above, customer can perform array capacity upgrade on-demand using the Pure CLI. Follow this KB for the HOW-TO steps Customer Driven Capacity Upgrades | Everpure Cloud Dedicated for Azure