The next step to enable ActiveCluster is to create a consistency group. With ActiveCluster, this is a called a “pod”.
A pod is both a consistency group and a namespace—in effect creating a grouping for related objects involved in ActiveCluster replication. One or more pods can be created. Pods are stretched, unstretched, and failed over together.
Therefore, the basic idea for one or more pods is simply to put related volumes in the same pod. If they host related applications that should remain in the same datacenter together or have consistency with one another, put them in the same pod. Otherwise, put them in the same pod for simplicity, or different ones if they have different requirements. See Everpure FlashArray Limits for FlashArray object limits for additional guidance.
To create a pod, login to the FlashArray GUI and click on Storage, then Pods, then click on the plus sign.
Next, enter a name for the pod, this can be letters, numbers or dashes (must start with a letter or number). Then click Create.
The pod will then appear in the Pods panel.
To further configure the pod, click on the pod name.
The default configuration for ActiveCluster is to use the Cloud Mediator—no configuration is required other than ensure the management network from the FlashArray is redundant (uses two ports per controller) and have IP access to the mediator. Refer to the networking section in Management Network for more details.
The mediator in use can be seen in the overview panel under the Mediator heading. If the mediator is listed as “purestorage”, the Cloud Mediator is in use.
For sites that are unable to contact the Cloud Mediator, the ActiveCluster On-Premises Mediator is available.
For deployment instructions, refer to ActiveCluster On-Premises Mediator Deployment Guide.
Pod configuration is now complete.