Dell PowerFlex

Application Version and Upgrade Details

Introduction

Manager

PowerFlex Manager provides IT operations management for Dell EMC PowerFlex rack and Dell EMC PowerFlex appliance. Efficiency increases by reducing time-consuming manual tasks that are required to manage system operations. You can use PowerFlex Manager to deploy and manage both new and existing environments.

PowerFlex Manager is distributed as a virtual appliance that runs a collection of interacting web applications that communicate through the REST interfaces. The PowerFlex Manager UI resides on the virtual appliance and provides full browser-based GUI access to interact with the PowerFlex Manager through the REST interfaces described in this guide.

Note: If you have a licensed version of PowerFlex Manager, this can be integrated with any custom UI or accessed through programs to enhance your automation experience.

Gateway

The REST API is served from the PowerFlex Gateway (which includes the REST gateway). The PowerFlex Gateway can be installed on any operating system that supports PowerFlex for its core components (MDM/SDS/SDC/LIA/XCACHE). PowerFlex Gateway connects to a single MDM and serves requests by querying the MDM and reformatting the answers it receives from the MDM in a RESTful manner, back to a REST client. PowerFlex Gateway requires the MDM username and password for the login request. In response, the login returns a token, which is used for the subsequent authentications for other requests. The PowerFlex REST API supports PowerFlex SCLI commands. The responses returned by the PowerFlex Gateway are in JSON format.

The API is available as part of the PowerFlex Gateway package. If you use the PowerFlex Installer to install PowerFlex, the PowerFlex Gateway is already installed and configured with the MDM details.

Prerequisites

• OpsRamp Classic Gateway 14.0.0 and above.
• OpsRamp Nextgen Gateway 14.0.0 and above.
  Note: OpsRamp recommends using the latest Gateway version for full coverage of recent bug fixes, enhancements, etc..
• Permission required: Monitor.

Hierarchy of Dell PowerFlex resources

Dell PowerFlex Manager
       • Dell PowerFlex Manager Server
       • Dell PowerFlex Manager Switch
       • Dell PowerFlex Manager VCenter
       • Dell PowerFlex Gateway
                • Dell PowerFlex MDM Cluster
                • Dell PowerFlex SDC
                • Dell PowerFlex Protection Domain
                         • Dell PowerFlex SDS
                                  • Dell PowerFlex Device
                         • Dell PowerFlex Fault Set
                         • Dell PowerFlex Storage Pool
                                  • Dell PowerFlex Volume
                                  • Dell PowerFlex VTree

Supported Metrics

Default Monitoring Configurations

Dell PowerFlex has default Global Device Management Policies, Global Templates, Global Monitors and Global metrics in OpsRamp. You can customize these default monitoring configurations as per your business use cases by cloning respective global templates and global Device Management Policies. OpsRamp recommends doing this activity before installing the application to avoid noise alerts and data.

1. Default Global Device Management Policies

   OpsRamp has a Global Device Management Policy for each Native Type of Dell PowerFlex. You can find those Device Management Policies at Setup > Resources > Device Management Policies, search with suggested names in global scope. Each Device Management Policy follows below naming convention:

   {appName nativeType - version}

   Ex: dell-powerflex Dell PowerFlex Gateway - 1 (i.e, appName = dell-powerflex, nativeType = Dell PowerFlex Gateway, version = 1)

2. Default Global Templates

   OpsRamp has a Global template for each Native Type of Dell PowerFlex. You can find those templates at Setup > Monitoring > Templates, search with suggested names in global scope. Each template follows below naming convention:

   {appName nativeType 'Template' - version}

   Ex: dell-powerflex Dell PowerFlex Gateway Template - 1 (i.e, appName = dell-powerflex, nativeType = Dell PowerFlex Gateway, version = 1)

3. Default Global Monitors

   OpsRamp has a Global Monitors for each Native Type which has monitoring support. You can find those monitors at Setup > Monitoring > Monitors, search with suggested names in global scope. Each Monitors follows below naming convention:

   {monitorKey appName nativeType - version}

   Ex: Dell PowerFlex Gateway Monitor dell-powerflex Dell PowerFlex Gateway 1 (i.e, monitorKey = Dell PowerFlex Gateway Monitor Monitor, appName = dell-powerflex, nativeType = Dell PowerFlex Gateway, version = 1)

Configure and Install the Dell PowerFlex Integration

1. From All Clients, select a client.
2. Navigate to Setup > Account.
3. Select the Integrations and Apps tab.
4. The Installed Integrations page, where all the installed applications are displayed. If there are no installed applications, it will navigate to the Available Integrations and Apps page.
5. Click + ADD on the Installed Integrations page. The Available Integrations and Apps page displays all the available applications along with the newly created application with the version.
6. Search for the application using the search option available. Alternatively, use the All Categories option to search.

7. Click ADD on the Dell PowerFlex tile and select the version.
   Note: We recommend to select latest version for full coverage of recent bug fixes, enhancements, etc.
8. From the Configurations page, click + ADD.
9. Enter the below mentioned BASIC INFORMATION:

Notes:

• By default the Is Secure checkbox is selected.
• Dell PowerFlex Manager IP Address and Port should be accessible from Gateway.
• Select the following:
  • App Failure Notifications: if enabled,
    • an alert will be sent to the registered gateway resource, however, either Dell PowerFlex Gateway IP Address Credentials or Dell PowerFlex Manager IP Address Credentials should be provided.
    • an alert is raised for connectivity, authentication exception
      • Discovery - alert will be on a gateway resource that is registered with the application.
      • Monitoring - alert will be on a particular Powerflex resource.
  • Alert Polling: enables integrating third party alerts into OpsRamp using further configurations.
  • Alert On Root Resource: polling alerts generated by on root resource.
• Below are the default values set for:
  • Alert Severity Filter: provides severity alerts that get integrated out of all possible alerts.
    • Default Values: [“CRITICAL”,“MAJOR”,“MINOR”,“INFORMATION”,“ALERT_HIGH”,“ALERT_MEDIUM”,“ALERT_LOW”]
    • Possible Values: [“CRITICAL”,“MAJOR”,“MINOR”,“INFORMATION”,“ALERT_HIGH”,“ALERT_MEDIUM”,“ALERT_LOW”]
  • Alert Severity Mapping: enables you to map the severities between Dell PowerFlex and OpsRamp as severities are predefined values in each system. Possible values of Alert Severity Mapping Filter configuration property are {“CRITICAL”:“Critical”,“MAJOR”:“Warning”,
    “MINOR”:“Warning”,“INFORMATION”:“Info”,
    “ALERT_HIGH”:“Critical”,“ALERT_MEDIUM”:“Warning”,“ALERT_LOW”:“Warning”}
    Note: You can change it as per your business use cases at any point in time from the Configuration page.

10. Select the below mentioned Custom Attribute:

Note: The custom attribute that you add here will be assigned to all the resources that are created by the integration. You can add a maximum of five custom attributes (key and value pair).

11. In the RESOURCE TYPE section, select:
    • ALL: All the existing and future resources will be discovered.
    • SELECT: You can select one or multiple resources to be discovered.
12. In the DISCOVERY SCHEDULE section, select Recurrence Pattern to add one of the following patterns:
    • Minutes
    • Hourly
    • Daily
    • Weekly
    • Monthly
13. Click ADD.

Now the configuration is saved and displayed on the configurations page after you save it.
Note: From the same page, you may Edit and Remove the created configuration.

14. Under the ADVANCED SETTINGS, Select the Bypass Resource Reconciliation option, if you wish to bypass resource reconciliation when encountering the same resources discovered by multiple applications.

    Note: If two different applications provide identical discovery attributes, two separate resources will be generated with those respective attributes from the individual discoveries.

15. Click NEXT.

16. (Optional) Click +ADD to create a new collector by providing a name or use the pre-populated name.

17. Select an existing registered profile.

18. Click FINISH.

The application is installed and displayed on the INSTALLED INTEGRATION page. Use the search field to find the installed integration.

Modify the Configuration

• See Modify an Installed Integration or Application article.

  Note: Select the Dell PowerFlex application.

View the Dell PowerFlex details

To discover resources for Dell PowerFlex

1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Search > Storage > Dell PowerFlex.
2. The Dell PowerFlex page is displayed, select the application name.
3. The RESOURCE DETAILS page appears from the right.
4. Click the ellipsis (…) on the top right and select View details.
5. Navigate to the Attributes tab to view the discovery details.

• Click the Metrics tab to view the metric details for Dell PowerFlex.

Resource Filter Input Keys

Dell PowerFlex application resources are filtered and discovered based on below keys:

Supported Alert Custom Macros

Customize the alert subject and description with below macros then it will generate alert based on customisation.
Supported macros keys:

Risks, Limitations & Assumptions

• Application can handle Critical/Recovery failure notifications for below two cases when user enables App Failure Notifications in configuration:
  • Connectivity Exception
  • Authentication Exception
• If App Failure Notifications are enabled, an alert will be sent, however, either Dell PowerFlex Gateway IP Address configurations or Dell PowerFlex Manager IP Address configurations should be provided.
• Application will send any duplicate/repeat failure alert notification for every 6 hours.
• Application cannot control monitoring pause/resume actions based on above alerts Metrics can be used to monitor Dell PowerFlex resources and can generate alerts based on the threshold values.
• Dell PowerFlex Event/Alert polling will start only if the user enables Alert Polling in configuration. Possible values of Alert Severity Filter configuration property are CRITICAL”,“MAJOR”,“MINOR”,“INFORMATION”,“ALERT_HIGH”,“ALERT_MEDIUM”,“ALERT_LOW”.
• OpsRamp has given sample mappings to map Dell PowerFlex Severity with OpsRamp Severities as part of Alert Severity Mapping configuration file. Users can modify them as per their use-case at any point of time from the application configuration page. Possible OpsRamp Severities are Critical, Warning, Ok, Info.
• In Dell Powerflex, few resource names are null. For them, we are mapping id as resource name.
• Support for Macro replacement for threshold breach alerts (i.e, customisation for threshold breach alert’s subject, description).
• No support of showing activity logs.
• The Template Applied Time will only be displayed if the collector profile (Classic and NextGen Gateway) is version 18.1.0 or higher.
• This application supports both Classic Gateway and NextGen Gateway
• Latest snapshot metric is available from Gateway version 14.0.0.

Reference

https://developer.dell.com/apis/4008/versions/4.5.2/docs/Introduction/Introduction_powerAPI.md