Pure Storage Deepens VMware Integration With Storage Replication Adapter

Pure Storage, Inc. announced the availability of Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and an enhanced vSphere Web Client plug-in.

Used in conjunction with FlashArray 400 Series arrays, the solutions deliver a storage and virtualization management experience, DR protection, and scalable availability for VMware environments. Offering tighter integration with Purity Operating environment, the expanded plug-in enables VMware administrators to perform storage provisioning within the vSphere management interface and deliver agile storage services that are optimized for VM availability and performance. The SRA offers native integration between Purity FlashRecover replication, snapshots and protection policies and VMware vCenter SRM, extending Purity’s local data protection capabilities to deliver global protection of VMs and vSphere clusters.

Storage Replication Adapter for VMware vCenter SRM
The SRA provides native array replication and protection policies to support vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM). This integration simplifies DR by automating data protection and failover/failback processes. SRM policies can be tested and validated without disrupting production applications or array replication, thus ensuring operations and providing a simple means to meet compliance requirements.

SRA for VMware SRM enables customers to perform folllowing functions:

Provide an automated default data protection and replication policy to an entire vSphere cluster;
Provide differentiated data protection and replication policies to vSphere datastores and datastore clusters;
Provide centralized data protection plans with centralized reporting;
Support replication topologies between dissimilar FlashArrays;
Automate the failover and failback of pre-defined SRM disaster recover policies;
Test and validate disaster recover policies without disruption to production systems or array replication.

SRA for vSphere SRM is certified Vmware compatible for vSphere SRM versions 5.5, 5.8 and future releases. Both the SRA and Purity FlashRecover are available at no additional cost. Customers can download them for free or from the Pure Storage Community.

Enhanced Plug-in for vSphere Web Client
Pure Storage has enhanced their vSphere Web Client Plug-in to provide operational agility for VMware users and increased application performance and availability for VMs. With this plug-in VMware administrators can apply FlashArray’s Purity FlashRecover Protection Policies to automate snapshot-based backups and replication, which, when combined with vCenter SRM, provides a simple and robust end-to-end data protection solution. Virtualization administrators will find it simpler to provision storage and VMs on-demand while optimizing FlashArray’s storage performance and resiliency settings.

vSphere Web Client Plug-in enables customers to perform
following functions directly within vSphere:

Automate the provisioning of new datastores to vSphere hosts and clusters;
Automate increasing of datastore capacity;
Automate and ensure optimal settings for storage performance and availability;
Provide FlashRecover snapshot and replication policies to vSphere clusters and data stores;
Monitor storage performance and capacity.

The updated Web Client Plug-in is compatible with vSphere version 5.1 and higher, as well as future releases. It is available to customers at no cost and will ship in the company’s Purity 4.1.1 next month.

“Flash storage provides a new paradigm for VMware customers and their software-defined data centers. Delivering consistent sub-millisecond latency, flash storage raises the quality of every application and provides the necessary performance to address dynamic and unexpected changes in workloads. It’s ideal for virtualized consolidated infrastructures that support a mix of applications and diverse business processes,” said Vaughn Stewart, chief evangelist, Pure Storage. “With our new vSphere Web Client and Site Recovery Manager integrations, we are simplifying storage management for VMware users by bringing daily operations and DR processes into their native VMware environments, ensuring the delivery of agile, resilient, highly performant and protected virtualized applications.“