Initial Setup of Dell PowerStorage on Equinix Metal

To meet the needs of customers looking for flexible and high performance storage, Equinix metal offers single-tenant hosted Dell PowerStore Storage appliances.

Using Dell storage is a high-touch process that can be adapted to meet your specific use case and requirements, including the ability to use both file and block storage access. This guide is an overview of the steps you need to get up and running with your Dell PowerStore Storage appliance.

Dell PowerStore appliances are available in all Metros where Equinix Metal is available.

Ordering an Appliance

Ordering, pricing, and fulfillment of Dell appliances is handled through a sales and hardware reservation process. More information is available on our Dell solutions page and solutions brief.

When you order an appliance, we will arrange for it to be located in racks physically near to your current Equinix Metal infrastructure. If you are also ordering new servers to connect to the appliance, we will arrange for them to be located within the networking requirements.

When your appliance is ready for your use, you will meet with the Equinix team and your Dell Appliance will be handed over to you along with your IP addresses for access, login credentials and anything else you need to use your new storage.

Equinix Metal Requirements

Before you configure your Dell appliance, you will need to configure VLANs in the Metal console, and create a Jump Box / Bastion Host to access the storage applaince.

VLANs

You will need to create VLANs in Equinix Metal to connect the Dell appliance, jump boxes and servers to.

For this guide, VLAN 1000 is used for the Management VLAN, and VLAN 1001 is used for the Dell PowerStore Discovery Network. You will be provided your own VLAN numbers during appliance handover.

To create a VLAN, expand the Network pane on the left side of the metal console, then click VLANs, and then click the blue +Add VLAN button.

Choose the Metro you would like to create the VLAN in. You may also add a description to document what the VLAN will be used for. Enter the VLAN number you wish to use, and click Add VLAN.

Create both VLANs you have been provided. You will also follow this process to create VLANs for storage traffic.

After VLANs have been created, they can be added to Equinix Metal servers and storage systems.

Jump Box / Bastion Host

You will need a Jump Box / Bastion Host available to connect to your Dell storage for management and provisioning activities. Use the console to deploy a server to the same metro.

You will need to use a web browser to access Dell PowerStore Manager, which is the main administrative tool for the Dell appliance. We will be using a Windows host for this example.

After you have deployed your server, you need to configure the networking settings in the Equinix Metal console. Navigate to your server by expanding Bare Metal Servers in the left navigation pane and clicking Manage. Click the Hostname of your server in the main area of the console.

You will now see additional details about your server. Click the Network tab. The bonded interface on the server is currently in Layer 3 mode. You'll need to change the Networking mode to Hybrid Bonded mode to access the server remotely over the Internet, and also to connect to the Dell appliance. Click the Network tab, then click the blue button that says +Convert to other network type.

In the Chose Network type menu, selected Hybrid. Ensure Bonded is selected. Then select the VLAN you have previously added for Management in the dropdown menu. Click the Convert to Hybrid button.

After the configuration is complete, you will see bond0 is now in Hybrid Bonded mode, and the Management VLAN is assigned.

You can now add any additional VLANs required to your server. Scroll down in the networking pane to the Layer 2 section. Click the blue +Attach VLAN button.

Select any additional VLANs you need to add, then click the blue Attach VLAN button. In this case, we have selected the Dell PowerStore Discovery Network and a Data network.

You will now see the VLANs have been added to your Metal server.

Next, log into your bastion host, and configure a new bonded interface with the Management VLAN, and an IP address on the same network as the Dell storage array.

Please see the Windows Server Setup Guide for complete configuration instructions.

Metal Configuration for Dell Storage

Before you can access your Dell storage, you will need to add the Management VLAN and the Dell PowerStore Discovery Network VLAN to the Dell storage nodes in the Equinix Metal console. At this time, you may also add any VLANs you will be using for data access.

NOTE: Dell storage appliances are always deployed in pairs. You will need to follow this process on both Dell storage nodes.

To begin your storage configuration, click Storage in the left navigation pane. You will see all available storage appliances visible. Click on the name of your Dell storage appliance.

Click on the Network tab to view the network connectivity for each Dell storage node.

You will see that there are no VLANs currently configured.

There are several interfaces we will need to add VLANs to.

bond0: Bond0 consists of two 25 G ports in a bonded configuration. This is the interface you will serve data over. You will need to add your data VLANs to this interface.

mgmt: This is the management interface for each Dell node. You will need to add your Management VLAN and the Dell PowerStore Discovery Network VLAN to this interface.

To begin this process, click the +Attach VLAN button.

As you can see, mgmt is selected by default. In the Network dropdown menu, check the box next to the Management VLAN and the Dell PowerStore Discovery Network VLAN, then click Attach VLAN.

Next, Click the +Attach VLAN button again. Select bond0 from the Interface dropdown menu. Then, select the data VLAN you would like to use from the Network dropdown menu. Click Attach VLAN.

You will now be able to see that the VLANs have been successfully added in the Metal console.

Click Node 1 to configure the VLANs for the second Dell storage node.

Connecting to the Dell Appliance Dell PowerStore Manager

Before the Dell PowerStore appliance can serve data, there are several more configureation steps, which depend on what storage protocol you will be using.

You can do this configuration with Dell PowerStore Manager, which is a web interface.

For our example, the IP address of PowerStore Manager is 10.10.100.100. You will be given the IP address of your appliance during handover.

To access PowerStore Manager, enter the IP address of the cluster in a web browser. Use the credentials you received during the handover to log in.

You will be greeted with the dashboard.

The Dell PowerStore is now ready to configure the storage protocol that best suits your needs. Dell PowerStore devices offer support for multiple storage protocols, allowing you to tailor their configuration to meet your requirements.

Dell PowerStore devices are capable of serving data either using block or file-based protocols.

If you plan on using block storage, please see the Dell PowerStore PowerStore T and Q Networking Guide for Storage Services to configure the iSCSI protocol.

To use file storage, please see the Dell PowerStore Configuring NFS Guide to configure NFS.

Conclusion

Equinix Metal provides a flexible, high-performance storage solution with Dell PowerStore appliances. After following the steps outlined in this guide, you are ready to successfully integrate Dell PowerStore with your Equinix Metal infrastructure.