Guide to deploying Pure StorageFlashBlade® with Azure Stack

Pure Storage® has partnered with Gridpro Software to add integration into the EvOps resource provider for Microsoft Azure Stack Hub. This partnership has enabled the direct integration of one or many FlashBlade namespaces directly into the Microsoft Azure Stack Hub Portal via a 3rd party resource provider deployment model. The integration enables native provisioning and management of FlashBlade file systems and S3 object accounts directly from the Microsoft Azure Stack Hub Portal, CLI, and ARM interface. This architecture extends all the benefits of the FlashBlade high performance file and object data hub directly to Microsoft Azure Stack Hub.

Logical Architecture of FlashBlade with Azure Stack

Using Pure Storage Accounts in Azure Stack

The installation of the Gridpro resource provider is straight forward and once enabled gives the option to deploy Pure File and Pure Object accounts from within the Microsoft Azure Stack Hub portal as called out in the image below.

Let’s walk through deploying a Pure Object Store Account:

From the Azure Stack Hub Portal, click on Create New -> Data+Storage -> Pure Object Store Account.

When you click on the Object Store Account you will be presented with a standard form.

Then provide the resource group, preferred FlashBlade to deploy to, and some details for the Object Account.

Press Next, and now you can add any tags you need.

Then finally you can Review and create the object store account.

Once deployment is completed you will be able to fully manage the Object Store account in the Portal.

From within the Object Store Account view you will have several options in the Settings blade to add and remove users, access keys, buckets, and more.

Now that the Object Store is set up you can tie it into any automation or applications that support the S3 protocol.

The process for File is similar.

Click on Create New -> Data+Storage -> Pure File Account to get started.

You will be presented with a similar form to walk through the provisioning process.

Fill out the fields as required for your file system

Apply tags to the File System Account, then create.

Once the deployment is complete you can go to the Pure File Account resource for details and post deployment configuration options.

Once in the File System Overview screen you will see details about the file system including usage data, data reduction, snapshots and the endpoint IP address or FQDN.

From this screen you can access the options in the Settings blade to further manage your file system including creating, deleting, or restoring snapshots, changing capacity sizes, enabling, or disabling protocols, etc.

The Pure Storage Accounts for Microsoft Azure Stack Hub will seamlessly expand the capability of your Azure Stack Hub environment by filling the gaps of File and S3 object all with the simplicity, performance and reliability that Pure Storage is known to deliver.

For more information on Pure Storage Accounts for Azure Stack Hub check out the resources below:

Pure Storage with Azure Stack Announcement

Pure Storage Technical Blog Post

Gridpro EvOps Pure Storage Solution User Guide

Installing Gridpro Evops — Video Walkthrough

EvOps / Pure Storage FlashBlade Integration — Video Walkthrough