PUG Cincinnati - Pure//Virtual: Strategies for a More Open and Flexible Future
Topic: Feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of managing your virtualization platforms? Join our Virtualization Anonymous meeting, a supportive and open forum where we’ll recover together, share experiences, and explore solutions to streamline your virtualization journey. You’re not alone in finding the right fit—we’ll navigate this step-by-step as a group. This customer-driven discussion will focus on your experiences and challenges as we work toward building a future-ready virtualization strategy. Pure Storage experts will offer insights and guidance to help you take that first step. Anonymous Group Feedback: Share your thoughts and experiences in regards to your virtualization journey. What worked? What didn’t? No judgment here. Understanding Your Needs: What does your organization need in a new platform? Scalability? Cost efficiency? Security? We’ll help you pinpoint what truly matters. Breakthrough Stories: Listen to success stories from those that took the journey Exploration Circle: Hear from Pure’s subject matter experts on what they are seeing in regards to the latest virtualization platforms and where the industry is going. Support & Resources: Find out where you can get additional help, training, and resources to ensure a smooth transition. Date: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2-4pm ET Location: Fretboard Brewing Company, 5800 Creek Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45242 Speaker: A customer will share their Pure Storage journey. They will share how they discovered Pure Storage, how they use Pure Storage today to support their business, and other Pure Storage real world stories. Our speaker is both a FlashArray and FlashBlade Certified Professional, and will be attending Accelerate next week in Las Vegas. As a added-bonus to our virtualization focused topic; our speaker will share their Pure//Accelerate experience with the group. Your Pure Storage team will also be in attendance in partnership with our speaker to share all the exciting announcements we will be sharing in Las Vegas. RSVP: https://info.purestorage.com/2025-Q2AMS-COMREDTFSPUGCincinattiLP_01---Registration-Page.htmlPure//Launch Event: Next-gen FlashArray//XL - Unmatched Performance Density
Join us for this exclusive launch event to discover how Pure Storage is redefining power, scale, and simplicity. What to expect: In-depth look at the superior performance density and capabilities of the next generation of FlashArray//XL Customer fireside chat on practical outcomes and lessons learned Industry-focused panel offering sector-specific insights Live Q&A session to talk topics like hardware, high performance and vector databases, electronic health records, and virtualization consolidation Whether you're growing your Pure Storage environment or exploring your future, enterprise-grade storage platform, don’t miss this opportunity to see what’s possible. July 23, 2025 | 11:00 AM PT • 2:00 PM ET July 23, 2025 | 11:00 AM CEST July 23, 2025 | 1:00 PM SGT Register Now!Virtualization Anonymous - Pittsburgh PUG
Welcome to Our 2nd Pure User Group (PUG) Discussion on Server Virtualization! We’re excited to bring our community together again for our second PUG session focused on server virtualization — a topic that's constantly evolving and critical to modern infrastructure. This is part of our ongoing effort to host these discussions every six months, continuing as long as there's interest from our user community. Whether you joined us for the first session or you're new to the group, we’re glad to have you here. Let’s learn, share, and grow together — and as always, your feedback helps shape future PUG topics! Event Details This will be a customer driven and customer focused discussion to hear from people like you related to the experiences and journey you have been on as we all seek the recovery we need to build a virtualization strategy for the future. Pure Storage and Expedient will provide experts and guidance to take that first step with you. After our presentation, we invite you to join us for happy hour and appetizers at the Federal Galley located here. Prizes will be provided to help encourage open collaboration. Space is extremely limited for this event. Sign up now to grab your spot to this exciting event. Parking Enter the Parking garage on level 2 off of S Commons, Take the east or west stairs to the Plaza Level, Exit the plaza level by the information desk to the outdoor plaza, walk towards the Federal Galley, The conference center entrance is located to the left of the Federal Galley. (follow Pure Storage Signage) Agenda 2:00PM Check In 2:30PM - 4:30PM Presentation 4:30PM - Giveaway Raffle (Pirate Tickets, Pure Swag, Autographed Pirate Baseballs) 5:00PM - 6:30PM Happy Hour with Pure a
Inaugural Boston, Pure User Group (PUG) at Trillium - Fort Point!
Simplify IT, Empower Data - Over a Pint at Trillium - Fort Point Join us July 15, 2025, and connect, learn, and engage with your fellow IT pros for an afternoon filled with exciting announcements from the recent Pure//Accelerate event and our vision for the Enterprise Data Cloud, as well as an engaging discussion on modern virtualization and a demo of Fusion. Fusion is a fully integrated platform that federates multiple arrays—such as FlashArray and FlashBlade—into a unified fleet, enabling centralized, cloud-like management, streamlined resource provisioning, and enhanced visibility across multi-array environments. Rob Quast, Principal Technologist and David Stevens, Field Solutions Architect both from Pure Storage will be presenting on the above topics with additional input from other Pure technologists. The complete agenda is below. Please register if you plan on attending at the following link: https://info.purestorage.com/2025-Q2AMS-COMRECHCOMA-PUG-LP_01---Registration-Page.html Agenda 2:00 PM - Welcome & Cheers 2:15 PM - Accelerate Highlights: What You Missed (or Want More Of) 2:45 PM - Enterprise Data Cloud: The Vision and The Why 3:15 PM - Fusion in Action: Simplifying Storage with Intelligence 3:45 PM - Break & Bites 4:15 PM - Rethinking Virtualization in 2025 4:45 PM - Ask Me Anything (AMA) Panel 5:15 PM - Cheers & Networking We look forward to seeing you!Getting started with FlashArray File Multi-Server
Previous blog post FlashArray File Multi-Server was a feature overview from the perspective of a system, which already has that setup. Let's look at the same feature from a viewpoint of a storage admin, who needs to start using it. For purpose of this blogpost, I'll be starting with an empty test-array. Please let me know if there is a demand for similar post focused on brown field use-case. Setting up a data to share Let's create a filesystem and a managed directory # purefs create myfs Name Created myfs 2025-06-27 06:30:53 MDT # puredir create myfs:mydir --path dir Name Path File System Created myfs:mydir /dir myfs 2025-06-27 06:31:27 MDT So far nothing new.. Setting up a server To create a server on FlashArray, Local Directory Service needs to be either created during Server creation or reference to existing one needs to be provided. What's Local Directory Service? It's a container for Local Users and Local Groups. It's a new container, which helps to manage users for different servers. # pureds local ds create mylds --domain domain.my Name Domain mylds domain.my Nothing prevents us now to create a actual Server object. # pureserver create myserver --local-ds mylds Name Dns Directory Services Local Directory Service Created myserver management - mylds 2025-06-27 06:41:49 MDT (Another option would be to use "built in" server, which is guaranteed to be there - "_array_server". That would also be a server, which contains all the exports which were created before migration to Multi-Server enabled release. As stated before, this post is focusing on a green field scenario, thus creating a new server object.) Setting up an export The server can now be used when creating export # puredir export create --dir myfs:mydir --policy smb-simple --server myserver --export-name myexport Name Export Name Server Directory Path Policy Type Enabled myserver::smb::myexport myexport myserver myfs:mydir /dir smb-simple smb True One configuration object wasn't created as part of this blog post - policy "smb-simple". That's a pre-created policy, which (unless modified) only sets the protocol to "SMB" and accepts all clients. The name of the export has been set to "myexport", meaning that this is the string to be used by the client while mounting. The address of this export will be "${hostname}/myexport". Setting up networking This is a bit tough to follow, since networking pretty much depends on the local network setup and won't be reproducible in your environment, but let's see what needs to be done in the lab setup, hopefully it would be similar to what needs to be done in simple "test" scenario any reader could be doing. Let's create and enable a simplest File VIF possible # purenetwork eth create vif vif1 --address 192.168.1.100/24 --subinterfacelist ct0.eth2 --serverlist myserver Name Enabled Type Subnet Address Mask Gateway MTU MAC Speed Services Subinterfaces Servers vif1 False vif 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0 - 8950 22:39:87:5e:f4:79 10.00 Gb/s file eth2 myserver # purenetwork eth enable vif1 Name Enabled Type Subnet Address Mask Gateway MTU MAC Speed Services Subinterfaces Servers vif1 True vif - 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0 - 8950 22:39:87:5e:f4:79 10.00 Gb/s file eth2 myserver That should do it. Setting up Directory Services Server on FlashArray always has Local Directory Service and additionally it can be configured either to verify users against LDAP or Active Directory. LDAP configuration would be set up as # pureds create myds ... # pureserver setattr --ds myds myserver Or we can opt-in to join the Active Directory # puread account create myserver::ad-myserver --domain some.domain --computer-name myserver-computer-name But we don't have to! Let's make this very simple and use the Local Directory Service which has been created before - it's already user by our Server, so the only thing left is to create a user (and let's join Administrators group.. because we can) # pureds local user create pure --primary-group Administrators --password --local-ds mylds Enter password: Retype password: Name Local Directory Service Built In Enabled Primary Group Uid pure mylds False True Administrators 1000 Now, we should have everything set up for client to mount exposed share. Mounting an export (on linux) Let's use a linux client, since it will fit nicely to the rest of the operations and command line examples we have so far. At this point, the share can be easily mounted on any Windows box as well and also all the configuration made on the command line can be easily done on the GUI. client # mount -v -t cifs -o 'user=pure,domain=domain.my,pass=pure,vers=3.02' //192.168.1.100/myexport /mnt client # mount | grep mnt //192.168.1.100/myexport on /mnt type cifs (rw,relatime,vers=3.02,sec=ntlmssp,cache=strict,username=pure,domain=domain.my,uid=0,noforceuid,gid=0,noforcegid,addr=192.168.1.100,file_mode=0755,dir_mode=0755,nounix,serverino,mapposix,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,echo_interval=60,actimeo=1) And now, the "/mnt" directory on the client machine represents the Managed Directory "myfs:mydir" created before and can be used up to the permissions the user "pure" has. (And since this user is a member of Administrators group, it can do anything). Conclusion This post shows how to set-up File Export on FlashArray with using Servers. We can use the same Flash Array to create another server and export same or different managed directory, while using another Network interfaces or Directory Services.Boston Meetup - July 15, 2025 Trillium - Fort Point
Hey everyone, I want to let you all know we have scheduled a Boston Meetup for July 15, 2025 at Trillium - Fort Point in the seaport. You can view the meetup details at the following link: Join Pure Storage over a Pint at Trillium - Fort Point I hope to see you there!
"What would you say your virtualization does here?"
July 10 | Register Now! If the virtualization landscape has you feeling like you’re stuck in a meeting about TPS reports with eight different bosses, you’re not alone. With uncertainty around VMware’s future, many IT leaders are being asked what they’re doing with their virtualization strategy. Join this satirical but serious Tech Talk as we dust off the old “jump to conclusions” mat to explore the four most common “conclusions” enterprises are being asked to evaluate. We’ll cover: Staying on VMware - Sticking with the familiar, despite the licensing and support changes. Choosing a new hypervisor - Considering alternatives like Proxmox or AHV and their tradeoffs. Moving to the cloud - Running your VMs on hyperscale infrastructure like AWS or Azure. Modernizing with KubeVirt - Embracing a Kubernetes-native model that supports both VMs and containers. Register Now!
Glasgow FlashCrew Materials 5th June 2025
Hello All, Please find the presentations from the Glasgow FlashCrew - SDM_Pure Support June2025 Pure Platform - Features and Roadmap Update June2025 Protecting SQL Server Databases with Pure Storage Snapshots From Bottleneck to Breakthrough - A Storage Admin’s Journey to NVMe FlashArray File Services Thanks BrianFlashArray File Multi-Server
File support on FlashArray gets another high demanded feature. With version 6.8.7, purity introduces a concept of Server, which connects exports and directory services and all other necessary objects, which are required for this setup, namely DNS configuration and networking. From this version onwards, all directory exports are associated with exactly one server. To recap, server has (associations) to following objects: DNS Active Directory / Directory Service (LDAP) Directory Export Local Directory Service Local Directory Service is another new entity introduced in version 6.8.7 and it represents a container for Local Users and Groups. Each server has it's own Local Directory Service (LDS) assigned to it and LDS also has a domain name, which means "domain" is no longer hardcoded name of a local domain, but it's user-configurable option. All of these statements do imply lots of changes in user experience. Fortunately, commonly this is about adding a reference or possibility to link a server and our GUI contains newly Server management page, including Server details page, which puts everything together and makes a Server configuration easy to understand, validate and modify. One question which you might be asking right now is - can I use File services without Servers? The answer is - no, not really. But don't be alarmed. Significant effort has been made to keep all commands and flows backwards compatible, so unless some script is parsing exact output and needs to be aligned because there is a new "Server" column added, there should be any need for changing those. How did we managed to do that? Special Server called _array_server has been created and if your configuration has anything file related, it will be migrated during upgrade. Let me also offer a taste of how the configuration could look like once the array is updated to the latest version List of Servers # pureserver list Name Dns Directory Services Local Directory Service Created _array_server management - domain 2025-06-09 01:00:26 MDT prod prod - prod 2025-06-09 01:38:14 MDT staging management stage staging 2025-06-09 01:38:12 MDT testing management testing testing 2025-06-09 01:38:11 MDT List of Active Directory accounts Since we can join multiple AD servers, we now can have multiple AD accounts, up to one per server # puread account list Name Domain Computer Name TLS Source ad-array <redacted>.local ad-array required - prod::ad-prod <redacted>.local ad-prod required - ad-array is a configuration for the _array_server and for backwards compatibility reasons, the prefix of the server name hasn't been added. The prefix is there for account connected to server prod (and to any other server). List of Directory Services (LDAP) Directory services got also slightly reworked, since before 6.8.7 there were only two configurations, management and data. Obviously, that's not enough for more than one server (management is reserved for array management access and can't be used for File services). After 6.8.7 release, it's possible to completely manage Directory Service configurations and linking them to individual servers. # pureserver list Name Dns Directory Services Local Directory Service Created _array_server management - domain 2025-06-09 01:00:26 MDT prod prod - prod 2025-06-09 01:38:14 MDT staging management stage staging 2025-06-09 01:38:12 MDT testing management testing testing 2025-06-09 01:38:11 MDT Please note that these objects are intentionally not enabled / not configured. List of Directory exports # puredir export list Name Export Name Server Directory Path Policy Type Enabled prod::smb::accounting accounting prod prodpod::accounting:root / prodpod::smb-simple smb True prod::smb::engineering engineering prod prodpod::engineering:root / prodpod::smb-simple smb True prod::smb::sales sales prod prodpod::sales:root / prodpod::smb-simple smb True prod::smb::shipping shipping prod prodpod::shipping:root / prodpod::smb-simple smb True staging::smb::accounting accounting staging stagingpod::accounting:root / stagingpod::smb-simple smb True staging::smb::engineering engineering staging stagingpod::engineering:root / stagingpod::smb-simple smb True staging::smb::sales sales staging stagingpod::sales:root / stagingpod::smb-simple smb True staging::smb::shipping shipping staging stagingpod::shipping:root / stagingpod::smb-simple smb True testing::smb::accounting accounting testing testpod::accounting:root / testpod::smb-simple smb True testing::smb::engineering engineering testing testpod::engineering:root / testpod::smb-simple smb True testing::smb::sales sales testing testpod::sales:root / testpod::smb-simple smb True testing::smb::shipping shipping testing testpod::shipping:root / testpod::smb-simple smb True The notable change here is that the Export Name and Name has slightly different meaning. Pre-6.8.7 version used the Export Name as a unique identifier, since we had single (implicit, now explicit) server, which naturally created a scope. Now, the Export Name can be the same as long as it's unique in scope of a single server, as seen in this example. The Name is different and provides array-unique export identifier. It is a combination of server name, protocol name and the export name. List of Network file interfaces # purenetwork eth list --service file Name Enabled Type Subnet Address Mask Gateway MTU MAC Speed Services Subinterfaces Servers array False vif - - - - 1500 56:e0:c2:c6:f2:1a 0.00 b/s file - _array_server prod False vif - - - - 1500 de:af:0e:80:bc:76 0.00 b/s file - prod staging False vif - - - - 1500 f2:95:53:3d:0a:0a 0.00 b/s file - staging testing False vif - - - - 1500 7e:c3:89:94:8d:5d 0.00 b/s file - testing As seen above, File network VIFs now are referencing specific server. (this list is particularly artificial, since neither of them is properly configured nor enabled, anyway the main message is that File VIF now "points" to a specific server). Local Directory Services Local Directory Service (LDS) is a newly introduced container for Local Users and Groups. # pureds local ds list Name Domain domain domain testing testing staging staging.mycorp prod prod.mycorp As already mentioned, all local users and groups now has to belong to a LDS, which means management of those also contains that information # pureds local user list Name Local Directory Service Built In Enabled Primary Group Uid Administrator domain True True Administrators 0 Guest domain True False Guests 65534 Administrator prod True True Administrators 0 Guest prod True False Guests 65534 Administrator staging True True Administrators 0 Guest staging True False Guests 65534 Administrator testing True True Administrators 0 Guest testing True False Guests 65534 # pureds local group list Name Local Directory Service Built In Gid Audit Operators domain True 65536 Administrators domain True 0 Guests domain True 65534 Backup Operators domain True 65535 Audit Operators prod True 65536 Administrators prod True 0 Guests prod True 65534 Backup Operators prod True 65535 Audit Operators staging True 65536 Administrators staging True 0 Guests staging True 65534 Backup Operators staging True 65535 Audit Operators testing True 65536 Administrators testing True 0 Guests testing True 65534 Backup Operators testing True 65535 Conclusion I did show how the FA configuration might look like, without providing much details about the actual way how to configure or test these configs, anyway, this article should provide a good overview about what to expect from 6.8.7 version. There is plenty of information about this particular aspect of the release in the updated product documentation. Please let me know if there is any demand to deep-dive into any aspect of this feature.
