Proxmox VE Plugin for Pure Storage as Multipath iSCSI Source

This plugin enables the integration of Pure Storage arrays with Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) using multipath iSCSI or Fibre Channel (FC). It allows you to use Pure Storage as a backend for your virtual machine disks, providing high performance and reliability.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
  • Multipath Configuration
• Installation
  • Manual
  • APT
• Configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing

Prerequisites

Before installing and using this plugin, ensure that your Proxmox VE environment meets the following prerequisites.

Multipath Configuration

To ensure correct operation with Pure Storage, you need to configure your multipath settings appropriately. Specifically, you need to set find_multipaths to no in your multipath.conf file. This setting disables the automatic detection of multipath devices, which is necessary for Pure Storage devices to be correctly recognized.

Below is an example of how your multipath.conf file should look when configured for Pure Storage arrays:

defaults {
  polling_interval 2
  find_multipaths no
}

devices {
  device {
    vendor               "PURE"
    product              "FlashArray"
    path_selector        "queue-length 0"
    hardware_handler     "1 alua"
    path_grouping_policy group_by_prio
    prio                 alua
    failback             immediate
    path_checker         tur
    fast_io_fail_tmo     10
    user_friendly_names  no
    no_path_retry        0
    features             "0"
    dev_loss_tmo         60
    recheck_wwid         yes
  }
}

blacklist {
  device {
    vendor  ".*"
    product ".*"
  }
}

blacklist_exceptions {
  device {
    vendor "PURE"
  }
}

Installation

There are two methods to install the plugin: manual installation and APT package installation.

Manual

To manually install the plugin, follow these steps:

# Clone repository
git clone git@github.com:kolesa-team/pve-purestorage.git
# Navigate to the Plugin Directory
cd pve-purestorage
# Copy plugin to custom plugin directory
sudo cp PureStoragePlugin.pm /usr/share/perl5/PVE/Storage/Custom
# Restart Proxmox VE
sudo systemctl restart pve-cluster.service pvedaemon.service pvestatd.service pveproxy.service pvescheduler.service

APT

Note: Replace <PACKAGE_VERSION> with your desired version number (e.g., 0.0.1).

PACKAGE_VERSION="<PACKAGE_VERSION>" curl -L -o libpve-storage-purestorage-perl.deb "https://github.com/kolesa-team/pve-purestorage-plugin/releases/download/v$PACKAGE_VERSION/libpve-storage-purestorage-perl_$PACKAGE_VERSION-1_all.deb"

sudo apt install ./libpve-storage-purestorage-perl.deb

Configuration

After installing the plugin, you need to configure Proxmox VE to use it. Since Proxmox VE does not currently support adding custom storage plugins via the GUI, you will need to manually edit the storage configuration file /etc/pve/storage.conf.

purestorage: pure
  nodes: <proxmox_node_list>
  address https://<purestorage_fqdn_or_ip>
  token <purestorage_api_token>
  vgname <purestorage_volume_group_name>
  hgsuffix <purestorage_host_suffix>
  content images

Parameter	Description
nodes	(optional) A comma-separated list of Proxmox node names. Use this parameter to limit the plugin to specific nodes in your cluster. If omitted, the storage is available to all nodes.
address	The URL or IP address of the Pure Storage API endpoint. Ensure that the Proxmox VE nodes can reach this address over the network.
token	The API token used for authentication with the Pure Storage array. This token must have sufficient permissions to create and manage volumes.
vgname	The name of the volume group where new virtual disks will be created. This should match the configuration on your Pure Storage array.
hgsuffix	(optional) A suffix that is appended to the hostname when the plugin interacts with the Pure Storage array. This can help differentiate hosts if necessary.
content	Specifies the types of content that can be stored. For virtual machine disk images, use images.

NOTE: Ensure that the token and other sensitive information are kept secure and not exposed publicly.

Example Configuration:

purestorage: pure
  address https://purestorage.example.com
  token abc123
  vgname pure_vg
  content images

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues while using the plugin, consider the following steps:

• Check Service Status: Ensure that the Proxmox VE services are running correctly. You can restart the services if necessary:

sudo systemctl restart pve-cluster.service pvedaemon.service pvestatd.service pveproxy.service pvescheduler.service

• Verify Network Connectivity: Ensure that the Proxmox VE nodes can reach the Pure Storage array over the network. Check for firewall rules or network issues that might be blocking communication.
• Review Logs: Check the Proxmox VE logs for any error messages related to storage or the plugin. Logs are typically found in /var/log/pve.
• Multipath Configuration: Verify that your multipath.conf is correctly configured and that multipath devices are recognized. Use multipath -ll to list the current multipath devices.
• API Token Permissions: Ensure that the API token used has the necessary permissions to create and manage volumes on the Pure Storage array.
• Plugin Updates: Ensure you are using the latest version of the plugin. Check the GitHub repository for updates.

Contributing

Contributions to this project are welcome.