Virtualization & Container Integration Flashcards

Which Microsoft technology enables Pure Storage FlashArray to perform server-side data copy operations in Windows Server and Hyper-V environments without transferring data through the host?

Answer: Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)

ODX (similar to VAAI in VMware) allows the FlashArray to execute copy operations entirely within the array hardware, reducing host CPU load and LAN traffic during Hyper-V cloning operations.

What protocol does Pure Storage FlashBlade use for shared storage integration with Microsoft Windows Server and Hyper-V Scale-Out File Servers (SOFS)?

Answer: SMB 3.0 (Server Message Block)

FlashBlade supports SMB 3.0, enabling Windows Server and Hyper-V environments to use shared file storage with features like SMB Multichannel for parallel throughput and transparent failover.

What OpenStack component does Pure Storage provide a certified driver for to enable block storage volume provisioning from FlashArray?

Answer: Cinder (Block Storage service)

The Pure Storage Cinder driver allows OpenStack administrators to provision FlashArray volumes for instances, supporting thin provisioning, snapshots, and volume cloning through the standard Cinder API.

Which Pure Storage REST API version is recommended for new integrations, automation scripts, and third-party tool development?

Answer: REST API 2.x, which provides improved consistency, better filtering, and token-based authentication

Pure Storage REST API 2.x introduced a more consistent resource model, server-side filtering, continuation tokens for pagination, and improved OAuth 2.0 authentication over the older 1.x API.

What does the Pure Storage Hardware VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) Provider enable in Windows environments?

Answer: Application-consistent snapshots by coordinating with Microsoft VSS writers to quiesce applications before the array captures a point-in-time copy

The Pure Storage VSS Hardware Provider integrates with the Windows VSS framework to ensure SQL Server, Exchange, and other VSS-aware applications are in a consistent state before a FlashArray snapshot is created.

What is the primary purpose of the Pure Storage Ansible Collection available on Ansible Galaxy?

Answer: To provide certified Ansible modules for automating FlashArray and FlashBlade provisioning, configuration, and management as infrastructure-as-code

The Pure Storage Ansible Collection (purestorage.flasharray and purestorage.flashblade) provides certified modules for creating volumes, hosts, protection groups, and managing all array features through Ansible playbooks.

When integrating Pure Storage FlashArray with Microsoft SQL Server, what capability does the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK's snapshot functionality primarily enable?

Answer: Near-instantaneous, space-efficient database clones and backups by creating array-level snapshots of SQL Server volumes without impacting production I/O

Pure Storage array snapshots are pointer-based and created in milliseconds regardless of dataset size, enabling rapid SQL database clones for dev/test refresh and near-instant backups without production performance impact.