Checking for Active Remote Assist Session

By default Windows Server creates a scheduled task for defrag. Connected drives from a Pure Storage FlashArray do not need this defragmentation operation performed as it [...]

Create a Hierarchy Tree of Hosts, Volumes & Snapshots

August 5, 2016

The following script creates a visual hierarchy to show the Host to Volume to Snapshot relationship. PowerShell script: Clear-Host $return = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter the [...]

Get GitHub Download Release Metrics

July 26, 2016

Cody Hosterman, Argenis Fernandez and I have posted a lot of content to GitHub and one of the details I always wanted to know was "# of downloads for project X". Although [...]

Find All Disconnected Volumes

July 26, 2016

There are many ways to determine what volumes are connected to a host or host group, but there is no way to easily see via the PowerShell SDK what volumes are [...]

Retrieving Members of Directory Service Configuration

July 25, 2016

Once Pure Storage FlashArray Directory Services has been configured seeing who has been added to the different defined groups (Array_Admin_Group, ReadOnly_Group or [...]

Always Use VIR IP for Pure Storage SMI-S Provider

July 25, 2016

When using the Pure Storage SMI-S Provider ALWAYS use the VIR IP address. The SMI-S Provider runs on the Active (Primary) controller and using the VIR IP allows for [...]

Pure Storage + HoloLens

July 19, 2016

I’m so excited, it’s already been fun to develop demos for the capabilities of the Pure Storage platform but now its time for some new demos. First off, Microsoft THANK [...]

Setting up System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 with Pure Storage

July 16, 2016

We introduced support for Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) with the release of Purity 4.6. I covered the Pure Storage SMI-S Provider Overview previously [...]

Pure Storage Non-Disruptive Video Series – Chapter 2

July 8, 2016

1 Comment

The next chapter in the Non-Disruptive Video Series is now available! In this chapter we focus on upgrading from a Pure Storage FlashArray FA-420 to a FlashArray//m20. Just as [...]

PowerShell SDK & Toolkit available via the PowerShell Gallery

July 8, 2016

On the heels of my post about transitioning to use PowerShell Remoting I have made the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK and Toolkit available via the https://powershellgallery.com. [...]

Correlate a Volume to Source Snapshot

July 7, 2016

I received a request from a customer to determine what snapshot is the source of a created volume. Before I dig into how to determine the correlation using the Pure Storage [...]

PowerShell Remoting…Start Transitioning If You Haven’t

July 6, 2016

With the upcoming release of Windows Server 2016, Nano Server and all things related to Microsoft Azure learning PowerShell Remoting and start relying less and less on the use [...]

Integration of Pure Storage with SolarWinds®

June 30, 2016

All-flash arrays are the new normal in the data center. Pure Storage simplicity meets SolarWinds® end-to-end IT infrastructure management After several months of work by [...]

Updated Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

June 22, 2016

1 Comment

I have updated the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit with a new cmdlet for testing Windows Server settings based on our best practices. The new release can be downloaded [...]

Pure Storage Non-Disruptive Video Series – Chapter 1

June 22, 2016

1 Comment

Since joining Pure Storage I've been able to work on very interesting projects but the Non-Disruptive Video Series has been one of my favorites. The goal of the Non-Disruptive [...]

New! FlashStack for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

June 11, 2016

FlashStack is a flexible, all-flash converged infrastructure solution from Pure Storage® that brings the flash revolution to your data center. It combines the latest in [...]

What Volume is Connected to What Host?

June 6, 2016

There was a Pure1 Community forum question asking how to identify what volume is connected to what host? Here are some simple scripts to display with no need to go to the [...]

Demonstration of New Microsoft Azure Integration

April 30, 2016

1 Comment

During the Pure//Accelerate 2016 conference we announced the Pure Storage Hybrid All-Flash Cloud with Microsoft Azure. During the conference we presented sessions and [...]

Pure Storage Python Toolkit with BASH on Windows 10

April 13, 2016

1 Comment

Microsoft recently announced the new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14316 which includes the ability to run native bash on Ubuntu on Windows. First off BRILLIANT! Secondly I [...]

Where are the Pure Storage SDKs and Toolkits?

April 11, 2016

I have received a lot of questions recently about the locations of the various SDKs and Toolkits for the Pure Storage® Windows PowerShell modules. There are two new [...]

New Pure Storage PowerShell SDK Release

April 1, 2016

Today we released the new Pure Storage® PowerShell SDK 1.5. This new release addresses some core changes to the SDK that include: Upgraded to support Transport Layer [...]

Announcing: Pure Storage All-Flash Cloud for Microsoft Azure

March 14, 2016

Today is an exciting day at Pure Storage! Holding our 1st User Conference: Pure//Accelerate; announcing new products: FlashArray//m10 and FlashBlade; along with several new [...]

Misconception of Microsoft Exchange Server support with Pure Storage FlashArray

February 23, 2016

The question from customers that consistently comes up is regarding support for Microsoft Exchange Server with a Pure Storage FlashArray. The simple answer is Yes, it is [...]

Pure Storage 40,000 Mailbox Resiliency Storage Solution (ESRP)

February 22, 2016

Unlike traditional disk based storage solutions where various arrays are designed to address specific customer profiles, FlashArray//m is designed to consolidate multiple data [...]

New PowerShell ISE Preview & PowerShell Gallery

February 7, 2016

There are so many great PowerShell development/scripting tools that have been developed offering a wide variety of features for every level of scripter. I’ve run through the [...]

Photo of the Day: Pure Storage FlashArray//m Series Systems

February 5, 2016

Thanks to Alex Touchette who took an amazing perspective shot of a row of Pure Storage FlashArray//m series systems. Feel free to download and use as your wallpaper, also [...]

Remove the Windows Features You Don’t Need to Save Some Space

January 22, 2016

Windows Server comes with a wealth of Roles and Features. In many cases not everyone uses all of the Roles or Features on every server deployed, physical or virtualized. So [...]

How-To: Enabling/Disabling Remote Assist with the PowerShell SDK

January 21, 2016

A question that is coming up often as more and more customers leverage the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK for automation management is, “How do I control Remote Assist [...]

$200 Discount Code for Pure//Accelerate, What do you want to learn?

January 20, 2016

Want to join us at Pure//Accelerate and save $200 off the registration fee??? The solution is as simple as our management interface: Send a tweet with why you want to [...]

Accelerate Your Pure Storage Experience

January 14, 2016

After being at Pure Storage for the last 2+ years there are so many amazing moments that I have experienced but if I could distill it down into my Top 5 here they [...]

Kicking the Deployment Tires with Microsoft Nano Server

January 11, 2016

I finally started playing around with Microsoft Nano Server this past week and am quite amazed at the implementation of this new Windows Server deployment option. The [...]

Pure Storage SMI-S Provider Overview

December 22, 2015

With the release of Purity 4.6 we introduce support for the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S).This specification was created by the Storage Networking [...]

Learn about Commvault IntelliSnap technology integration with Pure Storage

November 12, 2015

Commvault adds orchestration and functional value on top of the Pure Storage FlashRecover Snapshot technology with the IntelliSnap™ technology snapshot management feature [...]

Using the PowerShell SDK with System Center 2012 Orchestrator

November 1, 2015

The Pure Storage PowerShell SDK presents opportunities to automate tasks in a variety of different applications, services and tools. In this post, I want to provide a simple [...]

Read a Password from a Secure File for use with the PowerShell SDK

October 5, 2015

Quick post on how to store and retrieve passwords to automate login to the Pure Storage FlashArray using the PowerShell SDK. We will use the basis of a previous post, [...]

Getting Started with the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK

September 15, 2015

3 Comments

A picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words. In this video I walk through the following: Installing the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK 1.0.15.0 Installing [...]

Calculating Block Size Using the Powershell SDK

August 21, 2015

The Pure Storage PowerShell SDK covers all aspects of management and automation for the FlashArray FA-400 series and the FlashArray//m series. In many of the discussions with [...]

“Pure Reduce” — Winner of the ASCII Art Competition

August 15, 2015

We held an ASCII art competition during the month of July and today we are announcing the winner. Congratulations, Andrew Reeves of Tecolote Research, Inc.! Andrew’s [...]

Pure Storage PowerShell SDK FAQs

July 31, 2015

I have been fielding a few questions about the new release of the Pure Storage PowerShell SDK and I wanted to share the answers more broadly to ensure everyone understands [...]

Getting Started with the Pure Storage Python Toolkit

July 22, 2015

1 Comment

What?!? The Python Toolkit on the PowerShell Guy’s blog? Hell yeah I say, a cook is only as good as the number of spices and how to use those spices. I wanted to just put [...]

Announcing the New Pure Storage PowerShell SDK

July 20, 2015

We started supporting automation and management of the Pure Storage FlashArray with Windows PowerShell almost a year ago with the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit. The [...]

Backup Automation with SQL Server PowerShell and Pure Storage PowerShell

June 26, 2015

Microsoft SQL Server is one of the primary workloads that Pure Storage customers run on our FlashArray and a frequent question we get is on the topic of automated backup [...]

Simplify Design of 100% Flash Storage for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 with Flashstack

June 22, 2015

I’m back from my blogging hiatus after wrapping up the new FlashStack Converged Infrastructure Design Guide for SQL 2014. This was a fun and challenging project building out [...]

Using FlashRecover Snapshots to Quickly Scale Creating Databases

June 19, 2015

I recently helped with a simple proof of concept to enable the ability to create a number of SQL Server databases without the need to have the MDF and LDF created from scratch [...]

Looking for the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit?

June 6, 2015

The PowerShell Toolkit has been moved to a new GitHub repository. With the soon to be released PowerShell SDK coming which provides full support through our Pure1 Connect it [...]

Sneak Peek: Managing a FlashArray//m with the new Pure Storage PowerShell SDK 1.0

June 1, 2015

1 Comment

There are a lot of exciting things happening at Pure Storage today. Announcing the new FlashArray//m, our new cloud-based management and support with Pure1 and last but not [...]

Developing the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit vNext

May 11, 2015

The history of the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit started with some simple work in Windows PowerShell ISE with 5 basic cmdlets (Get-PfaApiToken, Connect-PfaController, [...]

FlashStack Converged Infrastructure for Microsoft SQL Server

May 4, 2015

Uninterrupted database performance with AlwaysOn Availability Groups and native FlashArray-based replication Microsoft SQL Server is an increasingly vital database workload [...]

#IgniteItOrange @ Microsoft Ignite!

May 2, 2015

Be sure to stop by booth #108 next week to talk with the Pure Storage Solution Architects, Argenis Fernandez (@DBArgenis) and me, along with our “Alliance Guy”, “Cool [...]

Get the Latest Version of the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

May 1, 2015

Version 2.8.0.403 was released yesterday with a new SUPER helpful parameter, HttpTimeOut, on for Connect-PfaController cmdlet. I mistakenly introducing a very minor but [...]

Setup Active Directory Integration with the PowerShell Toolkit

May 1, 2015

Having Active Directory integration certainly helps with organizing users in the various groups to control what actions can be performed on the FlashArray. The most [...]

Using the PSCredential Object with the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

April 28, 2015

A great question came in yesterday about how to use the new –Credential parameter that was implemented in v2.5 Toolkit. Question: What if someone wants to use the script [...]

Try the REST API using a REST client

April 21, 2015

1 Comment

Ever wanted to work with our REST API without the need to install the PowerShell or Python toolkits? Take the REST API for a test drive using a REST client. There are several [...]

Compare Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012 Storage Cmdlets

April 15, 2015

Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 introduced a new set of storage cmdlets that provided specific support for disk management, multipath I/O configuration, MSDSM settings and [...]

Save Get-Help PureStoragePowerShell to PDF

April 5, 2015

I met with a customer this past week and they asked if we had a copy of all of our PowerShell help in Portable Document Format (PDF). Unfortunately at that moment we did not [...]

Toolkit Update to 2.6.0.401

April 1, 2015

I have fixed a minor issue with the toolkit when it comes to figuring out the latest version of the REST API when connecting to a FlashArray. When we introduced the REST API [...]

Windows Server Failover Clusters, Disk Signatures & Snapshots

March 24, 2015

Leveraging snapshots to create new volumes that can be used on the same host or other hosts is an important feature as it allows for business and deployment agility when [...]

Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit 2.5.0.324

March 24, 2015

For those users of the PowerShell Toolkit this release has two significant changes: Support for PSCredential FlashArray parameter is now Optional These two updates [...]

3rd Party ISV Integration

March 23, 2015

As Pure Storage continues to innovate and extend our core platform it provides many opportunities to integrate or automate functional areas. Two publicly available examples of [...]

Hack: Windows Live Writer 2012

March 22, 2015

I use Windows Live Writer as my blog editor. I self host WordPress.org on Windows Azure and appreciate the editing features and easy integration. Although I like Windows Live [...]

Quick Start Guide for the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

March 16, 2015

The interest in the PowerShell Toolkit has grown over the last several months and I wanted to take a moment to provide some guidance on how to get started whether you are [...]

Using Pure Storage PowerShell with Windows Server 2008 R2

March 13, 2015

I have received a few questions about using the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit with Windows Server 2008 R2 since by default it only comes with Windows PowerShell 2.0. The [...]

New SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Group Reference Architecture

March 12, 2015

This document provides a reference architecture for deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn Availability Groups on a Pure Storage FlashArray. This document includes [...]

Quick Toolkit Update

March 12, 2015

I just fixed an issue with the Restore-PfaProtectionGroupVolumeSnapshots cmdlet or alias restorepgsnap. This cmdlet supports restoring volume snapshots from source and target [...]

PowerCLI Actions

March 6, 2015

I dusted off some of the initial work that we (@CodyHosterman) did with the PowerCLI Actions Fling and initially we had some challenges with our 1.0 toolkit but with the [...]

Toolkit Minor Update

March 6, 2015

I just uploaded new packages to v2.8.0.430 GitHub (v2.4.0.305). I had some recent exchange with a user of the toolkit and updated a few cmdlets to adhere to the standard [...]

Update-Help Implemented in Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

March 5, 2015

Documentation and examples are what I consider to be the most important element to any PowerShell library. Although I implemented a comprehensive Get-Help support in the [...]

Restoring Protection Group Volume Snapshots

March 2, 2015

FlashRecover protection groups can be defined at all the different object levels the FlashArray supports; volumes, hosts and host groups. Whenever a snapshot is created, the [...]

Setting up SAN boot for an 8-Node Windows Server Cluster

February 23, 2015

Worked in the lab this past weekend setting up a new Windows Server 2012 R2 failover cluster (WSFC) using 8 diskless servers. SAN booting provides the ultimate in flexibility [...]

Setup Replication Connections using PowerShell

February 4, 2015

Now that the new toolkit has been released its time to start with an example of using some of the new cmdlets. The focus of this post is setting up replication between a [...]

Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit v2.0 Released!

February 2, 2015

The long awaited update for the PowerShell Toolkit is now available. I track issues and/or suggestions via GitHub. I have implemented about 95%+ of the current REST APIs [...]

How is the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit being used?

December 15, 2014

I created the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit with two major goals; (1) as a way to automate the various operational tasks to manage our FlashArray. Tasks like creating [...]

Retrieving LUN Serial Numbers with Windows PowerShell

December 13, 2014

Updated -- March 12, 2016 I have been asked this question more than I have fingers and toes so I figured I would do a quick post providing the Windows PowerShell that will [...]

SQL Server 2014 Prod/Dev Refresh with VMware PowerCLI and Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit

August 28, 2014

3 Comments

One of the demonstrations that I created for VMworld 2014 was to create a simple orchestration for refreshing a SQL Server 2014 database volume and re-connecting to a VMware [...]

Pure Storge PowerShell Toolkit Enhancements

August 28, 2014

Lots of updates since forking the repository over to [...]

UPDATE: Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit Moved and Forked

August 9, 2014

Update: I was always told things come full circle. The Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit has been transitioned back to my personal GitHub [...]

New Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reference Architecture Released

August 8, 2014

New Microsoft Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reference Architecture for Pure Storage FlashArray’s is available. This document provides a reference architecture for deploying [...]

Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit 1.0

July 25, 2014

I am happy to announce the release of the 1.0 version of the Pure Storage PowerShell Toolkit for use with the Purity 4.0 and the REST API 1.2. The PowerShell command window [...]

Application Consistency with Pure Storage VSS Provider

July 21, 2014

With the release of the Purity Operating Environment 4.0 comes the new Pure Storage Volume Shadow Copy Service Provider (Pure VSS Provider). The Pure VSS Provider is a new [...]

Pure Storage REST API + Windows PowerShell (Part 2)

July 17, 2014

In my Part 1 post I discussed the basics of how to use the REST API with the Post method to authenticate and establish a session then using the Get method retrieve volume [...]

New Best Practice Guide for Windows Server and Pure Storage FlashArrays

July 1, 2014

New Microsoft Windows Server Best Practice Guide for Pure Storage FlashArray’s is available. This is the first version that focuses solely on Windows Server and includes a [...]

Pure Storage REST API + Windows PowerShell (Part 1)

June 27, 2014

After a brief hiatus I’m back and to start things off I wanted to share an example of how to use the new REST API we have created as part of our Purity Operating [...]

Set RD, IEESec, Firewall and MPIO Quickly

February 24, 2014

As I add more virtual machines and physical servers to my Microsoft environment there are a few Windows features/settings I tend to always tweak for my own needs: Remote [...]

Get Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) Information

February 20, 2014

Recently I have been tracking down all the updates that I have applied to various Windows machines (servers and clients) in my pod and figured I'd share the simple PowerShell [...]

Attach/Detach SQL Server Databases with PowerShell

January 27, 2014

While working on the early testing for the SQL Server 2012 Reference Architecture I had to create some scripts to automate the attaching and detaching of SQL Server databases [...]

Simple Snapshot & Retention Management with PowerShell

January 21, 2014

In my last post I discussed how take snapshots, connect hosts and then work with the connected Windows hosts to bring disks online. In this post I show how to handle retention [...]

Windows PowerShell + Purity CLI = Invoke-PureVolSnap

January 8, 2014

I’ve been focusing on some automation scripts over the last week and have come up with a first generation (v0.1) script that shows yes Windows PowerShell and Pure technology [...]

Enable GodMode in Windows 8.1

January 5, 2014

3 Comments

I stumbled upon an interesting “GodMode” you can enable in Windows 8.1; I don’t have Windows 8.0 but assume it will work just the same. It creates a new folder on your [...]

Getting started on the SQL Server Reference Architecture

December 27, 2013

I had the best Christmas at home and at Pure. I was lucky enough to get a new Specialized Crave SL 29 singlespeed from my wife and Pure blessed me with some great new [...]

Getting SQL Server 2012 BPA working on Windows Server 2012 R2

December 10, 2013

8 Comments

I’ve been building out some new servers with Windows Server 2012 R2 to start working on a new Microsoft SQL Server Reference Architecture on Pure Storage and after [...]

Get HBA information using Windows PowerShell

November 27, 2013