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Version: 3.5

FlashArray Cloud Drives

When you deploy Portworx with FlashArray or Pure Storage Cloud Dedicated (formerly Cloud Block Store) as a cloud storage provider, Portworx runs on each node and creates a storage pool using volumes provisioned from FlashArray, as defined in the StorageCluster specification. When a user creates a Portworx volume PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC), Portworx provisions the volume from this pool.

Cloud drives offer on-premises storage using FlashArray or cloud storage using Pure Storage Cloud Dedicated, while supporting:

  • Automatic provisioning of block volumes from the Portworx storage pool
  • Dynamic cluster expansion by adding or growing FlashArray-backed drives
  • Full support for PX-Backup, Autopilot, and PX-StoreV2

Portworx manages the lifecycle of storage pool volumes on registered FlashArray devices, similar to how it operates with cloud-based block storage.

Limitations​

  • Volume groups are not supported
  • FlashArray host sharing with realms is not supported when using Secure Multi-Tenancy (SMT). You cannot mix hosts within a realm with hosts outside a realm on the same node. For example, using Boot from SAN with a host outside the realm is not supported.