- Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS - Quick Launch
Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS - Quick Launch
In previous posts I have covered use cases on how to utilize Pure Cloud Block Store (CBS), but if we look back I haven’t explained how it can be deployed. This blog will cover how to quickly launch CBS with the pre-requisites in AWS.
Introduction
If you are not familiar with the Pure Cloud Block Store, it is a purpose built block storage system that currently sits in Azure and AWS. There are many benefits and use cases you can find out here. While we do have an Cloud Formation Template (CFT) that deploys all the components of Pure Cloud Block Store, the underlying pre-requisites still have to be deployed prior.
What is the Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS Quick Launch?
The AWS Quick Launch is a HashiCorp Terraform Manifest I created that deploys a base configuration of resources within Amazon Web Services that need to exist before we can deploy Pure Cloud Block Store. To understand the pre-requisites we should review the Cloud Block Store Deployment and Configuration Guide for AWS. This guide covers all the prequisites needed. Many customers either have existing VPCs, Security Groups or Subnets defined. However, many customers who POC or deploy CBS may want to setup new resources for this. The Quick Launch will automatically setup the required resources using Terraform and deploy CBS into the account.
The required resources that the AWS Quick Launch will create are the following:
- AWS VPC
- AWS VPC Endpoints
- AWS Subnets
- AWS Internet Gateway
- AWS NAT Gateway
- AWS Route Tables
- AWS Elastic IP
- AWS Security Groups
- AWS IAM Role and IAM Policy for Deployment
- AWS EC2 VM
- Deploy CBS using the above created resources
Get the Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS Quick Launch
All the required Terraform files are located on GitHub.
To deploy you will also need a Pure Cloud Block Store license. This can be purchased directly through the AWS Marketplace or through Pure Storage as a PaaS subscription. A license can also be generated by your Pure Storage account team for a free trial or POC.
1git clone https://github.com/PureStorage-OpenConnect/cbs-quicklaunch.git
Deploy the Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS Quick Launch
The AWS Quick Launch has been easily variablized and made dynamic so only minor information is needed for a full end to end deployment.
AWS Variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| aws_prefix | Prefix for any objects created in AWS |
| aws_access_key | Used for Authentication |
| aws_secret_key | Used for Authentication |
| aws_region | AWS Region to use |
| aws_zone | AWS Zone within AWS to use |
| aws_ami_owner | AMI Owner |
| aws_ami_name | AMI Image Name |
| aws_ami_architecture | AMI Image Architecture |
| aws_instance_type | EC2 Instance Size |
| aws_key_name | Name of AWS Key to use for ssh login |
| aws_user_data | Any Script/Commands you wish the VM to run on Startup |
CBS Variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| template_url | URL of the Cloud Formation Template to Use (Purity Version) |
| license_key | Pure Cloud Block Store License Key |
| log_sender_domain | Domain to be used for CBS (Optional but Preferred) |
| alert_recipients | Email Address to be used for CBS Alerts |
| array_model | CBS Model (V10AR1 or V20AR1) |
To retrieve the template_url you can either look at the latest terraform example on Github or it can be retrieved by going through the UI deployment through the Marketplace and getting the template URL for the latest release.
As of 7/26/21 the template_url for Purity 6.1.7 is here.
Once you do your terraform init, terraform plan and terraform apply in ~15 minutes all your resources including CBS will be fully deployed!
Destroy the Pure Cloud Block Store on AWS Quick Launch
To clean up the environment there are manual steps that need to be taken as the current version (0.5.0) of the Terraform Provider does not handle the decommision of the Pure Cloud Block Store. This needs to be done manually before we can run terraform destroy. In a future release of the Terraform Provider we will be able to handle the automatic decommision of the Pure Cloud Block Store.
See below for the 3 steps we will need to clean up the AWS Quick Launch.
Decommission Pure Cloud Block Store
The Instructions to Remove Cloud Block Store cover the steps.
To begin you will ssh into your test VM that was created, create a factory reset token, and then do a factory reset of the array. This will handle the cleanup and remove the array object from Pure1.
Destroy the AWS Resources
Once the factory erase has been completed the CloudFormation Stack will be automatically removed cleaning up all the CBS AWS Resources. Once the stack has been removed you can run terraform destroy to clean up the remaining AWS resources created for the Quick Launch.
What’s Next?
This blog covered how to automate the deployment of CBS in AWS. Now take a look and see what else you can do with Pure Cloud Block Store. Will you run Production? Will you do Test/Dev? Will you do DR? It’s up to you. I have already discussed how you can cover some of these use cases so try them out and let us know what you think!
Conclusion
I love the idea of bringing enterprise storage features to the public cloud. This ease of deployment makes it even easier to consume Pure Cloud Block Store in AWS.
If you have any additional questions or comments, please leave them below!
comments powered by DisqusSee Also
- Pure Cloud Block Store on Azure - Quick Launch
- Using the Pure Storage Cloud Block Store Terraform Provider for AWS
- Deploying a Linux EC2 Instance with Hashicorp Terraform and Vault to AWS and Connect to Pure Cloud Block Store
- Deploying a Windows EC2 Instance with Hashicorp Terraform and Vault to AWS
- Using the Pure Storage Cloud Block Store Terraform Provider for Azure