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title Everpure FlashArray for AWS Outposts - Quick Start Guide

Everpure FlashArray for AWS Outposts - Quick Start Guide

This guide covers connecting EC2 instances on AWS Outposts to Everpure FlashArray for both data and boot volumes using NVMe-TCP or iSCSI protocols.

For detailed explanations and troubleshooting: See the AWS Outposts external storage documentation

{% include quickstart/disclaimer.md %}

Overview

AWS Outposts (Racks and 2U Servers) now support external block storage from Everpure FlashArray.

Supported Protocols

Protocol Port Use Case
NVMe-TCP 4420 High-performance workloads, modern deployments
iSCSI 3260 Broad compatibility, Windows/Linux support

Supported Configurations

Outpost Type Connectivity Protocols
Outposts Rack (42U) Local Gateway (LGW) iSCSI, NVMe-TCP
Outposts Server (2U) Local Network Interface (LNI) iSCSI, NVMe-TCP

Boot Volume Methods

Method Description Use Case
SANboot Direct boot from FlashArray via iPXE/iSCSI Persistent VMs, databases, production
Localboot Copies volume to local instance storage VDI, dev/test, ephemeral workloads

Prerequisites

  • AWS Outposts Rack or Server deployed and connected
  • Everpure FlashArray accessible from EC2 instances via:
    • Racks: Local Gateway (LGW) routing to on-premises network
    • Servers: Local Network Interface (LNI) with L2 connectivity to on-premises network
  • VPC with subnet on the Outpost
  • Supported AMI for external storage

Note: Each EC2 instance has its own IQN (iSCSI) or NQN (NVMe) initiator identity. When creating Host entries on the FlashArray, use the EC2 instance's initiator identity, not the physical Outpost server.

Step 1: Configure FlashArray

Configure the FlashArray to recognize the EC2 instance and provision storage. You can use either the GUI or CLI.

Option A: Via FlashArray GUI

Create Host Entry:

  1. Log into Everpure FlashArray GUI
  2. Navigate to Storage → Hosts
  3. Create a new host with the EC2 instance identifier

For NVMe-TCP:

  • Set Personality to NVMe
  • Add the Initiator NQN (format: nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:<unique-id>)
  • Note the Target NQN and Target Portal IPs (port 4420)

For iSCSI:

  • Set Personality to iSCSI
  • Add the Initiator IQN (format: iqn.YYYY-MM.com.amazon:<identifier>)
  • Note the Target IQN and Target Portal IPs (port 3260)

Create and Map Volumes:

  1. Navigate to Storage → Volumes
  2. Create volume(s) with appropriate size
  3. Connect volume(s) to the host entry

Option B: Via Pure CLI

Run these commands from any workstation with SSH access to the FlashArray management IP.

# SSH to FlashArray
ssh pureuser@<array-ip>

# Create host with NVMe-TCP personality
purehost create --personality nvme \
  --nqnlist nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:ec2-instance-01 \
  ec2-instance-01

# Or create host with iSCSI personality
purehost create --personality iscsi \
  --iqnlist iqn.2024-01.com.amazon:ec2-instance-01 \
  ec2-instance-01

# Create a data volume (e.g., 100GB)
purevol create --size 100G ec2-instance-01-data

# Connect volume to host
purehost connect --vol ec2-instance-01-data ec2-instance-01

# Verify connection
purevol list --connect ec2-instance-01-data

Tip: You can also use the Pure Storage Python SDK or REST API from your workstation for automation.

Step 2: Launch EC2 Instance with External Storage

Via AWS Console

  1. Navigate to EC2 → Instances → Launch instances
  2. Name: Enter instance name
  3. AMI: Select a supported AMI for external storage
  4. Instance Type: Select a supported instance type
  5. Network Settings:
    • Select VPC and Outpost subnet
    • Outposts Servers only: Create LNI in Advanced Network settings
  6. Configure Storage → External storage volumes settings → Edit:

For NVMe-TCP:

  • Storage network protocol: NVMe/TCP
  • Initiator NQN: Enter the NQN configured on FlashArray
  • Click Add NVMe/TCP Target:
    • Target IP: FlashArray portal IP
    • Target Port: 4420
    • Target NQN: FlashArray subsystem NQN
  • Repeat for each portal (multipath)

For iSCSI:

  • Storage network protocol: iSCSI
  • Initiator IQN: Enter the IQN configured on FlashArray
  • Click Add iSCSI Target:
    • Target IP: FlashArray portal IP
    • Target Port: 3260 (or 4420)
    • Target IQN: FlashArray target IQN
  • Repeat for each portal (multipath)
  1. Advanced Details: Review auto-generated user data
  2. Click Launch instance

Step 3: Verify Connectivity

Linux (NVMe-TCP)

# List NVMe devices
sudo nvme list

# Check subsystem connections
sudo nvme list-subsys

Linux (iSCSI)

# Check iSCSI sessions
sudo iscsiadm -m session -P3

# List block devices
lsblk

Windows

# List disks
Get-Disk

# For iSCSI sessions
Get-IscsiSession

Boot Volume Configuration

AWS Outposts supports booting EC2 instances from Everpure FlashArray volumes. The AWS Console handles iPXE user-data generation automatically when you configure external boot volumes during instance launch—no manual iPXE scripting required.

AWS Sample Tooling: aws-samples/sample-outposts-third-party-storage-integration

Boot Methods

Method Description Use Case
SANboot Direct boot from FlashArray via iPXE/iSCSI Persistent VMs, databases, production
Localboot Copies volume to local instance storage at boot VDI, dev/test, ephemeral workloads

SANboot Benefits:

  • Persistent storage across instance stop/start
  • Full Everpure features (snapshots, replication, SafeMode)
  • Consistent boot environment

Localboot Benefits:

  • Local NVMe performance after initial hydration
  • Source volume unchanged (golden image pattern)
  • Note: Local storage is ephemeral—data lost on instance stop/terminate

Important: Windows instances do not support Localboot via NVMe-over-TCP. Use iSCSI for Windows Localboot.

Boot Image Preparation

Step 1: Export or Convert Image

From an existing AMI:

# Clone the AWS sample repo (run from your workstation)
git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-outposts-third-party-storage-integration.git
cd sample-outposts-third-party-storage-integration
pip install -e .

# Export AMI to RAW format (for Localboot)
python3 -m vmie export --region us-west-2 --s3-bucket <bucket-name> \
  --ami-id ami-XXXXXXXXXXXX

# Export AMI with SANboot support (Linux only)
python3 -m vmie export --region us-west-2 --s3-bucket <bucket-name> \
  --ami-id ami-XXXXXXXXXXXX --install-sanbootable

From QCOW2 image:

# Convert to RAW (requires qemu-img on your workstation)
qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw ./image.qcow2 ./image.raw

Step 2: Create Boot Volume on FlashArray

# SSH to FlashArray from your workstation
ssh pureuser@<array-ip>

# Create boot volume sized for your image (e.g., 20GB for typical Linux)
purevol create --size 20G golden-rhel9-boot

# Connect to a "provisioning host" for image writing
purehost connect --vol golden-rhel9-boot provisioning-host

Step 3: Write Image to FlashArray Volume

Connect the boot volume to a Linux or Windows system on the same network as the FlashArray. This can be your workstation if it has iSCSI connectivity, or any other system with storage network access.

Linux:

# Download exported RAW image from S3
aws s3 cp "s3://<bucket>/exports/<export-path>/export-ami-XXX.raw" ./image.raw

# Check image size
ls -lsh ./image.raw

# Write to FlashArray volume (replace mpathX with your multipath device)
sudo dd if=./image.raw of=/dev/mapper/mpathX bs=8M status=progress oflag=sync

# Disconnect when done
sudo multipath -f mpathX

Windows (PowerShell as Administrator):

# Download exported RAW image
aws s3 cp "s3://<bucket>/exports/<export-path>/export-ami-XXX.raw" .\image.raw

# Identify the FlashArray disk (offline disk)
Get-Disk | Where-Object OperationalStatus -eq 'Offline'

# Write RAW image (replace X with disk number; requires dd via Git Bash/WSL)
dd if=.\image.raw of=\\.\PhysicalDriveX bs=8M

Tip: On Windows, Win32 Disk Imager can also write RAW images.

Step 4: Create Golden Image Snapshot

After writing the image, create a snapshot for fast provisioning of new boot volumes:

# SSH to FlashArray
ssh pureuser@<array-ip>

# Create snapshot of the golden image
purevol snap --suffix golden-v1 golden-rhel9-boot

# Clone new boot volumes from snapshot
purevol copy golden-rhel9-boot.golden-v1 ec2-instance-01-boot
purehost connect --vol ec2-instance-01-boot ec2-instance-01

Architecture Diagram

Outposts Rack (via Local Gateway)

flowchart TB
    subgraph AWSRegion["AWS Region"]
        subgraph VPC["Customer VPC"]
            subgraph OutpostRack["Outpost Rack"]
                EC2_R["EC2 Instance<br/>(IQN/NQN Initiator)"]
                LGW["Local Gateway<br/>(LGW)"]
            end
        end
    end

    subgraph OnPrem["On-Premises Network"]
        subgraph FlashArray["Everpure FlashArray"]
            Portals["Portal IPs<br/>NVMe-TCP: 4420<br/>iSCSI: 3260"]
        end
    end

    EC2_R <-->|"NVMe-TCP / iSCSI"| LGW
    LGW <-->|"L3 Routing"| FlashArray

    style AWSRegion fill:#232f3e,stroke:#ff9900,color:#fff
    style VPC fill:#3b48cc,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style OutpostRack fill:#1b660f,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style OnPrem fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#333
    style FlashArray fill:#fe5000,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style EC2_R fill:#ff9900,stroke:#232f3e,color:#000
    style LGW fill:#ff9900,stroke:#232f3e,color:#000
    style Portals fill:#fff,stroke:#fe5000,color:#000
Loading

Outposts Server (via Local Network Interface)

flowchart TB
    subgraph AWSRegion["AWS Region"]
        subgraph VPC["Customer VPC"]
            subgraph OutpostServer["Outpost Server (2U)"]
                EC2_S["EC2 Instance<br/>(IQN/NQN Initiator)"]
                LNI["Local Network<br/>Interface (LNI)"]
            end
        end
    end

    subgraph OnPrem["On-Premises Network"]
        subgraph FlashArray["Everpure FlashArray"]
            Portals["Portal IPs<br/>NVMe-TCP: 4420<br/>iSCSI: 3260"]
        end
    end

    EC2_S <-->|"NVMe-TCP / iSCSI"| LNI
    LNI <-->|"L2 Connectivity"| FlashArray

    style AWSRegion fill:#232f3e,stroke:#ff9900,color:#fff
    style VPC fill:#3b48cc,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style OutpostServer fill:#1b660f,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style OnPrem fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#333
    style FlashArray fill:#fe5000,stroke:#fff,color:#fff
    style EC2_S fill:#ff9900,stroke:#232f3e,color:#000
    style LNI fill:#ff9900,stroke:#232f3e,color:#000
    style Portals fill:#fff,stroke:#fe5000,color:#000
Loading

Quick Reference

Task NVMe-TCP iSCSI
Default Port 4420 3260
Identifier NQN IQN
Linux Check nvme list-subsys iscsiadm -m session -P3
Discovery Port 8009 3260

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

  1. Verify network connectivity from Outpost subnet to FlashArray portal IPs
  2. Check LGW/LNI configuration in AWS console
  3. Verify initiator mapping on FlashArray (NQN/IQN must match)
  4. Check volume mapping - volume must be connected to the host entry

No Volumes Visible

# Linux - check dmesg for connection errors
dmesg | grep -i nvme
dmesg | grep -i iscsi

# Verify kernel modules loaded
lsmod | grep nvme
lsmod | grep iscsi

Multipath Not Working

  • Ensure all portal IPs are added during EC2 launch
  • Verify all paths show as active in FlashArray

Next Steps

For production deployments: