# Dell EMC PowerStore Plugin

The Dell EMC Shared File Systems service driver framework (EMCShareDriver) utilizes the Dell EMC storage products to provide the shared file systems to OpenStack. The Dell EMC driver is a plug-in based driver which is designed to use different plug-ins to manage different Dell EMC storage products.

The PowerStore plug-in manages the PowerStore to provide shared file systems. The Dell EMC driver framework with the PowerStore plug-in is referred to as the PowerStore driver in this document.

This driver performs the operations on PowerStore through RESTful APIs. Each backend manages one PowerStore storage system. Configure multiple Shared File Systems service backends to manage multiple PowerStore systems.

## Requirements

- PowerStore version 3.0 or higher.

- PowerStore File is enabled.

## Supported shared filesystems and operations

The driver supports NFS shares and CIFS shares.

The following operations are supported.

- Create a share.

- Delete a share.

- Allow share access.

- Deny share access.

- Extend a share.

- Shrink a share.

- Create a snapshot.

- Delete a snapshot.

- Create a share from a snapshot.

- Revert a share to a snapshot.

## Driver configuration

Edit the configuration file `/etc/manila/manila.conf`.

- Add a section for the PowerStore driver backend.

- Under the `[DEFAULT]` section, set the `enabled_share_backends` parameter with the name of the new backend section.

- Configure the driver backend section with the parameters below.

      share_driver = manila.share.drivers.dell_emc.driver.EMCShareDriver
      emc_share_backend = powerstore
      dell_nas_backend_host = <Management IP of the PowerStore system>
      dell_nas_server = <Name of the NAS server in the PowerStore system>
      dell_ad_domain = <Domain name of the active directory joined by the NAS server>
      dell_nas_login = <User with administrator privilege>
      dell_nas_password = <Password>
      share_backend_name = <Backend name>
      dell_ssl_cert_verify = True/False
      dell_ssl_cert_path = <Path to cert>

  Where:

  Parameter | Description
  --- | ---
  `share_driver` | Full path of the EMCShareDriver used to enable the plugin.
  `emc_share_backend` | The plugin name. Set it to powerstore to enable the PowerStore driver.
  `dell_nas_backend_host` | The management IP of the PowerStore system.
  `dell_nas_server` | The name of the NAS server in the PowerStore system.
  `dell_ad_domain` | The name of the Active Directory Domain. Only applicable when the SMB server joins to the Active Directory Domain.
  `dell_nas_login` | The login to use to connect to the PowerStore system. It must have administrator privileges.
  `dell_nas_password` | The password associated with the login.
  `share_backend_name` | The share backend name for a given driver implementation.
  `dell_ssl_cert_verify` | The https client validates the SSL certificate of the PowerStore endpoint. Optional. Value: True or False. Default: False.
  `dell_ssl_cert_path` | The path to PowerStore SSL certificate on Manila host. Optional.

Restart of `manila-share` service is needed for the configuration changes to take effect.

## Pre-configurations for share support (DHSS=False)

To create a file share in this mode, you need to:

1. Create NAS server with network interface in PowerStore system.

2. Set ‘dell_nas_server’ in `/etc/manila/manila.conf`:

   >     dell_nas_server = <name of NAS server in PowerStore system>

3. Create the share type with driver_handles_share_servers = False extra specification:

   >     $ openstack share type create ${share_type_name} False

4. Map this share type to the share backend name

   >     $ openstack share type set ${share_type_name} \
   >         --extra-specs share_backend_name=${share_backend_name}

5. Create NFS share.

   >     $ openstack share create NFS ${size} --name ${share_name} --share-type ${share_type_name}

## Pre-configurations for snapshot support

The driver can: - create/delete a snapshot - create a share from a snapshot - revert a share to a snapshot

The following extra specifications need to be configured with share type.

- snapshot_support = True

- create_share_from_snapshot_support = True

- revert_to_snapshot_support = True

For new share type, these extra specifications can be set directly when creating share type:

>     $ openstack share type create ${share_type_name} False \
>         --snapshot-support=True \
>         --create-share-from-snapshot-support=True \
>         --revert-to-snapshot-support=True

Or you can update already existing share type with command:

>     $ openstack share type set ${share_type_name} \
>         --extra-specs snapshot_support=True \
>             create_share_from_snapshot_support=True \
>             revert_to_snapshot_support=True

## Known restrictions

The PowerStore driver has the following restrictions.

- Minimum share size is 3GiB.

- Only IP access type is supported for NFS shares.

- Only user access type is supported for CIFS shares.

- Only DHSS=False is supported.

- Modification of CIFS share access is supported in PowerStore 3.5 and above.

this page last updated: 2026-04-22 07:00:00

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