How to Upgrade Your Own FlashArray with Pure1

Storage upgrades used to be a big deal—kind of like going in for surgery. Nowadays, with Everpure’s non-disruptive upgrades, this once high-risk procedure is more like a routine call with a telehealth professional.

The Biggest Benefit: Upgrade On Your Schedule

Historically, Purity upgrades were performed with Everpure’s support engineers on the phone, walking you through the entire process. This included prep work, such as performing health assessments to make sure the entire process is as smooth as possible This isn’t a practice I’ve seen done by a lot of hardware vendors before, except maybe by some converged infrastructure vendors or professional services.

And, support-assisted upgrades come with one major dependency: the alignment of your schedule and the schedule of our support engineers. Thankfully, this isn’t a big deal, as you can easily see support’s availability and schedule the upgrade with them right in Pure1®. But when storage upgrades are a part of a much larger project, if those timelines slip you may be looking for a more flexible option. Thankfully, such an option exists within Pure1 with self-service upgrades.

Figure 1: Scheduling support-assisted upgrades within Pure1.

Self-service: A Fully Automated Version of Support-led Upgrades

Despite the name self-service, Pure has stuck to our mantra of simplifying data storage for you. Rather than offering a complete do-it-yourself solution where you have to find all the bits and read through documentation, KBs, and release notes, Everpure self-service upgrades are a fully automated version of our support-led upgrades. It’s like we took the knowledge of our support engineers and uploaded it to the cloud! Whether you’re upgrading a single FlashArray™, Everpure Cloud™, or ActiveCluster™ and ActiveDR™ pairs, self-service upgrades are a great option.

You can even upgrade multiple standalone arrays through bulk upgrades.

“Everpure’s self-service upgrades are a fully automated version of our support-led upgrades. It’s like we took the knowledge of our support engineers and uploaded it to the cloud!”

Figure 2: Initiating a self-service ActiveCluster upgrade from within Pure1. 

Self-service Upgrades Are Simple, Secure, and Stable

Once you have enabled edge management (login required), the entire upgrade process is done from within the Pure1 UI. And because everything is initiated from Pure1, you can upgrade from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Watch the entire process of an ActiveCluster upgrade demonstrated in this Digital Bytes episode.

When we designed self-service upgrades, we focused on several key factors: 

• Simplicity: Self-service upgrades need to provide a similar experience to support-led upgrades. That means we don’t add additional complexities by burdening you with manual compatibility and health checks. The entire upgrade process is automated from upgrade recommendations and initial health checks through to the upgrade validation.
• Security: Self-service upgrades need to be secure from tampering or unauthorized users. Not only do we provide secure communication channels between the Pure1 Cloud and your FlashArray (which you can read more about in this KB—login required), but we also provide checks to ensure the binaries are unaltered before performing the upgrade. We even provide two-factor (TOTP) authentication to validate a user’s identity before initiating any upgrades.
• Stability: Self-service upgrades need to be performed safely and with ample risk mitigation. This starts with the health checks to make sure your FlashArray device is healthy and configured in a way that won’t disrupt the upgrade or your workloads. We’ve spent years reviewing support cases to create the pre-flight checks which are run several times throughout the process. Additionally, the upgrade process will require user input before initiating the upgrade and failing over to the secondary controller.

As enterprises scale AI beyond pilot projects, infrastructure limitations are becoming harder to ignorem as noted by Nirav Sheth, VP and Leader of Worldwide Sales & Customer Success Engineering at Everpure:

The Pure1 Edge Service and What It Can Do for You

If being able to perform FlashArray or Everpure Cloud Native upgrades on your own time is appealing to you, here’s how to get started. 

First, you’ll need to enable the Pure1 Edge Service. The compliance check won’t make any changes to your arrays and we recommend doing this at your earliest convenience to address any issues. You can perform this step in the Edge Service menu located under the administration heading in Pure1.

Figure 3: Requesting access to the Pure1 Edge Service. 

Once you have access to the Pure1 Edge Service, you need to install the Purity//FA Upgrade Agent and run just two commands on your array to enable it (login required to access both KB articles). One requirement of the Pure1 Edge Service is you’ll need a FlashArray that’s running at least Purity 6.2.10 or 6.3.1. (6.3.0 isn’t supported.) If you’re upgrading your Pure Cloud Block Store, then you need to be running 6.3.7 or greater. If you don’t have that, you’ll need to schedule an upgrade first.

Figure 4: Purity version recommendations in the Software Lifecycle dashboard. 

How to Know When It’s Time to Upgrade

Policy-driven upgrades simplify the process of determining what Purity version to upgrade to. Policies can be applied to single arrays or entire fleets depending on your requirements. You can choose to have some arrays under the proactive policy where they will receive the latest enterprise-ready versions while others only upgrade when there are critical patches. Or you can choose a balanced policy that reduces the frequency of upgrades while still receiving the latest enterprise-ready and long-life releases.

Figure 5: Results of the health check in the Software Lifecycle dashboard. 

Run a Health Check to Stay Ahead of Disruptions

Health checks are run multiple times throughout the upgrade and will look for common issues that might interrupt the upgrade process or potentially disrupt your workloads. This includes things like hardware health and compatibility, making sure all paths are connected and symmetric to each controller. 

The great thing about the health check is that you can run it on demand whenever you’d like. We recommend running a health check early on in your upgrade planning to give you enough time to address any issues that may arise. All checks can be exported and easily shared with others. Remember, with Pure1 you can deliver IT outcomes in seconds rather than hours or days.

Figure 6: Software upgrade process in the Software Lifecycle dashboard. 

How to Perform the Upgrade

Figure 7: A look at the two-factor authentication verification you’ll get to validate your identity.

Self-service upgrades can be performed from within the Pure1 UI from the Software Lifecycle dashboard. This is where you can also schedule support-assisted upgrades.

When it’s time to perform the upgrade, simply select the array(s) and follow the prompts. The entire process is performed from within the Pure1 UI and is guided, so the sequence of events will be consistent every time. This includes running a pre-check, downloading the upgrade bundle, upgrading each controller in series, and performing additional checks throughout the process. 

Before any data is downloaded to the array, we need to validate the user’s identity. This is done via the use of an authentication app to generate a time-based one-time password (TOTP). Users can enroll themselves in two-factor authentication through the Pure1 UI. Check out this video to learn how.

Figure 8: Before initiating the upgrade, user confirmation is required. 

We also require your input before failing over storage controllers just to keep you in sync with what’s going on (and to make sure you’re ready for the failover). From there, we’ll upgrade the new secondary controller before running a final health check on the array and completing the upgrade.

You Can Still Schedule Support-led Upgrades

Support-led upgrades aren’t going anywhere. You can still schedule your support-assisted FlashArray and FlashBlade® upgrades directly in Pure1. Self-service FlashArray upgrades are about giving you the choice to perform non-disruptive upgrades on your own time. You and all of the other teams that were previously involved with storage upgrades will have more time to focus on other important tasks. 

For the latest detailed information on self-service upgrades with Pure1, check out the Pure1 documentation (login required).

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FAQ

Who is the self-service upgrade in Pure1 designed for?

It’s built for FlashArray admins who want more control over maintenance windows, with guided steps that make non-disruptive upgrades straightforward—even if you’re not a storage specialist.

Do I still need to open a support ticket to upgrade my FlashArray?

With Pure1-guided upgrades, you can typically plan and execute supported upgrades yourself. If anything looks out of policy or risky, Pure1 will flag it and you can easily loop in Support.

Will upgrading my FlashArray with Pure1 cause downtime?

FlashArray upgrades are designed to be non-disruptive for supported configurations. Pure1 helps you validate health checks and prerequisites ahead of time so you can upgrade during a standard maintenance window with confidence.

What do I need in place before I start an upgrade in Pure1?

You’ll need your FlashArray connected to Pure1, valid support, and a healthy environment (no critical alerts, cabling or cluster issues, etc.). Pure1 will walk you through pre-checks before you commit.

Can I see the impact of an upgrade before I do it?

Yes. Pure1 surfaces recommended upgrade paths and highlights key changes (such as software versions and features) so you understand what’s changing before you schedule anything.

What if something goes wrong during a self-service upgrade?

Pure1 is designed to prevent risky upgrades up front, but if you do hit an issue, you can contact Support immediately with all the relevant context already in place.

Does this replace Evergreen™ benefits?

No. Pure1-guided upgrades complement Evergreen by making it even easier to stay current, protect your investment, and keep performance and features up to date.