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Dell EMC PowerMax extension

  • Latest Dynatrace
  • Extension
  • Published Oct 27, 2025

Monitor PowerMax Arrays for performance and health through the Dell Unisphere API.

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Overview

Use the Dynatrace Dell EMC PowerMax extension for ActiveGate to simplify monitoring of your PowerMax infrastructure and focus on essential insights into your PowerMax arrays.

The PowerMax extension runs on a Dynatrace ActiveGate and connects to the Dell Unisphere APIs.

Activate the extension in your environment via the in-product Hub, then provide the PowerMax connection and a user account to connect to Unisphere APIs.

Use cases

  • Monitor your PowerMax arrays using a PowerMax-specific entity model and comprehensive unified analysis views.
  • Receive alerts on performance and health issues detected in your PowerMax infrastructure.
  • Take proactive actions based on anomalies detected in PowerMax infrastructure before they affect your applications.
  • Monitor the operation of your PowerMax array using the Unisphere API in Dynatrace, integrated with related insights into the infrastructure and apps that utilize your PowerMax array.
  • Monitor resource utilization and receive alerts for detected anomalies.

Requirements

The user account you provide to the extension must have the PerfMonitor role assigned to access the performance metric endpoints used by the extension.

SSL Configuration

To enable SSL communication between the ActiveGate and the Unisphere server, extract the CA certificate from the Unisphere server and place it on the ActiveGate.

The following command can be used to get the CA certificate of the Unisphere server:

$ openssl s_client -showcerts -connect {server_hostname}:8443 \
</dev/null 2>/dev/null|openssl x509 -outform PEM > {cert_name}.pem

This PEM key file needs to be placed on any ActiveGate that is running the extension, in a location that is accessible to the extension. The recommended default location for the PEM file is:

  • Linux:
    <CONFIG>/remotepluginmodule/agent/conf/certificates/
    (default: /var/lib/dynatrace/remotepluginmodule/agent/conf/certificates/)
  • Windows:
    %PROGRAMDATA%\dynatrace\remotepluginmodule\agent\conf\certificates

For more about Extensions 2.0 operations, see Extensions.

  • Run your workloads on Dell PowerMax for v3 and v4 hardware versions.
  • Extend Dynatrace insights into the storage infrastructure on which workloads depend.

Compatibility information

  • A Dell PowerMax array connected to the Unisphere API, reachable from an ActiveGate set up in your Dynatrace environment.
  • Unisphere API connection details: Unisphere IP, username, password, array id, and key file for authentication with the Unisphere API.
  • The Unisphere versions required are
    • Extension release 2.0.8 and older: from 10.1.0.0, up to 10.1.0.2
    • Extension release 2.0.9 and newer: 10.2 or newer.
  • Two dashboards are available on the Dynatrace portal, one for each supported hardware version. Please select the one compatible with the monitored array.

Details

The extension package contains:

  • Code (Python) module that implements metric ingestion from the Dell Unisphere API
  • Topology and relationship definitions for physical and logical entities that comprise the PowerMax platform
  • A sample dashboard offering the PowerMax monitoring overview and status
  • Unified analysis views for each entity, leveraging the topology model for interactive analysis

Summary of the PowerMax entities monitored:

The PowerMax extension collects metrics for PowerMax entities and builds topological relationships between them so that Dynatrace performance analytics can leverage causal dependencies and surface the root causes of issues. The following entities are monitored:

  • Array
  • Storage Resource Pool (SRP)
  • Disk Group
  • Storage Group
  • Host
  • Board
  • BE Director
  • FE Director
  • RDF Director
  • EDS Director
  • IM Director
  • EM Director
  • RDFA
  • System
  • Volumes

Licensing and cost

There is no charge for obtaining the extension, only for the data that the extension ingests. The details of license consumption depend on which licensing model you are using:

  • Dynatrace classic licensing
  • Dynatrace Platform Subscription (DPS)

Metrics

License consumption is based on the number of metric data points ingested. The following formula provides approximate annual data points ingested assuming all feature sets are enabled.

(
(
( 41 * number of Arrays)
+ ( 10 * number of Hosts)
+ ( 4 * number of Boards)
+ ( 9 * number of BE Directors)
+ ( 1 * number of EDS Directors)
+ ( 10 * number of FE Directors)
+ ( 3 * number of IM Directors)
+ ( 1 * number of EM Directors)
+ ( 9 * number of RDF Directors)
+ ( 1 * number of RDFA)
+ ( 8 * number of SRPs)
+ ( 15 * number of Disk Groups)
+ ( 26 * number of Storage Groups)
+ ( 4 * number of Volumes)
+ ( 9 )
) / <Metrics Collection Interval>
) * 60 minutes * 24 hours * 365 days data points per year

Logs

This extension does not ingest logs.

Classic licensing

In the Dynatrace classic licensing model, metric ingestion will consume Davis Data Units (DDUs) at the rate of .001 DDUs per metric data point. Multiply the above formula for annual data points by .001 to estimate annual DDU usage.

Feature sets

When activating your extension using monitoring configuration, you can limit monitoring to one of the feature sets. To work properly, the extension has to collect at least one metric after the activation.

In highly segmented networks, feature sets can reflect the segments of your environment. Then, when you create a monitoring configuration, you can select a feature set and a corresponding ActiveGate group that can connect to this particular segment.

All metrics that aren't categorized into any feature set are considered to be the default and are always reported.

A metric inherits the feature set of a subgroup, which in turn inherits the feature set of a group. Also, the feature set defined on the metric level overrides the feature set defined on the subgroup level, which in turn overrides the feature set defined on the group level.

eds-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.edsdirector.PercentBusy—
rdfa
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
RDFA WP Countstorage.dell.powermax.rdfa.RDFA_WPCount—
im-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Memory Page Fall thru Timestorage.dell.powermax.imdirector.MemoryPageFallThruTime—
Memory Page Usagestorage.dell.powermax.imdirector.MemoryPageUsage—
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.imdirector.PercentBusy—
board
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Inbound Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.board.InboundMBs—
Utilizationstorage.dell.powermax.board.InterConnect—
Max Speedstorage.dell.powermax.board.MaxSpeedMBs—
Outbound Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.board.OutboundMBs—
storage
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
BE Throughput Transferredstorage.dell.powermax.srp.BEMBTransferred—
BE Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.srp.BEReqs—
Host IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.srp.HostIOs—
Host Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.srp.HostMBs—
Physical Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.srp.PhysicalUsedCapacity—
Physical Used Percentstorage.dell.powermax.srp.PhysicalUsedPercent—
Response Timestorage.dell.powermax.srp.ResponseTime—
Total Storage Resource Pool Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.srp.TotalSRPCapacity—
be-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.IOs—
Throughput Readstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.MBRead—
Throughput Writtenstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.MBWritten—
Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.MBs—
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.PercentBusy—
Read Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.ReadReqs—
Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.Reqs—
Syscall Count/secstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.SyscallCount—
Write Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.bedirector.WriteReqs—
default
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Allocated Capacity (GB)storage.dell.powermax.array.AllocatedCapacity—
BE IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.array.BEIOs—
BE Utilizationstorage.dell.powermax.array.BEUtilization—
Cache Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.Cache_Balance—
Capacity of R1 Cache Slots in Usestorage.dell.powermax.array.CapacityR1CacheSlotsInUse—
Capacity of R2 Cache Slots in Usestorage.dell.powermax.array.CapacityR2CacheSlotsInUse—
DA Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.DA_Balance—
DX Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.DX_Balance—
Data Reduction Ratio on Reduciblestorage.dell.powermax.array.DataReductionRatioOnReducible—
Percent Disk Busystorage.dell.powermax.array.DiskUtilization—
EFD Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.EFD_Balance—
FC Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.FC_Balance—
FE Utilizationstorage.dell.powermax.array.FEUtilization—
FE Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.FE_Balance—
Host IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.array.HostIOs—
Host Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.array.HostMBs—
Local WP Countstorage.dell.powermax.array.LocalWPCount—
Local WP Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.array.LocalWPUsedCapacity—
Number of R1 Cache Slots in Usestorage.dell.powermax.array.NumberR1CacheSlotsInUse—
Number of R2 Cache Slots in Usestorage.dell.powermax.array.NumberR2CacheSlotsInUse—
Data Reduction Ratiostorage.dell.powermax.array.OverallCompressionRatio—
Percent Cache WPstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentCacheWP—
Percent Hitstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentHit—
Percent Meta Data Backend Usedstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentMetaBEUsed—
Percent Meta Data Frontend Usedstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentMetaFEUsed—
Percent Meta Data Replication Usedstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentMetaRepUsed—
Percent Meta Data System Usedstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentMetaSystemUsed—
Percent Readsstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentReads—
Percent Writesstorage.dell.powermax.array.PercentWrites—
RDFA WP Countstorage.dell.powermax.array.RDFA_WPCount—
RDF Utilizationstorage.dell.powermax.array.RDFUtilization—
RDF Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.RDF_Balance—
Read RTstorage.dell.powermax.array.ReadResponseTime—
SATA Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.SATA_Balance—
SCM Balancestorage.dell.powermax.array.SCM_Balance—
System Max WP Limit Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.array.SystemMaxWPLimitCapacity—
System Max WP Limitstorage.dell.powermax.array.SystemMaxWPLimit—
System WP Events/secstorage.dell.powermax.array.SystemWPEvents—
System WP Countstorage.dell.powermax.array.WPCount—
System WP Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.array.WPUsedCapacity—
Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.array.WriteResponseTime—
em-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.emdirector.PercentBusy—
replication
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
—storage.dell.powermax—
host
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Host IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.host.HostIOs—
Host Throughput Readstorage.dell.powermax.host.HostMBReads—
Host Throughput Writtenstorage.dell.powermax.host.HostMBWrites—
Host Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.host.MBs—
Read RTstorage.dell.powermax.host.ReadResponseTime—
Host Reads/secstorage.dell.powermax.host.Reads—
Response Timestorage.dell.powermax.host.ResponseTime—
Syscall Count/secstorage.dell.powermax.host.SyscallCount—
Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.host.WriteResponseTime—
Host Writes/secstorage.dell.powermax.host.Writes—
rdf-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Avg IO Service Timestorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.AvgIOServiceTime—
Copy IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.CopyIOs—
Copy Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.CopyMBs—
IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.IOs—
Throughput Receivedstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.MBRead—
Throughput Sent and Receivedstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.MBSentAndReceived—
Throughput Sentstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.MBWritten—
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.PercentBusy—
Write Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.rdfdirector.WriteReqs—
storage-group
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Avg QOS Delay Per IOstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.AvgQOSDelayPerIO—
Avg. Write Paced Delay (ms)storage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.AvgWritePacedDelay—
BE Read Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.BEReadReqs—
BE Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.BEReqs—
BE Write Reqs/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.BEWriteReqs—
Host Hits/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostHits—
Host IO Limit Percent Time Exceededstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostIOLimitPercentTimeExceeded—
Host IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostIOs—
Host Throughput Readstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostMBReads—
Host Throughput Writtenstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostMBWritten—
Host Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostMBs—
Host Misses/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostMisses—
Host Reads/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostReads—
Host Writes/secstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.HostWrites—
Percent Hitstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.PercentHit—
Percent Missstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.PercentMisses—
Percent Readsstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.PercentRead—
Percent Writesstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.PercentWrite—
RDF/S Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.RDFS_WriteResponseTime—
RDF Response Timestorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.RdfResponseTime—
Read RTstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.ReadResponseTime—
Response Timestorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.ResponseTime—
VAAI Total Command Countstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.VAAITotalCommandCount—
WP Countstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.WPCount—
Write paced delaystorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.WritePacedDelay—
Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.storagegroup.WriteResponseTime—
slo-provisioning
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
—storage.dell.powermax—
fe-director
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Host IO Limit IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.HostIOLimitIOs—
Host IO Limit Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.HostIOLimitMBs—
Host IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.HostIOs—
Host Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.HostMBs—
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.PercentBusy—
Queue Depth Utilizationstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.QueueDepthUtilization—
Read RTstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.ReadResponseTime—
Syscall Count/secstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.SyscallCount—
Syscall Time/secstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.SyscallTimePerSec—
Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.fedirector.WriteResponseTime—
volumes
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Volume Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.volume.cap_mb—
Volume Effective Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.volume.effective_used_capacity_gb—
Volume Snapshotsstorage.dell.powermax.volume.num_of_snapshots—
Volume Clonesstorage.dell.powermax.volume.num_of_clones—
storage-diskgroup
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Reads/secstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.DiskReads—
Writes/secstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.DiskWrites—
IO Densitystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.IODensity—
IOs/secstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.IOs—
Throughput Readstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.MBReads—
Throughput Writtenstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.MBWritten—
Throughputstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.MBs—
Percent Busystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.PercentBusy—
Percent Free Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.PercentCapacityFree—
Percent Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.PercentCapacityUsed—
Read RTstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.ReadResponseTime—
Response Timestorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.ResponseTime—
Total Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.TotalCapacity—
Used Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.UsedCapacity—
Write RTstorage.dell.powermax.diskgroup.WriteResponseTime—
system
Metric nameMetric keyDescription
Disk Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.disk.capacity—
Failed Disks Countstorage.dell.powermax.health.num_failed_disks—
Overall Healthstorage.dell.powermax.health.overall—
Health Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.health.capacity—
Health Configurationstorage.dell.powermax.health.configuration—
Health Performance HSstorage.dell.powermax.health.performance_hs—
Health Data Protection HSstorage.dell.powermax.health.data_protection_hs—
Director Port Statusstorage.dell.powermax.director.port_status—
Director Capacitystorage.dell.powermax.director.capacity—
Hub

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Monitor PowerMax Arrays for performance and health through the Dell Unisphere API.

Related tags
StoragePythonSAN/NASDellInfrastructure Observability