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OpenShift Container Platform 4.12

Configuring and managing storage in OpenShift Container Platform

Red Hat OpenShift Documentation Team

Abstract

This document provides instructions for configuring persistent volumes from various storage back ends and managing dynamic allocation from Pods.

Chapter 1. OpenShift Container Platform storage overview

OpenShift Container Platform supports multiple types of storage, both for on-premise and cloud providers. You can manage container storage for persistent and non-persistent data in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

1.1. Glossary of common terms for OpenShift Container Platform storage

This glossary defines common terms that are used in the storage content.

Access modes

Volume access modes describe volume capabilities. You can use access modes to match persistent volume claim (PVC) and persistent volume (PV). The following are the examples of access modes:

  • ReadWriteOnce (RWO)
  • ReadOnlyMany (ROX)
  • ReadWriteMany (RWX)
  • ReadWriteOncePod (RWOP)
Cinder
The Block Storage service for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) which manages the administration, security, and scheduling of all volumes.
Config map
A config map provides a way to inject configuration data into pods. You can reference the data stored in a config map in a volume of type ConfigMap. Applications running in a pod can use this data.
Container Storage Interface (CSI)
An API specification for the management of container storage across different container orchestration (CO) systems.
Dynamic Provisioning
The framework allows you to create storage volumes on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision persistent storage.
Ephemeral storage
Pods and containers can require temporary or transient local storage for their operation. The lifetime of this ephemeral storage does not extend beyond the life of the individual pod, and this ephemeral storage cannot be shared across pods.
Fiber channel
A networking technology that is used to transfer data among data centers, computer servers, switches and storage.
FlexVolume
FlexVolume is an out-of-tree plugin interface that uses an exec-based model to interface with storage drivers. You must install the FlexVolume driver binaries in a pre-defined volume plugin path on each node and in some cases the control plane nodes.
fsGroup
The fsGroup defines a file system group ID of a pod.
iSCSI
Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) is an Internet Protocol-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. An iSCSI volume allows an existing iSCSI (SCSI over IP) volume to be mounted into your Pod.
hostPath
A hostPath volume in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster mounts a file or directory from the host node’s filesystem into your pod.
KMS key
The Key Management Service (KMS) helps you achieve the required level of encryption of your data across different services. you can use the KMS key to encrypt, decrypt, and re-encrypt data.
Local volumes
A local volume represents a mounted local storage device such as a disk, partition or directory.
NFS
A Network File System (NFS) that allows remote hosts to mount file systems over a network and interact with those file systems as though they are mounted locally. This enables system administrators to consolidate resources onto centralized servers on the network.
OpenShift Data Foundation
A provider of agnostic persistent storage for OpenShift Container Platform supporting file, block, and object storage, either in-house or in hybrid clouds
Persistent storage
Pods and containers can require permanent storage for their operation. OpenShift Container Platform uses the Kubernetes persistent volume (PV) framework to allow cluster administrators to provision persistent storage for a cluster. Developers can use PVC to request PV resources without having specific knowledge of the underlying storage infrastructure.
Persistent volumes (PV)
OpenShift Container Platform uses the Kubernetes persistent volume (PV) framework to allow cluster administrators to provision persistent storage for a cluster. Developers can use PVC to request PV resources without having specific knowledge of the underlying storage infrastructure.
Persistent volume claims (PVCs)
You can use a PVC to mount a PersistentVolume into a Pod. You can access the storage without knowing the details of the cloud environment.
Pod
One or more containers with shared resources, such as volume and IP addresses, running in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. A pod is the smallest compute unit defined, deployed, and managed.
Reclaim policy
A policy that tells the cluster what to do with the volume after it is released. A volume’s reclaim policy can be Retain, Recycle, or Delete.
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Role-based access control (RBAC) is a method of regulating access to computer or network resources based on the roles of individual users within your organization.
Stateless applications
A stateless application is an application program that does not save client data generated in one session for use in the next session with that client.
Stateful applications
A stateful application is an application program that saves data to persistent disk storage. A server, client, and applications can use a persistent disk storage. You can use the Statefulset object in OpenShift Container Platform to manage the deployment and scaling of a set of Pods, and provides guarantee about the ordering and uniqueness of these Pods.
Static provisioning
A cluster administrator creates a number of PVs. PVs contain the details of storage. PVs exist in the Kubernetes API and are available for consumption.
Storage
OpenShift Container Platform supports many types of storage, both for on-premise and cloud providers. You can manage container storage for persistent and non-persistent data in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Storage class
A storage class provides a way for administrators to describe the classes of storage they offer. Different classes might map to quality of service levels, backup policies, arbitrary policies determined by the cluster administrators.
VMware vSphere’s Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) volumes
Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) is a file format that describes containers for virtual hard disk drives that is used in virtual machines.

1.2. Storage types

OpenShift Container Platform storage is broadly classified into two categories, namely ephemeral storage and persistent storage.

1.2.1. Ephemeral storage

Pods and containers are ephemeral or transient in nature and designed for stateless applications. Ephemeral storage allows administrators and developers to better manage the local storage for some of their operations. For more information about ephemeral storage overview, types, and management, see Understanding ephemeral storage.

1.2.2. Persistent storage

Stateful applications deployed in containers require persistent storage. OpenShift Container Platform uses a pre-provisioned storage framework called persistent volumes (PV) to allow cluster administrators to provision persistent storage. The data inside these volumes can exist beyond the lifecycle of an individual pod. Developers can use persistent volume claims (PVCs) to request storage requirements. For more information about persistent storage overview, configuration, and lifecycle, see Understanding persistent storage.

1.3. Container Storage Interface (CSI)

CSI is an API specification for the management of container storage across different container orchestration (CO) systems. You can manage the storage volumes within the container native environments, without having specific knowledge of the underlying storage infrastructure. With the CSI, storage works uniformly across different container orchestration systems, regardless of the storage vendors you are using. For more information about CSI, see Using Container Storage Interface (CSI).

1.4. Dynamic Provisioning

Dynamic Provisioning allows you to create storage volumes on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage. For more information about dynamic provisioning, see Dynamic provisioning.

Chapter 2. Understanding ephemeral storage

2.1. Overview

In addition to persistent storage, pods and containers can require ephemeral or transient local storage for their operation. The lifetime of this ephemeral storage does not extend beyond the life of the individual pod, and this ephemeral storage cannot be shared across pods.

Pods use ephemeral local storage for scratch space, caching, and logs. Issues related to the lack of local storage accounting and isolation include the following:

  • Pods cannot detect how much local storage is available to them.
  • Pods cannot request guaranteed local storage.
  • Local storage is a best-effort resource.
  • Pods can be evicted due to other pods filling the local storage, after which new pods are not admitted until sufficient storage is reclaimed.

Unlike persistent volumes, ephemeral storage is unstructured and the space is shared between all pods running on a node, in addition to other uses by the system, the container runtime, and OpenShift Container Platform. The ephemeral storage framework allows pods to specify their transient local storage needs. It also allows OpenShift Container Platform to schedule pods where appropriate, and to protect the node against excessive use of local storage.

While the ephemeral storage framework allows administrators and developers to better manage local storage, I/O throughput and latency are not directly effected.

2.2. Types of ephemeral storage

Ephemeral local storage is always made available in the primary partition. There are two basic ways of creating the primary partition: root and runtime.

Root

This partition holds the kubelet root directory, /var/lib/kubelet/ by default, and /var/log/ directory. This partition can be shared between user pods, the OS, and Kubernetes system daemons. This partition can be consumed by pods through EmptyDir volumes, container logs, image layers, and container-writable layers. Kubelet manages shared access and isolation of this partition. This partition is ephemeral, and applications cannot expect any performance SLAs, such as disk IOPS, from this partition.

Runtime

This is an optional partition that runtimes can use for overlay file systems. OpenShift Container Platform attempts to identify and provide shared access along with isolation to this partition. Container image layers and writable layers are stored here. If the runtime partition exists, the root partition does not hold any image layer or other writable storage.

2.3. Ephemeral storage management

Cluster administrators can manage ephemeral storage within a project by setting quotas that define the limit ranges and number of requests for ephemeral storage across all pods in a non-terminal state. Developers can also set requests and limits on this compute resource at the pod and container level.

You can manage local ephemeral storage by specifying requests and limits. Each container in a pod can specify the following:

  • spec.containers[].resources.limits.ephemeral-storage
  • spec.containers[].resources.requests.ephemeral-storage

Limits and requests for ephemeral storage are measured in byte quantities. You can express storage as a plain integer or as a fixed-point number using one of these suffixes: E, P, T, G, M, k. You can also use the power-of-two equivalents: Ei, Pi, Ti, Gi, Mi, Ki. For example, the following quantities all represent approximately the same value: 128974848, 129e6, 129M, and 123Mi. The case of the suffixes is significant. If you specify 400m of ephemeral storage, this requests 0.4 bytes, rather than 400 mebibytes (400Mi) or 400 megabytes (400M), which was probably what was intended.

The following example shows a pod with two containers. Each container requests 2GiB of local ephemeral storage. Each container has a limit of 4GiB of local ephemeral storage. Therefore, the pod has a request of 4GiB of local ephemeral storage, and a limit of 8GiB of local ephemeral storage.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: frontend
spec:
  containers:
  - name: app
    image: images.my-company.example/app:v4
    resources:
      requests:
        ephemeral-storage: "2Gi" 1
      limits:
        ephemeral-storage: "4Gi" 2
    volumeMounts:
    - name: ephemeral
      mountPath: "/tmp"
  - name: log-aggregator
    image: images.my-company.example/log-aggregator:v6
    resources:
      requests:
        ephemeral-storage: "2Gi" 3
    volumeMounts:
    - name: ephemeral
      mountPath: "/tmp"
  volumes:
    - name: ephemeral
      emptyDir: {}
1 3
Request for local ephemeral storage.
2
Limit for local ephemeral storage.

This setting in the pod spec affects how the scheduler makes a decision on scheduling pods, and also how kubelet evict pods. First of all, the scheduler ensures that the sum of the resource requests of the scheduled containers is less than the capacity of the node. In this case, the pod can be assigned to a node only if its available ephemeral storage (allocatable resource) is more than 4GiB.

Secondly, at the container level, since the first container sets resource limit, kubelet eviction manager measures the disk usage of this container and evicts the pod if the storage usage of this container exceeds its limit (4GiB). At the pod level, kubelet works out an overall pod storage limit by adding up the limits of all the containers in that pod. In this case, the total storage usage at the pod level is the sum of the disk usage from all containers plus the pod’s emptyDir volumes. If this total usage exceeds the overall pod storage limit (4GiB), then the kubelet also marks the pod for eviction.

For information about defining quotas for projects, see Quota setting per project.

2.4. Monitoring ephemeral storage

You can use /bin/df as a tool to monitor ephemeral storage usage on the volume where ephemeral container data is located, which is /var/lib/kubelet and /var/lib/containers. The available space for only /var/lib/kubelet is shown when you use the df command if /var/lib/containers is placed on a separate disk by the cluster administrator.

To show the human-readable values of used and available space in /var/lib, enter the following command:

$ df -h /var/lib

The output shows the ephemeral storage usage in /var/lib:

Example output

Filesystem  Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1    69G   32G   34G  49% /

Chapter 3. Understanding persistent storage

3.1. Persistent storage overview

Managing storage is a distinct problem from managing compute resources. OpenShift Container Platform uses the Kubernetes persistent volume (PV) framework to allow cluster administrators to provision persistent storage for a cluster. Developers can use persistent volume claims (PVCs) to request PV resources without having specific knowledge of the underlying storage infrastructure.

PVCs are specific to a project, and are created and used by developers as a means to use a PV. PV resources on their own are not scoped to any single project; they can be shared across the entire OpenShift Container Platform cluster and claimed from any project. After a PV is bound to a PVC, that PV can not then be bound to additional PVCs. This has the effect of scoping a bound PV to a single namespace, that of the binding project.

PVs are defined by a PersistentVolume API object, which represents a piece of existing storage in the cluster that was either statically provisioned by the cluster administrator or dynamically provisioned using a StorageClass object. It is a resource in the cluster just like a node is a cluster resource.

PVs are volume plugins like Volumes but have a lifecycle that is independent of any individual pod that uses the PV. PV objects capture the details of the implementation of the storage, be that NFS, iSCSI, or a cloud-provider-specific storage system.

Important

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

PVCs are defined by a PersistentVolumeClaim API object, which represents a request for storage by a developer. It is similar to a pod in that pods consume node resources and PVCs consume PV resources. For example, pods can request specific levels of resources, such as CPU and memory, while PVCs can request specific storage capacity and access modes. For example, they can be mounted once read-write or many times read-only.

3.2. Lifecycle of a volume and claim

PVs are resources in the cluster. PVCs are requests for those resources and also act as claim checks to the resource. The interaction between PVs and PVCs have the following lifecycle.

3.2.1. Provision storage

In response to requests from a developer defined in a PVC, a cluster administrator configures one or more dynamic provisioners that provision storage and a matching PV.

Alternatively, a cluster administrator can create a number of PVs in advance that carry the details of the real storage that is available for use. PVs exist in the API and are available for use.

3.2.2. Bind claims

When you create a PVC, you request a specific amount of storage, specify the required access mode, and create a storage class to describe and classify the storage. The control loop in the master watches for new PVCs and binds the new PVC to an appropriate PV. If an appropriate PV does not exist, a provisioner for the storage class creates one.

The size of all PVs might exceed your PVC size. This is especially true with manually provisioned PVs. To minimize the excess, OpenShift Container Platform binds to the smallest PV that matches all other criteria.

Claims remain unbound indefinitely if a matching volume does not exist or can not be created with any available provisioner servicing a storage class. Claims are bound as matching volumes become available. For example, a cluster with many manually provisioned 50Gi volumes would not match a PVC requesting 100Gi. The PVC can be bound when a 100Gi PV is added to the cluster.

3.2.3. Use pods and claimed PVs

Pods use claims as volumes. The cluster inspects the claim to find the bound volume and mounts that volume for a pod. For those volumes that support multiple access modes, you must specify which mode applies when you use the claim as a volume in a pod.

Once you have a claim and that claim is bound, the bound PV belongs to you for as long as you need it. You can schedule pods and access claimed PVs by including persistentVolumeClaim in the pod’s volumes block.

Note

If you attach persistent volumes that have high file counts to pods, those pods can fail or can take a long time to start. For more information, see When using Persistent Volumes with high file counts in OpenShift, why do pods fail to start or take an excessive amount of time to achieve "Ready" state?.

3.2.4. Storage Object in Use Protection

The Storage Object in Use Protection feature ensures that PVCs in active use by a pod and PVs that are bound to PVCs are not removed from the system, as this can result in data loss.

Storage Object in Use Protection is enabled by default.

Note

A PVC is in active use by a pod when a Pod object exists that uses the PVC.

If a user deletes a PVC that is in active use by a pod, the PVC is not removed immediately. PVC removal is postponed until the PVC is no longer actively used by any pods. Also, if a cluster admin deletes a PV that is bound to a PVC, the PV is not removed immediately. PV removal is postponed until the PV is no longer bound to a PVC.

3.2.5. Release a persistent volume

When you are finished with a volume, you can delete the PVC object from the API, which allows reclamation of the resource. The volume is considered released when the claim is deleted, but it is not yet available for another claim. The previous claimant’s data remains on the volume and must be handled according to policy.

3.2.6. Reclaim policy for persistent volumes

The reclaim policy of a persistent volume tells the cluster what to do with the volume after it is released. A volume’s reclaim policy can be Retain, Recycle, or Delete.

  • Retain reclaim policy allows manual reclamation of the resource for those volume plugins that support it.
  • Recycle reclaim policy recycles the volume back into the pool of unbound persistent volumes once it is released from its claim.
Important

The Recycle reclaim policy is deprecated in OpenShift Container Platform 4. Dynamic provisioning is recommended for equivalent and better functionality.

  • Delete reclaim policy deletes both the PersistentVolume object from OpenShift Container Platform and the associated storage asset in external infrastructure, such as AWS EBS or VMware vSphere.
Note

Dynamically provisioned volumes are always deleted.

3.2.7. Reclaiming a persistent volume manually

When a persistent volume claim (PVC) is deleted, the persistent volume (PV) still exists and is considered "released". However, the PV is not yet available for another claim because the data of the previous claimant remains on the volume.

Procedure

To manually reclaim the PV as a cluster administrator:

  1. Delete the PV.

    $ oc delete pv <pv-name>

    The associated storage asset in the external infrastructure, such as an AWS EBS, GCE PD, Azure Disk, or Cinder volume, still exists after the PV is deleted.

  2. Clean up the data on the associated storage asset.
  3. Delete the associated storage asset. Alternately, to reuse the same storage asset, create a new PV with the storage asset definition.

The reclaimed PV is now available for use by another PVC.

3.2.8. Changing the reclaim policy of a persistent volume

To change the reclaim policy of a persistent volume:

  1. List the persistent volumes in your cluster:

    $ oc get pv

    Example output

    NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS    CLAIM             STORAGECLASS     REASON    AGE
     pvc-b6efd8da-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/claim1    manual                     10s
     pvc-b95650f8-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/claim2    manual                     6s
     pvc-bb3ca71d-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/claim3    manual                     3s

  2. Choose one of your persistent volumes and change its reclaim policy:

    $ oc patch pv <your-pv-name> -p '{"spec":{"persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy":"Retain"}}'
  3. Verify that your chosen persistent volume has the right policy:

    $ oc get pv

    Example output

    NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS    CLAIM             STORAGECLASS     REASON    AGE
     pvc-b6efd8da-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/claim1    manual                     10s
     pvc-b95650f8-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/claim2    manual                     6s
     pvc-bb3ca71d-b7b5-11e6-9d58-0ed433a7dd94   4Gi        RWO           Retain          Bound     default/claim3    manual                     3s

    In the preceding output, the volume bound to claim default/claim3 now has a Retain reclaim policy. The volume will not be automatically deleted when a user deletes claim default/claim3.

3.3. Persistent volumes

Each PV contains a spec and status, which is the specification and status of the volume, for example:

PersistentVolume object definition example

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv0001 1
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 5Gi 2
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce 3
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain 4
  ...
status:
  ...

1
Name of the persistent volume.
2
The amount of storage available to the volume.
3
The access mode, defining the read-write and mount permissions.
4
The reclaim policy, indicating how the resource should be handled once it is released.

3.3.1. Types of PVs

OpenShift Container Platform supports the following persistent volume plugins:

  • AliCloud Disk
  • AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)
  • AWS Elastic File Store (EFS)
  • Azure Disk
  • Azure File
  • Cinder
  • Fibre Channel
  • GCP Persistent Disk
  • GCP Filestore
  • IBM VPC Block
  • HostPath
  • iSCSI
  • Local volume
  • NFS
  • OpenStack Manila
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation
  • VMware vSphere

3.3.2. Capacity

Generally, a persistent volume (PV) has a specific storage capacity. This is set by using the capacity attribute of the PV.

Currently, storage capacity is the only resource that can be set or requested. Future attributes may include IOPS, throughput, and so on.

3.3.3. Access modes

A persistent volume can be mounted on a host in any way supported by the resource provider. Providers have different capabilities and each PV’s access modes are set to the specific modes supported by that particular volume. For example, NFS can support multiple read-write clients, but a specific NFS PV might be exported on the server as read-only. Each PV gets its own set of access modes describing that specific PV’s capabilities.

Claims are matched to volumes with similar access modes. The only two matching criteria are access modes and size. A claim’s access modes represent a request. Therefore, you might be granted more, but never less. For example, if a claim requests RWO, but the only volume available is an NFS PV (RWO+ROX+RWX), the claim would then match NFS because it supports RWO.

Direct matches are always attempted first. The volume’s modes must match or contain more modes than you requested. The size must be greater than or equal to what is expected. If two types of volumes, such as NFS and iSCSI, have the same set of access modes, either of them can match a claim with those modes. There is no ordering between types of volumes and no way to choose one type over another.

All volumes with the same modes are grouped, and then sorted by size, smallest to largest. The binder gets the group with matching modes and iterates over each, in size order, until one size matches.

The following table lists the access modes:

Table 3.1. Access modes
Access ModeCLI abbreviationDescription

ReadWriteOnce

RWO

The volume can be mounted as read-write by a single node.

ReadOnlyMany

ROX

The volume can be mounted as read-only by many nodes.

ReadWriteMany

RWX

The volume can be mounted as read-write by many nodes.

Important

Volume access modes are descriptors of volume capabilities. They are not enforced constraints. The storage provider is responsible for runtime errors resulting from invalid use of the resource.

For example, NFS offers ReadWriteOnce access mode. You must mark the claims as read-only if you want to use the volume’s ROX capability. Errors in the provider show up at runtime as mount errors.

iSCSI and Fibre Channel volumes do not currently have any fencing mechanisms. You must ensure the volumes are only used by one node at a time. In certain situations, such as draining a node, the volumes can be used simultaneously by two nodes. Before draining the node, first ensure the pods that use these volumes are deleted.

Table 3.2. Supported access modes for PVs
Volume pluginReadWriteOnce [1]ReadOnlyManyReadWriteMany

AliCloud Disk

 ✅

 -

  -

AWS EBS [2]

 ✅

 -

  -

AWS EFS

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

Azure File

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

Azure Disk

 ✅

 -

 -

Cinder

 ✅

 -

  -

Fibre Channel

 ✅

 ✅

  ✅ [3]

GCP Persistent Disk

 ✅

 -

  -

GCP Filestore

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

HostPath

 ✅

 -

  -

IBM VPC Disk

 ✅

 -

  -

iSCSI

 ✅

 ✅

  ✅ [3]

Local volume

 ✅

 -

  -

LVM Storage

 ✅

 -

 -

NFS

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

OpenStack Manila

 -

 -

 ✅

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation

 ✅

 -

 ✅

VMware vSphere

 ✅

 -

  ✅ [4]

  1. ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes cannot be mounted on multiple nodes. If a node fails, the system does not allow the attached RWO volume to be mounted on a new node because it is already assigned to the failed node. If you encounter a multi-attach error message as a result, force delete the pod on a shutdown or crashed node to avoid data loss in critical workloads, such as when dynamic persistent volumes are attached.
  2. Use a recreate deployment strategy for pods that rely on Amazon EBS.
  3. Only raw block volumes support the ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode for Fibre Channel and iSCSI. For more information, see "Block volume support".
  4. If the underlying vSphere environment supports the vSAN file service, then the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator installed by OpenShift Container Platform supports provisioning of ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes. If you do not have vSAN file service configured, and you request RWX, the volume fails to get created and an error is logged. For more information, see "Using Container Storage Interface" → "VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator".

3.3.4. Phase

Volumes can be found in one of the following phases:

Table 3.3. Volume phases
PhaseDescription

Available

A free resource not yet bound to a claim.

Bound

The volume is bound to a claim.

Released

The claim was deleted, but the resource is not yet reclaimed by the cluster.

Failed

The volume has failed its automatic reclamation.

You can view the name of the PVC bound to the PV by running:

$ oc get pv <pv-claim>
3.3.4.1. Mount options

You can specify mount options while mounting a PV by using the attribute mountOptions.

For example:

Mount options example

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv0001
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  mountOptions: 1
    - nfsvers=4.1
  nfs:
    path: /tmp
    server: 172.17.0.2
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
  claimRef:
    name: claim1
    namespace: default

1
Specified mount options are used while mounting the PV to the disk.

The following PV types support mount options:

  • AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)
  • Azure Disk
  • Azure File
  • Cinder
  • GCE Persistent Disk
  • iSCSI
  • Local volume
  • NFS
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (Ceph RBD only)
  • VMware vSphere
Note

Fibre Channel and HostPath PVs do not support mount options.

3.4. Persistent volume claims

Each PersistentVolumeClaim object contains a spec and status, which is the specification and status of the persistent volume claim (PVC), for example:

PersistentVolumeClaim object definition example

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: myclaim 1
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce 2
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 8Gi 3
  storageClassName: gold 4
status:
  ...

1
Name of the PVC
2
The access mode, defining the read-write and mount permissions
3
The amount of storage available to the PVC
4
Name of the StorageClass required by the claim

3.4.1. Storage classes

Claims can optionally request a specific storage class by specifying the storage class’s name in the storageClassName attribute. Only PVs of the requested class, ones with the same storageClassName as the PVC, can be bound to the PVC. The cluster administrator can configure dynamic provisioners to service one or more storage classes. The cluster administrator can create a PV on demand that matches the specifications in the PVC.

Important

The Cluster Storage Operator might install a default storage class depending on the platform in use. This storage class is owned and controlled by the Operator. It cannot be deleted or modified beyond defining annotations and labels. If different behavior is desired, you must define a custom storage class.

The cluster administrator can also set a default storage class for all PVCs. When a default storage class is configured, the PVC must explicitly ask for StorageClass or storageClassName annotations set to "" to be bound to a PV without a storage class.

Note

If more than one storage class is marked as default, a PVC can only be created if the storageClassName is explicitly specified. Therefore, only one storage class should be set as the default.

3.4.2. Access modes

Claims use the same conventions as volumes when requesting storage with specific access modes.

3.4.3. Resources

Claims, such as pods, can request specific quantities of a resource. In this case, the request is for storage. The same resource model applies to volumes and claims.

3.4.4. Claims as volumes

Pods access storage by using the claim as a volume. Claims must exist in the same namespace as the pod using the claim. The cluster finds the claim in the pod’s namespace and uses it to get the PersistentVolume backing the claim. The volume is mounted to the host and into the pod, for example:

Mount volume to the host and into the pod example

kind: Pod
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: mypod
spec:
  containers:
    - name: myfrontend
      image: dockerfile/nginx
      volumeMounts:
      - mountPath: "/var/www/html" 1
        name: mypd 2
  volumes:
    - name: mypd
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: myclaim 3

1
Path to mount the volume inside the pod.
2
Name of the volume to mount. Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system if the container is sufficiently privileged, such as the host /dev/pts files. It is safe to mount the host by using /host.
3
Name of the PVC, that exists in the same namespace, to use.

3.5. Block volume support

OpenShift Container Platform can statically provision raw block volumes. These volumes do not have a file system, and can provide performance benefits for applications that either write to the disk directly or implement their own storage service.

Raw block volumes are provisioned by specifying volumeMode: Block in the PV and PVC specification.

Important

Pods using raw block volumes must be configured to allow privileged containers.

The following table displays which volume plugins support block volumes.

Table 3.4. Block volume support
Volume PluginManually provisionedDynamically provisionedFully supported

AliCloud Disk

AWS EBS

AWS EFS

   

Azure Disk

Azure File

   

Cinder

Fibre Channel

 

GCP

HostPath

   

IBM VPC Disk

iSCSI

 

Local volume

 

LVM Storage

NFS

   

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation

VMware vSphere

Important

Using any of the block volumes that can be provisioned manually, but are not provided as fully supported, is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

3.5.1. Block volume examples

PV example

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: block-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 10Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  volumeMode: Block 1
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
  fc:
    targetWWNs: ["50060e801049cfd1"]
    lun: 0
    readOnly: false

1
volumeMode must be set to Block to indicate that this PV is a raw block volume.

PVC example

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: block-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  volumeMode: Block 1
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi

1
volumeMode must be set to Block to indicate that a raw block PVC is requested.

Pod specification example

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: pod-with-block-volume
spec:
  containers:
    - name: fc-container
      image: fedora:26
      command: ["/bin/sh", "-c"]
      args: [ "tail -f /dev/null" ]
      volumeDevices:  1
        - name: data
          devicePath: /dev/xvda 2
  volumes:
    - name: data
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: block-pvc 3

1
volumeDevices, instead of volumeMounts, is used for block devices. Only PersistentVolumeClaim sources can be used with raw block volumes.
2
devicePath, instead of mountPath, represents the path to the physical device where the raw block is mapped to the system.
3
The volume source must be of type persistentVolumeClaim and must match the name of the PVC as expected.
Table 3.5. Accepted values for volumeMode
ValueDefault

Filesystem

Yes

Block

No

Table 3.6. Binding scenarios for block volumes
PV volumeModePVC volumeModeBinding result

Filesystem

Filesystem

Bind

Unspecified

Unspecified

Bind

Filesystem

Unspecified

Bind

Unspecified

Filesystem

Bind

Block

Block

Bind

Unspecified

Block

No Bind

Block

Unspecified

No Bind

Filesystem

Block

No Bind

Block

Filesystem

No Bind

Important

Unspecified values result in the default value of Filesystem.

3.6. Using fsGroup to reduce pod timeouts

If a storage volume contains many files (~1,000,000 or greater), you may experience pod timeouts.

This can occur because, by default, OpenShift Container Platform recursively changes ownership and permissions for the contents of each volume to match the fsGroup specified in a pod’s securityContext when that volume is mounted. For large volumes, checking and changing ownership and permissions can be time consuming, slowing pod startup. You can use the fsGroupChangePolicy field inside a securityContext to control the way that OpenShift Container Platform checks and manages ownership and permissions for a volume.

fsGroupChangePolicy defines behavior for changing ownership and permission of the volume before being exposed inside a pod. This field only applies to volume types that support fsGroup-controlled ownership and permissions. This field has two possible values:

  • OnRootMismatch: Only change permissions and ownership if permission and ownership of root directory does not match with expected permissions of the volume. This can help shorten the time it takes to change ownership and permission of a volume to reduce pod timeouts.
  • Always: Always change permission and ownership of the volume when a volume is mounted.

fsGroupChangePolicy example

securityContext:
  runAsUser: 1000
  runAsGroup: 3000
  fsGroup: 2000
  fsGroupChangePolicy: "OnRootMismatch" 1
  ...

1
OnRootMismatch specifies skipping recursive permission change, thus helping to avoid pod timeout problems.
Note

The fsGroupChangePolicyfield has no effect on ephemeral volume types, such as secret, configMap, and emptydir.

Chapter 4. Configuring persistent storage

4.1. Persistent storage using AWS Elastic Block Store

OpenShift Container Platform supports AWS Elastic Block Store volumes (EBS). You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage by using Amazon EC2.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure. You can dynamically provision AWS EBS volumes. Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users. You can define a KMS key to encrypt container-persistent volumes on AWS.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform defaults to using an in-tree, or non-Container Storage Interface (CSI) plug-in to provision AWS EBS storage. In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plug-ins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver.

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

Important

High-availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later provides automatic migration for the AWS Block in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver.

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

4.1.1. Creating the EBS storage class

Storage classes are used to differentiate and delineate storage levels and usages. By defining a storage class, users can obtain dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

4.1.2. Creating the persistent volume claim

Prerequisites

Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
  2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
  3. Define the desired options on the page that appears.

    1. Select the previously-created storage class from the drop-down menu.
    2. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    3. Select the access mode. This selection determines the read and write access for the storage claim.
    4. Define the size of the storage claim.
  4. Click Create to create the persistent volume claim and generate a persistent volume.

4.1.3. Volume format

Before OpenShift Container Platform mounts the volume and passes it to a container, it checks that the volume contains a file system as specified by the fsType parameter in the persistent volume definition. If the device is not formatted with the file system, all data from the device is erased and the device is automatically formatted with the given file system.

This verification enables you to use unformatted AWS volumes as persistent volumes, because OpenShift Container Platform formats them before the first use.

4.1.4. Maximum number of EBS volumes on a node

By default, OpenShift Container Platform supports a maximum of 39 EBS volumes attached to one node. This limit is consistent with the AWS volume limits. The volume limit depends on the instance type.

Important

As a cluster administrator, you must use either in-tree or Container Storage Interface (CSI) volumes and their respective storage classes, but never both volume types at the same time. The maximum attached EBS volume number is counted separately for in-tree and CSI volumes, which means you could have up to 39 EBS volumes of each type.

For information about accessing additional storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plug-ins, see AWS Elastic Block Store CSI Driver Operator.

4.1.5. Encrypting container persistent volumes on AWS with a KMS key

Defining a KMS key to encrypt container-persistent volumes on AWS is useful when you have explicit compliance and security guidelines when deploying to AWS.

Prerequisites

  • Underlying infrastructure must contain storage.
  • You must create a customer KMS key on AWS.

Procedure

  1. Create a storage class:

    $ cat << EOF | oc create -f -
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: <storage-class-name> 1
    parameters:
      fsType: ext4 2
      encrypted: "true"
      kmsKeyId: keyvalue 3
    provisioner: ebs.csi.aws.com
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
    EOF
    1
    Specifies the name of the storage class.
    2
    File system that is created on provisioned volumes.
    3
    Specifies the full Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the key to use when encrypting the container-persistent volume. If you do not provide any key, but the encrypted field is set to true, then the default KMS key is used. See Finding the key ID and key ARN on AWS in the AWS documentation.
  2. Create a persistent volume claim (PVC) with the storage class specifying the KMS key:

    $ cat << EOF | oc create -f -
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: mypvc
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Filesystem
      storageClassName: <storage-class-name>
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi
    EOF
  3. Create workload containers to consume the PVC:

    $ cat << EOF | oc create -f -
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: mypod
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: httpd
          image: quay.io/centos7/httpd-24-centos7
          ports:
            - containerPort: 80
          volumeMounts:
            - mountPath: /mnt/storage
              name: data
      volumes:
        - name: data
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: mypvc
    EOF

4.1.6. Additional resources

4.2. Persistent storage using Azure

OpenShift Container Platform supports Microsoft Azure Disk volumes. You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using Azure. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and Azure is assumed. The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure. Azure Disk volumes can be provisioned dynamically. Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 and later provides automatic migration for the Azure Disk in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver.

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

Important

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Additional resources

4.2.1. Creating the Azure storage class

Storage classes are used to differentiate and delineate storage levels and usages. By defining a storage class, users can obtain dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StorageStorage Classes.
  2. In the storage class overview, click Create Storage Class.
  3. Define the desired options on the page that appears.

    1. Enter a name to reference the storage class.
    2. Enter an optional description.
    3. Select the reclaim policy.
    4. Select kubernetes.io/azure-disk from the drop down list.

      1. Enter the storage account type. This corresponds to your Azure storage account SKU tier. Valid options are Premium_LRS, Standard_LRS, StandardSSD_LRS, and UltraSSD_LRS.
      2. Enter the kind of account. Valid options are shared, dedicated, and managed.

        Important

        Red Hat only supports the use of kind: Managed in the storage class.

        With Shared and Dedicated, Azure creates unmanaged disks, while OpenShift Container Platform creates a managed disk for machine OS (root) disks. But because Azure Disk does not allow the use of both managed and unmanaged disks on a node, unmanaged disks created with Shared or Dedicated cannot be attached to OpenShift Container Platform nodes.

    5. Enter additional parameters for the storage class as desired.
  4. Click Create to create the storage class.

Additional resources

4.2.2. Creating the persistent volume claim

Prerequisites

Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
  2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
  3. Define the desired options on the page that appears.

    1. Select the previously-created storage class from the drop-down menu.
    2. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    3. Select the access mode. This selection determines the read and write access for the storage claim.
    4. Define the size of the storage claim.
  4. Click Create to create the persistent volume claim and generate a persistent volume.

4.2.3. Volume format

Before OpenShift Container Platform mounts the volume and passes it to a container, it checks that it contains a file system as specified by the fsType parameter in the persistent volume definition. If the device is not formatted with the file system, all data from the device is erased and the device is automatically formatted with the given file system.

This allows using unformatted Azure volumes as persistent volumes, because OpenShift Container Platform formats them before the first use.

4.2.4. Machine sets that deploy machines with ultra disks using PVCs

You can create a machine set running on Azure that deploys machines with ultra disks. Ultra disks are high-performance storage that are intended for use with the most demanding data workloads.

Both the in-tree plugin and CSI driver support using PVCs to enable ultra disks. You can also deploy machines with ultra disks as data disks without creating a PVC.

4.2.4.1. Creating machines with ultra disks by using machine sets

You can deploy machines with ultra disks on Azure by editing your machine set YAML file.

Prerequisites

  • Have an existing Microsoft Azure cluster.

Procedure

  1. Copy an existing Azure MachineSet custom resource (CR) and edit it by running the following command:

    $ oc edit machineset <machine-set-name>

    where <machine-set-name> is the machine set that you want to provision machines with ultra disks.

  2. Add the following lines in the positions indicated:

    apiVersion: machine.openshift.io/v1beta1
    kind: MachineSet
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          metadata:
            labels:
              disk: ultrassd 1
          providerSpec:
            value:
              ultraSSDCapability: Enabled 2
    1
    Specify a label to use to select a node that is created by this machine set. This procedure uses disk.ultrassd for this value.
    2
    These lines enable the use of ultra disks.
  3. Create a machine set using the updated configuration by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f <machine-set-name>.yaml
  4. Create a storage class that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: ultra-disk-sc 1
    parameters:
      cachingMode: None
      diskIopsReadWrite: "2000" 2
      diskMbpsReadWrite: "320" 3
      kind: managed
      skuname: UltraSSD_LRS
    provisioner: disk.csi.azure.com 4
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer 5
    1
    Specify the name of the storage class. This procedure uses ultra-disk-sc for this value.
    2
    Specify the number of IOPS for the storage class.
    3
    Specify the throughput in MBps for the storage class.
    4
    For Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) version 1.21 or later, use disk.csi.azure.com. For earlier versions of AKS, use kubernetes.io/azure-disk.
    5
    Optional: Specify this parameter to wait for the creation of the pod that will use the disk.
  5. Create a persistent volume claim (PVC) to reference the ultra-disk-sc storage class that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: ultra-disk 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      storageClassName: ultra-disk-sc 2
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 4Gi 3
    1
    Specify the name of the PVC. This procedure uses ultra-disk for this value.
    2
    This PVC references the ultra-disk-sc storage class.
    3
    Specify the size for the storage class. The minimum value is 4Gi.
  6. Create a pod that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: nginx-ultra
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        disk: ultrassd 1
      containers:
      - name: nginx-ultra
        image: alpine:latest
        command:
          - "sleep"
          - "infinity"
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: "/mnt/azure"
          name: volume
      volumes:
        - name: volume
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: ultra-disk 2
    1
    Specify the label of the machine set that enables the use of ultra disks. This procedure uses disk.ultrassd for this value.
    2
    This pod references the ultra-disk PVC.

Verification

  1. Validate that the machines are created by running the following command:

    $ oc get machines

    The machines should be in the Running state.

  2. For a machine that is running and has a node attached, validate the partition by running the following command:

    $ oc debug node/<node-name> -- chroot /host lsblk

    In this command, oc debug node/<node-name> starts a debugging shell on the node <node-name> and passes a command with --. The passed command chroot /host provides access to the underlying host OS binaries, and lsblk shows the block devices that are attached to the host OS machine.

Next steps

  • To use an ultra disk from within a pod, create a workload that uses the mount point. Create a YAML file similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: ssd-benchmark1
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: ssd-benchmark1
        image: nginx
        ports:
          - containerPort: 80
            name: "http-server"
        volumeMounts:
        - name: lun0p1
          mountPath: "/tmp"
      volumes:
        - name: lun0p1
          hostPath:
            path: /var/lib/lun0p1
            type: DirectoryOrCreate
      nodeSelector:
        disktype: ultrassd
4.2.4.2. Troubleshooting resources for machine sets that enable ultra disks

Use the information in this section to understand and recover from issues you might encounter.

4.2.4.2.1. Unable to mount a persistent volume claim backed by an ultra disk

If there is an issue mounting a persistent volume claim backed by an ultra disk, the pod becomes stuck in the ContainerCreating state and an alert is triggered.

For example, if the additionalCapabilities.ultraSSDEnabled parameter is not set on the machine that backs the node that hosts the pod, the following error message appears:

StorageAccountType UltraSSD_LRS can be used only when additionalCapabilities.ultraSSDEnabled is set.
  • To resolve this issue, describe the pod by running the following command:

    $ oc -n <stuck_pod_namespace> describe pod <stuck_pod_name>

4.3. Persistent storage using Azure File

OpenShift Container Platform supports Microsoft Azure File volumes. You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using Azure. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and Azure is assumed.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure. You can provision Azure File volumes dynamically.

Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace, and you can share them across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace, and can be requested by users for use in applications.

Important

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Important

Azure File volumes use Server Message Block.

Important

In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plugins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver. CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

Additional resources

4.3.1. Create the Azure File share persistent volume claim

To create the persistent volume claim, you must first define a Secret object that contains the Azure account and key. This secret is used in the PersistentVolume definition, and will be referenced by the persistent volume claim for use in applications.

Prerequisites

  • An Azure File share exists.
  • The credentials to access this share, specifically the storage account and key, are available.

Procedure

  1. Create a Secret object that contains the Azure File credentials:

    $ oc create secret generic <secret-name> --from-literal=azurestorageaccountname=<storage-account> \ 1
      --from-literal=azurestorageaccountkey=<storage-account-key> 2
    1
    The Azure File storage account name.
    2
    The Azure File storage account key.
  2. Create a PersistentVolume object that references the Secret object you created:

    apiVersion: "v1"
    kind: "PersistentVolume"
    metadata:
      name: "pv0001" 1
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: "5Gi" 2
      accessModes:
        - "ReadWriteOnce"
      storageClassName: azure-file-sc
      azureFile:
        secretName: <secret-name> 3
        shareName: share-1 4
        readOnly: false
    1
    The name of the persistent volume.
    2
    The size of this persistent volume.
    3
    The name of the secret that contains the Azure File share credentials.
    4
    The name of the Azure File share.
  3. Create a PersistentVolumeClaim object that maps to the persistent volume you created:

    apiVersion: "v1"
    kind: "PersistentVolumeClaim"
    metadata:
      name: "claim1" 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - "ReadWriteOnce"
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: "5Gi" 2
      storageClassName: azure-file-sc 3
      volumeName: "pv0001" 4
    1
    The name of the persistent volume claim.
    2
    The size of this persistent volume claim.
    3
    The name of the storage class that is used to provision the persistent volume. Specify the storage class used in the PersistentVolume definition.
    4
    The name of the existing PersistentVolume object that references the Azure File share.

4.3.2. Mount the Azure File share in a pod

After the persistent volume claim has been created, it can be used inside by an application. The following example demonstrates mounting this share inside of a pod.

Prerequisites

  • A persistent volume claim exists that is mapped to the underlying Azure File share.

Procedure

  • Create a pod that mounts the existing persistent volume claim:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: pod-name 1
    spec:
      containers:
        ...
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: "/data" 2
          name: azure-file-share
      volumes:
        - name: azure-file-share
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: claim1 3
    1
    The name of the pod.
    2
    The path to mount the Azure File share inside the pod. Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system if the container is sufficiently privileged, such as the host /dev/pts files. It is safe to mount the host by using /host.
    3
    The name of the PersistentVolumeClaim object that has been previously created.

4.4. Persistent storage using Cinder

OpenShift Container Platform supports OpenStack Cinder. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and OpenStack is assumed.

Cinder volumes can be provisioned dynamically. Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 and later provides automatic migration for the Cinder in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver.

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

Additional resources

  • For more information about how OpenStack Block Storage provides persistent block storage management for virtual hard drives, see OpenStack Cinder.

4.4.1. Manual provisioning with Cinder

Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Prerequisites

  • OpenShift Container Platform configured for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP)
  • Cinder volume ID
4.4.1.1. Creating the persistent volume

You must define your persistent volume (PV) in an object definition before creating it in OpenShift Container Platform:

Procedure

  1. Save your object definition to a file.

    cinder-persistentvolume.yaml

    apiVersion: "v1"
    kind: "PersistentVolume"
    metadata:
      name: "pv0001" 1
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: "5Gi" 2
      accessModes:
        - "ReadWriteOnce"
      cinder: 3
        fsType: "ext3" 4
        volumeID: "f37a03aa-6212-4c62-a805-9ce139fab180" 5

    1
    The name of the volume that is used by persistent volume claims or pods.
    2
    The amount of storage allocated to this volume.
    3
    Indicates cinder for Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Cinder volumes.
    4
    The file system that is created when the volume is mounted for the first time.
    5
    The Cinder volume to use.
    Important

    Do not change the fstype parameter value after the volume is formatted and provisioned. Changing this value can result in data loss and pod failure.

  2. Create the object definition file you saved in the previous step.

    $ oc create -f cinder-persistentvolume.yaml
4.4.1.2. Persistent volume formatting

You can use unformatted Cinder volumes as PVs because OpenShift Container Platform formats them before the first use.

Before OpenShift Container Platform mounts the volume and passes it to a container, the system checks that it contains a file system as specified by the fsType parameter in the PV definition. If the device is not formatted with the file system, all data from the device is erased and the device is automatically formatted with the given file system.

4.4.1.3. Cinder volume security

If you use Cinder PVs in your application, configure security for their deployment configurations.

Prerequisites

  • An SCC must be created that uses the appropriate fsGroup strategy.

Procedure

  1. Create a service account and add it to the SCC:

    $ oc create serviceaccount <service_account>
    $ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user <new_scc> -z <service_account> -n <project>
  2. In your application’s deployment configuration, provide the service account name and securityContext:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: ReplicationController
    metadata:
      name: frontend-1
    spec:
      replicas: 1  1
      selector:    2
        name: frontend
      template:    3
        metadata:
          labels:  4
            name: frontend 5
        spec:
          containers:
          - image: openshift/hello-openshift
            name: helloworld
            ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
              protocol: TCP
          restartPolicy: Always
          serviceAccountName: <service_account> 6
          securityContext:
            fsGroup: 7777 7
    1
    The number of copies of the pod to run.
    2
    The label selector of the pod to run.
    3
    A template for the pod that the controller creates.
    4
    The labels on the pod. They must include labels from the label selector.
    5
    The maximum name length after expanding any parameters is 63 characters.
    6
    Specifies the service account you created.
    7
    Specifies an fsGroup for the pods.

4.5. Persistent storage using Fibre Channel

OpenShift Container Platform supports Fibre Channel, allowing you to provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using Fibre channel volumes. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and Fibre Channel is assumed.

Important

Persistent storage using Fibre Channel is not supported on ARM architecture based infrastructures.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure. Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users.

Important

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Additional resources

4.5.1. Provisioning

To provision Fibre Channel volumes using the PersistentVolume API the following must be available:

  • The targetWWNs (array of Fibre Channel target’s World Wide Names).
  • A valid LUN number.
  • The filesystem type.

A persistent volume and a LUN have a one-to-one mapping between them.

Prerequisites

  • Fibre Channel LUNs must exist in the underlying infrastructure.

PersistentVolume object definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv0001
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  fc:
    wwids: [scsi-3600508b400105e210000900000490000] 1
    targetWWNs: ['500a0981891b8dc5', '500a0981991b8dc5'] 2
    lun: 2 3
    fsType: ext4

1
World wide identifiers (WWIDs). Either FC wwids or a combination of FC targetWWNs and lun must be set, but not both simultaneously. The FC WWID identifier is recommended over the WWNs target because it is guaranteed to be unique for every storage device, and independent of the path that is used to access the device. The WWID identifier can be obtained by issuing a SCSI Inquiry to retrieve the Device Identification Vital Product Data (page 0x83) or Unit Serial Number (page 0x80). FC WWIDs are identified as /dev/disk/by-id/ to reference the data on the disk, even if the path to the device changes and even when accessing the device from different systems.
2 3
Fibre Channel WWNs are identified as /dev/disk/by-path/pci-<IDENTIFIER>-fc-0x<WWN>-lun-<LUN#>, but you do not need to provide any part of the path leading up to the WWN, including the 0x, and anything after, including the - (hyphen).
Important

Changing the value of the fstype parameter after the volume has been formatted and provisioned can result in data loss and pod failure.

4.5.1.1. Enforcing disk quotas

Use LUN partitions to enforce disk quotas and size constraints. Each LUN is mapped to a single persistent volume, and unique names must be used for persistent volumes.

Enforcing quotas in this way allows the end user to request persistent storage by a specific amount, such as 10Gi, and be matched with a corresponding volume of equal or greater capacity.

4.5.1.2. Fibre Channel volume security

Users request storage with a persistent volume claim. This claim only lives in the user’s namespace, and can only be referenced by a pod within that same namespace. Any attempt to access a persistent volume across a namespace causes the pod to fail.

Each Fibre Channel LUN must be accessible by all nodes in the cluster.

4.6. Persistent storage using FlexVolume

Important

FlexVolume is a deprecated feature. Deprecated functionality is still included in OpenShift Container Platform and continues to be supported; however, it will be removed in a future release of this product and is not recommended for new deployments.

Out-of-tree Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver is the recommended way to write volume drivers in OpenShift Container Platform. Maintainers of FlexVolume drivers should implement a CSI driver and move users of FlexVolume to CSI. Users of FlexVolume should move their workloads to CSI driver.

For the most recent list of major functionality that has been deprecated or removed within OpenShift Container Platform, refer to the Deprecated and removed features section of the OpenShift Container Platform release notes.

OpenShift Container Platform supports FlexVolume, an out-of-tree plugin that uses an executable model to interface with drivers.

To use storage from a back-end that does not have a built-in plugin, you can extend OpenShift Container Platform through FlexVolume drivers and provide persistent storage to applications.

Pods interact with FlexVolume drivers through the flexvolume in-tree plugin.

Additional resources

4.6.1. About FlexVolume drivers

A FlexVolume driver is an executable file that resides in a well-defined directory on all nodes in the cluster. OpenShift Container Platform calls the FlexVolume driver whenever it needs to mount or unmount a volume represented by a PersistentVolume object with flexVolume as the source.

Important

Attach and detach operations are not supported in OpenShift Container Platform for FlexVolume.

4.6.2. FlexVolume driver example

The first command-line argument of the FlexVolume driver is always an operation name. Other parameters are specific to each operation. Most of the operations take a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) string as a parameter. This parameter is a complete JSON string, and not the name of a file with the JSON data.

The FlexVolume driver contains:

  • All flexVolume.options.
  • Some options from flexVolume prefixed by kubernetes.io/, such as fsType and readwrite.
  • The content of the referenced secret, if specified, prefixed by kubernetes.io/secret/.

FlexVolume driver JSON input example

{
	"fooServer": "192.168.0.1:1234", 1
        "fooVolumeName": "bar",
	"kubernetes.io/fsType": "ext4", 2
	"kubernetes.io/readwrite": "ro", 3
	"kubernetes.io/secret/<key name>": "<key value>", 4
	"kubernetes.io/secret/<another key name>": "<another key value>",
}

1
All options from flexVolume.options.
2
The value of flexVolume.fsType.
3
ro/rw based on flexVolume.readOnly.
4
All keys and their values from the secret referenced by flexVolume.secretRef.

OpenShift Container Platform expects JSON data on standard output of the driver. When not specified, the output describes the result of the operation.

FlexVolume driver default output example

{
	"status": "<Success/Failure/Not supported>",
	"message": "<Reason for success/failure>"
}

Exit code of the driver should be 0 for success and 1 for error.

Operations should be idempotent, which means that the mounting of an already mounted volume should result in a successful operation.

4.6.3. Installing FlexVolume drivers

FlexVolume drivers that are used to extend OpenShift Container Platform are executed only on the node. To implement FlexVolumes, a list of operations to call and the installation path are all that is required.

Prerequisites

  • FlexVolume drivers must implement these operations:

    init

    Initializes the driver. It is called during initialization of all nodes.

    • Arguments: none
    • Executed on: node
    • Expected output: default JSON
    mount

    Mounts a volume to directory. This can include anything that is necessary to mount the volume, including finding the device and then mounting the device.

    • Arguments: <mount-dir> <json>
    • Executed on: node
    • Expected output: default JSON
    unmount

    Unmounts a volume from a directory. This can include anything that is necessary to clean up the volume after unmounting.

    • Arguments: <mount-dir>
    • Executed on: node
    • Expected output: default JSON
    mountdevice
    Mounts a volume’s device to a directory where individual pods can then bind mount.

This call-out does not pass "secrets" specified in the FlexVolume spec. If your driver requires secrets, do not implement this call-out.

  • Arguments: <mount-dir> <json>
  • Executed on: node
  • Expected output: default JSON

    unmountdevice
    Unmounts a volume’s device from a directory.
  • Arguments: <mount-dir>
  • Executed on: node
  • Expected output: default JSON

    • All other operations should return JSON with {"status": "Not supported"} and exit code 1.

Procedure

To install the FlexVolume driver:

  1. Ensure that the executable file exists on all nodes in the cluster.
  2. Place the executable file at the volume plugin path: /etc/kubernetes/kubelet-plugins/volume/exec/<vendor>~<driver>/<driver>.

For example, to install the FlexVolume driver for the storage foo, place the executable file at: /etc/kubernetes/kubelet-plugins/volume/exec/openshift.com~foo/foo.

4.6.4. Consuming storage using FlexVolume drivers

Each PersistentVolume object in OpenShift Container Platform represents one storage asset in the storage back-end, such as a volume.

Procedure

  • Use the PersistentVolume object to reference the installed storage.

Persistent volume object definition using FlexVolume drivers example

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: pv0001 1
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi 2
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  flexVolume:
    driver: openshift.com/foo 3
    fsType: "ext4" 4
    secretRef: foo-secret 5
    readOnly: true 6
    options: 7
      fooServer: 192.168.0.1:1234
      fooVolumeName: bar

1
The name of the volume. This is how it is identified through persistent volume claims or from pods. This name can be different from the name of the volume on back-end storage.
2
The amount of storage allocated to this volume.
3
The name of the driver. This field is mandatory.
4
The file system that is present on the volume. This field is optional.
5
The reference to a secret. Keys and values from this secret are provided to the FlexVolume driver on invocation. This field is optional.
6
The read-only flag. This field is optional.
7
The additional options for the FlexVolume driver. In addition to the flags specified by the user in the options field, the following flags are also passed to the executable:
"fsType":"<FS type>",
"readwrite":"<rw>",
"secret/key1":"<secret1>"
...
"secret/keyN":"<secretN>"
Note

Secrets are passed only to mount or unmount call-outs.

4.7. Persistent storage using GCE Persistent Disk

OpenShift Container Platform supports GCE Persistent Disk volumes (gcePD). You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using GCE. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and GCE is assumed.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.

GCE Persistent Disk volumes can be provisioned dynamically.

Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later provides automatic migration for the GCE Persist Disk in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver.

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes.

For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

Important

High availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Additional resources

4.7.1. Creating the GCE storage class

Storage classes are used to differentiate and delineate storage levels and usages. By defining a storage class, users can obtain dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

4.7.2. Creating the persistent volume claim

Prerequisites

Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
  2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
  3. Define the desired options on the page that appears.

    1. Select the previously-created storage class from the drop-down menu.
    2. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    3. Select the access mode. This selection determines the read and write access for the storage claim.
    4. Define the size of the storage claim.
  4. Click Create to create the persistent volume claim and generate a persistent volume.

4.7.3. Volume format

Before OpenShift Container Platform mounts the volume and passes it to a container, it checks that the volume contains a file system as specified by the fsType parameter in the persistent volume definition. If the device is not formatted with the file system, all data from the device is erased and the device is automatically formatted with the given file system.

This verification enables you to use unformatted GCE volumes as persistent volumes, because OpenShift Container Platform formats them before the first use.

4.8. Persistent storage using iSCSI

You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using iSCSI. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and iSCSI is assumed.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.

Important

High-availability of storage in the infrastructure is left to the underlying storage provider.

Important

When you use iSCSI on Amazon Web Services, you must update the default security policy to include TCP traffic between nodes on the iSCSI ports. By default, they are ports 860 and 3260.

Important

Users must ensure that the iSCSI initiator is already configured on all OpenShift Container Platform nodes by installing the iscsi-initiator-utils package and configuring their initiator name in /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi. The iscsi-initiator-utils package is already installed on deployments that use Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS).

For more information, see Managing Storage Devices.

4.8.1. Provisioning

Verify that the storage exists in the underlying infrastructure before mounting it as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform. All that is required for the iSCSI is the iSCSI target portal, a valid iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN), a valid LUN number, the filesystem type, and the PersistentVolume API.

PersistentVolume object definition

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: iscsi-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  iscsi:
     targetPortal: 10.16.154.81:3260
     iqn: iqn.2014-12.example.server:storage.target00
     lun: 0
     fsType: 'ext4'

4.8.2. Enforcing disk quotas

Use LUN partitions to enforce disk quotas and size constraints. Each LUN is one persistent volume. Kubernetes enforces unique names for persistent volumes.

Enforcing quotas in this way allows the end user to request persistent storage by a specific amount (for example, 10Gi) and be matched with a corresponding volume of equal or greater capacity.

4.8.3. iSCSI volume security

Users request storage with a PersistentVolumeClaim object. This claim only lives in the user’s namespace and can only be referenced by a pod within that same namespace. Any attempt to access a persistent volume claim across a namespace causes the pod to fail.

Each iSCSI LUN must be accessible by all nodes in the cluster.

4.8.3.1. Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) configuration

Optionally, OpenShift Container Platform can use CHAP to authenticate itself to iSCSI targets:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: iscsi-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  iscsi:
    targetPortal: 10.0.0.1:3260
    iqn: iqn.2016-04.test.com:storage.target00
    lun: 0
    fsType: ext4
    chapAuthDiscovery: true 1
    chapAuthSession: true 2
    secretRef:
      name: chap-secret 3
1
Enable CHAP authentication of iSCSI discovery.
2
Enable CHAP authentication of iSCSI session.
3
Specify name of Secrets object with user name + password. This Secret object must be available in all namespaces that can use the referenced volume.

4.8.4. iSCSI multipathing

For iSCSI-based storage, you can configure multiple paths by using the same IQN for more than one target portal IP address. Multipathing ensures access to the persistent volume when one or more of the components in a path fail.

To specify multi-paths in the pod specification, use the portals field. For example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: iscsi-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  iscsi:
    targetPortal: 10.0.0.1:3260
    portals: ['10.0.2.16:3260', '10.0.2.17:3260', '10.0.2.18:3260'] 1
    iqn: iqn.2016-04.test.com:storage.target00
    lun: 0
    fsType: ext4
    readOnly: false
1
Add additional target portals using the portals field.

4.8.5. iSCSI custom initiator IQN

Configure the custom initiator iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) if the iSCSI targets are restricted to certain IQNs, but the nodes that the iSCSI PVs are attached to are not guaranteed to have these IQNs.

To specify a custom initiator IQN, use initiatorName field.

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: iscsi-pv
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  iscsi:
    targetPortal: 10.0.0.1:3260
    portals: ['10.0.2.16:3260', '10.0.2.17:3260', '10.0.2.18:3260']
    iqn: iqn.2016-04.test.com:storage.target00
    lun: 0
    initiatorName: iqn.2016-04.test.com:custom.iqn 1
    fsType: ext4
    readOnly: false
1
Specify the name of the initiator.

4.9. Persistent storage using NFS

OpenShift Container Platform clusters can be provisioned with persistent storage using NFS. Persistent volumes (PVs) and persistent volume claims (PVCs) provide a convenient method for sharing a volume across a project. While the NFS-specific information contained in a PV definition could also be defined directly in a Pod definition, doing so does not create the volume as a distinct cluster resource, making the volume more susceptible to conflicts.

Additional resources

4.9.1. Provisioning

Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform. To provision NFS volumes, a list of NFS servers and export paths are all that is required.

Procedure

  1. Create an object definition for the PV:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolume
    metadata:
      name: pv0001 1
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: 5Gi 2
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce 3
      nfs: 4
        path: /tmp 5
        server: 172.17.0.2 6
      persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain 7
    1
    The name of the volume. This is the PV identity in various oc <command> pod commands.
    2
    The amount of storage allocated to this volume.
    3
    Though this appears to be related to controlling access to the volume, it is actually used similarly to labels and used to match a PVC to a PV. Currently, no access rules are enforced based on the accessModes.
    4
    The volume type being used, in this case the nfs plugin.
    5
    The path that is exported by the NFS server.
    6
    The hostname or IP address of the NFS server.
    7
    The reclaim policy for the PV. This defines what happens to a volume when released.
    Note

    Each NFS volume must be mountable by all schedulable nodes in the cluster.

  2. Verify that the PV was created:

    $ oc get pv

    Example output

    NAME     LABELS    CAPACITY     ACCESSMODES   STATUS      CLAIM  REASON    AGE
    pv0001   <none>    5Gi          RWO           Available                    31s

  3. Create a persistent volume claim that binds to the new PV:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: nfs-claim1
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce 1
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 5Gi 2
      volumeName: pv0001
      storageClassName: ""
    1
    The access modes do not enforce security, but rather act as labels to match a PV to a PVC.
    2
    This claim looks for PVs offering 5Gi or greater capacity.
  4. Verify that the persistent volume claim was created:

    $ oc get pvc

    Example output

    NAME         STATUS   VOLUME   CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
    nfs-claim1   Bound    pv0001   5Gi        RWO                           2m

4.9.2. Enforcing disk quotas

You can use disk partitions to enforce disk quotas and size constraints. Each partition can be its own export. Each export is one PV. OpenShift Container Platform enforces unique names for PVs, but the uniqueness of the NFS volume’s server and path is up to the administrator.

Enforcing quotas in this way allows the developer to request persistent storage by a specific amount, such as 10Gi, and be matched with a corresponding volume of equal or greater capacity.

4.9.3. NFS volume security

This section covers NFS volume security, including matching permissions and SELinux considerations. The user is expected to understand the basics of POSIX permissions, process UIDs, supplemental groups, and SELinux.

Developers request NFS storage by referencing either a PVC by name or the NFS volume plugin directly in the volumes section of their Pod definition.

The /etc/exports file on the NFS server contains the accessible NFS directories. The target NFS directory has POSIX owner and group IDs. The OpenShift Container Platform NFS plugin mounts the container’s NFS directory with the same POSIX ownership and permissions found on the exported NFS directory. However, the container is not run with its effective UID equal to the owner of the NFS mount, which is the desired behavior.

As an example, if the target NFS directory appears on the NFS server as:

$ ls -lZ /opt/nfs -d

Example output

drwxrws---. nfsnobody 5555 unconfined_u:object_r:usr_t:s0   /opt/nfs

$ id nfsnobody

Example output

uid=65534(nfsnobody) gid=65534(nfsnobody) groups=65534(nfsnobody)

Then the container must match SELinux labels, and either run with a UID of 65534, the nfsnobody owner, or with 5555 in its supplemental groups to access the directory.

Note

The owner ID of 65534 is used as an example. Even though NFS’s root_squash maps root, uid 0, to nfsnobody, uid 65534, NFS exports can have arbitrary owner IDs. Owner 65534 is not required for NFS exports.

4.9.3.1. Group IDs

The recommended way to handle NFS access, assuming it is not an option to change permissions on the NFS export, is to use supplemental groups. Supplemental groups in OpenShift Container Platform are used for shared storage, of which NFS is an example. In contrast, block storage such as iSCSI uses the fsGroup SCC strategy and the fsGroup value in the securityContext of the pod.

Note

To gain access to persistent storage, it is generally preferable to use supplemental group IDs versus user IDs.

Because the group ID on the example target NFS directory is 5555, the pod can define that group ID using supplementalGroups under the securityContext definition of the pod. For example:

spec:
  containers:
    - name:
    ...
  securityContext: 1
    supplementalGroups: [5555] 2
1
securityContext must be defined at the pod level, not under a specific container.
2
An array of GIDs defined for the pod. In this case, there is one element in the array. Additional GIDs would be comma-separated.

Assuming there are no custom SCCs that might satisfy the pod requirements, the pod likely matches the restricted SCC. This SCC has the supplementalGroups strategy set to RunAsAny, meaning that any supplied group ID is accepted without range checking.

As a result, the above pod passes admissions and is launched. However, if group ID range checking is desired, a custom SCC is the preferred solution. A custom SCC can be created such that minimum and maximum group IDs are defined, group ID range checking is enforced, and a group ID of 5555 is allowed.

Note

To use a custom SCC, you must first add it to the appropriate service account. For example, use the default service account in the given project unless another has been specified on the Pod specification.

4.9.3.2. User IDs

User IDs can be defined in the container image or in the Pod definition.

Note

It is generally preferable to use supplemental group IDs to gain access to persistent storage versus using user IDs.

In the example target NFS directory shown above, the container needs its UID set to 65534, ignoring group IDs for the moment, so the following can be added to the Pod definition:

spec:
  containers: 1
  - name:
  ...
    securityContext:
      runAsUser: 65534 2
1
Pods contain a securityContext definition specific to each container and a pod’s securityContext which applies to all containers defined in the pod.
2
65534 is the nfsnobody user.

Assuming that the project is default and the SCC is restricted, the user ID of 65534 as requested by the pod is not allowed. Therefore, the pod fails for the following reasons:

  • It requests 65534 as its user ID.
  • All SCCs available to the pod are examined to see which SCC allows a user ID of 65534. While all policies of the SCCs are checked, the focus here is on user ID.
  • Because all available SCCs use MustRunAsRange for their runAsUser strategy, UID range checking is required.
  • 65534 is not included in the SCC or project’s user ID range.

It is generally considered a good practice not to modify the predefined SCCs. The preferred way to fix this situation is to create a custom SCC A custom SCC can be created such that minimum and maximum user IDs are defined, UID range checking is still enforced, and the UID of 65534 is allowed.

Note

To use a custom SCC, you must first add it to the appropriate service account. For example, use the default service account in the given project unless another has been specified on the Pod specification.

4.9.3.3. SELinux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) systems are configured to use SELinux on remote NFS servers by default.

For non-RHEL and non-RHCOS systems, SELinux does not allow writing from a pod to a remote NFS server. The NFS volume mounts correctly but it is read-only. You will need to enable the correct SELinux permissions by using the following procedure.

Prerequisites

  • The container-selinux package must be installed. This package provides the virt_use_nfs SELinux boolean.

Procedure

  • Enable the virt_use_nfs boolean using the following command. The -P option makes this boolean persistent across reboots.

    # setsebool -P virt_use_nfs 1
4.9.3.4. Export settings

To enable arbitrary container users to read and write the volume, each exported volume on the NFS server should conform to the following conditions:

  • Every export must be exported using the following format:

    /<example_fs> *(rw,root_squash)
  • The firewall must be configured to allow traffic to the mount point.

    • For NFSv4, configure the default port 2049 (nfs).

      NFSv4

      # iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT

    • For NFSv3, there are three ports to configure: 2049 (nfs), 20048 (mountd), and 111 (portmapper).

      NFSv3

      # iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 2049 -j ACCEPT

      # iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 20048 -j ACCEPT
      # iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 111 -j ACCEPT
  • The NFS export and directory must be set up so that they are accessible by the target pods. Either set the export to be owned by the container’s primary UID, or supply the pod group access using supplementalGroups, as shown in the group IDs above.

4.9.4. Reclaiming resources

NFS implements the OpenShift Container Platform Recyclable plugin interface. Automatic processes handle reclamation tasks based on policies set on each persistent volume.

By default, PVs are set to Retain.

Once claim to a PVC is deleted, and the PV is released, the PV object should not be reused. Instead, a new PV should be created with the same basic volume details as the original.

For example, the administrator creates a PV named nfs1:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: nfs1
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Mi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  nfs:
    server: 192.168.1.1
    path: "/"

The user creates PVC1, which binds to nfs1. The user then deletes PVC1, releasing claim to nfs1. This results in nfs1 being Released. If the administrator wants to make the same NFS share available, they should create a new PV with the same NFS server details, but a different PV name:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: nfs2
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 1Mi
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteMany
  nfs:
    server: 192.168.1.1
    path: "/"

Deleting the original PV and re-creating it with the same name is discouraged. Attempting to manually change the status of a PV from Released to Available causes errors and potential data loss.

4.9.5. Additional configuration and troubleshooting

Depending on what version of NFS is being used and how it is configured, there may be additional configuration steps needed for proper export and security mapping. The following are some that may apply:

NFSv4 mount incorrectly shows all files with ownership of nobody:nobody

  • Could be attributed to the ID mapping settings, found in /etc/idmapd.conf on your NFS.
  • See this Red Hat Solution.

Disabling ID mapping on NFSv4

  • On both the NFS client and server, run:

    # echo 'Y' > /sys/module/nfsd/parameters/nfs4_disable_idmapping

4.10. Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is a provider of agnostic persistent storage for OpenShift Container Platform supporting file, block, and object storage, either in-house or in hybrid clouds. As a Red Hat storage solution, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is completely integrated with OpenShift Container Platform for deployment, management, and monitoring. For more information, see the Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation documentation.

Important

OpenShift Data Foundation on top of Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure (RHHI) for Virtualization, which uses hyperconverged nodes that host virtual machines installed with OpenShift Container Platform, is not a supported configuration. For more information about supported platforms, see the Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Supportability and Interoperability Guide.

4.11. Persistent storage using VMware vSphere volumes

OpenShift Container Platform allows use of VMware vSphere’s Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) volumes. You can provision your OpenShift Container Platform cluster with persistent storage using VMware vSphere. Some familiarity with Kubernetes and VMware vSphere is assumed.

VMware vSphere volumes can be provisioned dynamically. OpenShift Container Platform creates the disk in vSphere and attaches this disk to the correct image.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks that can freely attach and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. Consequently, you cannot back up volumes that use snapshots, or restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more information.

The Kubernetes persistent volume framework allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage and gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.

Persistent volumes are not bound to a single project or namespace; they can be shared across the OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Persistent volume claims are specific to a project or namespace and can be requested by users.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform defaults to using an in-tree (non-CSI) plugin to provision vSphere storage.

In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plugins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver. CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

Additional resources

4.11.1. Dynamically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes

Dynamically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes is the recommended method.

4.11.2. Prerequisites

  • An OpenShift Container Platform cluster installed on a VMware vSphere version that meets the requirements for the components that you use. See Installing a cluster on vSphere for information about vSphere version support.

You can use either of the following procedures to dynamically provision these volumes using the default storage class.

4.11.2.1. Dynamically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes using the UI

OpenShift Container Platform installs a default storage class, named thin, that uses the thin disk format for provisioning volumes.

Prerequisites

  • Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
  2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
  3. Define the required options on the resulting page.

    1. Select the thin storage class.
    2. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    3. Select the access mode to determine the read and write access for the created storage claim.
    4. Define the size of the storage claim.
  4. Click Create to create the persistent volume claim and generate a persistent volume.
4.11.2.2. Dynamically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes using the CLI

OpenShift Container Platform installs a default StorageClass, named thin, that uses the thin disk format for provisioning volumes.

Prerequisites

  • Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure (CLI)

  1. You can define a VMware vSphere PersistentVolumeClaim by creating a file, pvc.yaml, with the following contents:

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: pvc 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce 2
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi 3
    1
    A unique name that represents the persistent volume claim.
    2
    The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
    3
    The size of the persistent volume claim.
  2. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

    $ oc create -f pvc.yaml

4.11.3. Statically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes

To statically provision VMware vSphere volumes you must create the virtual machine disks for reference by the persistent volume framework.

Prerequisites

  • Storage must exist in the underlying infrastructure before it can be mounted as a volume in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure

  1. Create the virtual machine disks. Virtual machine disks (VMDKs) must be created manually before statically provisioning VMware vSphere volumes. Use either of the following methods:

    • Create using vmkfstools. Access ESX through Secure Shell (SSH) and then use following command to create a VMDK volume:

      $ vmkfstools -c <size> /vmfs/volumes/<datastore-name>/volumes/<disk-name>.vmdk
    • Create using vmware-diskmanager:

      $ shell vmware-vdiskmanager -c -t 0 -s <size> -a lsilogic <disk-name>.vmdk
  2. Create a persistent volume that references the VMDKs. Create a file, pv1.yaml, with the PersistentVolume object definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolume
    metadata:
      name: pv1 1
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: 1Gi 2
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
      vsphereVolume: 3
        volumePath: "[datastore1] volumes/myDisk"  4
        fsType: ext4  5
    1
    The name of the volume. This name is how it is identified by persistent volume claims or pods.
    2
    The amount of storage allocated to this volume.
    3
    The volume type used, with vsphereVolume for vSphere volumes. The label is used to mount a vSphere VMDK volume into pods. The contents of a volume are preserved when it is unmounted. The volume type supports VMFS and VSAN datastore.
    4
    The existing VMDK volume to use. If you used vmkfstools, you must enclose the datastore name in square brackets, [], in the volume definition, as shown previously.
    5
    The file system type to mount. For example, ext4, xfs, or other file systems.
    Important

    Changing the value of the fsType parameter after the volume is formatted and provisioned can result in data loss and pod failure.

  3. Create the PersistentVolume object from the file:

    $ oc create -f pv1.yaml
  4. Create a persistent volume claim that maps to the persistent volume you created in the previous step. Create a file, pvc1.yaml, with the PersistentVolumeClaim object definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: pvc1 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce 2
      resources:
       requests:
         storage: "1Gi" 3
      volumeName: pv1 4
    1
    A unique name that represents the persistent volume claim.
    2
    The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
    3
    The size of the persistent volume claim.
    4
    The name of the existing persistent volume.
  5. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

    $ oc create -f pvc1.yaml
4.11.3.1. Formatting VMware vSphere volumes

Before OpenShift Container Platform mounts the volume and passes it to a container, it checks that the volume contains a file system that is specified by the fsType parameter value in the PersistentVolume (PV) definition. If the device is not formatted with the file system, all data from the device is erased, and the device is automatically formatted with the specified file system.

Because OpenShift Container Platform formats them before the first use, you can use unformatted vSphere volumes as PVs.

4.12. Persistent storage using local storage

4.12.1. Persistent storage using local volumes

OpenShift Container Platform can be provisioned with persistent storage by using local volumes. Local persistent volumes allow you to access local storage devices, such as a disk or partition, by using the standard persistent volume claim interface.

Local volumes can be used without manually scheduling pods to nodes because the system is aware of the volume node constraints. However, local volumes are still subject to the availability of the underlying node and are not suitable for all applications.

Note

Local volumes can only be used as a statically created persistent volume.

4.12.1.1. Installing the Local Storage Operator

The Local Storage Operator is not installed in OpenShift Container Platform by default. Use the following procedure to install and configure this Operator to enable local volumes in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console or command-line interface (CLI).

Procedure

  1. Create the openshift-local-storage project:

    $ oc adm new-project openshift-local-storage
  2. Optional: Allow local storage creation on infrastructure nodes.

    You might want to use the Local Storage Operator to create volumes on infrastructure nodes in support of components such as logging and monitoring.

    You must adjust the default node selector so that the Local Storage Operator includes the infrastructure nodes, and not just worker nodes.

    To block the Local Storage Operator from inheriting the cluster-wide default selector, enter the following command:

    $ oc annotate namespace openshift-local-storage openshift.io/node-selector=''
  3. Optional: Allow local storage to run on the management pool of CPUs in single-node deployment.

    Use the Local Storage Operator in single-node deployments and allow the use of CPUs that belong to the management pool. Perform this step on single-node installations that use management workload partitioning.

    To allow Local Storage Operator to run on the management CPU pool, run following commands:

    $ oc annotate namespace openshift-local-storage workload.openshift.io/allowed='management'

From the UI

To install the Local Storage Operator from the web console, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
  2. Navigate to OperatorsOperatorHub.
  3. Type Local Storage into the filter box to locate the Local Storage Operator.
  4. Click Install.
  5. On the Install Operator page, select A specific namespace on the cluster. Select openshift-local-storage from the drop-down menu.
  6. Adjust the values for Update Channel and Approval Strategy to the values that you want.
  7. Click Install.

Once finished, the Local Storage Operator will be listed in the Installed Operators section of the web console.

From the CLI

  1. Install the Local Storage Operator from the CLI.

    1. Create an object YAML file to define an Operator group and subscription for the Local Storage Operator, such as openshift-local-storage.yaml:

      Example openshift-local-storage.yaml

      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
      kind: OperatorGroup
      metadata:
        name: local-operator-group
        namespace: openshift-local-storage
      spec:
        targetNamespaces:
          - openshift-local-storage
      ---
      apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
      kind: Subscription
      metadata:
        name: local-storage-operator
        namespace: openshift-local-storage
      spec:
        channel: stable
        installPlanApproval: Automatic 1
        name: local-storage-operator
        source: redhat-operators
        sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace

      1
      The user approval policy for an install plan.
  2. Create the Local Storage Operator object by entering the following command:

    $ oc apply -f openshift-local-storage.yaml

    At this point, the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) is now aware of the Local Storage Operator. A ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) for the Operator should appear in the target namespace, and APIs provided by the Operator should be available for creation.

  3. Verify local storage installation by checking that all pods and the Local Storage Operator have been created:

    1. Check that all the required pods have been created:

      $ oc -n openshift-local-storage get pods

      Example output

      NAME                                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
      local-storage-operator-746bf599c9-vlt5t   1/1     Running   0          19m

    2. Check the ClusterServiceVersion (CSV) YAML manifest to see that the Local Storage Operator is available in the openshift-local-storage project:

      $ oc get csvs -n openshift-local-storage

      Example output

      NAME                                         DISPLAY         VERSION               REPLACES   PHASE
      local-storage-operator.4.2.26-202003230335   Local Storage   4.2.26-202003230335              Succeeded

After all checks have passed, the Local Storage Operator is installed successfully.

4.12.1.2. Provisioning local volumes by using the Local Storage Operator

Local volumes cannot be created by dynamic provisioning. Instead, persistent volumes can be created by the Local Storage Operator. The local volume provisioner looks for any file system or block volume devices at the paths specified in the defined resource.

Prerequisites

  • The Local Storage Operator is installed.
  • You have a local disk that meets the following conditions:

    • It is attached to a node.
    • It is not mounted.
    • It does not contain partitions.

Procedure

  1. Create the local volume resource. This resource must define the nodes and paths to the local volumes.

    Note

    Do not use different storage class names for the same device. Doing so will create multiple persistent volumes (PVs).

    Example: Filesystem

    apiVersion: "local.storage.openshift.io/v1"
    kind: "LocalVolume"
    metadata:
      name: "local-disks"
      namespace: "openshift-local-storage" 1
    spec:
      nodeSelector: 2
        nodeSelectorTerms:
        - matchExpressions:
            - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
              operator: In
              values:
              - ip-10-0-140-183
              - ip-10-0-158-139
              - ip-10-0-164-33
      storageClassDevices:
        - storageClassName: "local-sc" 3
          volumeMode: Filesystem 4
          fsType: xfs 5
          devicePaths: 6
            - /path/to/device 7

    1
    The namespace where the Local Storage Operator is installed.
    2
    Optional: A node selector containing a list of nodes where the local storage volumes are attached. This example uses the node hostnames, obtained from oc get node. If a value is not defined, then the Local Storage Operator will attempt to find matching disks on all available nodes.
    3
    The name of the storage class to use when creating persistent volume objects. The Local Storage Operator automatically creates the storage class if it does not exist. Be sure to use a storage class that uniquely identifies this set of local volumes.
    4
    The volume mode, either Filesystem or Block, that defines the type of local volumes.
    Note

    A raw block volume (volumeMode: Block) is not formatted with a file system. Use this mode only if any application running on the pod can use raw block devices.

    5
    The file system that is created when the local volume is mounted for the first time.
    6
    The path containing a list of local storage devices to choose from.
    7
    Replace this value with your actual local disks filepath to the LocalVolume resource by-id, such as /dev/disk/by-id/wwn. PVs are created for these local disks when the provisioner is deployed successfully.
    Note

    If you are running OpenShift Container Platform with RHEL KVM, you must assign a serial number to your VM disk. Otherwise, the VM disk can not be identified after reboot. You can use the virsh edit <VM> command to add the <serial>mydisk</serial> definition.

    Example: Block

    apiVersion: "local.storage.openshift.io/v1"
    kind: "LocalVolume"
    metadata:
      name: "local-disks"
      namespace: "openshift-local-storage" 1
    spec:
      nodeSelector: 2
        nodeSelectorTerms:
        - matchExpressions:
            - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
              operator: In
              values:
              - ip-10-0-136-143
              - ip-10-0-140-255
              - ip-10-0-144-180
      storageClassDevices:
        - storageClassName: "local-sc" 3
          volumeMode: Block 4
          devicePaths: 5
            - /path/to/device 6

    1
    The namespace where the Local Storage Operator is installed.
    2
    Optional: A node selector containing a list of nodes where the local storage volumes are attached. This example uses the node hostnames, obtained from oc get node. If a value is not defined, then the Local Storage Operator will attempt to find matching disks on all available nodes.
    3
    The name of the storage class to use when creating persistent volume objects.
    4
    The volume mode, either Filesystem or Block, that defines the type of local volumes.
    5
    The path containing a list of local storage devices to choose from.
    6
    Replace this value with your actual local disks filepath to the LocalVolume resource by-id, such as dev/disk/by-id/wwn. PVs are created for these local disks when the provisioner is deployed successfully.
    Note

    If you are running OpenShift Container Platform with RHEL KVM, you must assign a serial number to your VM disk. Otherwise, the VM disk can not be identified after reboot. You can use the virsh edit <VM> command to add the <serial>mydisk</serial> definition.

  2. Create the local volume resource in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Specify the file you just created:

    $ oc create -f <local-volume>.yaml
  3. Verify that the provisioner was created and that the corresponding daemon sets were created:

    $ oc get all -n openshift-local-storage

    Example output

    NAME                                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
    pod/diskmaker-manager-9wzms                   1/1     Running   0          5m43s
    pod/diskmaker-manager-jgvjp                   1/1     Running   0          5m43s
    pod/diskmaker-manager-tbdsj                   1/1     Running   0          5m43s
    pod/local-storage-operator-7db4bd9f79-t6k87   1/1     Running   0          14m
    
    NAME                                     TYPE        CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP   PORT(S)             AGE
    service/local-storage-operator-metrics   ClusterIP   172.30.135.36   <none>        8383/TCP,8686/TCP   14m
    
    NAME                               DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   NODE SELECTOR   AGE
    daemonset.apps/diskmaker-manager   3         3         3       3            3           <none>          5m43s
    
    NAME                                     READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
    deployment.apps/local-storage-operator   1/1     1            1           14m
    
    NAME                                                DESIRED   CURRENT   READY   AGE
    replicaset.apps/local-storage-operator-7db4bd9f79   1         1         1       14m

    Note the desired and current number of daemon set processes. A desired count of 0 indicates that the label selectors were invalid.

  4. Verify that the persistent volumes were created:

    $ oc get pv

    Example output

    NAME                CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM   STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
    local-pv-1cec77cf   100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                88m
    local-pv-2ef7cd2a   100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                82m
    local-pv-3fa1c73    100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                48m

Important

Editing the LocalVolume object does not change the fsType or volumeMode of existing persistent volumes because doing so might result in a destructive operation.

4.12.1.3. Provisioning local volumes without the Local Storage Operator

Local volumes cannot be created by dynamic provisioning. Instead, persistent volumes can be created by defining the persistent volume (PV) in an object definition. The local volume provisioner looks for any file system or block volume devices at the paths specified in the defined resource.

Important

Manual provisioning of PVs includes the risk of potential data leaks across PV reuse when PVCs are deleted. The Local Storage Operator is recommended for automating the life cycle of devices when provisioning local PVs.

Prerequisites

  • Local disks are attached to the OpenShift Container Platform nodes.

Procedure

  1. Define the PV. Create a file, such as example-pv-filesystem.yaml or example-pv-block.yaml, with the PersistentVolume object definition. This resource must define the nodes and paths to the local volumes.

    Note

    Do not use different storage class names for the same device. Doing so will create multiple PVs.

    example-pv-filesystem.yaml

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolume
    metadata:
      name: example-pv-filesystem
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: 100Gi
      volumeMode: Filesystem 1
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Delete
      storageClassName: local-sc 2
      local:
        path: /dev/xvdf 3
      nodeAffinity:
        required:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
              operator: In
              values:
              - example-node

    1
    The volume mode, either Filesystem or Block, that defines the type of PVs.
    2
    The name of the storage class to use when creating PV resources. Use a storage class that uniquely identifies this set of PVs.
    3
    The path containing a list of local storage devices to choose from, or a directory. You can only specify a directory with Filesystem volumeMode.
    Note

    A raw block volume (volumeMode: block) is not formatted with a file system. Use this mode only if any application running on the pod can use raw block devices.

    example-pv-block.yaml

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolume
    metadata:
      name: example-pv-block
    spec:
      capacity:
        storage: 100Gi
      volumeMode: Block 1
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Delete
      storageClassName: local-sc 2
      local:
        path: /dev/xvdf 3
      nodeAffinity:
        required:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
          - matchExpressions:
            - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
              operator: In
              values:
              - example-node

    1
    The volume mode, either Filesystem or Block, that defines the type of PVs.
    2
    The name of the storage class to use when creating PV resources. Be sure to use a storage class that uniquely identifies this set of PVs.
    3
    The path containing a list of local storage devices to choose from.
  2. Create the PV resource in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Specify the file you just created:

    $ oc create -f <example-pv>.yaml
  3. Verify that the local PV was created:

    $ oc get pv

    Example output

    NAME                    CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM                STORAGECLASS    REASON   AGE
    example-pv-filesystem   100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available                        local-sc            3m47s
    example-pv1             1Gi        RWO            Delete           Bound       local-storage/pvc1   local-sc            12h
    example-pv2             1Gi        RWO            Delete           Bound       local-storage/pvc2   local-sc            12h
    example-pv3             1Gi        RWO            Delete           Bound       local-storage/pvc3   local-sc            12h

4.12.1.4. Creating the local volume persistent volume claim

Local volumes must be statically created as a persistent volume claim (PVC) to be accessed by the pod.

Prerequisites

  • Persistent volumes have been created using the local volume provisioner.

Procedure

  1. Create the PVC using the corresponding storage class:

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: local-pvc-name 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Filesystem 2
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 100Gi 3
      storageClassName: local-sc 4
    1
    Name of the PVC.
    2
    The type of the PVC. Defaults to Filesystem.
    3
    The amount of storage available to the PVC.
    4
    Name of the storage class required by the claim.
  2. Create the PVC in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, specifying the file you just created:

    $ oc create -f <local-pvc>.yaml
4.12.1.5. Attach the local claim

After a local volume has been mapped to a persistent volume claim it can be specified inside of a resource.

Prerequisites

  • A persistent volume claim exists in the same namespace.

Procedure

  1. Include the defined claim in the resource spec. The following example declares the persistent volume claim inside a pod:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    spec:
    # ...
      containers:
        volumeMounts:
        - name: local-disks 1
          mountPath: /data 2
      volumes:
      - name: local-disks
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: local-pvc-name 3
    # ...
    1
    The name of the volume to mount.
    2
    The path inside the pod where the volume is mounted. Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system if the container is sufficiently privileged, such as the host /dev/pts files. It is safe to mount the host by using /host.
    3
    The name of the existing persistent volume claim to use.
  2. Create the resource in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, specifying the file you just created:

    $ oc create -f <local-pod>.yaml
4.12.1.6. Automating discovery and provisioning for local storage devices

The Local Storage Operator automates local storage discovery and provisioning. With this feature, you can simplify installation when dynamic provisioning is not available during deployment, such as with bare metal, VMware, or AWS store instances with attached devices.

Important

Automatic discovery and provisioning is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Important

Automatic discovery and provisioning is fully supported when used to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation on-premise or with platform-agnostic deployment.

Use the following procedure to automatically discover local devices, and to automatically provision local volumes for selected devices.

Warning

Use the LocalVolumeSet object with caution. When you automatically provision persistent volumes (PVs) from local disks, the local PVs might claim all devices that match. If you are using a LocalVolumeSet object, make sure the Local Storage Operator is the only entity managing local devices on the node. Creating multiple instances of a LocalVolumeSet that target a node more than once is not supported.

Prerequisites

  • You have cluster administrator permissions.
  • You have installed the Local Storage Operator.
  • You have attached local disks to OpenShift Container Platform nodes.
  • You have access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console and the oc command-line interface (CLI).

Procedure

  1. To enable automatic discovery of local devices from the web console:

    1. Click OperatorsInstalled Operators.
    2. In the openshift-local-storage namespace, click Local Storage.
    3. Click the Local Volume Discovery tab.
    4. Click Create Local Volume Discovery and then select either Form view or YAML view.
    5. Configure the LocalVolumeDiscovery object parameters.
    6. Click Create.

      The Local Storage Operator creates a local volume discovery instance named auto-discover-devices.

  2. To display a continuous list of available devices on a node:

    1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
    2. Navigate to ComputeNodes.
    3. Click the node name that you want to open. The "Node Details" page is displayed.
    4. Select the Disks tab to display the list of the selected devices.

      The device list updates continuously as local disks are added or removed. You can filter the devices by name, status, type, model, capacity, and mode.

  3. To automatically provision local volumes for the discovered devices from the web console:

    1. Navigate to OperatorsInstalled Operators and select Local Storage from the list of Operators.
    2. Select Local Volume SetCreate Local Volume Set.
    3. Enter a volume set name and a storage class name.
    4. Choose All nodes or Select nodes to apply filters accordingly.

      Note

      Only worker nodes are available, regardless of whether you filter using All nodes or Select nodes.

    5. Select the disk type, mode, size, and limit you want to apply to the local volume set, and click Create.

      A message displays after several minutes, indicating that the "Operator reconciled successfully."

  4. Alternatively, to provision local volumes for the discovered devices from the CLI:

    1. Create an object YAML file to define the local volume set, such as local-volume-set.yaml, as shown in the following example:

      apiVersion: local.storage.openshift.io/v1alpha1
      kind: LocalVolumeSet
      metadata:
        name: example-autodetect
      spec:
        nodeSelector:
          nodeSelectorTerms:
            - matchExpressions:
                - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
                  operator: In
                  values:
                    - worker-0
                    - worker-1
        storageClassName: local-sc 1
        volumeMode: Filesystem
        fsType: ext4
        maxDeviceCount: 10
        deviceInclusionSpec:
          deviceTypes: 2
            - disk
            - part
          deviceMechanicalProperties:
            - NonRotational
          minSize: 10G
          maxSize: 100G
          models:
            - SAMSUNG
            - Crucial_CT525MX3
          vendors:
            - ATA
            - ST2000LM
      1
      Determines the storage class that is created for persistent volumes that are provisioned from discovered devices. The Local Storage Operator automatically creates the storage class if it does not exist. Be sure to use a storage class that uniquely identifies this set of local volumes.
      2
      When using the local volume set feature, the Local Storage Operator does not support the use of logical volume management (LVM) devices.
    2. Create the local volume set object:

      $ oc apply -f local-volume-set.yaml
    3. Verify that the local persistent volumes were dynamically provisioned based on the storage class:

      $ oc get pv

      Example output

      NAME                CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM   STORAGECLASS   REASON   AGE
      local-pv-1cec77cf   100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                88m
      local-pv-2ef7cd2a   100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                82m
      local-pv-3fa1c73    100Gi      RWO            Delete           Available           local-sc                48m

Note

Results are deleted after they are removed from the node. Symlinks must be manually removed.

4.12.1.7. Using tolerations with Local Storage Operator pods

Taints can be applied to nodes to prevent them from running general workloads. To allow the Local Storage Operator to use tainted nodes, you must add tolerations to the Pod or DaemonSet definition. This allows the created resources to run on these tainted nodes.

You apply tolerations to the Local Storage Operator pod through the LocalVolume resource and apply taints to a node through the node specification. A taint on a node instructs the node to repel all pods that do not tolerate the taint. Using a specific taint that is not on other pods ensures that the Local Storage Operator pod can also run on that node.

Important

Taints and tolerations consist of a key, value, and effect. As an argument, it is expressed as key=value:effect. An operator allows you to leave one of these parameters empty.

Prerequisites

  • The Local Storage Operator is installed.
  • Local disks are attached to OpenShift Container Platform nodes with a taint.
  • Tainted nodes are expected to provision local storage.

Procedure

To configure local volumes for scheduling on tainted nodes:

  1. Modify the YAML file that defines the Pod and add the LocalVolume spec, as shown in the following example:

      apiVersion: "local.storage.openshift.io/v1"
      kind: "LocalVolume"
      metadata:
        name: "local-disks"
        namespace: "openshift-local-storage"
      spec:
        tolerations:
          - key: localstorage 1
            operator: Equal 2
            value: "localstorage" 3
        storageClassDevices:
            - storageClassName: "local-sc"
              volumeMode: Block 4
              devicePaths: 5
                - /dev/xvdg
    1
    Specify the key that you added to the node.
    2
    Specify the Equal operator to require the key/value parameters to match. If operator is Exists, the system checks that the key exists and ignores the value. If operator is Equal, then the key and value must match.
    3
    Specify the value local of the tainted node.
    4
    The volume mode, either Filesystem or Block, defining the type of the local volumes.
    5
    The path containing a list of local storage devices to choose from.
  2. Optional: To create local persistent volumes on only tainted nodes, modify the YAML file and add the LocalVolume spec, as shown in the following example:

    spec:
      tolerations:
        - key: node-role.kubernetes.io/master
          operator: Exists

The defined tolerations will be passed to the resulting daemon sets, allowing the diskmaker and provisioner pods to be created for nodes that contain the specified taints.

4.12.1.8. Local Storage Operator Metrics

OpenShift Container Platform provides the following metrics for the Local Storage Operator:

  • lso_discovery_disk_count: total number of discovered devices on each node
  • lso_lvset_provisioned_PV_count: total number of PVs created by LocalVolumeSet objects
  • lso_lvset_unmatched_disk_count: total number of disks that Local Storage Operator did not select for provisioning because of mismatching criteria
  • lso_lvset_orphaned_symlink_count: number of devices with PVs that no longer match LocalVolumeSet object criteria
  • lso_lv_orphaned_symlink_count: number of devices with PVs that no longer match LocalVolume object criteria
  • lso_lv_provisioned_PV_count: total number of provisioned PVs for LocalVolume

To use these metrics, be sure to:

  • Enable support for monitoring when installing the Local Storage Operator.
  • When upgrading to OpenShift Container Platform 4.9 or later, enable metric support manually by adding the operator-metering=true label to the namespace.

For more information about metrics, see Managing metrics.

4.12.1.9. Deleting the Local Storage Operator resources
4.12.1.9.1. Removing a local volume or local volume set

Occasionally, local volumes and local volume sets must be deleted. While removing the entry in the resource and deleting the persistent volume is typically enough, if you want to reuse the same device path or have it managed by a different storage class, then additional steps are needed.

Note

The following procedure outlines an example for removing a local volume. The same procedure can also be used to remove symlinks for a local volume set custom resource.

Prerequisites

  • The persistent volume must be in a Released or Available state.

    Warning

    Deleting a persistent volume that is still in use can result in data loss or corruption.

Procedure

  1. Edit the previously created local volume to remove any unwanted disks.

    1. Edit the cluster resource:

      $ oc edit localvolume <name> -n openshift-local-storage
    2. Navigate to the lines under devicePaths, and delete any representing unwanted disks.
  2. Delete any persistent volumes created.

    $ oc delete pv <pv-name>
  3. Delete directory and included symlinks on the node.

    Warning

    The following step involves accessing a node as the root user. Modifying the state of the node beyond the steps in this procedure could result in cluster instability.

    $ oc debug node/<node-name> -- chroot /host rm -rf /mnt/local-storage/<sc-name> 1
    1
    The name of the storage class used to create the local volumes.
4.12.1.9.2. Uninstalling the Local Storage Operator

To uninstall the Local Storage Operator, you must remove the Operator and all created resources in the openshift-local-storage project.

Warning

Uninstalling the Local Storage Operator while local storage PVs are still in use is not recommended. While the PVs will remain after the Operator’s removal, there might be indeterminate behavior if the Operator is uninstalled and reinstalled without removing the PVs and local storage resources.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

  1. Delete any local volume resources installed in the project, such as localvolume, localvolumeset, and localvolumediscovery:

    $ oc delete localvolume --all --all-namespaces
    $ oc delete localvolumeset --all --all-namespaces
    $ oc delete localvolumediscovery --all --all-namespaces
  2. Uninstall the Local Storage Operator from the web console.

    1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
    2. Navigate to OperatorsInstalled Operators.
    3. Type Local Storage into the filter box to locate the Local Storage Operator.
    4. Click the Options menu kebab at the end of the Local Storage Operator.
    5. Click Uninstall Operator.
    6. Click Remove in the window that appears.
  3. The PVs created by the Local Storage Operator will remain in the cluster until deleted. After these volumes are no longer in use, delete them by running the following command:

    $ oc delete pv <pv-name>
  4. Delete the openshift-local-storage project:

    $ oc delete project openshift-local-storage

4.12.2. Persistent storage using hostPath

A hostPath volume in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster mounts a file or directory from the host node’s filesystem into your pod. Most pods will not need a hostPath volume, but it does offer a quick option for testing should an application require it.

Important

The cluster administrator must configure pods to run as privileged. This grants access to pods in the same node.

4.12.2.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform supports hostPath mounting for development and testing on a single-node cluster.

In a production cluster, you would not use hostPath. Instead, a cluster administrator would provision a network resource, such as a GCE Persistent Disk volume, an NFS share, or an Amazon EBS volume. Network resources support the use of storage classes to set up dynamic provisioning.

A hostPath volume must be provisioned statically.

Important

Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system if the container is sufficiently privileged. It is safe to mount the host by using /host. The following example shows the / directory from the host being mounted into the container at /host.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: test-host-mount
spec:
  containers:
  - image: registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi
    name: test-container
    command: ['sh', '-c', 'sleep 3600']
    volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: /host
      name: host-slash
  volumes:
   - name: host-slash
     hostPath:
       path: /
       type: ''
4.12.2.2. Statically provisioning hostPath volumes

A pod that uses a hostPath volume must be referenced by manual (static) provisioning.

Procedure

  1. Define the persistent volume (PV). Create a file, pv.yaml, with the PersistentVolume object definition:

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: PersistentVolume
      metadata:
        name: task-pv-volume 1
        labels:
          type: local
      spec:
        storageClassName: manual 2
        capacity:
          storage: 5Gi
        accessModes:
          - ReadWriteOnce 3
        persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
        hostPath:
          path: "/mnt/data" 4
    1
    The name of the volume. This name is how it is identified by persistent volume claims or pods.
    2
    Used to bind persistent volume claim requests to this persistent volume.
    3
    The volume can be mounted as read-write by a single node.
    4
    The configuration file specifies that the volume is at /mnt/data on the cluster’s node. Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system. It is safe to mount the host by using /host.
  2. Create the PV from the file:

    $ oc create -f pv.yaml
  3. Define the persistent volume claim (PVC). Create a file, pvc.yaml, with the PersistentVolumeClaim object definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: task-pvc-volume
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi
      storageClassName: manual
  4. Create the PVC from the file:

    $ oc create -f pvc.yaml
4.12.2.3. Mounting the hostPath share in a privileged pod

After the persistent volume claim has been created, it can be used inside by an application. The following example demonstrates mounting this share inside of a pod.

Prerequisites

  • A persistent volume claim exists that is mapped to the underlying hostPath share.

Procedure

  • Create a privileged pod that mounts the existing persistent volume claim:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: pod-name 1
    spec:
      containers:
        ...
        securityContext:
          privileged: true 2
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /data 3
          name: hostpath-privileged
      ...
      securityContext: {}
      volumes:
        - name: hostpath-privileged
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: task-pvc-volume 4
    1
    The name of the pod.
    2
    The pod must run as privileged to access the node’s storage.
    3
    The path to mount the host path share inside the privileged pod. Do not mount to the container root, /, or any path that is the same in the host and the container. This can corrupt your host system if the container is sufficiently privileged, such as the host /dev/pts files. It is safe to mount the host by using /host.
    4
    The name of the PersistentVolumeClaim object that has been previously created.

4.12.3. Persistent storage using Logical Volume Manager Storage

Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Storage uses the TopoLVM CSI driver to dynamically provision local storage on single-node OpenShift clusters.

LVM Storage creates thin-provisioned volumes using Logical Volume Manager and provides dynamic provisioning of block storage on a limited resources single-node OpenShift cluster.

You can create volume groups, persistent volume claims (PVCs), volume snapshots, and volume clones by using LVM Storage.

4.12.3.1. Logical Volume Manager Storage installation

You can install Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Storage on a single-node OpenShift cluster and configure it to dynamically provision storage for your workloads.

You can deploy LVM Storage on single-node OpenShift clusters by using the OpenShift Container Platform CLI (oc), OpenShift Container Platform web console, or Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM).

4.12.3.1.1. Prerequisites to install LVM Storage

The prerequisites to install LVM Storage are as follows:

  • Ensure that you have a minimum of 10 milliCPU and 100 MiB of RAM.
  • Ensure that every managed cluster has dedicated disks that are used to provision storage. LVM Storage uses only those disks that are empty and do not contain file system signatures. To ensure that the disks are empty and do not contain file system signatures, wipe the disks before using them.
  • Before installing LVM Storage in a private CI environment where you can reuse the storage devices that you configured in the previous LVM Storage installation, ensure that you have wiped the disks that are not in use. If you do not wipe the disks before installing LVM Storage, you cannot reuse the disks without manual intervention.

    Note

    You cannot wipe the disks that are in use.

  • If you want to install LVM Storage by using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM), ensure that you have installed RHACM on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. See the Installing LVM Storage using RHACM section.
4.12.3.1.2. Installing LVM Storage using OpenShift Container Platform Web Console

You can install LVM Storage using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform OperatorHub.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the single-node OpenShift cluster.
  • You are using an account with the cluster-admin and Operator installation permissions.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the OpenShift Container Platform Web Console.
  2. Click Operators → OperatorHub.
  3. Scroll or type LVM Storage into the Filter by keyword box to find LVM Storage.
  4. Click Install.
  5. Set the following options on the Install Operator page:

    1. Update Channel as stable-4.12.
    2. Installation Mode as A specific namespace on the cluster.
    3. Installed Namespace as Operator recommended namespace openshift-storage. If the openshift-storage namespace does not exist, it is created during the operator installation.
    4. Approval Strategy as Automatic or Manual.

      If you select Automatic updates, then the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) automatically upgrades the running instance of your Operator without any intervention.

      If you select Manual updates, then the OLM creates an update request. As a cluster administrator, you must then manually approve that update request to update the Operator to a newer version.

  6. Click Install.

Verification steps

  • Verify that LVM Storage shows a green tick, indicating successful installation.
4.12.3.1.3. Uninstalling LVM Storage installed using the OpenShift Web Console

You can uninstall LVM Storage using the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Web Console.

Prerequisites

  • You deleted all the applications on the clusters that are using the storage provisioned by LVM Storage.
  • You deleted the persistent volume claims (PVCs) and persistent volumes (PVs) provisioned using LVM Storage.
  • You deleted all volume snapshots provisioned by LVM Storage.
  • You verified that no logical volume resources exist by using the oc get logicalvolume command.
  • You have access to the single-node OpenShift cluster using an account with cluster-admin permissions.

Procedure

  1. From the OperatorsInstalled Operators page, scroll to LVM Storage or type LVM Storage into the Filter by name to find and click on it.
  2. Click on the LVMCluster tab.
  3. On the right-hand side of the LVMCluster page, select Delete LVMCluster from the Actions drop-down menu.
  4. Click on the Details tab.
  5. On the right-hand side of the Operator Details page, select Uninstall Operator from the Actions drop-down menu.
  6. Select Remove. LVM Storage stops running and is completely removed.
4.12.3.1.4. Installing LVM Storage using RHACM

LVM Storage is deployed on single-node OpenShift clusters using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM). You create a Policy object on RHACM that deploys and configures the Operator when it is applied to managed clusters which match the selector specified in the PlacementRule resource. The policy is also applied to clusters that are imported later and satisfy the placement rule.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the RHACM cluster using an account with cluster-admin and Operator installation permissions.
  • Dedicated disks on each single-node OpenShift cluster to be used by LVM Storage.
  • The single-node OpenShift cluster needs to be managed by RHACM, either imported or created.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHACM CLI using your OpenShift Container Platform credentials.
  2. Create a namespace in which you will create policies.

    # oc create ns lvms-policy-ns
  3. To create a policy, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as policy-lvms-operator.yaml:

    apiVersion: apps.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementRule
    metadata:
      name: placement-install-lvms
    spec:
      clusterConditions:
      - status: "True"
        type: ManagedClusterConditionAvailable
      clusterSelector: 1
        matchExpressions:
        - key: mykey
          operator: In
          values:
          - myvalue
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementBinding
    metadata:
      name: binding-install-lvms
    placementRef:
      apiGroup: apps.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: PlacementRule
      name: placement-install-lvms
    subjects:
    - apiGroup: policy.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: Policy
      name: install-lvms
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      annotations:
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/categories: CM Configuration Management
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/controls: CM-2 Baseline Configuration
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST SP 800-53
      name: install-lvms
    spec:
      disabled: false
      remediationAction: enforce
      policy-templates:
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: install-lvms
          spec:
            object-templates:
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: v1
                kind: Namespace
                metadata:
                  labels:
                    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit: privileged
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn: privileged
                  name: openshift-storage
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
                kind: OperatorGroup
                metadata:
                  name: openshift-storage-operatorgroup
                  namespace: openshift-storage
                spec:
                  targetNamespaces:
                  - openshift-storage
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
                kind: Subscription
                metadata:
                  name: lvms
                  namespace: openshift-storage
                spec:
                  installPlanApproval: Automatic
                  name: lvms-operator
                  source: redhat-operators
                  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: low
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: lvms
          spec:
            object-templates:
               - complianceType: musthave
                 objectDefinition:
                   apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
                   kind: LVMCluster
                   metadata:
                     name: my-lvmcluster
                     namespace: openshift-storage
                   spec:
                     storage:
                       deviceClasses:
                       - name: vg1
                         deviceSelector: 2
                           paths:
                           - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:87:00.0-nvme-1
                           - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:88:00.0-nvme-1
                         thinPoolConfig:
                           name: thin-pool-1
                           sizePercent: 90
                           overprovisionRatio: 10
                         nodeSelector: 3
                           nodeSelectorTerms:
                           - matchExpressions:
                               - key: app
                                 operator: In
                                 values:
                                 - test1
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: low
    1
    Replace the key and value in PlacementRule.spec.clusterSelector to match the labels set on the single-node OpenShift clusters on which you want to install LVM Storage.
    2
    To control or restrict the volume group to your preferred disks, you can manually specify the local paths of the disks in the deviceSelector section of the LVMCluster YAML.
    3
    To add a node filter, which is a subset of the additional worker nodes, specify the required filter in the nodeSelector section. LVM Storage detects and uses the additional worker nodes when the new nodes show up.
    Important

    This nodeSelector node filter matching is not the same as the pod label matching.

  4. Create the policy in the namespace by running the following command:

    # oc create -f policy-lvms-operator.yaml -n lvms-policy-ns 1
    1
    The policy-lvms-operator.yaml is the name of the file to which the policy is saved.

    This creates a Policy, a PlacementRule, and a PlacementBinding object in the lvms-policy-ns namespace. The policy creates a Namespace, OperatorGroup, Subscription, and LVMCluster resource on the clusters that match the placement rule. This deploys the Operator on the single-node OpenShift clusters which match the selection criteria and configures it to set up the required resources to provision storage. The Operator uses all the disks specified in the LVMCluster CR. If no disks are specified, the Operator uses all the unused disks on the single-node OpenShift node.

    Important

    After a device is added to the LVMCluster, it cannot be removed.

4.12.3.1.5. Uninstalling LVM Storage installed using RHACM

To uninstall LVM Storage that you installed using RHACM, you need to delete the RHACM policy that you created for deploying and configuring the Operator.

When you delete the RHACM policy, the resources that the policy has created are not removed. You need to create additional policies to remove the resources.

As the created resources are not removed when you delete the policy, you need to perform the following steps:

  1. Remove all the Persistent volume claims (PVCs) and volume snapshots provisioned by LVM Storage.
  2. Remove the LVMCluster resources to clean up Logical Volume Manager resources created on the disks.
  3. Create an additional policy to uninstall the Operator.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that the following are deleted before deleting the policy:

    • All the applications on the managed clusters that are using the storage provisioned by LVM Storage.
    • PVCs and persistent volumes (PVs) provisioned using LVM Storage.
    • All volume snapshots provisioned by LVM Storage.
  • Ensure you have access to the RHACM cluster using an account with a cluster-admin role.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift CLI (oc), delete the RHACM policy that you created for deploying and configuring LVM Storage on the hub cluster by using the following command:

    # oc delete -f policy-lvms-operator.yaml -n lvms-policy-ns 1
    1
    The policy-lvms-operator.yaml is the name of the file to which the policy was saved.
  2. To create a policy for removing the LVMCluster resource, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as lvms-remove-policy.yaml. This enables the Operator to clean up all Logical Volume Manager resources that it created on the cluster.

    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      name: policy-lvmcluster-delete
      annotations:
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST SP 800-53
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/categories: CM Configuration Management
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/controls: CM-2 Baseline Configuration
    spec:
      remediationAction: enforce
      disabled: false
      policy-templates:
        - objectDefinition:
            apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
            kind: ConfigurationPolicy
            metadata:
              name: policy-lvmcluster-removal
            spec:
              remediationAction: enforce 1
              severity: low
              object-templates:
                - complianceType: mustnothave
                  objectDefinition:
                    kind: LVMCluster
                    apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
                    metadata:
                      name: my-lvmcluster
                      namespace: openshift-storage 2
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementBinding
    metadata:
      name: binding-policy-lvmcluster-delete
    placementRef:
      apiGroup: apps.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: PlacementRule
      name: placement-policy-lvmcluster-delete
    subjects:
      - apiGroup: policy.open-cluster-management.io
        kind: Policy
        name: policy-lvmcluster-delete
    ---
    apiVersion: apps.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementRule
    metadata:
      name: placement-policy-lvmcluster-delete
    spec:
      clusterConditions:
        - status: "True"
          type: ManagedClusterConditionAvailable
      clusterSelector:
        matchExpressions:
          - key: mykey
            operator: In
            values:
              - myvalue
    1
    The policy-template spec.remediationAction is overridden by the preceding parameter value for spec.remediationAction.
    2
    This namespace field must have the openshift-storage value.
  3. Set the value of the PlacementRule.spec.clusterSelector field to select the clusters from which to uninstall LVM Storage.
  4. Create the policy by running the following command:

    # oc create -f lvms-remove-policy.yaml -n lvms-policy-ns
  5. To create a policy to check if the LVMCluster CR has been removed, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as check-lvms-remove-policy.yaml:

    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      name: policy-lvmcluster-inform
      annotations:
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST SP 800-53
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/categories: CM Configuration Management
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/controls: CM-2 Baseline Configuration
    spec:
      remediationAction: inform
      disabled: false
      policy-templates:
        - objectDefinition:
            apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
            kind: ConfigurationPolicy
            metadata:
              name: policy-lvmcluster-removal-inform
            spec:
              remediationAction: inform 1
              severity: low
              object-templates:
                - complianceType: mustnothave
                  objectDefinition:
                    kind: LVMCluster
                    apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
                    metadata:
                      name: my-lvmcluster
                      namespace: openshift-storage 2
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementBinding
    metadata:
      name: binding-policy-lvmcluster-check
    placementRef:
      apiGroup: apps.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: PlacementRule
      name: placement-policy-lvmcluster-check
    subjects:
      - apiGroup: policy.open-cluster-management.io
        kind: Policy
        name: policy-lvmcluster-inform
    ---
    apiVersion: apps.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementRule
    metadata:
      name: placement-policy-lvmcluster-check
    spec:
      clusterConditions:
        - status: "True"
          type: ManagedClusterConditionAvailable
      clusterSelector:
        matchExpressions:
          - key: mykey
            operator: In
            values:
              - myvalue
    1
    The policy-template spec.remediationAction is overridden by the preceding parameter value for spec.remediationAction.
    2
    The namespace field must have the openshift-storage value.
  6. Create the policy by running the following command:

    # oc create -f check-lvms-remove-policy.yaml -n lvms-policy-ns
  7. Check the policy status by running the following command:

    # oc get policy -n lvms-policy-ns

    Example output

    NAME                       REMEDIATION ACTION   COMPLIANCE STATE   AGE
    policy-lvmcluster-delete   enforce              Compliant          15m
    policy-lvmcluster-inform   inform               Compliant          15m

  8. After both the policies are compliant, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as lvms-uninstall-policy.yaml to create a policy to uninstall LVM Storage.

    apiVersion: apps.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementRule
    metadata:
      name: placement-uninstall-lvms
    spec:
      clusterConditions:
      - status: "True"
        type: ManagedClusterConditionAvailable
      clusterSelector:
        matchExpressions:
        - key: mykey
          operator: In
          values:
          - myvalue
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementBinding
    metadata:
      name: binding-uninstall-lvms
    placementRef:
      apiGroup: apps.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: PlacementRule
      name: placement-uninstall-lvms
    subjects:
    - apiGroup: policy.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: Policy
      name: uninstall-lvms
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      annotations:
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/categories: CM Configuration Management
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/controls: CM-2 Baseline Configuration
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST SP 800-53
      name: uninstall-lvms
    spec:
      disabled: false
      policy-templates:
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: uninstall-lvms
          spec:
            object-templates:
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: v1
                kind: Namespace
                metadata:
                  name: openshift-storage
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
                kind: OperatorGroup
                metadata:
                  name: openshift-storage-operatorgroup
                  namespace: openshift-storage
                spec:
                  targetNamespaces:
                  - openshift-storage
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
                kind: Subscription
                metadata:
                  name: lvms-operator
                  namespace: openshift-storage
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: low
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: policy-remove-lvms-crds
          spec:
            object-templates:
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
                kind: CustomResourceDefinition
                metadata:
                  name: logicalvolumes.topolvm.io
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
                kind: CustomResourceDefinition
                metadata:
                  name: lvmclusters.lvm.topolvm.io
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
                kind: CustomResourceDefinition
                metadata:
                  name: lvmvolumegroupnodestatuses.lvm.topolvm.io
            - complianceType: mustnothave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: apiextensions.k8s.io/v1
                kind: CustomResourceDefinition
                metadata:
                  name: lvmvolumegroups.lvm.topolvm.io
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: high
  9. Create the policy by running the following command:

    # oc create -f lvms-uninstall-policy.yaml -ns lvms-policy-ns

Additional resources

4.12.3.2. Limitations to configure the size of the devices used in LVM Storage

The limitations to configure the size of the devices that you can use to provision storage using LVM Storage are as follows:

  • The total storage size that you can provision is limited by the size of the underlying Logical Volume Manager (LVM) thin pool and the over-provisioning factor.
  • The size of the logical volume depends on the size of the Physical Extent (PE) and the Logical Extent (LE).

    • You can define the size of PE and LE during the physical and logical device creation.
    • The default PE and LE size is 4 MB.
    • If the size of the PE is increased, the maximum size of the LVM is determined by the kernel limits and your disk space.
Table 4.1. Size limits for different architectures using the default PE and LE size
ArchitectureRHEL 6RHEL 7RHEL 8RHEL 9

32-bit

16 TB

-

-

-

64-bit

8 EB [1]

100 TB [2]

8 EB [1]

500 TB [2]

8 EB

8 EB

  1. Theoretical size.
  2. Tested size.
4.12.3.3. Creating Logical Volume Manager cluster

You can create a Logical Volume Manager cluster after you install LVM Storage.

OpenShift Container Platform supports additional worker nodes for single-node OpenShift clusters on bare-metal user-provisioned infrastructure. LVM Storage detects and uses the additional worker nodes when the new nodes show up. In case you need to set a node filter for the additional worker nodes, you can use the YAML view while creating the cluster.

You can only create a single instance of the LVMCluster custom resource (CR) on an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Important

This node filter matching is not the same as the pod label matching.

Prerequisites

  • You installed LVM Storage from the OperatorHub.

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform Web Console, click Operators → Installed Operators to view all the installed Operators.

    Ensure that the Project selected is openshift-storage.

  2. Click on LVM Storage, and then click Create LVMCluster under LVMCluster.
  3. In the Create LVMCluster page, select either Form view or YAML view.
  4. Enter a name for the cluster.
  5. Click Create.
  6. Optional: To add a node filter, click YAML view and specify the filter in the nodeSelector section:

    apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
    kind: LVMCluster
    metadata:
      name: my-lvmcluster
    spec:
      storage:
        deviceClasses:
          - name: vg1
            thinPoolConfig:
              name: thin-pool-1
              sizePercent: 90
              overprovisionRatio: 10
            nodeSelector:
              nodeSelectorTerms:
                - matchExpressions:
                  - key: app
                    operator: In
                    values:
                    - test1
  7. Optional: To edit the local device path of the disks, click YAML view and specify the device path in the deviceSelector section:

    spec:
      storage:
        deviceClasses:
          - name: vg1
            deviceSelector:
              paths:
              - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:87:00.0-nvme-1
              - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:88:00.0-nvme-1
            thinPoolConfig:
              name: thin-pool-1
              sizePercent: 90
              overprovisionRatio: 10

Verification Steps

  1. Click Storage → Storage Classes from the left pane of the OpenShift Container Platform Web Console.
  2. Verify that the lvms-<device-class-name> storage class is created with the LVMCluster creation. By default, vg1 is the device-class-name.
4.12.3.4. Provisioning storage using LVM Storage

You can provision persistent volume claims (PVCs) using the storage class that is created during the Operator installation. You can provision block and file PVCs, however, the storage is allocated only when a pod that uses the PVC is created.

Note

LVM Storage provisions PVCs in units of 1 GiB. The requested storage is rounded up to the nearest GiB.

Procedure

  1. Identify the StorageClass that is created when LVM Storage is deployed.

    The StorageClass name is in the format, lvms-<device-class-name>. The device-class-name is the name of the device class that you provided in the LVMCluster of the Policy YAML. For example, if the deviceClass is called vg1, then the storageClass name is lvms-vg1.

    The volumeBindingMode of the storage class is set to WaitForFirstConsumer.

  2. To create a PVC where the application requires storage, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as pvc.yaml.

    Example YAML to create a PVC

    # block pvc
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: lvm-block-1
      namespace: default
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Block
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 10Gi
      storageClassName: lvms-vg1
    ---
    # file pvc
    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: lvm-file-1
      namespace: default
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Filesystem
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 10Gi
      storageClassName: lvms-vg1

  3. Create the PVC by running the following command:

    # oc create -f pvc.yaml -ns <application_namespace>

    The created PVCs remain in pending state until you deploy the pods that use them.

4.12.3.5. Scaling storage of single-node OpenShift clusters

The OpenShift Container Platform supports additional worker nodes for single-node OpenShift clusters on bare-metal user-provisioned infrastructure. LVM Storage detects and uses the new additional worker nodes when the nodes show up.

4.12.3.5.1. Scaling up storage by adding capacity to your single-node OpenShift cluster

To scale the storage capacity of your configured worker nodes on a single-node OpenShift cluster, you can increase the capacity by adding disks.

Prerequisites

  • You have additional unused disks on each single-node OpenShift cluster to be used by LVM Storage.

Procedure

  1. Log in to OpenShift Container Platform console of the single-node OpenShift cluster.
  2. From the OperatorsInstalled Operators page, click on the LVM Storage Operator in the openshift-storage namespace.
  3. Click on the LVMCluster tab to list the LVMCluster CR created on the cluster.
  4. Select Edit LVMCluster from the Actions drop-down menu.
  5. Click on the YAML tab.
  6. Edit the LVMCluster CR YAML to add the new device path in the deviceSelector section:

    Note

    In case the deviceSelector field is not included during the LVMCluster creation, it is not possible to add the deviceSelector section to the CR. You need to remove the LVMCluster and then create a new CR.

    apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
    kind: LVMCluster
    metadata:
      name: my-lvmcluster
    spec:
      storage:
        deviceClasses:
        - name: vg1
          deviceSelector:
            paths:
            - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:87:00.0-nvme-1 1
            - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:88:00.0-nvme-1
            - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:89:00.0-nvme-1 2
          thinPoolConfig:
            name: thin-pool-1
            sizePercent: 90
            overprovisionRatio: 10
    1
    The path can be added by name (/dev/sdb) or by path.
    2
    A new disk is added.

Additional resources

4.12.3.5.2. Scaling up storage by adding capacity to your single-node OpenShift cluster using RHACM

You can scale the storage capacity of your configured worker nodes on a single-node OpenShift cluster using RHACM.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the RHACM cluster using an account with cluster-admin privilages.
  • You have additional unused disks on each single-node OpenShift cluster to be used by LVM Storage.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHACM CLI using your OpenShift Container Platform credentials.
  2. Find the disk that you want to add. The disk to be added needs to match with the device name and path of the existing disks.
  3. To add capacity to the single-node OpenShift cluster, edit the deviceSelector section of the existing policy YAML, for example, policy-lvms-operator.yaml.

    Note

    In case the deviceSelector field is not included during the LVMCluster creation, it is not possible to add the deviceSelector section to the CR. You need to remove the LVMCluster and then recreate from the new CR.

    apiVersion: apps.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementRule
    metadata:
      name: placement-install-lvms
    spec:
      clusterConditions:
      - status: "True"
        type: ManagedClusterConditionAvailable
      clusterSelector:
        matchExpressions:
        - key: mykey
          operator: In
          values:
          - myvalue
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: PlacementBinding
    metadata:
      name: binding-install-lvms
    placementRef:
      apiGroup: apps.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: PlacementRule
      name: placement-install-lvms
    subjects:
    - apiGroup: policy.open-cluster-management.io
      kind: Policy
      name: install-lvms
    ---
    apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
    kind: Policy
    metadata:
      annotations:
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/categories: CM Configuration Management
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/controls: CM-2 Baseline Configuration
        policy.open-cluster-management.io/standards: NIST SP 800-53
      name: install-lvms
    spec:
      disabled: false
      remediationAction: enforce
      policy-templates:
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: install-lvms
          spec:
            object-templates:
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: v1
                kind: Namespace
                metadata:
                  labels:
                    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/enforce: privileged
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/audit: privileged
                    pod-security.kubernetes.io/warn: privileged
                  name: openshift-storage
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
                kind: OperatorGroup
                metadata:
                  name: openshift-storage-operatorgroup
                  namespace: openshift-storage
                spec:
                  targetNamespaces:
                  - openshift-storage
            - complianceType: musthave
              objectDefinition:
                apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
                kind: Subscription
                metadata:
                  name: lvms
                  namespace: openshift-storage
                spec:
                  installPlanApproval: Automatic
                  name: lvms-operator
                  source: redhat-operators
                  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: low
      - objectDefinition:
          apiVersion: policy.open-cluster-management.io/v1
          kind: ConfigurationPolicy
          metadata:
            name: lvms
          spec:
            object-templates:
               - complianceType: musthave
                 objectDefinition:
                   apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
                   kind: LVMCluster
                   metadata:
                     name: my-lvmcluster
                     namespace: openshift-storage
                   spec:
                     storage:
                       deviceClasses:
                       - name: vg1
                         deviceSelector:
                           paths:
                           - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:87:00.0-nvme-1
                           - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:88:00.0-nvme-1
                           - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:89:00.0-nvme-1 # new disk is added
                         thinPoolConfig:
                           name: thin-pool-1
                           sizePercent: 90
                           overprovisionRatio: 10
                         nodeSelector:
                           nodeSelectorTerms:
                           - matchExpressions:
                               - key: app
                                 operator: In
                                 values:
                                 - test1
            remediationAction: enforce
            severity: low
  4. Edit the policy by running the following command:

    # oc edit -f policy-lvms-operator.yaml -ns lvms-policy-ns 1
    1
    The policy-lvms-operator.yaml is the name of the existing policy.

    This uses the new disk specified in the LVMCluster CR to provision storage.

4.12.3.5.3. Expanding PVCs

To leverage the new storage after adding additional capacity, you can expand existing persistent volume claims (PVCs) with LVM Storage.

Prerequisites

  • Dynamic provisioning is used.
  • The controlling StorageClass object has allowVolumeExpansion set to true.

Procedure

  1. Modify the .spec.resources.requests.storage field in the desired PVC resource to the new size by running the following command:

    oc patch <pvc_name> -n <application_namespace> -p '{ "spec": { "resources": { "requests": { "storage": "<desired_size>" }}}}'
  2. Watch the status.conditions field of the PVC to see if the resize has completed. OpenShift Container Platform adds the Resizing condition to the PVC during expansion, which is removed after the expansion completes.
4.12.3.6. Upgrading LVM Storage on single-node OpenShift clusters

Currently, it is not possible to upgrade from OpenShift Data Foundation Logical Volume Manager Operator 4.11 to LVM Storage 4.12 on single-node OpenShift clusters.

Important

The data will not be preserved during this process.

Procedure

  1. Back up any data that you want to preserve on the persistent volume claims (PVCs).
  2. Delete all PVCs provisioned by the OpenShift Data Foundation Logical Volume Manager Operator and their pods.
  3. Reinstall LVM Storage on OpenShift Container Platform 4.12.
  4. Recreate the workloads.
  5. Copy the backup data to the PVCs created after upgrading to 4.12.
4.12.3.7. Volume snapshots for single-node OpenShift

You can take volume snapshots of persistent volumes (PVs) that are provisioned by LVM Storage. You can also create volume snapshots of the cloned volumes. Volume snapshots help you to do the following:

  • Back up your application data.

    Important

    Volume snapshots are located on the same devices as the original data. To use the volume snapshots as backups, you need to move the snapshots to a secure location. You can use OpenShift API for Data Protection backup and restore solutions.

  • Revert to a state at which the volume snapshot was taken.

Additional resources

4.12.3.7.1. Creating volume snapshots in single-node OpenShift

You can create volume snapshots based on the available capacity of the thin pool and the overprovisioning limits. LVM Storage creates a VolumeSnapshotClass with the lvms-<deviceclass-name> name.

Prerequisites

  • You ensured that the persistent volume claim (PVC) is in Bound state. This is required for a consistent snapshot.
  • You stopped all the I/O to the PVC before taking the snapshot.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the single-node OpenShift for which you need to run the oc command.
  2. Save the following YAML to a file with a name such as lvms-vol-snapshot.yaml.

    Example YAML to create a volume snapshot

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    metadata:
        name: lvm-block-1-snap
    spec:
        volumeSnapshotClassName: lvms-vg1
        source:
            persistentVolumeClaimName: lvm-block-1

  3. Create the snapshot by running the following command in the same namespace as the PVC:

    # oc create -f lvms-vol-snapshot.yaml

A read-only copy of the PVC is created as a volume snapshot.

4.12.3.7.2. Restoring volume snapshots in single-node OpenShift

When you restore a volume snapshot, a new persistent volume claim (PVC) is created. The restored PVC is independent of the volume snapshot and the source PVC.

Prerequisites

  • The storage class must be the same as that of the source PVC.
  • The size of the requested PVC must be the same as that of the source volume of the snapshot.

    Important

    A snapshot must be restored to a PVC of the same size as the source volume of the snapshot. If a larger PVC is required, you can resize the PVC after the snapshot is restored successfully.

Procedure

  1. Identify the storage class name of the source PVC and volume snapshot name.
  2. Save the following YAML to a file with a name such as lvms-vol-restore.yaml to restore the snapshot.

    Example YAML to restore a PVC.

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: lvm-block-1-restore
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Block
      Resources:
        Requests:
          storage: 2Gi
      storageClassName: lvms-vg1
      dataSource:
        name: lvm-block-1-snap
        kind: VolumeSnapshot
        apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io

  3. Create the policy by running the following command in the same namespace as the snapshot:

    # oc create -f lvms-vol-restore.yaml
4.12.3.7.3. Deleting volume snapshots in single-node OpenShift

You can delete volume snapshots resources and persistent volume claims (PVCs).

Procedure

  1. Delete the volume snapshot resource by running the following command:

    # oc delete volumesnapshot <volume_snapshot_name> -n <namespace>
    Note

    When you delete a persistent volume claim (PVC), the snapshots of the PVC are not deleted.

  2. To delete the restored volume snapshot, delete the PVC that was created to restore the volume snapshot by running the following command:

    # oc delete pvc <pvc_name> -n <namespace>
4.12.3.8. Volume cloning for single-node OpenShift

A clone is a duplicate of an existing storage volume that can be used like any standard volume.

4.12.3.8.1. Creating volume clones in single-node OpenShift

You create a clone of a volume to make a point-in-time copy of the data. A persistent volume claim (PVC) cannot be cloned with a different size.

Important

The cloned PVC has write access.

Prerequisites

  • You ensured that the PVC is in Bound state. This is required for a consistent snapshot.
  • You ensured that the StorageClass is the same as that of the source PVC.

Procedure

  1. Identify the storage class of the source PVC.
  2. To create a volume clone, save the following YAML to a file with a name such as lvms-vol-clone.yaml:

    Example YAML to clone a volume

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    Metadata:
      name: lvm-block-1-clone
    Spec:
      storageClassName: lvms-vg1
      dataSource:
        name: lvm-block-1
        kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      accessModes:
       - ReadWriteOnce
      volumeMode: Block
      Resources:
        Requests:
          storage: 2Gi

  3. Create the policy in the same namespace as the source PVC by running the following command:

    # oc create -f lvms-vol-clone.yaml
4.12.3.8.2. Deleting cloned volumes in single-node OpenShift

You can delete cloned volumes.

Procedure

  • To delete the cloned volume, delete the cloned PVC by running the following command:

    # oc delete pvc <clone_pvc_name> -n <namespace>
4.12.3.9. Monitoring LVM Storage

To enable cluster monitoring, you must add the following label in the namespace where you have installed LVM Storage:

openshift.io/cluster-monitoring=true
Important

For information about enabling cluster monitoring in RHACM, see Observability and Adding custom metrics.

4.12.3.9.1. Metrics

You can monitor LVM Storage by viewing the metrics.

The following table describes the topolvm metrics:

Table 4.2. topolvm metrics
AlertDescription

topolvm_thinpool_data_percent

Indicates the percentage of data space used in the LVM thinpool.

topolvm_thinpool_metadata_percent

Indicates the percentage of metadata space used in the LVM thinpool.

topolvm_thinpool_size_bytes

Indicates the size of the LVM thin pool in bytes.

topolvm_volumegroup_available_bytes

Indicates the available space in the LVM volume group in bytes.

topolvm_volumegroup_size_bytes

Indicates the size of the LVM volume group in bytes.

topolvm_thinpool_overprovisioned_available

Indicates the available over-provisioned size of the LVM thin pool in bytes.

Note

Metrics are updated every 10 minutes or when there is a change, such as a new logical volume creation, in the thin pool.

4.12.3.9.2. Alerts

When the thin pool and volume group reach maximum storage capacity, further operations fail. This can lead to data loss.

LVM Storage sends the following alerts when the usage of the thin pool and volume group exceeds a certain value:

Table 4.3. LVM Storage alerts
AlertDescription

VolumeGroupUsageAtThresholdNearFull

This alert is triggered when both the volume group and thin pool usage exceeds 75% on nodes. Data deletion or volume group expansion is required.

VolumeGroupUsageAtThresholdCritical

This alert is triggered when both the volume group and thin pool usage exceeds 85% on nodes. In this case, the volume group is critically full. Data deletion or volume group expansion is required.

ThinPoolDataUsageAtThresholdNearFull

This alert is triggered when the thin pool data uusage in the volume group exceeds 75% on nodes. Data deletion or thin pool expansion is required.

ThinPoolDataUsageAtThresholdCritical

This alert is triggered when the thin pool data usage in the volume group exceeds 85% on nodes. Data deletion or thin pool expansion is required.

ThinPoolMetaDataUsageAtThresholdNearFull

This alert is triggered when the thin pool metadata usage in the volume group exceeds 75% on nodes. Data deletion or thin pool expansion is required.

ThinPoolMetaDataUsageAtThresholdCritical

This alert is triggered when the thin pool metadata usage in the volume group exceeds 85% on nodes. Data deletion or thin pool expansion is required.

4.12.3.10. Downloading log files and diagnostic information using must-gather

When LVM Storage is unable to automatically resolve a problem, use the must-gather tool to collect the log files and diagnostic information so that you or the Red Hat Support can review the problem and determine a solution.

Procedure

  • Run the must-gather command from the client connected to the LVM Storage cluster:

    $ oc adm must-gather --image=registry.redhat.io/lvms4/lvms-must-gather-rhel9:v4.12 --dest-dir=<directory_name>

Additional resources

4.12.3.11. LVM Storage reference YAML file

The sample LVMCluster custom resource (CR) describes all the fields in the YAML file.

Example LVMCluster CR

apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
kind: LVMCluster
metadata:
  name: my-lvmcluster
spec:
  tolerations:
  - effect: NoSchedule
    key: xyz
    operator: Equal
    value: "true"
  storage:
    deviceClasses: 1
    - name: vg1  2
      nodeSelector: 3
        nodeSelectorTerms: 4
        - matchExpressions:
          - key: mykey
            operator: In
            values:
            - ssd
      deviceSelector: 5
        paths:
        - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:87:00.0-nvme-1
        - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:88:00.0-nvme-1
        - /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:89:00.0-nvme-1
      thinPoolConfig: 6
        name: thin-pool-1 7
        sizePercent: 90 8
        overprovisionRatio: 10 9
status:
    deviceClassStatuses: 10
    - name: vg1
      nodeStatus: 11
      - devices: 12
        - /dev/nvme0n1
        - /dev/nvme1n1
        - /dev/nvme2n1
        node: my-node.example.com 13
        status: Ready 14
    ready: true 15
    state: Ready 16

1
The LVM volume groups to be created on the cluster. You can create only a single deviceClass.
2
The name of the LVM volume group to be created on the nodes.
3
The nodes on which to create the LVM volume group. If the field is empty, all nodes are considered.
4
A list of node selector requirements.
5
A list of device paths which is used to create the LVM volume group. If this field is empty, all unused disks on the node are used. After a device is added to the LVM volume volume group, it cannot be removed.
6
The LVM thin pool configuration.
7
The name of the thin pool to be created in the LVM volume group.
8
The percentage of remaining space in the LVM volume group that should be used for creating the thin pool.
9
The factor by which additional storage can be provisioned compared to the available storage in the thin pool.
10
The status of the deviceClass.
11
The status of the LVM volume group on each node.
12
The list of devices used to create the LVM volume group.
13
The node on which the deviceClass was created.
14
The status of the LVM volume group on the node.
15
This field is deprecated.
16
The status of the LVMCluster.

4.12.4. Troubleshooting local persistent storage using LVMS

Because OpenShift Container Platform does not scope a persistent volume (PV) to a single project, it can be shared across the cluster and claimed by any project using a persistent volume claim (PVC). This can lead to a number of issues that require troubleshooting.

4.12.4.1. Investigating a PVC stuck in the Pending state

A persistent volume claim (PVC) can get stuck in a Pending state for a number of reasons. For example:

  • Insufficient computing resources
  • Network problems
  • Mismatched storage class or node selector
  • No available volumes
  • The node with the persistent volume (PV) is in a Not Ready state

Identify the cause by using the oc describe command to review details about the stuck PVC.

Procedure

  1. Retrieve the list of PVCs by running the following command:

    $ oc get pvc

    Example output

    NAME        STATUS    VOLUME   CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
    lvms-test   Pending                                      lvms-vg1       11s

  2. Inspect the events associated with a PVC stuck in the Pending state by running the following command:

    $ oc describe pvc <pvc_name> 1
    1
    Replace <pvc_name> with the name of the PVC. For example, lvms-vg1.

    Example output

    Type     Reason              Age               From                         Message
    ----     ------              ----              ----                         -------
    Warning  ProvisioningFailed  4s (x2 over 17s)  persistentvolume-controller  storageclass.storage.k8s.io "lvms-vg1" not found

4.12.4.2. Recovering from missing LVMS or Operator components

If you encounter a storage class "not found" error, check the LVMCluster resource and ensure that all the logical volume manager storage (LVMS) pods are running. You can create an LVMCluster resource if it does not exist.

Procedure

  1. Verify the presence of the LVMCluster resource by running the following command:

    $ oc get lvmcluster -n openshift-storage

    Example output

    NAME            AGE
    my-lvmcluster   65m

  2. If the cluster doesn’t have an LVMCluster resource, create one by running the following command:

    $ oc create -n openshift-storage -f <custom_resource> 1
    1
    Replace <custom_resource> with a custom resource URL or file tailored to your requirements.

    Example custom resource

    apiVersion: lvm.topolvm.io/v1alpha1
    kind: LVMCluster
    metadata:
      name: my-lvmcluster
    spec:
      storage:
        deviceClasses:
        - name: vg1
          default: true
          thinPoolConfig:
            name: thin-pool-1
            sizePercent: 90
            overprovisionRatio: 10

  3. Check that all the pods from LVMS are in the Running state in the openshift-storage namespace by running the following command:

    $ oc get pods -n openshift-storage

    Example output

    NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS      AGE
    lvms-operator-7b9fb858cb-6nsml        3/3     Running   0             70m
    topolvm-controller-5dd9cf78b5-7wwr2   5/5     Running   0             66m
    topolvm-node-dr26h                    4/4     Running   0             66m
    vg-manager-r6zdv                      1/1     Running   0             66m

    The expected output is one running instance of lvms-operator and vg-manager. One instance of topolvm-controller and topolvm-node is expected for each node.

    If topolvm-node is stuck in the Init state, there is a failure to locate an available disk for LVMS to use. To retrieve the information necessary to troubleshoot, review the logs of the vg-manager pod by running the following command:

    $ oc logs -l app.kubernetes.io/component=vg-manager -n openshift-storage
4.12.4.3. Recovering from node failure

Sometimes a persistent volume claim (PVC) is stuck in a Pending state because a particular node in the cluster has failed. To identify the failed node, you can examine the restart count of the topolvm-node pod. An increased restart count indicates potential problems with the underlying node, which may require further investigation and troubleshooting.

Procedure

  • Examine the restart count of the topolvm-node pod instances by running the following command:

    $ oc get pods -n openshift-storage

    Example output

    NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS      AGE
    lvms-operator-7b9fb858cb-6nsml        3/3     Running   0             70m
    topolvm-controller-5dd9cf78b5-7wwr2   5/5     Running   0             66m
    topolvm-node-dr26h                    4/4     Running   0             66m
    topolvm-node-54as8                    4/4     Running   0             66m
    topolvm-node-78fft                    4/4     Running   17 (8s ago)   66m
    vg-manager-r6zdv                      1/1     Running   0             66m
    vg-manager-990ut                      1/1     Running   0             66m
    vg-manager-an118                      1/1     Running   0             66m

    After you resolve any issues with the node, you might need to perform the forced cleanup procedure if the PVC is still stuck in a Pending state.

Additional resources

4.12.4.4. Recovering from disk failure

If you see a failure message while inspecting the events associated with the persistent volume claim (PVC), there might be a problem with the underlying volume or disk. Disk and volume provisioning issues often result with a generic error first, such as Failed to provision volume with StorageClass <storage_class_name>. A second, more specific error message usually follows.

Procedure

  1. Inspect the events associated with a PVC by running the following command:

    $ oc describe pvc <pvc_name> 1
    1
    Replace <pvc_name> with the name of the PVC. Here are some examples of disk or volume failure error messages and their causes:
    • Failed to check volume existence: Indicates a problem in verifying whether the volume already exists. Volume verification failure can be caused by network connectivity problems or other failures.
    • Failed to bind volume: Failure to bind a volume can happen if the persistent volume (PV) that is available does not match the requirements of the PVC.
    • FailedMount or FailedUnMount: This error indicates problems when trying to mount the volume to a node or unmount a volume from a node. If the disk has failed, this error might appear when a pod tries to use the PVC.
    • Volume is already exclusively attached to one node and can’t be attached to another: This error can appear with storage solutions that do not support ReadWriteMany access modes.
  2. Establish a direct connection to the host where the problem is occurring.
  3. Resolve the disk issue.

After you have resolved the issue with the disk, you might need to perform the forced cleanup procedure if failure messages persist or reoccur.

Additional resources

4.12.4.5. Performing a forced cleanup

If disk- or node-related problems persist after you complete the troubleshooting procedures, it might be necessary to perform a forced cleanup procedure. A forced cleanup is used to comprehensively address persistent issues and ensure the proper functioning of the LVMS.

Prerequisites

  1. All of the persistent volume claims (PVCs) created using the logical volume manager storage (LVMS) driver have been removed.
  2. The pods using those PVCs have been stopped.

Procedure

  1. Switch to the openshift-storage namespace by running the following command:

    $ oc project openshift-storage
  2. Ensure there is no Logical Volume custom resource (CR) remaining by running the following command:

    $ oc get logicalvolume

    Example output

    No resources found

    1. If there are any LogicalVolume CRs remaining, remove their finalizers by running the following command:

      $ oc patch logicalvolume <name> -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":[]}}' --type=merge 1
      1
      Replace <name> with the name of the CR.
    2. After removing their finalizers, delete the CRs by running the following command:

      $ oc delete logicalvolume <name> 1
      1
      Replace <name> with the name of the CR.
  3. Make sure there are no LVMVolumeGroup CRs left by running the following command:

    $ oc get lvmvolumegroup

    Example output

    No resources found

    1. If there are any LVMVolumeGroup CRs left, remove their finalizers by running the following command:

      $ oc patch lvmvolumegroup <name> -p '{"metadata":{"finalizers":[]}}' --type=merge 1
      1
      Replace <name> with the name of the CR.
    2. After removing their finalizers, delete the CRs by running the following command:

      $ oc delete lvmvolumegroup <name> 1
      1
      Replace <name> with the name of the CR.
  4. Remove any LVMVolumeGroupNodeStatus CRs by running the following command:

    $ oc delete lvmvolumegroupnodestatus --all
  5. Remove the LVMCluster CR by running the following command:

    $ oc delete lvmcluster --all

Chapter 5. Using Container Storage Interface (CSI)

5.1. Configuring CSI volumes

The Container Storage Interface (CSI) allows OpenShift Container Platform to consume storage from storage back ends that implement the CSI interface as persistent storage.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 supports version 1.6.0 of the CSI specification.

5.1.1. CSI architecture

CSI drivers are typically shipped as container images. These containers are not aware of OpenShift Container Platform where they run. To use CSI-compatible storage back end in OpenShift Container Platform, the cluster administrator must deploy several components that serve as a bridge between OpenShift Container Platform and the storage driver.

The following diagram provides a high-level overview about the components running in pods in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Architecture of CSI components

It is possible to run multiple CSI drivers for different storage back ends. Each driver needs its own external controllers deployment and daemon set with the driver and CSI registrar.

5.1.1.1. External CSI controllers

External CSI controllers is a deployment that deploys one or more pods with five containers:

  • The snapshotter container watches VolumeSnapshot and VolumeSnapshotContent objects and is responsible for the creation and deletion of VolumeSnapshotContent object.
  • The resizer container is a sidecar container that watches for PersistentVolumeClaim updates and triggers ControllerExpandVolume operations against a CSI endpoint if you request more storage on PersistentVolumeClaim object.
  • An external CSI attacher container translates attach and detach calls from OpenShift Container Platform to respective ControllerPublish and ControllerUnpublish calls to the CSI driver.
  • An external CSI provisioner container that translates provision and delete calls from OpenShift Container Platform to respective CreateVolume and DeleteVolume calls to the CSI driver.
  • A CSI driver container.

The CSI attacher and CSI provisioner containers communicate with the CSI driver container using UNIX Domain Sockets, ensuring that no CSI communication leaves the pod. The CSI driver is not accessible from outside of the pod.

Note

The attach, detach, provision, and delete operations typically require the CSI driver to use credentials to the storage backend. Run the CSI controller pods on infrastructure nodes so the credentials are never leaked to user processes, even in the event of a catastrophic security breach on a compute node.

Note

The external attacher must also run for CSI drivers that do not support third-party attach or detach operations. The external attacher will not issue any ControllerPublish or ControllerUnpublish operations to the CSI driver. However, it still must run to implement the necessary OpenShift Container Platform attachment API.

5.1.1.2. CSI driver daemon set

The CSI driver daemon set runs a pod on every node that allows OpenShift Container Platform to mount storage provided by the CSI driver to the node and use it in user workloads (pods) as persistent volumes (PVs). The pod with the CSI driver installed contains the following containers:

  • A CSI driver registrar, which registers the CSI driver into the openshift-node service running on the node. The openshift-node process running on the node then directly connects with the CSI driver using the UNIX Domain Socket available on the node.
  • A CSI driver.

The CSI driver deployed on the node should have as few credentials to the storage back end as possible. OpenShift Container Platform will only use the node plugin set of CSI calls such as NodePublish/NodeUnpublish and NodeStage/NodeUnstage, if these calls are implemented.

5.1.2. CSI drivers supported by OpenShift Container Platform

OpenShift Container Platform installs certain CSI drivers by default, giving users storage options that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

To create CSI-provisioned persistent volumes that mount to these supported storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the necessary CSI driver Operator, the CSI driver, and the required storage class by default. For more details about the default namespace of the Operator and driver, see the documentation for the specific CSI Driver Operator.

The following table describes the CSI drivers that are installed with OpenShift Container Platform and which CSI features they support, such as volume snapshots, cloning, and resize.

Table 5.1. Supported CSI drivers and features in OpenShift Container Platform
CSI driverCSI volume snapshotsCSI cloningCSI resize

AliCloud Disk

 ✅

 -

 ✅

AWS EBS

 ✅

 -

 ✅

AWS EFS

 -

 -

 -

Google Compute Platform (GCP) persistent disk (PD)

  ✅

  ✅

 ✅

GCP Filestore

 ✅

 -

 ✅

IBM VPC Block

 ✅[3]

 -

 ✅[3]

LVM Storage

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

Microsoft Azure Disk

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

Microsoft Azure Stack Hub

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

Microsoft Azure File

 -

 -

 ✅

OpenStack Cinder

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

OpenShift Data Foundation

 ✅

 ✅

 ✅

OpenStack Manila

 ✅

 -

 -

Red Hat Virtualization (oVirt)

 -

 -

 ✅

VMware vSphere

 ✅[1]

 -

 ✅[2]

1.

  • Requires vSphere version 7.0 Update 3 or later for both vCenter Server and ESXi.
  • Does not support fileshare volumes.

2.

  • Offline volume expansion: minimum required vSphere version is 6.7 Update 3 P06
  • Online volume expansion: minimum required vSphere version is 7.0 Update 2.

3.

  • Does not support offline snapshots or resize. Volume must be attached to a running pod.
Important

If your CSI driver is not listed in the preceding table, you must follow the installation instructions provided by your CSI storage vendor to use their supported CSI features.

5.1.3. Dynamic provisioning

Dynamic provisioning of persistent storage depends on the capabilities of the CSI driver and underlying storage back end. The provider of the CSI driver should document how to create a storage class in OpenShift Container Platform and the parameters available for configuration.

The created storage class can be configured to enable dynamic provisioning.

Procedure

  • Create a default storage class that ensures all PVCs that do not require any special storage class are provisioned by the installed CSI driver.

    # oc create -f - << EOF
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: <storage-class> 1
      annotations:
        storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"
    provisioner: <provisioner-name> 2
    parameters:
    EOF
    1
    The name of the storage class that will be created.
    2
    The name of the CSI driver that has been installed.

5.1.4. Example using the CSI driver

The following example installs a default MySQL template without any changes to the template.

Prerequisites

  • The CSI driver has been deployed.
  • A storage class has been created for dynamic provisioning.

Procedure

  • Create the MySQL template:

    # oc new-app mysql-persistent

    Example output

    --> Deploying template "openshift/mysql-persistent" to project default
    ...

    # oc get pvc

    Example output

    NAME              STATUS    VOLUME                                   CAPACITY
    ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
    mysql             Bound     kubernetes-dynamic-pv-3271ffcb4e1811e8   1Gi
    RWO            cinder         3s

5.1.5. Volume populators

Volume populators use the datasource field in a persistent volume claim (PVC) spec to create pre-populated volumes.

Volume population is currently enabled, and supported as a Technology Preview feature. However, OpenShift Container Platform does not ship with any volume populators.

Important

Volume populators is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

For more information about volume populators, see Kubernetes volume populators.

5.2. CSI inline ephemeral volumes

Container Storage Interface (CSI) inline ephemeral volumes allow you to define a Pod spec that creates inline ephemeral volumes when a pod is deployed and delete them when a pod is destroyed.

This feature is only available with supported Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers.

Important

CSI inline ephemeral volumes is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

5.2.1. Overview of CSI inline ephemeral volumes

Traditionally, volumes that are backed by Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers can only be used with a PersistentVolume and PersistentVolumeClaim object combination.

This feature allows you to specify CSI volumes directly in the Pod specification, rather than in a PersistentVolume object. Inline volumes are ephemeral and do not persist across pod restarts.

5.2.1.1. Support limitations

By default, OpenShift Container Platform supports CSI inline ephemeral volumes with these limitations:

  • Support is only available for CSI drivers. In-tree and FlexVolumes are not supported.
  • The Shared Resource CSI Driver supports inline ephemeral volumes as a Technology Preview feature.
  • Community or storage vendors provide other CSI drivers that support these volumes. Follow the installation instructions provided by the CSI driver provider.

CSI drivers might not have implemented the inline volume functionality, including Ephemeral capacity. For details, see the CSI driver documentation.

Important

Shared Resource CSI Driver is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

5.2.2. Embedding a CSI inline ephemeral volume in the pod specification

You can embed a CSI inline ephemeral volume in the Pod specification in OpenShift Container Platform. At runtime, nested inline volumes follow the ephemeral lifecycle of their associated pods so that the CSI driver handles all phases of volume operations as pods are created and destroyed.

Procedure

  1. Create the Pod object definition and save it to a file.
  2. Embed the CSI inline ephemeral volume in the file.

    my-csi-app.yaml

    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: my-csi-app
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: my-frontend
          image: busybox
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: "/data"
            name: my-csi-inline-vol
          command: [ "sleep", "1000000" ]
      volumes: 1
        - name: my-csi-inline-vol
          csi:
            driver: inline.storage.kubernetes.io
            volumeAttributes:
              foo: bar

    1
    The name of the volume that is used by pods.
  3. Create the object definition file that you saved in the previous step.

    $ oc create -f my-csi-app.yaml

5.3. Shared Resource CSI Driver Operator

As a cluster administrator, you can use the Shared Resource CSI Driver in OpenShift Container Platform to provision inline ephemeral volumes that contain the contents of Secret or ConfigMap objects. This way, pods and other Kubernetes types that expose volume mounts, and OpenShift Container Platform Builds can securely use the contents of those objects across potentially any namespace in the cluster. To accomplish this, there are currently two types of shared resources: a SharedSecret custom resource for Secret objects, and a SharedConfigMap custom resource for ConfigMap objects.

Important

The Shared Resource CSI Driver is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Note

To enable the Shared Resource CSI Driver, you must enable features using feature gates.

5.3.1. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.3.2. Sharing secrets across namespaces

To share a secret across namespaces in a cluster, you create a SharedSecret custom resource (CR) instance for the Secret object that you want to share.

Prerequisites

You must have permission to perform the following actions:

  • Create instances of the sharedsecrets.sharedresource.openshift.io custom resource definition (CRD) at a cluster-scoped level.
  • Manage roles and role bindings across the namespaces in the cluster to control which users can get, list, and watch those instances.
  • Manage roles and role bindings to control whether the service account specified by a pod can mount a Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume that references the SharedSecret CR instance you want to use.
  • Access the namespaces that contain the Secrets you want to share.

Procedure

  • Create a SharedSecret CR instance for the Secret object you want to share across namespaces in the cluster:

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: sharedresource.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: SharedSecret
    metadata:
      name: my-share
    spec:
      secretRef:
        name: <name of secret>
        namespace: <namespace of secret>
    EOF

5.3.3. Using a SharedSecret instance in a pod

To access a SharedSecret custom resource (CR) instance from a pod, you grant a given service account RBAC permissions to use that SharedSecret CR instance.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a SharedSecret CR instance for the secret you want to share across namespaces in the cluster.
  • You must have permission to perform the following actions

    • Create build configs and start builds.
    • Discover which SharedSecret CR instances are available by entering the oc get sharedsecrets command and getting a non-empty list back.
    • Determine if the builder service accounts available to you in your namespace are allowed to use the given SharedSecret CR instance. That is, you can run oc adm policy who-can use <identifier of specific SharedSecret> to see if the builder service account in your namespace is listed.
Note

If neither of the last two prerequisites in this list are met, create, or ask someone to create, the necessary role-based access control (RBAC) so that you can discover SharedSecret CR instances and enable service accounts to use SharedSecret CR instances.

Procedure

  1. Grant a given service account RBAC permissions to use the SharedSecret CR instance in its pod by using oc apply with YAML content:

    Note

    Currently, kubectl and oc have hard-coded special case logic restricting the use verb to roles centered around pod security. Therefore, you cannot use oc create role …​ to create the role needed for consuming SharedSecret CR instances.

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Role
    metadata:
      name: shared-resource-my-share
      namespace: my-namespace
    rules:
      - apiGroups:
          - sharedresource.openshift.io
        resources:
          - sharedsecrets
        resourceNames:
          - my-share
        verbs:
          - use
    EOF
  2. Create the RoleBinding associated with the role by using the oc command:

    $ oc create rolebinding shared-resource-my-share --role=shared-resource-my-share --serviceaccount=my-namespace:builder
  3. Access the SharedSecret CR instance from a pod:

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: my-app
      namespace: my-namespace
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: default
    
    # containers omitted …. Follow standard use of ‘volumeMounts’ for referencing your shared resource volume
    
        volumes:
        - name: my-csi-volume
          csi:
            readOnly: true
            driver: csi.sharedresource.openshift.io
            volumeAttributes:
              sharedSecret: my-share
    
    EOF

5.3.4. Sharing a config map across namespaces

To share a config map across namespaces in a cluster, you create a SharedConfigMap custom resource (CR) instance for that config map.

Prerequisites

You must have permission to perform the following actions:

  • Create instances of the sharedconfigmaps.sharedresource.openshift.io custom resource definition (CRD) at a cluster-scoped level.
  • Manage roles and role bindings across the namespaces in the cluster to control which users can get, list, and watch those instances.
  • Manage roles and role bindings across the namespaces in the cluster to control which service accounts in pods that mount your Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume can use those instances.
  • Access the namespaces that contain the Secrets you want to share.

Procedure

  1. Create a SharedConfigMap CR instance for the config map that you want to share across namespaces in the cluster:

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: sharedresource.openshift.io/v1alpha1
    kind: SharedConfigMap
    metadata:
      name: my-share
    spec:
      configMapRef:
        name: <name of configmap>
        namespace: <namespace of configmap>
    EOF

5.3.5. Using a SharedConfigMap instance in a pod

Next steps

To access a SharedConfigMap custom resource (CR) instance from a pod, you grant a given service account RBAC permissions to use that SharedConfigMap CR instance.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a SharedConfigMap CR instance for the config map that you want to share across namespaces in the cluster.
  • You must have permission to perform the following actions:

    • Create build configs and start builds.
    • Discover which SharedConfigMap CR instances are available by entering the oc get sharedconfigmaps command and getting a non-empty list back.
    • Determine if the builder service accounts available to you in your namespace are allowed to use the given SharedSecret CR instance. That is, you can run oc adm policy who-can use <identifier of specific SharedSecret> to see if the builder service account in your namespace is listed.
Note

If neither of the last two prerequisites in this list are met, create, or ask someone to create, the necessary role-based access control (RBAC) so that you can discover SharedConfigMap CR instances and enable service accounts to use SharedConfigMap CR instances.

Procedure

  1. Grant a given service account RBAC permissions to use the SharedConfigMap CR instance in its pod by using oc apply with YAML content.

    Note

    Currently, kubectl and oc have hard-coded special case logic restricting the use verb to roles centered around pod security. Therefore, you cannot use oc create role …​ to create the role needed for consuming a SharedConfigMap CR instance.

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: Role
    metadata:
      name: shared-resource-my-share
      namespace: my-namespace
    rules:
      - apiGroups:
          - sharedresource.openshift.io
        resources:
          - sharedconfigmaps
        resourceNames:
          - my-share
        verbs:
          - use
    EOF
  2. Create the RoleBinding associated with the role by using the oc command:

    oc create rolebinding shared-resource-my-share --role=shared-resource-my-share --serviceaccount=my-namespace:builder
  3. Access the SharedConfigMap CR instance from a pod:

    $ oc apply -f - <<EOF
    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: my-app
      namespace: my-namespace
    spec:
      serviceAccountName: default
    
    # containers omitted …. Follow standard use of ‘volumeMounts’ for referencing your shared resource volume
    
        volumes:
        - name: my-csi-volume
          csi:
            readOnly: true
            driver: csi.sharedresource.openshift.io
            volumeAttributes:
              sharedConfigMap: my-share
    
    EOF

5.3.6. Additional support limitations for the Shared Resource CSI Driver

The Shared Resource CSI Driver has the following noteworthy limitations:

  • The driver is subject to the limitations of Container Storage Interface (CSI) inline ephemeral volumes.
  • The value of the readOnly field must be true. Otherwise, on volume provisioning during pod startup, the driver returns an error to the kubelet. This limitation is in keeping with proposed best practices for the upstream Kubernetes CSI Driver to apply SELinux labels to associated volumes.
  • The driver ignores the FSType field because it only supports tmpfs volumes.
  • The driver ignores the NodePublishSecretRef field. Instead, it uses SubjectAccessReviews with the use verb to evaluate whether a pod can obtain a volume that contains SharedSecret or SharedConfigMap custom resource (CR) instances.

5.3.7. Additional details about VolumeAttributes on shared resource pod volumes

The following attributes affect shared resource pod volumes in various ways:

  • The refreshResource attribute in the volumeAttributes properties.
  • The refreshResources attribute in the Shared Resource CSI Driver configuration.
  • The sharedSecret and sharedConfigMap attributes in the volumeAttributes properties.
5.3.7.1. The refreshResource attribute

The Shared Resource CSI Driver honors the refreshResource attribute in volumeAttributes properties of the volume. This attribute controls whether updates to the contents of the underlying Secret or ConfigMap object are copied to the volume after the volume is initially provisioned as part of pod startup. The default value of refreshResource is true, which means that the contents are updated.

Important

If the Shared Resource CSI Driver configuration has disabled the refreshing of both the shared SharedSecret and SharedConfigMap custom resource (CR) instances, then the refreshResource attribute in the volumeAttribute properties has no effect. The intent of this attribute is to disable refresh for specific volume mounts when refresh is generally allowed.

5.3.7.2. The refreshResources attribute

You can use a global switch to enable or disable refreshing of shared resources. This switch is the refreshResources attribute in the csi-driver-shared-resource-config config map for the Shared Resource CSI Driver, which you can find in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace. If you set this refreshResources attribute to false, none of the Secret or ConfigMap object-related content stored in the volume is updated after the initial provisioning of the volume.

Important

Using this Shared Resource CSI Driver configuration to disable refreshing affects all the cluster’s volume mounts that use the Shared Resource CSI Driver, regardless of the refreshResource attribute in the volumeAttributes properties of any of those volumes.

5.3.7.3. Validation of volumeAttributes before provisioning a shared resource volume for a pod

In the volumeAttributes of a single volume, you must set either a sharedSecret or a sharedConfigMap attribute to the value of a SharedSecret or a SharedConfigMap CS instance. Otherwise, when the volume is provisioned during pod startup, a validation checks the volumeAttributes of that volume and returns an error to the kubelet under the following conditions:

  • Both sharedSecret and sharedConfigMap attributes have specified values.
  • Neither sharedSecret nor sharedConfigMap attributes have specified values.
  • The value of the sharedSecret or sharedConfigMap attribute does not correspond to the name of a SharedSecret or SharedConfigMap CR instance on the cluster.

5.3.8. Integration between shared resources, Insights Operator, and OpenShift Container Platform Builds

Integration between shared resources, Insights Operator, and OpenShift Container Platform Builds makes using Red Hat subscriptions (RHEL entitlements) easier in OpenShift Container Platform Builds.

Previously, in OpenShift Container Platform 4.9.x and earlier, you manually imported your credentials and copied them to each project or namespace where you were running builds.

Now, in OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 and later, OpenShift Container Platform Builds can use Red Hat subscriptions (RHEL entitlements) by referencing shared resources and the simple content access feature provided by Insights Operator:

  • The simple content access feature imports your subscription credentials to a well-known Secret object. See the links in the following "Additional resources" section.
  • The cluster administrator creates a SharedSecret custom resource (CR) instance around that Secret object and grants permission to particular projects or namespaces. In particular, the cluster administrator gives the builder service account permission to use that SharedSecret CR instance.
  • Builds that run within those projects or namespaces can mount a CSI Volume that references the SharedSecret CR instance and its entitled RHEL content.

5.4. CSI volume snapshots

This document describes how to use volume snapshots with supported Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers to help protect against data loss in OpenShift Container Platform. Familiarity with persistent volumes is suggested.

5.4.1. Overview of CSI volume snapshots

A snapshot represents the state of the storage volume in a cluster at a particular point in time. Volume snapshots can be used to provision a new volume.

OpenShift Container Platform supports Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume snapshots by default. However, a specific CSI driver is required.

With CSI volume snapshots, a cluster administrator can:

  • Deploy a third-party CSI driver that supports snapshots.
  • Create a new persistent volume claim (PVC) from an existing volume snapshot.
  • Take a snapshot of an existing PVC.
  • Restore a snapshot as a different PVC.
  • Delete an existing volume snapshot.

With CSI volume snapshots, an app developer can:

  • Use volume snapshots as building blocks for developing application- or cluster-level storage backup solutions.
  • Rapidly rollback to a previous development version.
  • Use storage more efficiently by not having to make a full copy each time.

Be aware of the following when using volume snapshots:

  • Support is only available for CSI drivers. In-tree and FlexVolumes are not supported.
  • OpenShift Container Platform only ships with select CSI drivers. For CSI drivers that are not provided by an OpenShift Container Platform Driver Operator, it is recommended to use the CSI drivers provided by community or storage vendors. Follow the installation instructions furnished by the CSI driver provider.
  • CSI drivers may or may not have implemented the volume snapshot functionality. CSI drivers that have provided support for volume snapshots will likely use the csi-external-snapshotter sidecar. See documentation provided by the CSI driver for details.

5.4.2. CSI snapshot controller and sidecar

OpenShift Container Platform provides a snapshot controller that is deployed into the control plane. In addition, your CSI driver vendor provides the CSI snapshot sidecar as a helper container that is installed during the CSI driver installation.

The CSI snapshot controller and sidecar provide volume snapshotting through the OpenShift Container Platform API. These external components run in the cluster.

The external controller is deployed by the CSI Snapshot Controller Operator.

5.4.2.1. External controller

The CSI snapshot controller binds VolumeSnapshot and VolumeSnapshotContent objects. The controller manages dynamic provisioning by creating and deleting VolumeSnapshotContent objects.

5.4.2.2. External sidecar

Your CSI driver vendor provides the csi-external-snapshotter sidecar. This is a separate helper container that is deployed with the CSI driver. The sidecar manages snapshots by triggering CreateSnapshot and DeleteSnapshot operations. Follow the installation instructions provided by your vendor.

5.4.3. About the CSI Snapshot Controller Operator

The CSI Snapshot Controller Operator runs in the openshift-cluster-storage-operator namespace. It is installed by the Cluster Version Operator (CVO) in all clusters by default.

The CSI Snapshot Controller Operator installs the CSI snapshot controller, which runs in the openshift-cluster-storage-operator namespace.

5.4.3.1. Volume snapshot CRDs

During OpenShift Container Platform installation, the CSI Snapshot Controller Operator creates the following snapshot custom resource definitions (CRDs) in the snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1 API group:

VolumeSnapshotContent

A snapshot taken of a volume in the cluster that has been provisioned by a cluster administrator.

Similar to the PersistentVolume object, the VolumeSnapshotContent CRD is a cluster resource that points to a real snapshot in the storage back end.

For manually pre-provisioned snapshots, a cluster administrator creates a number of VolumeSnapshotContent CRDs. These carry the details of the real volume snapshot in the storage system.

The VolumeSnapshotContent CRD is not namespaced and is for use by a cluster administrator.

VolumeSnapshot

Similar to the PersistentVolumeClaim object, the VolumeSnapshot CRD defines a developer request for a snapshot. The CSI Snapshot Controller Operator runs the CSI snapshot controller, which handles the binding of a VolumeSnapshot CRD with an appropriate VolumeSnapshotContent CRD. The binding is a one-to-one mapping.

The VolumeSnapshot CRD is namespaced. A developer uses the CRD as a distinct request for a snapshot.

VolumeSnapshotClass

Allows a cluster administrator to specify different attributes belonging to a VolumeSnapshot object. These attributes may differ among snapshots taken of the same volume on the storage system, in which case they would not be expressed by using the same storage class of a persistent volume claim.

The VolumeSnapshotClass CRD defines the parameters for the csi-external-snapshotter sidecar to use when creating a snapshot. This allows the storage back end to know what kind of snapshot to dynamically create if multiple options are supported.

Dynamically provisioned snapshots use the VolumeSnapshotClass CRD to specify storage-provider-specific parameters to use when creating a snapshot.

The VolumeSnapshotContentClass CRD is not namespaced and is for use by a cluster administrator to enable global configuration options for their storage back end.

5.4.4. Volume snapshot provisioning

There are two ways to provision snapshots: dynamically and manually.

5.4.4.1. Dynamic provisioning

Instead of using a preexisting snapshot, you can request that a snapshot be taken dynamically from a persistent volume claim. Parameters are specified using a VolumeSnapshotClass CRD.

5.4.4.2. Manual provisioning

As a cluster administrator, you can manually pre-provision a number of VolumeSnapshotContent objects. These carry the real volume snapshot details available to cluster users.

5.4.5. Creating a volume snapshot

When you create a VolumeSnapshot object, OpenShift Container Platform creates a volume snapshot.

Prerequisites

  • Logged in to a running OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • A PVC created using a CSI driver that supports VolumeSnapshot objects.
  • A storage class to provision the storage back end.
  • No pods are using the persistent volume claim (PVC) that you want to take a snapshot of.

    Warning

    Creating a volume snapshot of a PVC that is in use by a pod can cause unwritten data and cached data to be excluded from the snapshot. To ensure that all data is written to the disk, delete the pod that is using the PVC before creating the snapshot.

Procedure

To dynamically create a volume snapshot:

  1. Create a file with the VolumeSnapshotClass object described by the following YAML:

    volumesnapshotclass.yaml

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshotClass
    metadata:
      name: csi-hostpath-snap
    driver: hostpath.csi.k8s.io 1
    deletionPolicy: Delete

    1
    The name of the CSI driver that is used to create snapshots of this VolumeSnapshotClass object. The name must be the same as the Provisioner field of the storage class that is responsible for the PVC that is being snapshotted.
    Note

    Depending on the driver that you used to configure persistent storage, additional parameters might be required. You can also use an existing VolumeSnapshotClass object.

  2. Create the object you saved in the previous step by entering the following command:

    $ oc create -f volumesnapshotclass.yaml
  3. Create a VolumeSnapshot object:

    volumesnapshot-dynamic.yaml

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    metadata:
      name: mysnap
    spec:
      volumeSnapshotClassName: csi-hostpath-snap 1
      source:
        persistentVolumeClaimName: myclaim 2

    1
    The request for a particular class by the volume snapshot. If the volumeSnapshotClassName setting is absent and there is a default volume snapshot class, a snapshot is created with the default volume snapshot class name. But if the field is absent and no default volume snapshot class exists, then no snapshot is created.
    2
    The name of the PersistentVolumeClaim object bound to a persistent volume. This defines what you want to create a snapshot of. Required for dynamically provisioning a snapshot.
  4. Create the object you saved in the previous step by entering the following command:

    $ oc create -f volumesnapshot-dynamic.yaml

To manually provision a snapshot:

  1. Provide a value for the volumeSnapshotContentName parameter as the source for the snapshot, in addition to defining volume snapshot class as shown above.

    volumesnapshot-manual.yaml

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    metadata:
      name: snapshot-demo
    spec:
      source:
        volumeSnapshotContentName: mycontent 1

    1
    The volumeSnapshotContentName parameter is required for pre-provisioned snapshots.
  2. Create the object you saved in the previous step by entering the following command:

    $ oc create -f volumesnapshot-manual.yaml

Verification

After the snapshot has been created in the cluster, additional details about the snapshot are available.

  1. To display details about the volume snapshot that was created, enter the following command:

    $ oc describe volumesnapshot mysnap

    The following example displays details about the mysnap volume snapshot:

    volumesnapshot.yaml

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshot
    metadata:
      name: mysnap
    spec:
      source:
        persistentVolumeClaimName: myclaim
      volumeSnapshotClassName: csi-hostpath-snap
    status:
      boundVolumeSnapshotContentName: snapcontent-1af4989e-a365-4286-96f8-d5dcd65d78d6 1
      creationTime: "2020-01-29T12:24:30Z" 2
      readyToUse: true 3
      restoreSize: 500Mi

    1
    The pointer to the actual storage content that was created by the controller.
    2
    The time when the snapshot was created. The snapshot contains the volume content that was available at this indicated time.
    3
    If the value is set to true, the snapshot can be used to restore as a new PVC.
    If the value is set to false, the snapshot was created. However, the storage back end needs to perform additional tasks to make the snapshot usable so that it can be restored as a new volume. For example, Amazon Elastic Block Store data might be moved to a different, less expensive location, which can take several minutes.
  2. To verify that the volume snapshot was created, enter the following command:

    $ oc get volumesnapshotcontent

    The pointer to the actual content is displayed. If the boundVolumeSnapshotContentName field is populated, a VolumeSnapshotContent object exists and the snapshot was created.

  3. To verify that the snapshot is ready, confirm that the VolumeSnapshot object has readyToUse: true.

5.4.6. Deleting a volume snapshot

You can configure how OpenShift Container Platform deletes volume snapshots.

Procedure

  1. Specify the deletion policy that you require in the VolumeSnapshotClass object, as shown in the following example:

    volumesnapshotclass.yaml

    apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: VolumeSnapshotClass
    metadata:
      name: csi-hostpath-snap
    driver: hostpath.csi.k8s.io
    deletionPolicy: Delete 1

    1
    When deleting the volume snapshot, if the Delete value is set, the underlying snapshot is deleted along with the VolumeSnapshotContent object. If the Retain value is set, both the underlying snapshot and VolumeSnapshotContent object remain.
    If the Retain value is set and the VolumeSnapshot object is deleted without deleting the corresponding VolumeSnapshotContent object, the content remains. The snapshot itself is also retained in the storage back end.
  2. Delete the volume snapshot by entering the following command:

    $ oc delete volumesnapshot <volumesnapshot_name>

    Example output

    volumesnapshot.snapshot.storage.k8s.io "mysnapshot" deleted

  3. If the deletion policy is set to Retain, delete the volume snapshot content by entering the following command:

    $ oc delete volumesnapshotcontent <volumesnapshotcontent_name>
  4. Optional: If the VolumeSnapshot object is not successfully deleted, enter the following command to remove any finalizers for the leftover resource so that the delete operation can continue:

    Important

    Only remove the finalizers if you are confident that there are no existing references from either persistent volume claims or volume snapshot contents to the VolumeSnapshot object. Even with the --force option, the delete operation does not delete snapshot objects until all finalizers are removed.

    $ oc patch -n $PROJECT volumesnapshot/$NAME --type=merge -p '{"metadata": {"finalizers":null}}'

    Example output

    volumesnapshotclass.snapshot.storage.k8s.io "csi-ocs-rbd-snapclass" deleted

    The finalizers are removed and the volume snapshot is deleted.

5.4.7. Restoring a volume snapshot

The VolumeSnapshot CRD content can be used to restore the existing volume to a previous state.

After your VolumeSnapshot CRD is bound and the readyToUse value is set to true, you can use that resource to provision a new volume that is pre-populated with data from the snapshot. .Prerequisites * Logged in to a running OpenShift Container Platform cluster. * A persistent volume claim (PVC) created using a Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver that supports volume snapshots. * A storage class to provision the storage back end. * A volume snapshot has been created and is ready to use.

Procedure

  1. Specify a VolumeSnapshot data source on a PVC as shown in the following:

    pvc-restore.yaml

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: myclaim-restore
    spec:
      storageClassName: csi-hostpath-sc
      dataSource:
        name: mysnap 1
        kind: VolumeSnapshot 2
        apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io 3
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi

    1
    Name of the VolumeSnapshot object representing the snapshot to use as source.
    2
    Must be set to the VolumeSnapshot value.
    3
    Must be set to the snapshot.storage.k8s.io value.
  2. Create a PVC by entering the following command:

    $ oc create -f pvc-restore.yaml
  3. Verify that the restored PVC has been created by entering the following command:

    $ oc get pvc

    A new PVC such as myclaim-restore is displayed.

5.5. CSI volume cloning

Volume cloning duplicates an existing persistent volume to help protect against data loss in OpenShift Container Platform. This feature is only available with supported Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers. You should be familiar with persistent volumes before you provision a CSI volume clone.

5.5.1. Overview of CSI volume cloning

A Container Storage Interface (CSI) volume clone is a duplicate of an existing persistent volume at a particular point in time.

Volume cloning is similar to volume snapshots, although it is more efficient. For example, a cluster administrator can duplicate a cluster volume by creating another instance of the existing cluster volume.

Cloning creates an exact duplicate of the specified volume on the back-end device, rather than creating a new empty volume. After dynamic provisioning, you can use a volume clone just as you would use any standard volume.

No new API objects are required for cloning. The existing dataSource field in the PersistentVolumeClaim object is expanded so that it can accept the name of an existing PersistentVolumeClaim in the same namespace.

5.5.1.1. Support limitations

By default, OpenShift Container Platform supports CSI volume cloning with these limitations:

  • The destination persistent volume claim (PVC) must exist in the same namespace as the source PVC.
  • Cloning is supported with a different Storage Class.

    • Destination volume can be the same for a different storage class as the source.
    • You can use the default storage class and omit storageClassName in the spec.
  • Support is only available for CSI drivers. In-tree and FlexVolumes are not supported.
  • CSI drivers might not have implemented the volume cloning functionality. For details, see the CSI driver documentation.

5.5.2. Provisioning a CSI volume clone

When you create a cloned persistent volume claim (PVC) API object, you trigger the provisioning of a CSI volume clone. The clone pre-populates with the contents of another PVC, adhering to the same rules as any other persistent volume. The one exception is that you must add a dataSource that references an existing PVC in the same namespace.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to a running OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • Your PVC is created using a CSI driver that supports volume cloning.
  • Your storage back end is configured for dynamic provisioning. Cloning support is not available for static provisioners.

Procedure

To clone a PVC from an existing PVC:

  1. Create and save a file with the PersistentVolumeClaim object described by the following YAML:

    pvc-clone.yaml

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: pvc-1-clone
      namespace: mynamespace
    spec:
      storageClassName: csi-cloning 1
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 5Gi
      dataSource:
        kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
        name: pvc-1

    1
    The name of the storage class that provisions the storage back end. The default storage class can be used and storageClassName can be omitted in the spec.
  2. Create the object you saved in the previous step by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f pvc-clone.yaml

    A new PVC pvc-1-clone is created.

  3. Verify that the volume clone was created and is ready by running the following command:

    $ oc get pvc pvc-1-clone

    The pvc-1-clone shows that it is Bound.

    You are now ready to use the newly cloned PVC to configure a pod.

  4. Create and save a file with the Pod object described by the YAML. For example:

    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: mypod
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: myfrontend
          image: dockerfile/nginx
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: "/var/www/html"
            name: mypd
      volumes:
        - name: mypd
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: pvc-1-clone 1
    1
    The cloned PVC created during the CSI volume cloning operation.

    The created Pod object is now ready to consume, clone, snapshot, or delete your cloned PVC independently of its original dataSource PVC.

5.6. CSI automatic migration

In-tree storage drivers that are traditionally shipped with OpenShift Container Platform are being deprecated and replaced by their equivalent Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers. OpenShift Container Platform provides automatic migration for certain supported in-tree volume plugins to their equivalent CSI drivers.

5.6.1. Overview

Volumes that are provisioned by using in-tree storage plugins, and that are supported by this feature, are migrated to their counterpart Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers. This process does not perform any data migration; OpenShift Container Platform only translates the persistent volume object in memory. As a result, the translated persistent volume object is not stored on disk, nor is its contents changed.

The following in-tree to CSI drivers are supported:

Table 5.2. CSI automatic migration feature supported in-tree/CSI drivers
In-tree/CSI driversSupport levelCSI auto migration enabled automatically?
  • Azure Disk
  • OpenStack Cinder
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Block Storage (EBS)
  • Google Compute Engine Persistent Disk (GCP PD)

Generally available (GA)

 Yes. For more information, see Automatic migration of in-tree volumes to CSI.

  • Azure File
  • VMware vSphere

Technology Preview (TP)

No. To enable, see Manually enabling CSI automatic migration.

Also, for vSphere, see information below in:

  • Updating from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.13 with vSphere in-tree PVs
  • Updating from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.14 with vSphere in-tree PVs

CSI automatic migration should be seamless. This feature does not change how you use all existing API objects: for example, PersistentVolumes, PersistentVolumeClaims, and StorageClasses.

Enabling CSI automatic migration for in-tree persistent volumes (PVs) or persistent volume claims (PVCs) does not enable any new CSI driver features, such as snapshots or expansion, if the original in-tree storage plugin did not support it.

5.6.2. Automatic migration of in-tree volumes to CSI

OpenShift Container Platform supports automatic and seamless migration for the following in-tree volume types to their Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver counterpart:

  • Azure Disk
  • OpenStack Cinder
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Block Storage (EBS)
  • Google Compute Engine Persistent Disk (GCP PD)

CSI migration for these volume types is considered generally available (GA), and requires no manual intervention.

For new OpenShift Container Platform 4.11, and later, installations, the default storage class is the CSI storage class. All volumes provisioned using this storage class are CSI persistent volumes (PVs).

For clusters upgraded from 4.10, and earlier, to 4.11, and later, the CSI storage class is created, and is set as the default if no default storage class was set prior to the upgrade. In the very unlikely case that there is a storage class with the same name, the existing storage class remains unchanged. Any existing in-tree storage classes remain, and might be necessary for certain features, such as volume expansion to work for existing in-tree PVs. While storage class referencing to the in-tree storage plugin will continue working, we recommend that you switch the default storage class to the CSI storage class.

5.6.3. Manually enabling CSI automatic migration

If you want to test Container Storage Interface (CSI) migration in development or staging OpenShift Container Platform clusters, you must manually enable in-tree to CSI migration for the following in-tree volume types:

  • VMware vSphere Disk
  • Azure File
Important

CSI automatic migration for the preceding in-tree volume plugins and CSI driver pairs is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

After migration, the default storage class remains the in-tree storage class.

CSI automatic migration will be enabled by default for all storage in-tree plugins in a future OpenShift Container Platform release, so it is highly recommended that you test it now and report any issues.

Note

Enabling CSI automatic migration drains, and then restarts, all nodes in the cluster in sequence. This might take some time.

Procedure

  • Enable feature gates (see Nodes → Working with clusters → Enabling features using feature gates).

    Important

    After turning on Technology Preview features using feature gates, they cannot be turned off. As a result, cluster upgrades are prevented.

    The following configuration example enables CSI automatic migration for all CSI drivers supported by this feature that are currently in Technology Preview (TP) status:

    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
    kind: FeatureGate
    metadata:
      name: cluster
    spec:
      featureSet: TechPreviewNoUpgrade 1
    ...
    1
    Enables automatic migration for Azure File and VMware vSphere.

    You can specify CSI automatic migration for a selected CSI driver by setting CustomNoUpgrade featureSet and for featuregates to one of the following:

    • CSIMigrationAzureFile
    • CSIMigrationvSphere

    The following configuration example enables automatic migration to the vSphere CSI driver only:

    apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
    kind: FeatureGate
    metadata:
      name: cluster
    spec:
      featureSet: CustomNoUpgrade
      customNoUpgrade:
        enabled:
          - CSIMigrationvSphere 1
        ...
    1
    Enables automatic migration for vSphere only.

5.6.4. Updating from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.13 with vSphere in-tree PVs

If you are using vSphere in-tree persistent volumes (PVs) and want to update from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.13, update vSphere vCenter and ESXI host to 7.0 Update 3L or 8.0 Update 2, otherwise the OpenShift Container Platform upgrade is blocked. After updating vSphere, your OpenShift Container Platform update can occur and automatic Container Storage Interface (CSI) migration for vSphere occurs only if you opt in.

Alternatively, if you do not want to update vSphere, you can proceed with an OpenShift Container Platform update by running the following command to perform an administrator acknowledgment:

oc -n openshift-config patch cm admin-acks --patch '{"data":{"ack-4.12-kube-126-vsphere-migration-in-4.14":"true"}}' --type=merge

It is generally safe to provide the requested administrator acknowledgment for updates from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.13 because CSI migration is not yet enabled for upgraded clusters from 4.12 to 4.13. However, Red Hat recommends that you start planning an update of your vSphere environment for a future update to 4.14, so that all the in-tree volumes can be managed by the CSI driver seamlessly.

Important

If you do not update to OpenShift Container Platform 4.13.10, or later, and do not update vSphere, and then opt in to migration (see Manually enabling CSI automatic migration under Additional resources), known issues can occur. Before opting in to migration, carefully read this knowledge base article.

5.6.5. Updating from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.14 with vSphere in-tree PVs

If you are using vSphere in-tree persistent volumes (PVs) and want to update from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.14, update vSphere vCenter and ESXI host to 7.0 Update 3L or 8.0 Update 2, otherwise the OpenShift Container Platform updates are blocked. After updating vSphere, your OpenShift Container Platform update can occur and automatic Container Storage Interface (CSI) migration for vSphere occurs automatically by default.

Alternatively, if you do not want to update vSphere, you can proceed with an OpenShift Container Platform update by running both of the following commands to perform an administrator acknowledgment:

oc -n openshift-config patch cm admin-acks --patch '{"data":{"ack-4.12-kube-126-vsphere-migration-in-4.14":"true"}}' --type=merge
oc -n openshift-config patch cm admin-acks --patch '{"data":{"ack-4.13-kube-127-vsphere-migration-in-4.14":"true"}}' --type=merge
Important

If you update to OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 without updating vSphere, known issues can occur due to CSI migration being enabled by default in OpenShift Container Platform 4.14. Before updating, carefully read this knowledge base article.

Updating from OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 to 4.14 is an Extended Update Support (EUS)-to-EUS update. To understand the ramifications for this type of update and how to perform it, see the EUS-to-EUS update link in the Additional resources section below.

Additional resources

5.7. AliCloud Disk CSI Driver Operator

5.7.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Alibaba AliCloud Disk Storage.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to AliCloud Disk storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the AliCloud Disk CSI Driver Operator and the AliCloud Disk CSI driver, by default, in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The AliCloud Disk CSI Driver Operator provides a storage class (alicloud-disk) that you can use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs). The AliCloud Disk CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The AliCloud Disk CSI driver enables you to create and mount AliCloud Disk PVs.

5.7.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Additional resources

5.8. AWS Elastic Block Store CSI Driver Operator

5.8.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS).

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to AWS EBS storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the AWS EBS CSI Driver Operator and the AWS EBS CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The AWS EBS CSI Driver Operator provides a StorageClass by default that you can use to create PVCs. You also have the option to create the AWS EBS StorageClass as described in Persistent storage using AWS Elastic Block Store.
  • The AWS EBS CSI driver enables you to create and mount AWS EBS PVs.
Note

If you installed the AWS EBS CSI Operator and driver on an OpenShift Container Platform 4.5 cluster, you must uninstall the 4.5 Operator and driver before you update to OpenShift Container Platform 4.12.

5.8.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform defaults to using an in-tree (non-CSI) plugin to provision AWS EBS storage.

In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plug-ins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver. CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

For information about dynamically provisioning AWS EBS persistent volumes in OpenShift Container Platform, see Persistent storage using AWS Elastic Block Store.

5.9. AWS Elastic File Service CSI Driver Operator

5.9.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for AWS Elastic File Service (EFS).

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

After installing the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator, OpenShift Container Platform installs the AWS EFS CSI Operator and the AWS EFS CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace. This allows the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator to create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to AWS EFS assets.

  • The AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator, after being installed, does not create a storage class by default to use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs). However, you can manually create the AWS EFS StorageClass. The AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on-demand. This eliminates the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The AWS EFS CSI driver enables you to create and mount AWS EFS PVs.
Note

AWS EFS only supports regional volumes, not zonal volumes.

5.9.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.9.3. Setting up the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator

  1. Install the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator.
  2. Install the AWS EFS CSI Driver.
5.9.3.1. Installing the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator

The AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator is not installed in OpenShift Container Platform by default. Use the following procedure to install and configure the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

To install the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator from the web console:

  1. Log in to the web console.
  2. Install the AWS EFS CSI Operator:

    1. Click OperatorsOperatorHub.
    2. Locate the AWS EFS CSI Operator by typing AWS EFS CSI in the filter box.
    3. Click the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator button.

      Important

      Be sure to select the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator and not the AWS EFS Operator. The AWS EFS Operator is a community Operator and is not supported by Red Hat.

    4. On the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator page, click Install.
    5. On the Install Operator page, ensure that:

      • All namespaces on the cluster (default) is selected.
      • Installed Namespace is set to openshift-cluster-csi-drivers.
    6. Click Install.

      After the installation finishes, the AWS EFS CSI Operator is listed in the Installed Operators section of the web console.

Next steps

5.9.3.2. Configuring AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator with Security Token Service

This procedure explains how to configure the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator with OpenShift Container Platform on AWS Security Token Service (STS).

Perform this procedure before you have installed the AWS EFS CSI Operator, but not yet installed the AWS EFS CSI driver as part of the Installing the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator procedure.

Important

If you perform this procedure after installing the driver and creating volumes, your volumes will fail to mount into pods.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the cluster as a user with the cluster-admin role.
  • AWS account credentials
  • You have installed the AWS EFS CSI Operator.

Procedure

To configure the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator with STS:

  1. Extract the CCO utility (ccoctl) binary from the OpenShift Container Platform release image, which you used to install the cluster with STS. For more information, see "Configuring the Cloud Credential Operator utility".
  2. Create and save an EFS CredentialsRequest YAML file, such as shown in the following example, and then place it in the credrequests directory:

    Example

    apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
    kind: CredentialsRequest
    metadata:
      name: openshift-aws-efs-csi-driver
      namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
    spec:
      providerSpec:
        apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
        kind: AWSProviderSpec
        statementEntries:
        - action:
          - elasticfilesystem:*
          effect: Allow
          resource: '*'
      secretRef:
        name: aws-efs-cloud-credentials
        namespace: openshift-cluster-csi-drivers
      serviceAccountNames:
      - aws-efs-csi-driver-operator
      - aws-efs-csi-driver-controller-sa

  3. Run the ccoctl tool to generate a new IAM role in AWS, and create a YAML file for it in the local file system (<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml).

    $ ccoctl aws create-iam-roles --name=<name> --region=<aws_region> --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests --identity-provider-arn=arn:aws:iam::<aws_account_id>:oidc-provider/<name>-oidc.s3.<aws_region>.amazonaws.com
    • name=<name> is the name used to tag any cloud resources that are created for tracking.
    • region=<aws_region> is the AWS region where cloud resources are created.
    • dir=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests is the directory containing the EFS CredentialsRequest file in previous step.
    • <aws_account_id> is the AWS account ID.

      Example

      $ ccoctl aws create-iam-roles --name my-aws-efs --credentials-requests-dir credrequests --identity-provider-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:oidc-provider/my-aws-efs-oidc.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com

      Example output

      2022/03/21 06:24:44 Role arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/my-aws-efs -openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud- created
      2022/03/21 06:24:44 Saved credentials configuration to: /manifests/openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      2022/03/21 06:24:45 Updated Role policy for Role my-aws-efs-openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud-

  4. Create the AWS EFS cloud credentials and secret:

    $ oc create -f <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml

    Example

    $ oc create -f /manifests/openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-aws-efs-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml

    Example output

    secret/aws-efs-cloud-credentials created

5.9.3.3. Installing the AWS EFS CSI Driver

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

  1. Click AdministrationCustomResourceDefinitionsClusterCSIDriver.
  2. On the Instances tab, click Create ClusterCSIDriver.
  3. Use the following YAML file:

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
    kind: ClusterCSIDriver
    metadata:
        name: efs.csi.aws.com
    spec:
      managementState: Managed
  4. Click Create.
  5. Wait for the following Conditions to change to a "True" status:

    • AWSEFSDriverNodeServiceControllerAvailable
    • AWSEFSDriverControllerServiceControllerAvailable

5.9.4. Creating the AWS EFS storage class

Storage classes are used to differentiate and delineate storage levels and usages. By defining a storage class, users can obtain dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

The AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator, after being installed, does not create a storage class by default. However, you can manually create the AWS EFS storage class.

5.9.4.1. Creating the AWS EFS storage class using the console

Procedure

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StorageStorageClasses.
  2. On the StorageClasses page, click Create StorageClass.
  3. On the StorageClass page, perform the following steps:

    1. Enter a name to reference the storage class.
    2. Optional: Enter the description.
    3. Select the reclaim policy.
    4. Select efs.csi.aws.com from the Provisioner drop-down list.
    5. Optional: Set the configuration parameters for the selected provisioner.
  4. Click Create.
5.9.4.2. Creating the AWS EFS storage class using the CLI

Procedure

  • Create a StorageClass object:

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: efs-sc
    provisioner: efs.csi.aws.com
    parameters:
      provisioningMode: efs-ap 1
      fileSystemId: fs-a5324911 2
      directoryPerms: "700" 3
      gidRangeStart: "1000" 4
      gidRangeEnd: "2000" 5
      basePath: "/dynamic_provisioning" 6
    1
    provisioningMode must be efs-ap to enable dynamic provisioning.
    2
    fileSystemId must be the ID of the EFS volume created manually.
    3
    directoryPerms is the default permission of the root directory of the volume. In this example, the volume is accessible only by the owner.
    4 5
    gidRangeStart and gidRangeEnd set the range of POSIX Group IDs (GIDs) that are used to set the GID of the AWS access point. If not specified, the default range is 50000-7000000. Each provisioned volume, and thus AWS access point, is assigned a unique GID from this range.
    6
    basePath is the directory on the EFS volume that is used to create dynamically provisioned volumes. In this case, a PV is provisioned as “/dynamic_provisioning/<random uuid>” on the EFS volume. Only the subdirectory is mounted to pods that use the PV.
    Note

    A cluster admin can create several StorageClass objects, each using a different EFS volume.

5.9.5. Creating and configuring access to EFS volumes in AWS

This procedure explains how to create and configure EFS volumes in AWS so that you can use them in OpenShift Container Platform.

Prerequisites

  • AWS account credentials

Procedure

To create and configure access to an EFS volume in AWS:

  1. On the AWS console, open https://console.aws.amazon.com/efs.
  2. Click Create file system:

    • Enter a name for the file system.
    • For Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), select your OpenShift Container Platform’s' virtual private cloud (VPC).
    • Accept default settings for all other selections.
  3. Wait for the volume and mount targets to finish being fully created:

    1. Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/efs#/file-systems.
    2. Click your volume, and on the Network tab wait for all mount targets to become available (~1-2 minutes).
  4. On the Network tab, copy the Security Group ID (you will need this in the next step).
  5. Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home#SecurityGroups, and find the Security Group used by the EFS volume.
  6. On the Inbound rules tab, click Edit inbound rules, and then add a new rule with the following settings to allow OpenShift Container Platform nodes to access EFS volumes :

    • Type: NFS
    • Protocol: TCP
    • Port range: 2049
    • Source: Custom/IP address range of your nodes (for example: “10.0.0.0/16”)

      This step allows OpenShift Container Platform to use NFS ports from the cluster.

  7. Save the rule.

5.9.6. Dynamic provisioning for AWS EFS

The AWS EFS CSI Driver supports a different form of dynamic provisioning than other CSI drivers. It provisions new PVs as subdirectories of a pre-existing EFS volume. The PVs are independent of each other. However, they all share the same EFS volume. When the volume is deleted, all PVs provisioned out of it are deleted too. The EFS CSI driver creates an AWS Access Point for each such subdirectory. Due to AWS AccessPoint limits, you can only dynamically provision 1000 PVs from a single StorageClass/EFS volume.

Important

Note that PVC.spec.resources is not enforced by EFS.

In the example below, you request 5 GiB of space. However, the created PV is limitless and can store any amount of data (like petabytes). A broken application, or even a rogue application, can cause significant expenses when it stores too much data on the volume.

Using monitoring of EFS volume sizes in AWS is strongly recommended.

Prerequisites

  • You have created AWS EFS volumes.
  • You have created the AWS EFS storage class.

Procedure

To enable dynamic provisioning:

  • Create a PVC (or StatefulSet or Template) as usual, referring to the StorageClass created previously.

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: test
    spec:
      storageClassName: efs-sc
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteMany
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 5Gi

If you have problems setting up dynamic provisioning, see AWS EFS troubleshooting.

5.9.7. Creating static PVs with AWS EFS

It is possible to use an AWS EFS volume as a single PV without any dynamic provisioning. The whole volume is mounted to pods.

Prerequisites

  • You have created AWS EFS volumes.

Procedure

  • Create the PV using the following YAML file:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolume
    metadata:
      name: efs-pv
    spec:
      capacity: 1
        storage: 5Gi
      volumeMode: Filesystem
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteMany
        - ReadWriteOnce
      persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Retain
      csi:
        driver: efs.csi.aws.com
        volumeHandle: fs-ae66151a 2
        volumeAttributes:
          encryptInTransit: "false" 3
    1
    spec.capacity does not have any meaning and is ignored by the CSI driver. It is used only when binding to a PVC. Applications can store any amount of data to the volume.
    2
    volumeHandle must be the same ID as the EFS volume you created in AWS. If you are providing your own access point, volumeHandle should be <EFS volume ID>::<access point ID>. For example: fs-6e633ada::fsap-081a1d293f0004630.
    3
    If desired, you can disable encryption in transit. Encryption is enabled by default.

If you have problems setting up static PVs, see AWS EFS troubleshooting.

5.9.8. AWS EFS security

The following information is important for AWS EFS security.

When using access points, for example, by using dynamic provisioning as described earlier, Amazon automatically replaces GIDs on files with the GID of the access point. In addition, EFS considers the user ID, group ID, and secondary group IDs of the access point when evaluating file system permissions. EFS ignores the NFS client’s IDs. For more information about access points, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/efs-access-points.html.

As a consequence, EFS volumes silently ignore FSGroup; OpenShift Container Platform is not able to replace the GIDs of files on the volume with FSGroup. Any pod that can access a mounted EFS access point can access any file on it.

Unrelated to this, encryption in transit is enabled by default. For more information, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/encryption-in-transit.html.

5.9.9. AWS EFS troubleshooting

The following information provides guidance on how to troubleshoot issues with AWS EFS:

  • The AWS EFS Operator and CSI driver run in namespace openshift-cluster-csi-drivers.
  • To initiate gathering of logs of the AWS EFS Operator and CSI driver, run the following command:

    $ oc adm must-gather
    [must-gather      ] OUT Using must-gather plugin-in image: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:125f183d13601537ff15b3239df95d47f0a604da2847b561151fedd699f5e3a5
    [must-gather      ] OUT namespace/openshift-must-gather-xm4wq created
    [must-gather      ] OUT clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/must-gather-2bd8x created
    [must-gather      ] OUT pod for plug-in image quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:125f183d13601537ff15b3239df95d47f0a604da2847b561151fedd699f5e3a5 created
  • To show AWS EFS Operator errors, view the ClusterCSIDriver status:

    $ oc get clustercsidriver efs.csi.aws.com -o yaml
  • If a volume cannot be mounted to a pod (as shown in the output of the following command):

    $ oc describe pod
    ...
      Type     Reason       Age    From               Message
      ----     ------       ----   ----               -------
      Normal   Scheduled    2m13s  default-scheduler  Successfully assigned default/efs-app to ip-10-0-135-94.ec2.internal
      Warning  FailedMount  13s    kubelet            MountVolume.SetUp failed for volume "pvc-d7c097e6-67ec-4fae-b968-7e7056796449" : rpc error: code = DeadlineExceeded desc = context deadline exceeded 1
      Warning  FailedMount  10s    kubelet            Unable to attach or mount volumes: unmounted volumes=[persistent-storage], unattached volumes=[persistent-storage kube-api-access-9j477]: timed out waiting for the condition
    1
    Warning message indicating volume not mounted.

    This error is frequently caused by AWS dropping packets between an OpenShift Container Platform node and AWS EFS.

    Check that the following are correct:

    • AWS firewall and Security Groups
    • Networking: port number and IP addresses

5.9.10. Uninstalling the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator

All EFS PVs are inaccessible after uninstalling the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

To uninstall the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator from the web console:

  1. Log in to the web console.
  2. Stop all applications that use AWS EFS PVs.
  3. Delete all AWS EFS PVs:

    1. Click StoragePersistentVolumeClaims.
    2. Select each PVC that is in use by the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator, click the drop-down menu on the far right of the PVC, and then click Delete PersistentVolumeClaims.
  4. Uninstall the AWS EFS CSI Driver:

    Note

    Before you can uninstall the Operator, you must remove the CSI driver first.

    1. Click AdministrationCustomResourceDefinitionsClusterCSIDriver.
    2. On the Instances tab, for efs.csi.aws.com, on the far left side, click the drop-down menu, and then click Delete ClusterCSIDriver.
    3. When prompted, click Delete.
  5. Uninstall the AWS EFS CSI Operator:

    1. Click OperatorsInstalled Operators.
    2. On the Installed Operators page, scroll or type AWS EFS CSI into the Search by name box to find the Operator, and then click it.
    3. On the upper, right of the Installed Operators > Operator details page, click ActionsUninstall Operator.
    4. When prompted on the Uninstall Operator window, click the Uninstall button to remove the Operator from the namespace. Any applications deployed by the Operator on the cluster need to be cleaned up manually.

      After uninstalling, the AWS EFS CSI Driver Operator is no longer listed in the Installed Operators section of the web console.

Note

Before you can destroy a cluster (openshift-install destroy cluster), you must delete the EFS volume in AWS. An OpenShift Container Platform cluster cannot be destroyed when there is an EFS volume that uses the cluster’s VPC. Amazon does not allow deletion of such a VPC.

5.9.11. Additional resources

5.10. Azure Disk CSI Driver Operator

5.10.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Microsoft Azure Disk Storage.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to Azure Disk storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the Azure Disk CSI Driver Operator and the Azure Disk CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The Azure Disk CSI Driver Operator provides a storage class named managed-csi that you can use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs). The Azure Disk CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The Azure Disk CSI driver enables you to create and mount Azure Disk PVs.

5.10.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform provides automatic migration for the Azure Disk in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver. For more information, see CSI automatic migration.

5.10.3. Creating a storage class with storage account type

Storage classes are used to differentiate and delineate storage levels and usages. By defining a storage class, you can obtain dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

When creating a storage class, you can designate the storage account type. This corresponds to your Azure storage account SKU tier. Valid options are Standard_LRS, Premium_LRS, StandardSSD_LRS, UltraSSD_LRS, Premium_ZRS, and StandardSSD_ZRS. For information about finding your Azure SKU tier, see SKU Types.

ZRS has some region limitations. For information about these limitations, see ZRS limitations.

Prerequisites

  • Access to an OpenShift Container Platform cluster with administrator rights

Procedure

Use the following steps to create a storage class with a storage account type.

  1. Create a storage class designating the storage account type using a YAML file similar to the following:

    $ oc create -f - << EOF
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: <storage-class> 1
    provisioner: disk.csi.azure.com
    parameters:
      skuName: <storage-class-account-type> 2
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
    allowVolumeExpansion: true
    EOF
    1
    Storage class name.
    2
    Storage account type. This corresponds to your Azure storage account SKU tier:`Standard_LRS`, Premium_LRS, StandardSSD_LRS, UltraSSD_LRS, Premium_ZRS, StandardSSD_ZRS.
  2. Ensure that the storage class was created by listing the storage classes:

    $ oc get storageclass

    Example output

    $ oc get storageclass
    NAME                    PROVISIONER          RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
    azurefile-csi           file.csi.azure.com   Delete          Immediate              true                   68m
    managed-csi (default)   disk.csi.azure.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   68m
    sc-prem-zrs             disk.csi.azure.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   4m25s 1

    1
    New storage class with storage account type.

5.10.4. Machine sets that deploy machines with ultra disks using PVCs

You can create a machine set running on Azure that deploys machines with ultra disks. Ultra disks are high-performance storage that are intended for use with the most demanding data workloads.

Both the in-tree plugin and CSI driver support using PVCs to enable ultra disks. You can also deploy machines with ultra disks as data disks without creating a PVC.

5.10.4.1. Creating machines with ultra disks by using machine sets

You can deploy machines with ultra disks on Azure by editing your machine set YAML file.

Prerequisites

  • Have an existing Microsoft Azure cluster.

Procedure

  1. Copy an existing Azure MachineSet custom resource (CR) and edit it by running the following command:

    $ oc edit machineset <machine-set-name>

    where <machine-set-name> is the machine set that you want to provision machines with ultra disks.

  2. Add the following lines in the positions indicated:

    apiVersion: machine.openshift.io/v1beta1
    kind: MachineSet
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          metadata:
            labels:
              disk: ultrassd 1
          providerSpec:
            value:
              ultraSSDCapability: Enabled 2
    1
    Specify a label to use to select a node that is created by this machine set. This procedure uses disk.ultrassd for this value.
    2
    These lines enable the use of ultra disks.
  3. Create a machine set using the updated configuration by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f <machine-set-name>.yaml
  4. Create a storage class that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: ultra-disk-sc 1
    parameters:
      cachingMode: None
      diskIopsReadWrite: "2000" 2
      diskMbpsReadWrite: "320" 3
      kind: managed
      skuname: UltraSSD_LRS
    provisioner: disk.csi.azure.com 4
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer 5
    1
    Specify the name of the storage class. This procedure uses ultra-disk-sc for this value.
    2
    Specify the number of IOPS for the storage class.
    3
    Specify the throughput in MBps for the storage class.
    4
    For Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) version 1.21 or later, use disk.csi.azure.com. For earlier versions of AKS, use kubernetes.io/azure-disk.
    5
    Optional: Specify this parameter to wait for the creation of the pod that will use the disk.
  5. Create a persistent volume claim (PVC) to reference the ultra-disk-sc storage class that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: ultra-disk 1
    spec:
      accessModes:
      - ReadWriteOnce
      storageClassName: ultra-disk-sc 2
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 4Gi 3
    1
    Specify the name of the PVC. This procedure uses ultra-disk for this value.
    2
    This PVC references the ultra-disk-sc storage class.
    3
    Specify the size for the storage class. The minimum value is 4Gi.
  6. Create a pod that contains the following YAML definition:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: nginx-ultra
    spec:
      nodeSelector:
        disk: ultrassd 1
      containers:
      - name: nginx-ultra
        image: alpine:latest
        command:
          - "sleep"
          - "infinity"
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: "/mnt/azure"
          name: volume
      volumes:
        - name: volume
          persistentVolumeClaim:
            claimName: ultra-disk 2
    1
    Specify the label of the machine set that enables the use of ultra disks. This procedure uses disk.ultrassd for this value.
    2
    This pod references the ultra-disk PVC.

Verification

  1. Validate that the machines are created by running the following command:

    $ oc get machines

    The machines should be in the Running state.

  2. For a machine that is running and has a node attached, validate the partition by running the following command:

    $ oc debug node/<node-name> -- chroot /host lsblk

    In this command, oc debug node/<node-name> starts a debugging shell on the node <node-name> and passes a command with --. The passed command chroot /host provides access to the underlying host OS binaries, and lsblk shows the block devices that are attached to the host OS machine.

Next steps

  • To use an ultra disk from within a pod, create a workload that uses the mount point. Create a YAML file similar to the following example:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: Pod
    metadata:
      name: ssd-benchmark1
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: ssd-benchmark1
        image: nginx
        ports:
          - containerPort: 80
            name: "http-server"
        volumeMounts:
        - name: lun0p1
          mountPath: "/tmp"
      volumes:
        - name: lun0p1
          hostPath:
            path: /var/lib/lun0p1
            type: DirectoryOrCreate
      nodeSelector:
        disktype: ultrassd
5.10.4.2. Troubleshooting resources for machine sets that enable ultra disks

Use the information in this section to understand and recover from issues you might encounter.

5.10.4.2.1. Unable to mount a persistent volume claim backed by an ultra disk

If there is an issue mounting a persistent volume claim backed by an ultra disk, the pod becomes stuck in the ContainerCreating state and an alert is triggered.

For example, if the additionalCapabilities.ultraSSDEnabled parameter is not set on the machine that backs the node that hosts the pod, the following error message appears:

StorageAccountType UltraSSD_LRS can be used only when additionalCapabilities.ultraSSDEnabled is set.
  • To resolve this issue, describe the pod by running the following command:

    $ oc -n <stuck_pod_namespace> describe pod <stuck_pod_name>

5.10.5. Additional resources

5.11. Azure File CSI Driver Operator

5.11.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) by using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Microsoft Azure File Storage.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to Azure File storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the Azure File CSI Driver Operator and the Azure File CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The Azure File CSI Driver Operator provides a storage class that is named azurefile-csi that you can use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs).
  • The Azure File CSI driver enables you to create and mount Azure File PVs. The Azure File CSI driver supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.

Azure File CSI Driver Operator does not support:

  • Virtual hard disks (VHD)
  • Network File System (NFS): OpenShift Container Platform does not deploy a NFS-backed storage class.
  • Running on nodes with FIPS mode enabled.

For more information about supported features, see Supported CSI drivers and features.

5.11.2. NFS support

OpenShift Container Platform supports the Azure File Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator with Network File System (NFS) with the following restrictions:

  • Creating pods with Azure File NFS volumes that are scheduled to the control plane node causes the mount to be denied.

    To work around this issue: If your control plane nodes are schedulable, and the pods can run on worker nodes, use nodeSelector or Affinity to schedule the pod in worker nodes.

  • FS Group policy behavior:

    Important

    Azure File CSI with NFS does not honor the fsGroupChangePolicy requested by pods. Azure File CSI with NFS applies a default OnRootMismatch FS Group policy regardless of the policy requested by the pod.

  • The Azure File CSI Operator does not automatically create a storage class for NFS. You must create it manually. Use a file similar to the following:

    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: <storage-class-name> 1
    provisioner: file.csi.azure.com 2
    parameters:
      protocol: nfs 3
      skuName: Premium_LRS  # available values: Premium_LRS, Premium_ZRS
    mountOptions:
      - nconnect=4
    1
    Storage class name.
    2
    Specifies the Azure File CSI provider.
    3
    Specifies NFS as the storage backend protocol.

5.11.3. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.12. Azure Stack Hub CSI Driver Operator

5.12.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Azure Stack Hub Storage. Azure Stack Hub, which is part of the Azure Stack portfolio, allows you to run apps in an on-premises environment and deliver Azure services in your datacenter.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to Azure Stack Hub storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the Azure Stack Hub CSI Driver Operator and the Azure Stack Hub CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The Azure Stack Hub CSI Driver Operator provides a storage class (managed-csi), with "Standard_LRS" as the default storage account type, that you can use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs). The Azure Stack Hub CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The Azure Stack Hub CSI driver enables you to create and mount Azure Stack Hub PVs.

5.12.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.12.3. Additional resources

5.13. GCP PD CSI Driver Operator

5.13.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform can provision persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) persistent disk (PD) storage.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned persistent volumes (PVs) that mount to GCP PD storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the GCP PD CSI Driver Operator and the GCP PD CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • GCP PD CSI Driver Operator: By default, the Operator provides a storage class that you can use to create PVCs. You also have the option to create the GCP PD storage class as described in Persistent storage using GCE Persistent Disk.
  • GCP PD driver: The driver enables you to create and mount GCP PD PVs.
Note

OpenShift Container Platform provides automatic migration for the GCE Persistent Disk in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver. For more information, see CSI automatic migration.

5.13.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.13.3. GCP PD CSI driver storage class parameters

The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) persistent disk (PD) Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver uses the CSI external-provisioner sidecar as a controller. This is a separate helper container that is deployed with the CSI driver. The sidecar manages persistent volumes (PVs) by triggering the CreateVolume operation.

The GCP PD CSI driver uses the csi.storage.k8s.io/fstype parameter key to support dynamic provisioning. The following table describes all the GCP PD CSI storage class parameters that are supported by OpenShift Container Platform.

Table 5.3. CreateVolume Parameters
ParameterValuesDefaultDescription

type

pd-ssd, pd-standard, or pd-balanced

pd-standard

Allows you to choose between standard PVs or solid-state-drive PVs.

The driver does not validate the value, thus all the possible values are accepted.

replication-type

none or regional-pd

none

Allows you to choose between zonal or regional PVs.

disk-encryption-kms-key

Fully qualified resource identifier for the key to use to encrypt new disks.

Empty string

Uses customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) to encrypt new disks.

5.13.4. Creating a custom-encrypted persistent volume

When you create a PersistentVolumeClaim object, OpenShift Container Platform provisions a new persistent volume (PV) and creates a PersistentVolume object. You can add a custom encryption key in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to protect a PV in your cluster by encrypting the newly created PV.

For encryption, the newly attached PV that you create uses customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) on a cluster by using a new or existing Google Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) key.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to a running OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • You have created a Cloud KMS key ring and key version.

For more information about CMEK and Cloud KMS resources, see Using customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK).

Procedure

To create a custom-encrypted PV, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a storage class with the Cloud KMS key. The following example enables dynamic provisioning of encrypted volumes:

    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    metadata:
      name: csi-gce-pd-cmek
    provisioner: pd.csi.storage.gke.io
    volumeBindingMode: "WaitForFirstConsumer"
    allowVolumeExpansion: true
    parameters:
      type: pd-standard
      disk-encryption-kms-key: projects/<key-project-id>/locations/<location>/keyRings/<key-ring>/cryptoKeys/<key> 1
    1
    This field must be the resource identifier for the key that will be used to encrypt new disks. Values are case-sensitive. For more information about providing key ID values, see Retrieving a resource’s ID and Getting a Cloud KMS resource ID.
    Note

    You cannot add the disk-encryption-kms-key parameter to an existing storage class. However, you can delete the storage class and recreate it with the same name and a different set of parameters. If you do this, the provisioner of the existing class must be pd.csi.storage.gke.io.

  2. Deploy the storage class on your OpenShift Container Platform cluster using the oc command:

    $ oc describe storageclass csi-gce-pd-cmek

    Example output

    Name:                  csi-gce-pd-cmek
    IsDefaultClass:        No
    Annotations:           None
    Provisioner:           pd.csi.storage.gke.io
    Parameters:            disk-encryption-kms-key=projects/key-project-id/locations/location/keyRings/ring-name/cryptoKeys/key-name,type=pd-standard
    AllowVolumeExpansion:  true
    MountOptions:          none
    ReclaimPolicy:         Delete
    VolumeBindingMode:     WaitForFirstConsumer
    Events:                none

  3. Create a file named pvc.yaml that matches the name of your storage class object that you created in the previous step:

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: podpvc
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      storageClassName: csi-gce-pd-cmek
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 6Gi
    Note

    If you marked the new storage class as default, you can omit the storageClassName field.

  4. Apply the PVC on your cluster:

    $ oc apply -f pvc.yaml
  5. Get the status of your PVC and verify that it is created and bound to a newly provisioned PV:

    $ oc get pvc

    Example output

    NAME      STATUS    VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS     AGE
    podpvc    Bound     pvc-e36abf50-84f3-11e8-8538-42010a800002   10Gi       RWO            csi-gce-pd-cmek  9s

    Note

    If your storage class has the volumeBindingMode field set to WaitForFirstConsumer, you must create a pod to use the PVC before you can verify it.

Your CMEK-protected PV is now ready to use with your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

5.14. Google Compute Platform Filestore CSI Driver Operator

5.14.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Google Compute Platform (GCP) Filestore Storage.

Important

GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to GCP Filestore Storage assets, you install the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator and the GCP Filestore CSI driver in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator does not provide a storage class by default, but you can create one if needed. The GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The GCP Filestore CSI driver enables you to create and mount GCP Filestore PVs.

5.14.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.14.3. Installing the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator

The Google Compute Platform (GCP) Filestore Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator is not installed in OpenShift Container Platform by default. Use the following procedure to install the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator in your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • Access to the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Procedure

To install the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator from the web console:

  1. Log in to the web console.
  2. Enable the Filestore API in the GCE project by running the following command:

    $ gcloud services enable file.googleapis.com  --project <my_gce_project> 1
    1
    Replace <my_gce_project> with your Google Cloud project.

    You can also do this using Google Cloud web console.

  3. Install the GCP Filestore CSI Operator:

    1. Click OperatorsOperatorHub.
    2. Locate the GCP Filestore CSI Operator by typing GCP Filestore in the filter box.
    3. Click the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator button.
    4. On the GCP Filestore CSI Driver Operator page, click Install.
    5. On the Install Operator page, ensure that:

      • All namespaces on the cluster (default) is selected.
      • Installed Namespace is set to openshift-cluster-csi-drivers.
    6. Click Install.

      After the installation finishes, the GCP Filestore CSI Operator is listed in the Installed Operators section of the web console.

  4. Install the GCP Filestore CSI Driver:

    1. Click administrationCustomResourceDefinitionsClusterCSIDriver.
    2. On the Instances tab, click Create ClusterCSIDriver.

      Use the following YAML file:

      apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
      kind: ClusterCSIDriver
      metadata:
          name: filestore.csi.storage.gke.io
      spec:
        managementState: Managed
    3. Click Create.
    4. Wait for the following Conditions to change to a "true" status:

      • GCPFilestoreDriverCredentialsRequestControllerAvailable
      • GCPFilestoreDriverNodeServiceControllerAvailable
      • GCPFilestoreDriverControllerServiceControllerAvailable

5.14.4. Creating a storage class for GCP Filestore Storage

After installing the Operator, you should create a storage class for dynamic provisioning of Google Compute Platform (GCP) Filestore volumes.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the running OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

To create a storage class:

  1. Create a storage class using the following example YAML file:

    Example YAML file

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: filestore-csi
    provisioner: filestore.csi.storage.gke.io
    parameters:
      network: network-name 1
    allowVolumeExpansion: true
    volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer

    1
    Specify the name of the GCP virtual private cloud (VPC) network where Filestore instances should be created in.
  2. Specify the name of the VPC network where Filestore instances should be created in.

    It is recommended to specify the VPC network that the Filestore instances should be created in. If no VPC network is specified, the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver tries to create the instances in the default VPC network of the project. On IPI installations, the VPC network name is typically the cluster name with the suffix "-network". However, on UPI installations, the VPC network name can be any value chosen by the user.

    You can find out the VPC network name by inspecting the MachineSets objects with the following command:

    $ oc -n openshift-machine-api get machinesets -o yaml | grep "network:"
                - network: gcp-filestore-network
    (...)

    In this example, the VPC network name in this cluster is "gcp-filestore-network".

5.14.5. Destroying clusters and GCP Filestore

Typically, if you destroy a cluster, the OpenShift Container Platform installer deletes all of the cloud resources that belong to that cluster. However, when a cluster is destroyed, Google Compute Platform (GCP) Filestore instances are not automatically deleted, so you must manually delete all persistent volume claims (PVCs) that use the Filestore storage class before destroying the cluster.

Procedure

To delete all GCP Filestore PVCs:

  1. List all PVCs that were created using the storage class filestore-csi:

    $ oc get pvc -o json -A | jq -r '.items[] | select(.spec.storageClassName == "filestore-csi")
  2. Delete all of the PVCs listed by the previous command:

    $ oc delete <pvc-name> 1
    1
    Replace <pvc-name> with the name of any PVC that you need to delete.

5.14.6. Additional resources

5.15. IBM VPC Block CSI Driver Operator

5.15.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for IBM Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Block Storage.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to IBM VPC Block storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the IBM VPC Block CSI Driver Operator and the IBM VPC Block CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The IBM VPC Block CSI Driver Operator provides three storage classes named ibmc-vpc-block-10iops-tier (default), ibmc-vpc-block-5iops-tier, and ibmc-vpc-block-custom for different tiers that you can use to create persistent volume claims (PVCs). The IBM VPC Block CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • The IBM VPC Block CSI driver enables you to create and mount IBM VPC Block PVs.

5.15.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Additional resources

5.16. OpenStack Cinder CSI Driver Operator

5.16.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for OpenStack Cinder.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to OpenStack Cinder storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the OpenStack Cinder CSI Driver Operator and the OpenStack Cinder CSI driver in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The OpenStack Cinder CSI Driver Operator provides a CSI storage class that you can use to create PVCs.
  • The OpenStack Cinder CSI driver enables you to create and mount OpenStack Cinder PVs.
Note

OpenShift Container Platform provides automatic migration for the Cinder in-tree volume plugin to its equivalent CSI driver. For more information, see CSI automatic migration.

5.16.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform defaults to using an in-tree (non-CSI) plugin to provision Cinder storage.

In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plugins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver. CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

5.16.3. Making OpenStack Cinder CSI the default storage class

The OpenStack Cinder CSI driver uses the cinder.csi.openstack.org parameter key to support dynamic provisioning.

To enable OpenStack Cinder CSI provisioning in OpenShift Container Platform, it is recommended that you overwrite the default in-tree storage class with standard-csi. Alternatively, you can create the persistent volume claim (PVC) and specify the storage class as "standard-csi".

In OpenShift Container Platform, the default storage class references the in-tree Cinder driver. However, with CSI automatic migration enabled, volumes created using the default storage class actually use the CSI driver.

Procedure

Use the following steps to apply the standard-csi storage class by overwriting the default in-tree storage class.

  1. List the storage class:

    $ oc get storageclass

    Example output

    NAME                   PROVISIONER                RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
    standard(default)      cinder.csi.openstack.org   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   46h
    standard-csi           kubernetes.io/cinder       Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   46h

  2. Change the value of the annotation storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class to false for the default storage class, as shown in the following example:

    $ oc patch storageclass standard -p '{"metadata": {"annotations": {"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class": "false"}}}'
  3. Make another storage class the default by adding or modifying the annotation as storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class=true.

    $ oc patch storageclass standard-csi -p '{"metadata": {"annotations": {"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class": "true"}}}'
  4. Verify that the PVC is now referencing the CSI storage class by default:

    $ oc get storageclass

    Example output

    NAME                   PROVISIONER                RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
    standard               kubernetes.io/cinder       Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   46h
    standard-csi(default)  cinder.csi.openstack.org   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   46h

  5. Optional: You can define a new PVC without having to specify the storage class:

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: cinder-claim
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 1Gi

    A PVC that does not specify a specific storage class is automatically provisioned by using the default storage class.

  6. Optional: After the new file has been configured, create it in your cluster:

    $ oc create -f cinder-claim.yaml

Additional resources

5.17. OpenStack Manila CSI Driver Operator

5.17.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for the OpenStack Manila shared file system service.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to Manila storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the Manila CSI Driver Operator and the Manila CSI driver by default on any OpenStack cluster that has the Manila service enabled.

  • The Manila CSI Driver Operator creates the required storage class that is needed to create PVCs for all available Manila share types. The Operator is installed in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.
  • The Manila CSI driver enables you to create and mount Manila PVs. The driver is installed in the openshift-manila-csi-driver namespace.

5.17.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.17.3. Manila CSI Driver Operator limitations

The following limitations apply to the Manila Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator:

Only NFS is supported
OpenStack Manila supports many network-attached storage protocols, such as NFS, CIFS, and CEPHFS, and these can be selectively enabled in the OpenStack cloud. The Manila CSI Driver Operator in OpenShift Container Platform only supports using the NFS protocol. If NFS is not available and enabled in the underlying OpenStack cloud, you cannot use the Manila CSI Driver Operator to provision storage for OpenShift Container Platform.
Snapshots are not supported if the back end is CephFS-NFS
To take snapshots of persistent volumes (PVs) and revert volumes to snapshots, you must ensure that the Manila share type that you are using supports these features. A Red Hat OpenStack administrator must enable support for snapshots (share type extra-spec snapshot_support) and for creating shares from snapshots (share type extra-spec create_share_from_snapshot_support) in the share type associated with the storage class you intend to use.
FSGroups are not supported
Since Manila CSI provides shared file systems for access by multiple readers and multiple writers, it does not support the use of FSGroups. This is true even for persistent volumes created with the ReadWriteOnce access mode. It is therefore important not to specify the fsType attribute in any storage class that you manually create for use with Manila CSI Driver.
Important

In Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.x and 17.x, the Shared File Systems service (Manila) with CephFS through NFS fully supports serving shares to OpenShift Container Platform through the Manila CSI. However, this solution is not intended for massive scale. Be sure to review important recommendations in CephFS NFS Manila-CSI Workload Recommendations for Red Hat OpenStack Platform.

5.17.4. Dynamically provisioning Manila CSI volumes

OpenShift Container Platform installs a storage class for each available Manila share type.

The YAML files that are created are completely decoupled from Manila and from its Container Storage Interface (CSI) plugin. As an application developer, you can dynamically provision ReadWriteMany (RWX) storage and deploy pods with applications that safely consume the storage using YAML manifests.

You can use the same pod and persistent volume claim (PVC) definitions on-premise that you use with OpenShift Container Platform on AWS, GCP, Azure, and other platforms, with the exception of the storage class reference in the PVC definition.

Note

Manila service is optional. If the service is not enabled in Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Manila CSI driver is not installed and the storage classes for Manila are not created.

Prerequisites

  • RHOSP is deployed with appropriate Manila share infrastructure so that it can be used to dynamically provision and mount volumes in OpenShift Container Platform.

Procedure (UI)

To dynamically create a Manila CSI volume using the web console:

  1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
  2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
  3. Define the required options on the resulting page.

    1. Select the appropriate storage class.
    2. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    3. Select the access mode to specify read and write access for the PVC you are creating.

      Important

      Use RWX if you want the persistent volume (PV) that fulfills this PVC to be mounted to multiple pods on multiple nodes in the cluster.

  4. Define the size of the storage claim.
  5. Click Create to create the persistent volume claim and generate a persistent volume.

Procedure (CLI)

To dynamically create a Manila CSI volume using the command-line interface (CLI):

  1. Create and save a file with the PersistentVolumeClaim object described by the following YAML:

    pvc-manila.yaml

    apiVersion: v1
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    metadata:
      name: pvc-manila
    spec:
      accessModes: 1
        - ReadWriteMany
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 10Gi
      storageClassName: csi-manila-gold 2

    1
    Use RWX if you want the persistent volume (PV) that fulfills this PVC to be mounted to multiple pods on multiple nodes in the cluster.
    2
    The name of the storage class that provisions the storage back end. Manila storage classes are provisioned by the Operator and have the csi-manila- prefix.
  2. Create the object you saved in the previous step by running the following command:

    $ oc create -f pvc-manila.yaml

    A new PVC is created.

  3. To verify that the volume was created and is ready, run the following command:

    $ oc get pvc pvc-manila

    The pvc-manila shows that it is Bound.

You can now use the new PVC to configure a pod.

Additional resources

5.18. Red Hat Virtualization CSI Driver Operator

5.18.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform is capable of provisioning persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Red Hat Virtualization (RHV).

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned PVs that mount to RHV storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the oVirt CSI Driver Operator and the oVirt CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • The oVirt CSI Driver Operator provides a default StorageClass object that you can use to create Persistent Volume Claims (PVCs).
  • The oVirt CSI driver enables you to create and mount oVirt PVs.

5.18.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

Note

The oVirt CSI driver does not support snapshots.

5.18.3. Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) CSI driver storage class

OpenShift Container Platform creates a default object of type StorageClass named ovirt-csi-sc which is used for creating dynamically provisioned persistent volumes.

To create additional storage classes for different configurations, create and save a file with the StorageClass object described by the following sample YAML:

ovirt-storageclass.yaml

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: <storage_class_name>  1
  annotations:
    storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "<boolean>"  2
provisioner: csi.ovirt.org
allowVolumeExpansion: <boolean> 3
reclaimPolicy: Delete 4
volumeBindingMode: Immediate 5
parameters:
  storageDomainName: <rhv-storage-domain-name> 6
  thinProvisioning: "<boolean>"  7
  csi.storage.k8s.io/fstype: <file_system_type> 8

1
Name of the storage class.
2
Set to false if the storage class is the default storage class in the cluster. If set to true, the existing default storage class must be edited and set to false.
3
true enables dynamic volume expansion, false prevents it. true is recommended.
4
Dynamically provisioned persistent volumes of this storage class are created with this reclaim policy. This default policy is Delete.
5
Indicates how to provision and bind PersistentVolumeClaims. When not set, VolumeBindingImmediate is used. This field is only applied by servers that enable the VolumeScheduling feature.
6
The RHV storage domain name to use.
7
If true, the disk is thin provisioned. If false, the disk is preallocated. Thin provisioning is recommended.
8
Optional: File system type to be created. Possible values: ext4 (default) or xfs.

5.18.4. Creating a persistent volume on RHV

When you create a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC) object, OpenShift Container Platform provisions a new persistent volume (PV) and creates a PersistentVolume object.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to a running OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • You provided the correct RHV credentials in ovirt-credentials secret.
  • You have installed the oVirt CSI driver.
  • You have defined at least one storage class.

Procedure

  • If you are using the web console to dynamically create a persistent volume on RHV:

    1. In the OpenShift Container Platform console, click StoragePersistent Volume Claims.
    2. In the persistent volume claims overview, click Create Persistent Volume Claim.
    3. Define the required options on the resulting page.
    4. Select the appropriate StorageClass object, which is ovirt-csi-sc by default.
    5. Enter a unique name for the storage claim.
    6. Select the access mode. Currently, RWO (ReadWriteOnce) is the only supported access mode.
    7. Define the size of the storage claim.
    8. Select the Volume Mode:

      Filesystem: Mounted into pods as a directory. This mode is the default.

      Block: Block device, without any file system on it

    9. Click Create to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object and generate a PersistentVolume object.
  • If you are using the command-line interface (CLI) to dynamically create a RHV CSI volume:

    1. Create and save a file with the PersistentVolumeClaim object described by the following sample YAML:

      pvc-ovirt.yaml

      apiVersion: v1
      kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      metadata:
        name: pvc-ovirt
      spec:
        storageClassName: ovirt-csi-sc 1
        accessModes:
          - ReadWriteOnce
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: <volume size>  2
        volumeMode: <volume mode> 3

      1
      Name of the required storage class.
      2
      Volume size in GiB.
      3
      Supported options:
      • Filesystem: Mounted into pods as a directory. This mode is the default.
      • Block: Block device, without any file system on it.
    2. Create the object you saved in the previous step by running the following command:

      $ oc create -f pvc-ovirt.yaml
    3. To verify that the volume was created and is ready, run the following command:

      $ oc get pvc pvc-ovirt

      The pvc-ovirt shows that it is Bound.

Note

If you need to update the Operator credentials, see the instructions in How to modify the RHV credentials in OCP 4.

5.19. VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator

5.19.1. Overview

OpenShift Container Platform can provision persistent volumes (PVs) using the Container Storage Interface (CSI) VMware vSphere driver for Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) volumes.

Familiarity with persistent storage and configuring CSI volumes is recommended when working with a CSI Operator and driver.

To create CSI-provisioned persistent volumes (PVs) that mount to vSphere storage assets, OpenShift Container Platform installs the vSphere CSI Driver Operator and the vSphere CSI driver by default in the openshift-cluster-csi-drivers namespace.

  • vSphere CSI Driver Operator: The Operator provides a storage class, called thin-csi, that you can use to create persistent volumes claims (PVCs). The vSphere CSI Driver Operator supports dynamic volume provisioning by allowing storage volumes to be created on-demand, eliminating the need for cluster administrators to pre-provision storage.
  • vSphere CSI driver: The driver enables you to create and mount vSphere PVs. In OpenShift Container Platform 4.12.21, and later, the driver version is 2.7.1. The version is 2.6.1 in OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 versions earlier than 4.12.21. The vSphere CSI driver supports all of the file systems supported by the underlying Red Hat Core OS release, including XFS and Ext4. For more information about supported file systems, see Overview of available file systems.
Important

OpenShift Container Platform defaults to using an in-tree (non-CSI) plugin to provision vSphere storage.

In future OpenShift Container Platform versions, volumes provisioned using existing in-tree plugins are planned for migration to their equivalent CSI driver. CSI automatic migration should be seamless. Migration does not change how you use all existing API objects, such as persistent volumes, persistent volume claims, and storage classes. For more information about migration, see CSI automatic migration.

After full migration, in-tree plugins will eventually be removed in future versions of OpenShift Container Platform.

5.19.2. About CSI

Storage vendors have traditionally provided storage drivers as part of Kubernetes. With the implementation of the Container Storage Interface (CSI), third-party providers can instead deliver storage plugins using a standard interface without ever having to change the core Kubernetes code.

CSI Operators give OpenShift Container Platform users storage options, such as volume snapshots, that are not possible with in-tree volume plugins.

5.19.3. vSphere CSI limitations

The following limitations apply to the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator:

  • The vSphere CSI Driver supports dynamic and static provisioning. However, when using static provisioning in the PV specifications, do not use the key storage.kubernetes.io/csiProvisionerIdentity in csi.volumeAttributes because this key indicates dynamically provisioned PVs.
  • Migrating persistent container volumes between datastores using the vSphere client interface is not supported with OpenShift Container Platform.

5.19.4. vSphere storage policy

The vSphere CSI Driver Operator storage class uses vSphere’s storage policy. OpenShift Container Platform automatically creates a storage policy that targets datastore configured in cloud configuration:

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: thin-csi
provisioner: csi.vsphere.vmware.com
parameters:
  StoragePolicyName: "$openshift-storage-policy-xxxx"
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
allowVolumeExpansion: false
reclaimPolicy: Delete

5.19.5. ReadWriteMany vSphere volume support

If the underlying vSphere environment supports the vSAN file service, then vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator installed by OpenShift Container Platform supports provisioning of ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes. If vSAN file service is not configured, then ReadWriteOnce (RWO) is the only access mode available. If you do not have vSAN file service configured, and you request RWX, the volume fails to get created and an error is logged.

For more information about configuring the vSAN file service in your environment, see vSAN File Service.

You can request RWX volumes by making the following persistent volume claim (PVC):

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: myclaim
spec:
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  accessModes:
     - ReadWriteMany
  storageClassName: thin-csi

Requesting a PVC of the RWX volume type should result in provisioning of persistent volumes (PVs) backed by the vSAN file service.

5.19.6. VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator requirements

To install the vSphere CSI Driver Operator, the following requirements must be met:

  • VMware vSphere version: 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later
  • vCenter version: 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later
  • Virtual machines of hardware version 15 or later
  • No third-party vSphere CSI driver already installed in the cluster

If a third-party vSphere CSI driver is present in the cluster, OpenShift Container Platform does not overwrite it. The presence of a third-party vSphere CSI driver prevents OpenShift Container Platform from updating to OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 or later.

Note

The VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator is supported only on clusters deployed with platform: vsphere in the installation manifest.

To remove a third-party CSI driver, see Removing a third-party vSphere CSI Driver.

5.19.7. Removing a third-party vSphere CSI Driver Operator

OpenShift Container Platform 4.10, and later, includes a built-in version of the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Operator Driver that is supported by Red Hat. If you have installed a vSphere CSI driver provided by the community or another vendor, updates to the next major version of OpenShift Container Platform, such as 4.13, or later, might be disabled for your cluster.

OpenShift Container Platform 4.12, and later, clusters are still fully supported, and updates to z-stream releases of 4.12, such as 4.12.z, are not blocked, but you must correct this state by removing the third-party vSphere CSI Driver before updates to next major version of OpenShift Container Platform can occur. Removing the third-party vSphere CSI driver does not require deletion of associated persistent volume (PV) objects, and no data loss should occur.

Note

These instructions may not be complete, so consult the vendor or community provider uninstall guide to ensure removal of the driver and components.

To uninstall the third-party vSphere CSI Driver:

  1. Delete the third-party vSphere CSI Driver (VMware vSphere Container Storage Plugin) Deployment and Daemonset objects.
  2. Delete the configmap and secret objects that were installed previously with the third-party vSphere CSI Driver.
  3. Delete the third-party vSphere CSI driver CSIDriver object:

    ~ $ oc delete CSIDriver csi.vsphere.vmware.com
    csidriver.storage.k8s.io "csi.vsphere.vmware.com" deleted

After you have removed the third-party vSphere CSI Driver from the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, installation of Red Hat’s vSphere CSI Driver Operator automatically resumes, and any conditions that could block upgrades to OpenShift Container Platform 4.11, or later, are automatically removed. If you had existing vSphere CSI PV objects, their lifecycle is now managed by Red Hat’s vSphere CSI Driver Operator.

5.19.8. Configuring vSphere CSI Topology

OpenShift Container Platform provides the ability to deploy OpenShift Container Platform for vSphere on different zones and regions, which allows you to deploy over multiple compute clusters, thus helping to avoid a single point of failure.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform on vSphere does not support multiple Datacenters.

This is accomplished by defining zone and region categories in vCenter, and then assigning these categories to different failure domains, such as a compute cluster, by creating tags for these zone and region categories. After you have created the appropriate categories, and assigned tags to vCenter objects, you can create additional machinesets that create virtual machines (VMs) that are responsible for scheduling pods in those failure domains.

Procedure

  1. In the VMware vCenter vSphere client GUI, define appropriate zone and region catagories and tags.

    While vSphere allows you to create categories with any arbitrary name, OpenShift Container Platform strongly recommends use of openshift-region and openshift-zone names for defining topology.

    The following example defines two failure domains with one region and two zones:

    Table 5.4. vSphere topology with one region and two zones
    Compute clusterFailure domainDescription

    Compute cluster: ocp1, Datacenter: Atlanta

    openshift-region: us-east-1 (tag), openshift-zone: us-east-1a (tag)

    This defines a failure domain in region us-east-1 with zone us-east-1a.

    Computer cluster: ocp2, Datacenter: Atlanta

    openshift-region: us-east-1 (tag), openshift-zone: us-east-1b (tag)

    This defines a different failure domain within the same region called us-east-1b.

    For more information about vSphere categories and tags, see the VMware vSphere documentation.

  2. To allow the container storage interface (CSI) driver to detect this topology, edit the clusterCSIDriver object YAML file driverConfig section:

    • Specify the openshift-zone and openshift-region categories that you created earlier.
    • Set driverType to vSphere.

      ~ $ oc edit clustercsidriver csi.vsphere.vmware.com -o yaml

      Example output

      apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
      kind: ClusterCSIDriver
      metadata:
       name: csi.vsphere.vmware.com
      spec:
       logLevel: Normal
       managementState: Managed
       observedConfig: null
       operatorLogLevel: Normal
       unsupportedConfigOverrides: null
       driverConfig:
        driverType: vSphere 1
          vSphere:
            topologyCategories: 2
            - openshift-zone
            - openshift-region

      1
      Ensure that driverType is set to vSphere.
      2
      openshift-zone and openshift-region categories created earlier in vCenter.
  3. Verify that CSINode object has topology keys by running the following commands:

    ~ $ oc get csinode

    Example output

    NAME                        DRIVERS     AGE
    co8-4s88d-infra-2m5vd       1           27m
    co8-4s88d-master-0          1           70m
    co8-4s88d-master-1          1           70m
    co8-4s88d-master-2          1           70m
    co8-4s88d-worker-j2hmg      1           47m
    co8-4s88d-worker-mbb46      1           47m
    co8-4s88d-worker-zlk7d      1           47m

    ~ $ oc get csinode co8-4s88d-worker-j2hmg -o yaml

    Example output

    ...
    spec:
        drivers:
        - allocatable:
            count: 59
        name: csi-vsphere.vmware.com
        nodeID: co8-4s88d-worker-j2hmg
        topologyKeys: 1
        - topology.csi.vmware.com/openshift-zone
        - topology.csi.vmware.com/openshift-region

    1
    Topology keys from vSphere openshift-zone and openshift-region catagories.
    Note

    CSINode objects might take some time to receive updated topology information. After the driver is updated, CSINode objects should have topology keys in them.

  4. Create a tag to assign to datastores across failure domains:

    When an OpenShift Container Platform spans more than one failure domain, the datastore might not be shared across those failure domains, which is where topology-aware provisioning of persistent volumes (PVs) is useful.

    1. In vCenter, create a category for tagging the datastores. For example, openshift-zonal-datastore-cat. You can use any other category name, provided the category uniquely is used for tagging datastores participating in OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Also, ensure that StoragePod, Datastore, and Folder are selected as Associable Entities for the created category.
    2. In vCenter, create a tag that uses the previously created category. This example uses the tag name openshift-zonal-datastore.
    3. Assign the previously created tag (in this example openshift-zonal-datastore) to each datastore in a failure domain that would be considered for dynamic provisioning.

      Note

      You can use any names you like for categories and tags. The names used in this example are provided as recommendations. Ensure that the tags and categories that you define uniquely identify only datastores that are shared with all hosts in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  5. Create a storage policy that targets the tag-based datastores in each failure domain:

    1. In vCenter, from the main menu, click Policies and Profiles.
    2. On the Policies and Profiles page, in the navigation pane, click VM Storage Policies.
    3. Click CREATE.
    4. Type a name for the storage policy.
    5. For the rules, choose Tag Placement rules and select the tag and category that targets the desired datastores (in this example, the openshift-zonal-datastore tag).

      The datastores are listed in the storage compatibility table.

  6. Create a new storage class that uses the new zoned storage policy:

    1. Click Storage > StorageClasses.
    2. On the StorageClasses page, click Create StorageClass.
    3. Type a name for the new storage class in Name.
    4. Under Provisioner, select csi.vsphere.vmware.com.
    5. Under Additional parameters, for the StoragePolicyName parameter, set Value to the name of the new zoned storage policy that you created earlier.
    6. Click Create.

      Example output

      kind: StorageClass
      apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
      metadata:
        name: zoned-sc 1
      provisioner: csi.vsphere.vmware.com
      parameters:
        StoragePolicyName: zoned-storage-policy 2
      reclaimPolicy: Delete
      allowVolumeExpansion: true
      volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer

      1
      New topology aware storage class name.
      2
      Specify zoned storage policy.
      Note

      You can also create the storage class by editing the preceding YAML file and running the command oc create -f $FILE.

Results

Creating persistent volume claims (PVCs) and PVs from the topology aware storage class are truly zonal, and should use the datastore in their respective zone depending on how pods are scheduled:

~ $ oc get pv <pv-name> -o yaml

Example output

...
nodeAffinity:
  required:
    nodeSelectorTerms:
    - matchExpressions:
      - key: topology.csi.vmware.com/openshift-zone 1
        operator: In
        values:
        - <openshift-zone>
      -key: topology.csi.vmware.com/openshift-region 2
        operator: In
        values:
        - <openshift-region>
...
peristentVolumeclaimPolicy: Delete
storageClassName: <zoned-storage-class-name> 3
volumeMode: Filesystem
...

1 2
PV has zoned keys.
3
PV is using the zoned storage class.

Additional resources

5.19.9. Additional resources

Chapter 6. Generic ephemeral volumes

6.1. Overview

Generic ephemeral volumes are a type of ephemeral volume that can be provided by all storage drivers that support persistent volumes and dynamic provisioning. Generic ephemeral volumes are similar to emptyDir volumes in that they provide a per-pod directory for scratch data, which is usually empty after provisioning.

Generic ephemeral volumes are specified inline in the pod spec and follow the pod’s lifecycle. They are created and deleted along with the pod.

Generic ephemeral volumes have the following features:

  • Storage can be local or network-attached.
  • Volumes can have a fixed size that pods are not able to exceed.
  • Volumes might have some initial data, depending on the driver and parameters.
  • Typical operations on volumes are supported, assuming that the driver supports them, including snapshotting, cloning, resizing, and storage capacity tracking.
Note

Generic ephemeral volumes do not support offline snapshots and resize.

Due to this limitation, the following Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers do not support the following features for generic ephemeral volumes:

  • Azure Disk CSI driver does not support resize.
  • Cinder CSI driver does not support snapshot.

6.2. Lifecycle and persistent volume claims

The parameters for a volume claim are allowed inside a volume source of a pod. Labels, annotations, and the whole set of fields for persistent volume claims (PVCs) are supported. When such a pod is created, the ephemeral volume controller then creates an actual PVC object (from the template shown in the Creating generic ephemeral volumes procedure) in the same namespace as the pod, and ensures that the PVC is deleted when the pod is deleted. This triggers volume binding and provisioning in one of two ways:

  • Either immediately, if the storage class uses immediate volume binding.

    With immediate binding, the scheduler is forced to select a node that has access to the volume after it is available.

  • When the pod is tentatively scheduled onto a node (WaitForFirstConsumervolume binding mode).

    This volume binding option is recommended for generic ephemeral volumes because then the scheduler can choose a suitable node for the pod.

In terms of resource ownership, a pod that has generic ephemeral storage is the owner of the PVCs that provide that ephemeral storage. When the pod is deleted, the Kubernetes garbage collector deletes the PVC, which then usually triggers deletion of the volume because the default reclaim policy of storage classes is to delete volumes. You can create quasi-ephemeral local storage by using a storage class with a reclaim policy of retain: the storage outlives the pod, and in this case, you must ensure that volume clean-up happens separately. While these PVCs exist, they can be used like any other PVC. In particular, they can be referenced as data source in volume cloning or snapshotting. The PVC object also holds the current status of the volume.

6.3. Security

You can enable the generic ephemeral volume feature to allows users who can create pods to also create persistent volume claims (PVCs) indirectly. This feature works even if these users do not have permission to create PVCs directly. Cluster administrators must be aware of this. If this does not fit your security model, use an admission webhook that rejects objects such as pods that have a generic ephemeral volume.

The normal namespace quota for PVCs still applies, so even if users are allowed to use this new mechanism, they cannot use it to circumvent other policies.

6.4. Persistent volume claim naming

Automatically created persistent volume claims (PVCs) are named by a combination of the pod name and the volume name, with a hyphen (-) in the middle. This naming convention also introduces a potential conflict between different pods, and between pods and manually created PVCs.

For example, pod-a with volume scratch and pod with volume a-scratch both end up with the same PVC name, pod-a-scratch.

Such conflicts are detected, and a PVC is only used for an ephemeral volume if it was created for the pod. This check is based on the ownership relationship. An existing PVC is not overwritten or modified, but this does not resolve the conflict. Without the right PVC, a pod cannot start.

Important

Be careful when naming pods and volumes inside the same namespace so that naming conflicts do not occur.

6.5. Creating generic ephemeral volumes

Procedure

  1. Create the pod object definition and save it to a file.
  2. Include the generic ephemeral volume information in the file.

    my-example-pod-with-generic-vols.yaml

    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: my-app
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: my-frontend
          image: busybox:1.28
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: "/mnt/storage"
            name: data
          command: [ "sleep", "1000000" ]
      volumes:
        - name: data 1
          ephemeral:
            volumeClaimTemplate:
              metadata:
                labels:
                  type: my-app-ephvol
              spec:
                accessModes: [ "ReadWriteOnce" ]
                storageClassName: "gp2-csi"
                resources:
                  requests:
                    storage: 1Gi

    1
    Generic ephemeral volume claim

Chapter 7. Expanding persistent volumes

7.1. Enabling volume expansion support

Before you can expand persistent volumes, the StorageClass object must have the allowVolumeExpansion field set to true.

Procedure

  • Edit the StorageClass object and add the allowVolumeExpansion attribute by running the following command:

    $ oc edit storageclass <storage_class_name> 1
    1
    Specifies the name of the storage class.

    The following example demonstrates adding this line at the bottom of the storage class configuration.

    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    kind: StorageClass
    ...
    parameters:
      type: gp2
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    allowVolumeExpansion: true 1
    1
    Setting this attribute to true allows PVCs to be expanded after creation.

7.2. Expanding CSI volumes

You can use the Container Storage Interface (CSI) to expand storage volumes after they have already been created.

CSI volume expansion does not support the following:

  • Recovering from failure when expanding volumes
  • Shrinking

Prerequisites

  • The underlying CSI driver supports resize.
  • Dynamic provisioning is used.
  • The controlling StorageClass object has allowVolumeExpansion set to true. For more information, see "Enabling volume expansion support."

Procedure

  1. For the persistent volume claim (PVC), set .spec.resources.requests.storage to the desired new size.
  2. Watch the status.conditions field of the PVC to see if the resize has completed. OpenShift Container Platform adds the Resizing condition to the PVC during expansion, which is removed after expansion completes.

7.3. Expanding FlexVolume with a supported driver

When using FlexVolume to connect to your back-end storage system, you can expand persistent storage volumes after they have already been created. This is done by manually updating the persistent volume claim (PVC) in OpenShift Container Platform.

FlexVolume allows expansion if the driver is set with RequiresFSResize to true. The FlexVolume can be expanded on pod restart.

Similar to other volume types, FlexVolume volumes can also be expanded when in use by a pod.

Prerequisites

  • The underlying volume driver supports resize.
  • The driver is set with the RequiresFSResize capability to true.
  • Dynamic provisioning is used.
  • The controlling StorageClass object has allowVolumeExpansion set to true.

Procedure

  • To use resizing in the FlexVolume plugin, you must implement the ExpandableVolumePlugin interface using these methods:

    RequiresFSResize
    If true, updates the capacity directly. If false, calls the ExpandFS method to finish the filesystem resize.
    ExpandFS
    If true, calls ExpandFS to resize filesystem after physical volume expansion is done. The volume driver can also perform physical volume resize together with filesystem resize.
Important

Because OpenShift Container Platform does not support installation of FlexVolume plugins on control plane nodes, it does not support control-plane expansion of FlexVolume.

7.4. Expanding local volumes

You can manually expand persistent volumes (PVs) and persistent volume claims (PVCs) created by using the local storage operator (LSO).

Procedure

  1. Expand the underlying devices. Ensure that appropriate capacity is available on these devices.
  2. Update the corresponding PV objects to match the new device sizes by editing the .spec.capacity field of the PV.
  3. For the storage class that is used for binding the PVC to PVet, set allowVolumeExpansion:true.
  4. For the PVC, set .spec.resources.requests.storage to match the new size.

Kubelet should automatically expand the underlying file system on the volume, if necessary, and update the status field of the PVC to reflect the new size.

7.5. Expanding persistent volume claims (PVCs) with a file system

Expanding PVCs based on volume types that need file system resizing, such as GCE, EBS, and Cinder, is a two-step process. First, expand the volume objects in the cloud provider. Second, expand the file system on the node.

Expanding the file system on the node only happens when a new pod is started with the volume.

Prerequisites

  • The controlling StorageClass object must have allowVolumeExpansion set to true.

Procedure

  1. Edit the PVC and request a new size by editing spec.resources.requests. For example, the following expands the ebs PVC to 8 Gi:

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: ebs
    spec:
      storageClass: "storageClassWithFlagSet"
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 8Gi 1
    1
    Updating spec.resources.requests to a larger amount expands the PVC.
  2. After the cloud provider object has finished resizing, the PVC is set to FileSystemResizePending. Check the condition by entering the following command:

    $ oc describe pvc <pvc_name>
  3. When the cloud provider object has finished resizing, the PersistentVolume object reflects the newly requested size in PersistentVolume.Spec.Capacity. At this point, you can create or recreate a new pod from the PVC to finish the file system resizing. Once the pod is running, the newly requested size is available and the FileSystemResizePending condition is removed from the PVC.

7.6. Recovering from failure when expanding volumes

If expanding underlying storage fails, the OpenShift Container Platform administrator can manually recover the persistent volume claim (PVC) state and cancel the resize requests. Otherwise, the resize requests are continuously retried by the controller.

Procedure

  1. Mark the persistent volume (PV) that is bound to the PVC with the Retain reclaim policy. This can be done by editing the PV and changing persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy to Retain.
  2. Delete the PVC.
  3. Manually edit the PV and delete the claimRef entry from the PV specs to ensure that the newly created PVC can bind to the PV marked Retain. This marks the PV as Available.
  4. Re-create the PVC in a smaller size, or a size that can be allocated by the underlying storage provider.
  5. Set the volumeName field of the PVC to the name of the PV. This binds the PVC to the provisioned PV only.
  6. Restore the reclaim policy on the PV.

Additional resources

Chapter 8. Dynamic provisioning

8.1. About dynamic provisioning

The StorageClass resource object describes and classifies storage that can be requested, as well as provides a means for passing parameters for dynamically provisioned storage on demand. StorageClass objects can also serve as a management mechanism for controlling different levels of storage and access to the storage. Cluster Administrators (cluster-admin) or Storage Administrators (storage-admin) define and create the StorageClass objects that users can request without needing any detailed knowledge about the underlying storage volume sources.

The OpenShift Container Platform persistent volume framework enables this functionality and allows administrators to provision a cluster with persistent storage. The framework also gives users a way to request those resources without having any knowledge of the underlying infrastructure.

Many storage types are available for use as persistent volumes in OpenShift Container Platform. While all of them can be statically provisioned by an administrator, some types of storage are created dynamically using the built-in provider and plugin APIs.

8.2. Available dynamic provisioning plugins

OpenShift Container Platform provides the following provisioner plugins, which have generic implementations for dynamic provisioning that use the cluster’s configured provider’s API to create new storage resources:

Storage typeProvisioner plugin nameNotes

Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) Cinder

kubernetes.io/cinder

 

RHOSP Manila Container Storage Interface (CSI)

manila.csi.openstack.org

Once installed, the OpenStack Manila CSI Driver Operator and ManilaDriver automatically create the required storage classes for all available Manila share types needed for dynamic provisioning.

AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)

kubernetes.io/aws-ebs

For dynamic provisioning when using multiple clusters in different zones, tag each node with Key=kubernetes.io/cluster/<cluster_name>,Value=<cluster_id> where <cluster_name> and <cluster_id> are unique per cluster.

Azure Disk

kubernetes.io/azure-disk

 

Azure File

kubernetes.io/azure-file

The persistent-volume-binder service account requires permissions to create and get secrets to store the Azure storage account and keys.

GCE Persistent Disk (gcePD)

kubernetes.io/gce-pd

In multi-zone configurations, it is advisable to run one OpenShift Container Platform cluster per GCE project to avoid PVs from being created in zones where no node in the current cluster exists.

VMware vSphere

kubernetes.io/vsphere-volume

 
Important

Any chosen provisioner plugin also requires configuration for the relevant cloud, host, or third-party provider as per the relevant documentation.

8.3. Defining a storage class

StorageClass objects are currently a globally scoped object and must be created by cluster-admin or storage-admin users.

Important

The Cluster Storage Operator might install a default storage class depending on the platform in use. This storage class is owned and controlled by the Operator. It cannot be deleted or modified beyond defining annotations and labels. If different behavior is desired, you must define a custom storage class.

The following sections describe the basic definition for a StorageClass object and specific examples for each of the supported plugin types.

8.3.1. Basic StorageClass object definition

The following resource shows the parameters and default values that you use to configure a storage class. This example uses the AWS ElasticBlockStore (EBS) object definition.

Sample StorageClass definition

kind: StorageClass 1
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1 2
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 3
  annotations: 4
    storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: 'true'
    ...
provisioner: kubernetes.io/aws-ebs 5
parameters: 6
  type: gp3
...

1
(required) The API object type.
2
(required) The current apiVersion.
3
(required) The name of the storage class.
4
(optional) Annotations for the storage class.
5
(required) The type of provisioner associated with this storage class.
6
(optional) The parameters required for the specific provisioner, this will change from plug-in to plug-in.

8.3.2. Storage class annotations

To set a storage class as the cluster-wide default, add the following annotation to your storage class metadata:

storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"

For example:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  annotations:
    storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"
...

This enables any persistent volume claim (PVC) that does not specify a specific storage class to automatically be provisioned through the default storage class. However, your cluster can have more than one storage class, but only one of them can be the default storage class.

Note

The beta annotation storageclass.beta.kubernetes.io/is-default-class is still working; however, it will be removed in a future release.

To set a storage class description, add the following annotation to your storage class metadata:

kubernetes.io/description: My Storage Class Description

For example:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/description: My Storage Class Description
...

8.3.3. RHOSP Cinder object definition

cinder-storageclass.yaml

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 1
provisioner: kubernetes.io/cinder
parameters:
  type: fast  2
  availability: nova 3
  fsType: ext4 4

1
Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
2
Volume type created in Cinder. Default is empty.
3
Availability Zone. If not specified, volumes are generally round-robined across all active zones where the OpenShift Container Platform cluster has a node.
4
File system that is created on dynamically provisioned volumes. This value is copied to the fsType field of dynamically provisioned persistent volumes and the file system is created when the volume is mounted for the first time. The default value is ext4.

8.3.4. RHOSP Manila Container Storage Interface (CSI) object definition

Once installed, the OpenStack Manila CSI Driver Operator and ManilaDriver automatically create the required storage classes for all available Manila share types needed for dynamic provisioning.

8.3.5. AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) object definition

aws-ebs-storageclass.yaml

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 1
provisioner: kubernetes.io/aws-ebs
parameters:
  type: io1 2
  iopsPerGB: "10" 3
  encrypted: "true" 4
  kmsKeyId: keyvalue 5
  fsType: ext4 6

1
(required) Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
2
(required) Select from io1, gp3, sc1, st1. The default is gp3. See the AWS documentation for valid Amazon Resource Name (ARN) values.
3
Optional: Only for io1 volumes. I/O operations per second per GiB. The AWS volume plugin multiplies this with the size of the requested volume to compute IOPS of the volume. The value cap is 20,000 IOPS, which is the maximum supported by AWS. See the AWS documentation for further details.
4
Optional: Denotes whether to encrypt the EBS volume. Valid values are true or false.
5
Optional: The full ARN of the key to use when encrypting the volume. If none is supplied, but encypted is set to true, then AWS generates a key. See the AWS documentation for a valid ARN value.
6
Optional: File system that is created on dynamically provisioned volumes. This value is copied to the fsType field of dynamically provisioned persistent volumes and the file system is created when the volume is mounted for the first time. The default value is ext4.

8.3.6. Azure Disk object definition

azure-advanced-disk-storageclass.yaml

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 1
provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-disk
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer 2
allowVolumeExpansion: true
parameters:
  kind: Managed 3
  storageaccounttype: Premium_LRS 4
reclaimPolicy: Delete

1
Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
2
Using WaitForFirstConsumer is strongly recommended. This provisions the volume while allowing enough storage to schedule the pod on a free worker node from an available zone.
3
Possible values are Shared (default), Managed, and Dedicated.
Important

Red Hat only supports the use of kind: Managed in the storage class.

With Shared and Dedicated, Azure creates unmanaged disks, while OpenShift Container Platform creates a managed disk for machine OS (root) disks. But because Azure Disk does not allow the use of both managed and unmanaged disks on a node, unmanaged disks created with Shared or Dedicated cannot be attached to OpenShift Container Platform nodes.

4
Azure storage account SKU tier. Default is empty. Note that Premium VMs can attach both Standard_LRS and Premium_LRS disks, Standard VMs can only attach Standard_LRS disks, Managed VMs can only attach managed disks, and unmanaged VMs can only attach unmanaged disks.
  1. If kind is set to Shared, Azure creates all unmanaged disks in a few shared storage accounts in the same resource group as the cluster.
  2. If kind is set to Managed, Azure creates new managed disks.
  3. If kind is set to Dedicated and a storageAccount is specified, Azure uses the specified storage account for the new unmanaged disk in the same resource group as the cluster. For this to work:

    • The specified storage account must be in the same region.
    • Azure Cloud Provider must have write access to the storage account.
  4. If kind is set to Dedicated and a storageAccount is not specified, Azure creates a new dedicated storage account for the new unmanaged disk in the same resource group as the cluster.

8.3.7. Azure File object definition

The Azure File storage class uses secrets to store the Azure storage account name and the storage account key that are required to create an Azure Files share. These permissions are created as part of the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Define a ClusterRole object that allows access to create and view secrets:

    apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
    kind: ClusterRole
    metadata:
    #  name: system:azure-cloud-provider
      name: <persistent-volume-binder-role> 1
    rules:
    - apiGroups: ['']
      resources: ['secrets']
      verbs:     ['get','create']
    1
    The name of the cluster role to view and create secrets.
  2. Add the cluster role to the service account:

    $ oc adm policy add-cluster-role-to-user <persistent-volume-binder-role> system:serviceaccount:kube-system:persistent-volume-binder
  3. Create the Azure File StorageClass object:

    kind: StorageClass
    apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
    metadata:
      name: <azure-file> 1
    provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-file
    parameters:
      location: eastus 2
      skuName: Standard_LRS 3
      storageAccount: <storage-account> 4
    reclaimPolicy: Delete
    volumeBindingMode: Immediate
    1
    Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
    2
    Location of the Azure storage account, such as eastus. Default is empty, meaning that a new Azure storage account will be created in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s location.
    3
    SKU tier of the Azure storage account, such as Standard_LRS. Default is empty, meaning that a new Azure storage account will be created with the Standard_LRS SKU.
    4
    Name of the Azure storage account. If a storage account is provided, then skuName and location are ignored. If no storage account is provided, then the storage class searches for any storage account that is associated with the resource group for any accounts that match the defined skuName and location.
8.3.7.1. Considerations when using Azure File

The following file system features are not supported by the default Azure File storage class:

  • Symlinks
  • Hard links
  • Extended attributes
  • Sparse files
  • Named pipes

Additionally, the owner user identifier (UID) of the Azure File mounted directory is different from the process UID of the container. The uid mount option can be specified in the StorageClass object to define a specific user identifier to use for the mounted directory.

The following StorageClass object demonstrates modifying the user and group identifier, along with enabling symlinks for the mounted directory.

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: azure-file
mountOptions:
  - uid=1500 1
  - gid=1500 2
  - mfsymlinks 3
provisioner: kubernetes.io/azure-file
parameters:
  location: eastus
  skuName: Standard_LRS
reclaimPolicy: Delete
volumeBindingMode: Immediate
1
Specifies the user identifier to use for the mounted directory.
2
Specifies the group identifier to use for the mounted directory.
3
Enables symlinks.

8.3.8. GCE PersistentDisk (gcePD) object definition

gce-pd-storageclass.yaml

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 1
provisioner: kubernetes.io/gce-pd
parameters:
  type: pd-standard 2
  replication-type: none
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
allowVolumeExpansion: true
reclaimPolicy: Delete

1
Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
2
Select either pd-standard or pd-ssd. The default is pd-standard.

8.3.9. VMware vSphere object definition

vsphere-storageclass.yaml

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: <storage-class-name> 1
provisioner: kubernetes.io/vsphere-volume 2
parameters:
  diskformat: thin 3

1
Name of the storage class. The persistent volume claim uses this storage class for provisioning the associated persistent volumes.
2
For more information about using VMware vSphere with OpenShift Container Platform, see the VMware vSphere documentation.
3
diskformat: thin, zeroedthick and eagerzeroedthick are all valid disk formats. See vSphere docs for additional details regarding the disk format types. The default value is thin.

8.4. Changing the default storage class

Use this procedure to change the default storage class. For example, you have two defined storage classes, gp3 and standard, and you want to change the default storage class from gp3 to standard.

Procedure

  1. List the storage classes:

    $ oc get storageclass

    Example output

    NAME                 TYPE
    gp3 (default)        kubernetes.io/aws-ebs 1
    standard             kubernetes.io/aws-ebs

    1
    (default) denotes the default storage class.
  2. Change the value of the storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class annotation to false for the default storage class:

    $ oc patch storageclass gp3 -p '{"metadata": {"annotations": {"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class": "false"}}}'
  3. Make another storage class the default by setting the storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class annotation to true:

    $ oc patch storageclass standard -p '{"metadata": {"annotations": {"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class": "true"}}}'
  4. Verify the changes:

    $ oc get storageclass

    Example output

    NAME                 TYPE
    gp3                  kubernetes.io/aws-ebs
    standard (default)   kubernetes.io/aws-ebs

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