Chapter 2. New features
This section describes new features introduced in Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage 4.7.
IBM Power Systems general availability support
OpenShift Container Storage can now be installed and managed using IBM Power Systems. For more information see, Deploying OpenShift Container Storage using IBM Power Systems Guide.
Upgrading OpenShift Container Storage 4.6 to OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 on IBM Power Systems is not supported. IBM Power Systems on OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 must be a greenfield installation.
Unsupported features for IBM Power Systems are identified at Unsupported Features
IBM Z and LinuxONE general availability support
OpenShift Container Storage can now be installed and managed using IBM Z and LinuxONE. For more information see, Deploying OpenShift Container Storage using IBM Z and LinuxONE.
Upgrading OpenShift Container Storage 4.6 to OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 on IBM Z and LinuxONE is not supported. IBM Z and LinuxONE on OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 must be a greenfield installation.
Unsupported features for IBM Z and LinuxONE are identified at Unsupported Features
VMware vSphere 7 general availability support
OpenShift Container Storage can now be installed and managed using VMware vSphere 7. It supports internal clusters and consuming external clusters. Recommended versions are vSphere 6.7 Update 2 or vSphere 7. For more information, see VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements.
VMware vSphere installer-provisioned infrastructure general availability support
OpenShift Container Storage can now be installed and managed using VMware vSphere on both installer-provisioned infrastructure and user-provisioned infrastructure. For more information see, Deploying OpenShift Container Storage on VMware vSphere .
Red Hat Virtualization general availability support
OpenShift Container Storage can now be installed using Red Hat Virtualization. For more information see, Deploying and managing OpenShift Container Storage using Red Hat Virtualization guide.
Encrypted storage data
Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage supports cluster-wide encryption (encryption-at-rest) for all the disks in the storage cluster. It is also used for the Multicloud Object Gateway data encryption. You can use an external Key Management System (KMS) to store the encryption keys in Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage 4.7.
Cluster-wide encryption is supported in OpenShift Container Storage 4.6 without KMS, while it is supported in OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 with and without KMS.
Currently, HashiCorp Vault is the only supported KMS. With OpenShift Container Storage 4.7.0 and 4.7.1, only HashiCorp Vault Key/Value (KV) secret engine API, version 1 is supported. Starting with OpenShift Container Storage 4.7.2, HashiCorp Vault KV secret engine API, versions 1 and 2 are supported.
Red Hat works with the technology partners to provide this documentation as a service to the customers. However, Red Hat does not provide support for the Hashicorp product. For technical assistance with this product, contact HashiCorp.
For more information, see Data encryption options and follow the OpenShift Container Storage documentation for deploying on your cloud or on-premise environment.
Flexible scaling of OpenShift Container Storage cluster
With flexible scaling enabled, you can add capacity by 1 or more OSDs at a time using the YAML instead of the default set of 3 OSDs. However, you need to make sure that you add disks in a way that the cluster remains balanced.
Flexible scaling is supported only for the internal-attached mode of storage cluster creation. Flexible scaling of storage clusters is available only for the new deployments of Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 and not for the upgraded clusters.
To enable flexible scaling, create a cluster with minimum 3 nodes, and fewer than 3 availability zones. The OpenShift Web Console detects the 3 or more nodes spread across fewer than 3 availability zones and enables flexible scaling.
For more information, see Scaling Guide.
Updating backing stores configuration for object bucket class
With OpenShift Container Storage 4.7, you can update the configuration of the object backing stores for a bucket class using the OpenShift Web Console.
For more information, see Managing hybrid and multicloud resources Guide.
Adding namespace buckets using the Multicloud Object Gateway CLI and YAML
The Red Hat OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 documentation now includes instructions for adding namespace buckets using the Multicloud Object Gateway command-line interface and YAML. For more information, see Managing hybrid and multicloud resources Guide.
Guided tours
Self help guided tours are now available for OpenShift Container Storage 4.7 on the OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 web console.
The tours are a new capability to provide layered guidance in the console. The guided tours are available as Quick Starts in the Overview section on the top right corner of the console.
The Quick Starts helps customers to discover and enable OpenShift Container Storage, educates users on how to maximize OpenShift Container Storage features, and reduces the onboarding time of a new user.
The Quick Starts cover various topics as:
- Install OpenShift Container Storage Operator.
- Getting Started with OpenShift Container storage.
- OpenShift Container Storage Configuration & Management.
