CSI Drivers

The CSI Drivers by Dell implement an interface between CSI (CSI spec v1.6) enabled Container Orchestrator (CO) and Dell Storage Arrays. It is a plug-in that is installed into Kubernetes to provide persistent storage using the Dell storage system.

CSI Architecture

Features and capabilities

Supported Container Orchestrator Platforms

PowerMax PowerFlex Unity XT PowerScale PowerStore
Kubernetes 1.26, 1.27, 1.28 1.26, 1.27, 1.28 1.26, 1.27, 1.28 1.26, 1.27, 1.28 1.26, 1.27, 1.28
Red Hat OpenShift 4.13, 4.14 4.13, 4.14 4.13, 4.14 4.13, 4.14 4.13, 4.14
Mirantis Kubernetes Engine 3.6.x 3.6.x 3.6.x 3.5.x, 3.6.x 3.6.x
Google Anthos 1.15 1.15 no 1.15 1.15
VMware Tanzu no no NFS NFS NFS,iSCSI
Rancher Kubernetes Engine 1.4.x 1.4.x 1.4.x 1.4.x 1.4.x
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
Anywhere
yes yes yes yes yes
OS dependencies iscsi-initiator-utils
multipathd or powerpath
nvme-cli
nfs-utils
SDC iscsi-initiator-utils
multipathd
nfs-utils
nfs-utils iscsi-initiator-utils
multipathd
nvme-cli
nfs-utils

Notes:

  • The required OS dependencies are only for the protocol needed (e.g. if NVMe isn’t the storage access protocol then nvme-cli is not required).
  • The host operating system/version being used must align with what each Dell Storage platform supports. Please visit E-Lab Navigator for specific Dell Storage platform host operating system level support matrices.

CSI Driver Capabilities

Features PowerMax PowerFlex Unity XT PowerScale PowerStore
CSI Driver version 2.9.1 2.9.2 2.9.1 2.9.1 2.9.1
Static Provisioning yes yes yes yes yes
Dynamic Provisioning yes yes yes yes yes
Expand Persistent Volume yes yes yes yes yes
Create VolumeSnapshot yes for LUN
no for NFS
yes yes yes yes
Create Volume from Snapshot yes for LUN
no for NFS
yes yes yes yes
Delete Snapshot yes for LUN
no for NFS
yes yes yes yes
Access Mode for volumeMode: Filesystem RWO, RWOP

ROX, RWX with NFS ONLY
RWO, ROX, RWOP

RWX with NFS ONLY
RWO, ROX, RWOP

RWX with NFS ONLY
RWO, RWX, ROX, RWOP RWO, RWOP

ROX, RWX with NFS ONLY
Access Mode for volumeMode: Block RWO, RWX, ROX, RWOP RWO, RWX, ROX, RWOP RWO, RWX, ROX, RWOP Not Supported RWO, RWX, ROX, RWOP
CSI Volume Cloning yes for LUN
no for NFS
yes yes yes yes
CSI Raw Block Volume yes yes yes no yes
CSI Ephemeral Volume no yes yes yes yes
Topology yes yes yes yes yes
Multi-array yes yes yes yes yes
Volume Health Monitoring yes yes yes yes yes
Storage Capacity Tracking yes yes yes yes yes
Volume Limit yes yes yes yes yes

Supported Storage Platforms

PowerMax PowerFlex Unity XT PowerScale PowerStore
Storage Array PowerMax 2500/8500 PowerMaxOS 10 (6079) , PowerMaxOS 10.0.1 (6079) , PowerMaxOS 10.1 (6079)
PowerMax 2000/8000 - 5978.711.xxx, 5978.479.xxx
Unisphere 10.0,10.0.1,10.1
3.6.x, 4.0.x, 4.5.x 5.1.x, 5.2.x, 5.3.0 OneFS 9.3, 9.4, 9.5.0.x (x >= 5) 3.0, 3.2, 3.5

Backend Storage Details

Features PowerMax PowerFlex Unity XT PowerScale PowerStore
Fibre Channel yes N/A yes N/A yes
iSCSI yes N/A yes N/A yes
NVMeTCP N/A N/A N/A N/A yes
NVMeFC N/A N/A N/A N/A yes
NFS yes - SDNAS only (not eNAS) yes yes yes yes
Other N/A ScaleIO protocol N/A N/A N/A
Supported FS ext4 / xfs / NFS ext4 / xfs / NFS ext4 / xfs / NFS NFS ext3 / ext4 / xfs / NFS
Thin / Thick provisioning Thin Thin Thin/Thick N/A Thin
Platform-specific configurable settings Service Level selection
iSCSI CHAP
- Host IO Limit
Tiering Policy
NFS Host IO size
Snapshot Retention duration
Access Zone
NFS version (3 or 4);Configurable Export IPs
iSCSI CHAP
Auto RDM(vSphere) Yes(over FC) N/A N/A N/A N/A

Community Qualified Platforms

cert-csi results OS CO Storage Platform Protocol CSM
Ticket 1079 Debian 10 K3s v1.24.7+k3s1 Unity VSA 5.3.1.0.5.008 iSCSI CSI v1.8.0

Installation

Methods to install CSI Drivers

Uninstallation

Methods to uninstall Dell CSI Driver

Upgrade

Upgrade Dell CSI Drivers

Features

Description of CSI Driver features

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting for CSI Drivers

Release Notes

Release Notes for all the CSI Drivers and deployment