CSM Operator

The Dell CSM Operator is a Kubernetes Operator, which can be used to install and manage the CSI Drivers and CSM Modules provided by Dell for various storage platforms. This operator is available as a community operator for upstream Kubernetes and can be deployed using OperatorHub.io. The operator can be installed using OLM (Operator Lifecycle Manager) or manually.

Supported Platforms

Dell CSM Operator has been tested and qualified on Upstream Kubernetes and OpenShift. Supported versions are listed below.

Supported CSI Drivers

Supported CSM Modules

Installation

Dell CSM Operator can be installed manually or via Operator Hub.

Manual Installation

Operator Installation on a cluster without OLM

1. Clone the Dell CSM Operator repository.
2. cd csm-operator
3. (Optional) If using a local Docker image, edit the deploy/operator.yaml file and set the image name for the CSM Operator Deployment.
4. Run bash scripts/install.sh to install the operator.

NOTE: Dell CSM Operator will be installed in the dell-csm-operator namespace.

5. Run the command kubectl get pods -n dell-csm-operator to validate the installation. If installed successfully, you should be able to see the operator pod in the dell-csm-operator namespace.

Operator Installation on a cluster with OLM

1. Clone the Dell CSM Operator repository.
2. cd csm-operator
3. Run bash scripts/install_olm.sh to install the operator.

NOTE: Dell CSM Operator will get installed in the test-csm-operator-olm namespace.

4. Once installation completes, run the command kubectl get pods -n test-csm-operator-olm to validate the installation. If installed successfully, you should be able to see the operator pods and CSV in the test-csm-operator-olm namespace. The CSV phase will be in Succeeded state.

NOTE: The recommended version of OLM for upstream Kubernetes is v0.18.2.

Installation via Operator Hub

dell-csm-operator can be installed via Operator Hub on upstream Kubernetes clusters & Red Hat OpenShift Clusters.

The installation process involves the creation of a Subscription object either via the OperatorHub UI or using kubectl/oc. While creating the Subscription you can set the Approval strategy for the InstallPlan for the operator to:

• Automatic - If you want the operator to be automatically installed or upgraded (once an upgrade is available).
• Manual - If you want a cluster administrator to manually review and approve the InstallPlan for installation/upgrades.

Uninstall

Operator uninstallation on a cluster without OLM

To uninstall a CSM operator, run bash scripts/uninstall.sh. This will uninstall the operator in dell-csm-operator namespace.

Operator uninstallation on a cluster with OLM

To uninstall a CSM operator installed with OLM run bash scripts/uninstall_olm.sh. This will uninstall the operator in test-csm-operator-olm namespace.

To upgrade Dell CSM Operator, perform the following steps.

Dell CSM Operator can be upgraded in 2 ways:

1.Using script (for non-OLM based installation)

2.Using Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM)

Using Installation Script

1. Clone the Dell CSM Operator repository.
2. cd csm-operator
3. git checkout -b ‘csm-operator-version’
4. Execute bash scripts/install.sh --upgrade . This command will install the latest version of the operator.

Note: Dell CSM Operator would install to the ‘dell-csm-operator’ namespace by default.

Using OLM

The upgrade of the Dell CSM Operator is done via Operator Lifecycle Manager.

The Update approval (InstallPlan in OLM terms) strategy plays a role while upgrading dell-csm-operator on OpenShift. This option can be set during installation of dell-csm-operator on OpenShift via the console and can be either set to Manual or Automatic.

• If the Update approval is set to Automatic, OpenShift automatically detects whenever the latest version of dell-csm-operator is available in the Operator hub, and upgrades it to the latest available version.
• If the upgrade policy is set to Manual, OpenShift notifies of an available upgrade. This notification can be viewed by the user in the Installed Operators section of the OpenShift console. Clicking on the hyperlink to Approve the installation would trigger the dell-csm-operator upgrade process.

NOTE: The recommended version of OLM for Upstream Kubernetes is v0.18.3.

Custom Resource Definitions

As part of the Dell CSM Operator installation, a CRD representing configuration for the CSI Driver and CSM Modules is also installed.
containerstoragemodule CRD is installed in API Group storage.dell.com.

Drivers and modules can be installed by creating a customResource.

Custom Resource Specification

Each CSI Driver and CSM Module installation is represented by a Custom Resource.

The specification for the Custom Resource is the same for all the drivers.Below is a list of all the mandatory and optional fields in the Custom Resource specification

Mandatory fields

configVersion - Configuration version - refer here for appropriate config version.

replicas - Number of replicas for controller plugin - must be set to 1 for all drivers.

dnsPolicy - Determines the dnsPolicy for the node daemonset. Accepted values are Default, ClusterFirst, ClusterFirstWithHostNet, None.

common - This field is mandatory and is used to specify common properties for both controller and the node plugin.

• image - driver container image
• imagePullPolicy - Image Pull Policy of the driver image
• envs - List of environment variables and their values

Optional fields

controller - List of environment variables and values which are applicable only for controller.

node - List of environment variables and values which are applicable only for node.

sideCars - Specification for CSI sidecar containers.

authSecret - Name of the secret holding credentials for use by the driver. If not specified, the default secret *-creds must exist in the same namespace as driver.

tlsCertSecret - Name of the TLS cert secret for use by the driver. If not specified, a secret *-certs must exist in the namespace as driver.

tolerations - List of tolerations which should be applied to the driver StatefulSet/Deployment and DaemonSet. It should be set separately in the controller and node sections if you want separate set of tolerations for them.

nodeSelector - Used to specify node selectors for the driver StatefulSet/Deployment and DaemonSet.

Note: The image field should point to the correct image tag for version of the driver you are installing.