Installation Guide

  1. Set up a Kubernetes cluster following the official documentation.
  2. Proceed to the Prerequisite.
  3. Complete the base installation.
  4. Proceed with module installation.

Install Helm 3

Install Helm 3 on the master node before you install CSI Driver for PowerMax.

Steps

Run the command to install Helm 3.

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/master/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash


Installation Wizard Support Matrix Click Here

The Container Storage Modules Installation Wizard is a webpage that helps you create a manifest file to install Dell CSI Drivers and CSM Modules. Users can enable or disable modules through the UI, and it generates a single manifest file, eliminating the need to download individual Helm charts for drivers and modules.

Note:Ensure Helm 3.x, namespace, and secrets are set up before installing the Helm chart.

Generate Manifest File

  1. Open the CSM Installation Wizard.
  2. Select the Installation Type as Helm/Operator.
  3. Select the Array.
  4. Enter the Image Repository. The default value is dellemc.
  5. Select the CSM Version.
  6. Select the modules for installation. If there are module specific inputs, enter their values.
  7. If needed, modify the Controller Pods Count.
  8. If needed, select Install Controller Pods on Control Plane and/or Install Node Pods on Control Plane.
  9. Enter the Namespace. The default value is csi-<array>.
  10. Click on Generate YAML.
  11. A manifest file, values.yaml will be generated and downloaded.
  12. A section Run the following commands to install will be displayed.
  13. Run the commands displayed to install Dell CSI Driver and Modules using the generated manifest file.

Installation Using Helm Chart

Steps

NOTE: Ensure Helm 3.x, namespace, and secrets are set up before installing the Helm chart.

  • Add the Dell Helm Charts repository.

    On your terminal, run each of the commands below:

     helm repo add dell https://dell.github.io/helm-charts
 helm repo update

  • Copy the downloaded values.yaml file.

  • Look over all the fields in the generated values.yaml and fill in/adjust any as needed.

NOTE: The CSM Installation Wizard generates values.yaml with the minimal inputs required to install the CSM. To configure additional parameters in values.yaml, you can follow the steps outlined in CSI Driver ,Observability, Replication, ,Resiliency.

  • If Observability is checked in the wizard, refer to Observability to export metrics to Prometheus and load the Grafana dashboards.
  • If Authorization is checked in the wizard, only the sidecar is enabled. Refer to Authorization to install and configure the CSM Authorization Proxy Server.
  • If Replication is checked in the wizard, refer to Replication on configuring communication between Kubernetes clusters.

  • If your Kubernetes distribution doesn’t have the Volume Snapshot feature enabled, refer to this section to install the Volume Snapshot CRDs and the default snapshot controller.

  • Install the Helm chart.

    On your terminal, run this command:

    helm install <release-name> dell/container-storage-modules -n <namespace> --version <container-storage-module chart-version> -f <values.yaml location>

    Example: helm install powermax dell/container-storage-modules -n csi-powermax –version 1.7.1 -f values.yaml


Volume Snapshot Requirements (Optional)

For detailed snapshot setup procedure, click here.

Install Driver

Steps

  1. Clone the csi-powermax repository, using the latest release branch. This will include the Helm charts and dell-csi-helm-installer scripts.

    git clone -b v2.14.1 https://github.com/dell/csi-powermax.git
cd ./csi-powermax

  2. Create a namespace in which the driver will be installed.

    kubectl create namespace powermax

  3. Create a file called secret.yaml or pick a sample that has Powermax array connection details:

    storageArrays:
  - storageArrayId: "000000000001"
    primaryEndpoint: https://primary-1.unisphe.re:8443
    backupEndpoint: https://backup-1.unisphe.re:8443
managementServers:
  - endpoint: https://primary-1.unisphe.re:8443
    username: admin
    password: password
    skipCertificateValidation: true
    limits:
      maxActiveRead: 10
      maxActiveWrite: 10
      maxOutstandingRead: 10
      maxOutstandingWrite: 10
  - endpoint: https://backup-1.unisphe.re:8443
    username: admin2
    password: password2
    skipCertificateValidation: false
    certSecret: my-unishpere-cert-secret

  4. Create the powermax-creds Secret.

    kubectl create secret generic powermax-creds --namespace powermax --from-file=config=secret.yaml

  5. Download the default values.yaml file.

    cd dell-csi-helm-installer
wget -O my-powermax-settings.yaml https://github.com/dell/helm-charts/raw/csi-powermax-2.14.1/charts/csi-powermax/values.yaml

  6. Edit the newly created file and provide values for the following parameters.

    vi my-powermax-settings.yaml
    Parameters

  1. Confirm the value of global.useSecret is set to true.

  2. Using the TLS certificate and key created in the CSI PowerMax Reverse Proxy prerequisite step, base64 encode the contents of each file and provide the contents to csireverseproxy.certManager.certificateFile and csireverseproxy.certManager.privateKeyFile.

    To encode the certificate and key:

    cat tls.crt | base64 -w 0
cat tls.key | base64 -w 0

    Example:

    csireverseproxy:
  tlsSecret: csirevproxy-tls-secret
  deployAsSidecar: false
  port: 2222
  certManager:
    selfSignedCert: false
    certificateFile: LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZJQ0FURS0tLS0tCmp1c3QgYW4gZXhhbXBsZSBjZXJ0aWZpY2F0ZQotLS0tLUVORCBDRVJUSUZJQ0FURS0tLS0tCg==
    privateKeyFile: LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBSU0EgUFJJVkFURSBLRVktLS0tLQpqdXN0IGFuIGV4YW1wbGUgdGxzIGtleQotLS0tLUVORCBSU0EgUFJJVkFURSBLRVktLS0tLQo=

  3. Install cert-manager to manage CA certificate validation and renewal.

    kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.11.0/cert-manager.yaml

  4. Install the driver using csi-install.sh bash script in the dell-csi-helm-installer directory by running

    ./csi-install.sh --namespace powermax --values ./my-powermax-settings.yaml --helm-charts-version <version>

    Alternatively, you can also install the driver using the standalone helm chart.

    helm install powermax ./csi-powermax --namespace powermax --values my-powermax-settings.yaml

Notes:

  • The parameter --helm-charts-version is optional and if you do not specify the flag, by default the csi-install.sh script will clone the version of the helm chart that is specified in the driver’s csi-install.sh file. If you wish to install the driver using a different version of the helm chart, you need to include this flag. Also, remember to delete the helm-charts repository present in the csi-powermax directory if it was cloned before.
  • For detailed instructions on how to run the install scripts, see the README document in the dell-csi-helm-installer folder.
  • There are a set of samples provided here to help you configure the driver with reverse proxy
  • This script also runs the verify.sh script in the same directory. You will be prompted to enter the credentials for each of the Kubernetes nodes. The verify.sh script needs the credentials to check if the iSCSI initiators have been configured on all nodes. You can also skip the verification step by specifying the --skip-verify-node option
  • In order to enable CSM Authorization, there should be an authorization proxy server already installed.
  • PowerMax Array username must have role as StorageAdmin to be able to perform CRUD operations.
  • If the user is using complex K8s version like “v1.24.3-mirantis-1”, use this kubeVersion check in helm Chart file. kubeVersion: “>= 1.24.0-0 < 1.29.0-0”.
  • User should provide all boolean values with double-quotes. This applies only for my-powermax-settings.yaml. Example: “true”/“false”.
  • The controllerCount parameter value should be <= number of nodes in the kubernetes cluster, otherwise the install script will fail.
  • Endpoints should not have any special characters at the end (e.g. trailing forward slash) apart from port number.

Storage Classes

A wide set of annotated storage class manifests has been provided in the samples/storageclass folder. Please use these samples to create new storage classes to provision storage.

Volume Snapshot Class

Starting with CSI PowerMax v1.7.0, dell-csi-helm-installer will not create any Volume Snapshot Class during the driver installation. There is a sample Volume Snapshot Class manifest present in the samples/volumesnapshotclass folder. Please use this sample to create a new Volume Snapshot Class to create Volume Snapshots.


Authorization v1.x
Authorization v1.x
Authorization v2.0
Authorization v2.0
Observability
Observability
Replication
Replication
Resiliency
Resiliency