Deployment
Installation for Dell EMC Container Storage Module (CSM) for Replication
Container Storage Modules (CSM) for Replication is part of the open-source suite of Kubernetes storage enablers for Dell EMC products.
CSM for Replication project aims to bring Replication & Disaster Recovery capabilities of Dell EMC Storage Arrays to Kubernetes clusters. It helps you replicate groups of volumes using the native replication technology available on the storage array and can provide you a way to restart applications in case of both planned and unplanned migration.
CSM for Replication provides the following capabilities:
Capability | PowerScale | Unity | PowerStore | PowerFlex | PowerMax |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Replicate data using native storage array based replication | no | no | yes | no | yes |
Create PersistentVolume objects in the cluster representing the replicated volume |
no | no | yes | no | yes |
Create DellCSIReplicationGroup objects in the cluster |
no | no | yes | no | yes |
Failover & Reprotect applications using the replicated volumes | no | no | yes | no | yes |
Provides a command line utility - repctl for configuring & managing replication related resources across multiple clusters | no | no | yes | no | yes |
COP/OS | PowerMax | PowerStore |
---|---|---|
Kubernetes | 1.20, 1.21, 1.22 | 1.20, 1.21, 1.22 |
Red Hat OpenShift | X | 4.8, 4.9 |
RHEL | 7.x, 8.x | 7.x, 8.x |
CentOS | 7.8, 7.9 | 7.8, 7.9 |
Ubuntu | 20.04 | 20.04 |
SLES | 15SP2 | 15SP2 |
PowerMax | PowerStore | |
---|---|---|
Storage Array | 5978.479.479, 5978.669.669, 5978.711.711, Unisphere 9.2 | 1.0.x, 2.0.x |
CSM for Replication supports the following CSI drivers and versions.
Storage Array | CSI Driver | Supported Versions |
---|---|---|
CSI Driver for Dell EMC PowerMax | csi-powermax | v2.0, v2.1 |
CSI Driver for Dell EMC PowerStore | csi-powerstore | v2.0, v2.1 |
As on the storage arrays, all replication related Kubernetes entities are required/created in pairs -
You can also use a single stretched Kubernetes cluster for protecting your applications. Even in this topology, rest of the objects still exist in pairs.
PersistentVolumeClaim
objects within/across clustersCSM for Replication provides the following capabilities:
Capability | PowerMax | PowerStore | PowerScale | PowerFlex | Unity |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Asynchronous replication of PVs accross K8s clusters | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Synchronous replication of PVs accross K8s clusters | yes | no | no | no | no |
Single cluster (stretched) mode replication | yes | yes | no | no | no |
Replication actions (failover, reprotect) | yes | yes | no | no | no |
The following matrix provides a list of all supported versions for each Dell EMC Storage product.
Platforms | PowerMax | PowerStore |
---|---|---|
Kubernetes | 1.20, 1.21, 1.22 | 1.20, 1.21, 1.22 |
CSI Driver | 2.x | 2.x |
For compatibility with storage arrays please refer to corresponding CSI drivers
PersistentVolumeClaim
using the replication enabled storage classAt a high level, the following happens when you create a PersistentVolumeClaim
object using a replication enabled storage class -
DellCSIReplicationGroup
object is created in the cluster representing the protection group on the storage arrayPersistentVolume
& DellCSIReplicationGroup
is createdYou can refer this page for more details about the architecture.
Once the DellCSIReplicationGroup
& PersistentVolume
objects have been replicated across clusters (or within the same cluster), you
can exercise the general Disaster Recovery workflows -
Installation for Dell EMC Container Storage Module (CSM) for Replication
High level architecture for CSM for Replication
Supported Cluster Topologies with CSM Replication
Disaster Recovery Workflows
High Availability support for CSI PowerMax
DellCSIReplicationGroup Monitoring
DellCSIReplicationGroup Actions
repctl tool for Replication feature in detail
Troubleshooting guide
Upgrade guide
Dell EMC Container Storage Modules (CSM) for Replication Uninstallation