PowerMax

Installing Dell CSI Driver for PowerMax via Dell CSM Operator

The CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax can be installed via the Dell CSM Operator. To deploy the Operator, follow the instructions available here.

Note that the deployment of the driver using the operator does not use any Helm charts and the installation and configuration parameters will be slightly different from the one specified via the Helm installer.

Prerequisites

The CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax can create PVC with different storage protocols access :

direct Fiber Channel
direct iSCSI
NFS
Fiber Channel via VMware Raw Device Mapping In most cases, you will use one protocol only; therefore you should comply with the according prerequisites and not the others.
If enabling CSM Replication, both source and target storage systems must be locally managed by Unisphere.
- Example: When using two Unisphere instances, the first Unisphere instance should be configured with the source storage system as locally managed and target storage system as remotely managed. The second Unisphere configuration should mirror the first — locally managing the target storage system and remotely managing the source storage system.

Listing installed drivers with the ContainerStorageModule CRD

User can query for all Dell CSI drivers using this command:

kubectl get csm --all-namespaces

Fibre Channel Requirements

CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports Fibre Channel communication. Ensure that the following requirements are met before you install CSI Driver:

Zoning of the Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) to the Fibre Channel port director must be completed.
Ensure that the HBA WWNs (initiators) appear on the list of initiators that are logged into the array.
If the number of volumes that will be published to nodes is high, then configure the maximum number of LUNs for your HBAs on each node. See the appropriate HBA document to configure the maximum number of LUNs.

iSCSI Requirements

The CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports iSCSI connectivity. These requirements are applicable for the nodes that use iSCSI initiator to connect to the PowerMax arrays.

Set up the iSCSI initiators as follows:

All Kubernetes nodes must have the iscsi-initiator-utils package installed.
Ensure that the iSCSI initiators are available on all the nodes where the driver node plugin will be installed.
Kubernetes nodes should have access (network connectivity) to an iSCSI director on the Dell PowerMax array that has IP interfaces. Manually create IP routes for each node that connects to the Dell PowerMax if required.
Ensure that the iSCSI initiators on the nodes are not a part of any existing Host (Initiator Group) on the Dell PowerMax array.
The CSI Driver needs the port group names containing the required iSCSI director ports. These port groups must be set up on each Dell PowerMax array. All the port group names supplied to the driver must exist on each Dell PowerMax with the same name.

For more information about configuring iSCSI, see Dell Host Connectivity guide.

iscsi-daemon `MachineConfig`

To configure iSCSI in Red Hat OpenShift clusters, you can create a MachineConfig object using the console or oc to ensure that the iSCSI daemon starts on all the Red Hat CoreOS nodes. Here is an example of a MachineConfig object:

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  name: 99-iscsid
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    systemd:
      units:
      - name: "iscsid.service"
        enabled: true

Once the MachineConfig object has been deployed, CoreOS will ensure that iscsid.service starts automatically.

Alternatively, you can check the status of the iSCSI service by entering the following command on each worker node in the cluster:

sudo systemctl status iscsid

The service should be up and running (i.e. should be active state).

If the iscsid.service is not running, then perform the following steps on each worker node in the cluster

Login to worker nodes and check if the file /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi has been created properly
If the file doesn’t exist or it doesn’t contain a valid ISCSI IQN, then make sure it exists with valid entries
Ensure that iscsid service is running - Enable sudo systemctl enable iscsid & restart sudo systemctl restart iscsid iscsid if necessary. Note: If your worker nodes are running Red Hat CoreOS, make sure that automatic ISCSI login at boot is configured. Please contact RedHat for more details.

NFS requirements

CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports NFS communication. Ensure that the following requirements are met before you install CSI Driver:

Configure the NFS network. Please refer here for more details.
PowerMax Embedded Management guest to access Unisphere for PowerMax.
Create the NAS server. Please refer here for more details.

Linux multipathing requirements

CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports Linux multipathing. Configure Linux multipathing before installing the CSI Driver.

Set up Linux multipathing as follows:

All the nodes must have the Device Mapper Multipathing package installed. NOTE: When this package is installed it creates a multipath configuration file which is located at /etc/multipath.conf. Please ensure that this file always exists.
Enable multipathing using mpathconf --enable --with_multipathd y
Enable user_friendly_names and find_multipaths in the multipath.conf file.

As a best practice, use these options to help the operating system and the mulitpathing software detect path changes efficiently:

path_grouping_policy multibus
path_checker tur
features "1 queue_if_no_path"
path_selector "round-robin 0"
no_path_retry 10

multipathd `MachineConfig`

If you are installing a CSI Driver which requires the installation of the Linux native Multipath software - multipathd, please follow the below instructions

To enable multipathd on RedHat CoreOS nodes you need to prepare a working configuration encoded in base64.

user_friendly_names yes
find_multipaths yes
}
blacklist {
}' | base64 -w0

Use the base64 encoded string output in the following MachineConfig yaml file (under source section)

apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
kind: MachineConfig
metadata:
  name: workers-multipath-conf-default
  labels:
    machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
spec:
  config:
    ignition:
      version: 3.2.0
    storage:
      files:
      - contents:
          source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,ZGVmYXVsdHMgewp1c2VyX2ZyaWVuZGx5X25hbWVzIHllcwpmaW5kX211bHRpcGF0aHMgeWVzCn0KCmJsYWNrbGlzdCB7Cn0K
          verification: {}
        filesystem: root
        mode: 400
        path: /etc/multipath.conf

After deploying thisMachineConfig object, CoreOS will start multipath service automatically. Alternatively, you can check the status of the multipath service by entering the following command in each worker nodes. sudo multipath -ll

If the above command is not successful, ensure that the /etc/multipath.conf file is present and configured properly. Once the file has been configured correctly, enable the multipath service by running the following command: sudo /sbin/mpathconf –-enable --with_multipathd y

Finally, you have to restart the service by providing the command sudo systemctl restart multipathd

For additional information refer to official documentation of the multipath configuration.

PowerPath for Linux requirements

CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports PowerPath for Linux. Configure Linux PowerPath before installing the CSI Driver.

Follow this procedure to set up PowerPath for Linux:

All the nodes must have the PowerPath package installed . Download the PowerPath archive for the environment from Dell Online Support.
Untar the PowerPath archive, Copy the RPM package into a temporary folder and Install PowerPath using rpm -ivh DellEMCPower.LINUX-<version>-<build>.<platform>.x86_64.rpm
Start the PowerPath service using systemctl start PowerPath

Note: Do not install Dell PowerPath if multi-path software is already installed, as they cannot co-exist with native multi-path software.

Auto RDM for vSphere over FC requirements

The CSI Driver for Dell PowerMax supports auto RDM for vSphere over FC. These requirements are applicable for the clusters deployed on ESX/ESXi using virtualized environement.

Set up the environment as follows:

Requires VMware vCenter management software to manage all ESX/ESXis where the cluster is hosted.
Add all FC array ports zoned to the ESX/ESXis to a port group where the cluster is hosted .
Add initiators from all ESX/ESXis to a host(initiator group)/host group(cascaded initiator group) where the cluster is hosted.
Create a secret which contains vCenter privileges. Follow the steps here to create the same.

CSI PowerMax ReverseProxy

CSI PowerMax ReverseProxy is a component that will be installed with the CSI PowerMax driver. For more details on this feature, see the related documentation.

Pre-requisites

Create a TLS secret that holds an SSL certificate and a private key. This is required by the reverse proxy server. Use a tool such as openssl to generate this secret using the example below:

openssl genrsa -out tls.key 2048
openssl req -new -x509 -sha256 -key tls.key -out tls.crt -days 3650
kubectl create secret -n <namespace> tls revproxy-certs --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key
kubectl create secret -n <namespace> tls csirevproxy-tls-secret --cert=tls.crt --key=tls.key

Installation

(Optional) Create secret for client-side TLS verification

Create a secret named powermax-certs in the namespace where the CSI PowerMax driver will be installed. This is an optional step and is only required if you are setting the env variable X_CSI_POWERMAX_SKIP_CERTIFICATE_VALIDATION to false. See the detailed documentation on how to create this secret here.

Install Driver

Create namespace: Run kubectl create namespace <driver-namespace> using the desired name to create the namespace.

Create PowerMax credentials: Create a file called powermax-creds.yaml with the following content:

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: powermax-creds
       # Replace driver-namespace with the namespace where driver is being deployed
     namespace: <driver-namespace>
   type: Opaque
   data:
     # set username to the base64 encoded username
     username: <base64 username>
     # set password to the base64 encoded password
     password: <base64 password>
     # Uncomment the following key if you wish to use ISCSI CHAP authentication (v1.3.0 onwards)
     # chapsecret: <base64 CHAP secret>

Replace the values for the username and password parameters. These values can be obtained using base64 encoding as described in the following example:

echo -n "myusername" | base64
echo -n "mypassword" | base64
# If mychapsecret is the ISCSI CHAP secret
echo -n "mychapsecret" | base64

Run the kubectl create -f powermax-creds.yaml command to create the secret.

Create a configmap using sample here. Fill in the appropriate values for driver configuration. Example: config.yaml

mode: StandAlone # Mode for the reverseproxy, should not be changed
port: 2222 # Port on which reverseproxy will listen
logLevel: debug
logFormat: text
standAloneConfig:
  storageArrays:
     - storageArrayId: "000000000001" # arrayID
       primaryURL: https://primary-1.unisphe.re:8443 # primary unisphere for arrayID
       backupURL: https://backup-1.unisphe.re:8443   # backup unisphere for arrayID
       proxyCredentialSecrets:
         - proxy-secret-11 # credential secret for primary unisphere, e.g., powermax-creds
         - proxy-secret-12 # credential secret for backup unisphere, e.g., powermax-creds
     - storageArrayId: "000000000002"
       primaryURL: https://primary-2.unisphe.re:8443
       backupURL: https://backup-2.unisphe.re:8443
       proxyCredentialSecrets:
        - proxy-secret-21
        - proxy-secret-22
  managementServers:
    - url: https://primary-1.unisphe.re:8443 # primary unisphere endpoint
      arrayCredentialSecret: primary-1-secret # primary credential secret e.g., powermax-creds
      skipCertificateValidation: true
    - url: https://backup-1.unisphe.re:8443 # backup unisphere endpoint
      arrayCredentialSecret: backup-1-secret # backup credential secret e.g., powermax-creds
      skipCertificateValidation: false # value false, to verify unisphere certificate and provide certSecret
      certSecret: primary-certs # unisphere verification certificate
    - url: https://primary-2.unisphe.re:8443
      arrayCredentialSecret: primary-2-secret
      skipCertificateValidation: true
    - url: https://backup-2.unisphe.re:8443
      arrayCredentialSecret: backup-2-secret
      skipCertificateValidation: false
      certSecret: primary-certs

After editing the file, run this command to create a secret called powermax-reverseproxy-config. If you are using a different namespace/secret name, just substitute those into the command.

kubectl create configmap powermax-reverseproxy-config --from-file config.yaml -n powermax

Create a CR (Custom Resource) for PowerMax using the sample files provided here. This file can be modified to use custom parameters if needed.

Users should configure the parameters in CR. The following table lists the primary configurable parameters of the PowerMax driver and their default values:

Parameter	Description	Required	Default
dnsPolicy	Determines the DNS Policy of the Node service	Yes	ClusterFirstWithHostNet
replicas	Controls the number of controller Pods you deploy. If controller Pods are greater than the number of available nodes, excess Pods will become stuck in pending. The default is 2 which allows for Controller high availability.	Yes	2
fsGroupPolicy	Defines which FS Group policy mode to be used, Supported modes `None, File and ReadWriteOnceWithFSType`	No	“ReadWriteOnceWithFSType”
Common parameters for node and controller
X_CSI_K8S_CLUSTER_PREFIX	Define a prefix that is appended to all resources created in the array; unique per K8s/CSI deployment; max length - 3 characters	Yes	XYZ
X_CSI_POWERMAX_ENDPOINT	IP address of the Unisphere for PowerMax	Yes	https://0.0.0.0:8443
X_CSI_TRANSPORT_PROTOCOL	Choose which transport protocol to use (ISCSI, FC, auto or None)	Yes	auto
X_CSI_POWERMAX_PORTGROUPS	List of comma-separated port groups (ISCSI only). Example: “PortGroup1,PortGroup2”	No	-
X_CSI_MANAGED_ARRAYS	List of comma-separated array ID(s) which will be managed by the driver	Yes	-
X_CSI_POWERMAX_PROXY_SERVICE_NAME	Name of CSI PowerMax ReverseProxy service.	Yes	csipowermax-reverseproxy
X_CSI_IG_MODIFY_HOSTNAME	Change any existing host names. When nodenametemplate is set, it changes the name to the specified format else it uses driver default host name format.	No	false
X_CSI_IG_NODENAME_TEMPLATE	Provide a template for the CSI driver to use while creating the Host/IG on the array for the nodes in the cluster. It is of the format a-b-c-%foo%-xyz where foo will be replaced by host name of each node in the cluster.	No	-
X_CSI_POWERMAX_DRIVER_NAME	Set custom CSI driver name. For more details on this feature see the related documentation	No	-
X_CSI_HEALTH_MONITOR_ENABLED	Enable/Disable health monitor of CSI volumes from Controller and Node plugin. Provides details of volume status, usage and volume condition. As a prerequisite, external-health-monitor sidecar section should be uncommented in samples which would install the sidecar	No	false
X_CSI_VSPHERE_ENABLED	Enable VMware virtualized environment support via RDM	No	false
X_CSI_VSPHERE_PORTGROUP	Existing portGroup that driver will use for vSphere	Yes	""
X_CSI_VSPHERE_HOSTNAME	Existing host(initiator group)/host group(cascaded initiator group) that driver will use for vSphere	Yes	""
X_CSI_VCenter_HOST	URL/endpoint of the vCenter where all the ESX are present	Yes	""
Node parameters
X_CSI_POWERMAX_ISCSI_ENABLE_CHAP	Enable ISCSI CHAP authentication. For more details on this feature see the related documentation	No	false
X_CSI_TOPOLOGY_CONTROL_ENABLED	Enable/Disabe topology control. It filters out arrays, associated transport protocol available to each node and creates topology keys based on any such user input.	No	false
CSI Reverseproxy Module
X_CSI_REVPROXY_TLS_SECRET	Name of TLS secret defined in config map	Yes	“csirevproxy-tls-secret”
X_CSI_REVPROXY_PORT	Port number where reverseproxy will listen as defined in config map	Yes	“2222”
X_CSI_CONFIG_MAP_NAME	Name of config map as created for CSI PowerMax	Yes	“powermax-reverseproxy-config”

Execute the following command to create the PowerMax custom resource:kubectl create -f <input_sample_file.yaml>. The above command will deploy the CSI-PowerMax driver.
The mandatory module CSI PowerMax Reverseproxy will be installed automatically with the same command.

Other features to enable

Dynamic Logging Configuration

This feature is introduced in CSI Driver for powermax version 2.0.0.

As part of driver installation, a ConfigMap with the name powermax-config-params is created using the manifest located in the sample file. This ConfigMap contains an attribute CSI_LOG_LEVEL which specifies the current log level of the CSI driver. To set the default/initial log level user can set this field during driver installation.

To update the log level dynamically user has to edit the ConfigMap powermax-config-params and update CSI_LOG_LEVEL to the desired log level.

kubectl edit configmap -n powermax powermax-config-params

Volume Health Monitoring

This feature is introduced in CSI Driver for PowerMax version 2.2.0.

Volume Health Monitoring feature is optional and by default this feature is disabled for drivers when installed via CSM operator.

To enable this feature, set X_CSI_HEALTH_MONITOR_ENABLED to true in the driver manifest under controller and node section. Also, install the external-health-monitor from sideCars section for controller plugin. To get the volume health state value under controller should be set to true as seen below. To get the volume stats value under node should be set to true.

     # Install the 'external-health-monitor' sidecar accordingly.
        # Allowed values:
        #   true: enable checking of health condition of CSI volumes
        #   false: disable checking of health condition of CSI volumes
        # Default value: false
     controller:
       envs:
         - name: X_CSI_HEALTH_MONITOR_ENABLED
           value: "true"
     node:
       envs:
        # X_CSI_HEALTH_MONITOR_ENABLED: Enable/Disable health monitor of CSI volumes from node plugin - volume usage
        # Allowed values:
        #   true: enable checking of health condition of CSI volumes
        #   false: disable checking of health condition of CSI volumes
        # Default value: false
         - name: X_CSI_HEALTH_MONITOR_ENABLED
           value: "true"

Support for custom topology keys

This feature is introduced in CSI Driver for PowerMax version 2.3.0.

Support for custom topology keys is optional and by default this feature is disabled for drivers when installed via CSM operator.

X_CSI_TOPOLOGY_CONTROL_ENABLED provides a way to filter topology keys on a node based on array and transport protocol. If enabled, user can create custom topology keys by editing node-topology-config configmap.

To enable this feature, set X_CSI_TOPOLOGY_CONTROL_ENABLED to true in the driver manifest under node section.

   # X_CSI_TOPOLOGY_CONTROL_ENABLED provides a way to filter topology keys on a node based on array and transport protocol
        # if enabled, user can create custom topology keys by editing node-topology-config configmap.
        # Allowed values:
        #   true: enable the filtration based on config map
        #   false: disable the filtration based on config map
        # Default value: false
        - name: X_CSI_TOPOLOGY_CONTROL_ENABLED
          value: "false"

Edit the sample config map “node-topology-config” as described here with appropriate values: Example:

        kind: ConfigMap
        metadata:
          name: node-topology-config
          namespace: powermax
        data:
          topologyConfig.yaml: |
            allowedConnections:
              - nodeName: "node1"
                rules:
                  - "000000000001:FC"
                  - "000000000002:FC"
              - nodeName: "*"
                rules:
                  - "000000000002:FC"
            deniedConnections:
              - nodeName: "node2"
                rules:
                  - "000000000002:*"
              - nodeName: "node3"
                rules:
                  - "*:*"

Parameter	Description
allowedConnections	List of node, array and protocol info for user allowed configuration
allowedConnections.nodeName	Name of the node on which user wants to apply given rules
allowedConnections.rules	List of StorageArrayID:TransportProtocol pair
deniedConnections	List of node, array and protocol info for user denied configuration
deniedConnections.nodeName	Name of the node on which user wants to apply given rules
deniedConnections.rules	List of StorageArrayID:TransportProtocol pair

Run following command to create the configmap

kubectl create -f topologyConfig.yaml

Note: Name of the configmap should always be node-topology-config.

Support for auto RDM for vSphere over FC

This feature is introduced in CSI Driver for PowerMax version 2.5.0.

Support for auto RDM for vSphere over FC feature is optional and by default this feature is disabled for drivers when installed via CSM operator.

To enable this feature, set X_CSI_VSPHERE_ENABLED to true in the driver manifest under controller and node section.

# VMware/vSphere virtualization support
        # set X_CSI_VSPHERE_ENABLED to true, if you to enable VMware virtualized environment support via RDM
        # Allowed values:
        #   "true" - vSphere volumes are enabled
        #   "false" - vSphere volumes are disabled
        # Default value: "false"
        - name: "X_CSI_VSPHERE_ENABLED"
          value: "false"
        # X_CSI_VSPHERE_PORTGROUP: An existing portGroup that driver will use for vSphere
        # recommended format: csi-x-VC-PG, x can be anything of user choice
        # Allowed value: valid existing port group on the array
        # Default value: "" <empty>
        - name: "X_CSI_VSPHERE_PORTGROUP"
          value: ""
        # X_CSI_VSPHERE_HOSTNAME: An existing host(initiator group)/ host group(cascaded intiator group) that driver will use for vSphere
        # this host/host group should contain initiators from all the ESXs/ESXi host where the cluster is deployed
        # recommended format: csi-x-VC-HN, x can be anything of user choice
        # Allowed value: valid existing host(initiator group)/ host group(cascaded intiator group) on the array
        # Default value: "" <empty>
        - name: "X_CSI_VSPHERE_HOSTNAME"
          value: ""

Edit the Secret file vcenter-creds here with required values. Example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: vcenter-creds
  # Set driver namespace
  namespace: powermax
type: Opaque
data:
  # set username to the base64 encoded username
  username: YWRtaW4=
  # set password to the base64 encoded password
  password: YWRtaW4=

These values can be obtained using base64 encoding as described in the following example:

echo -n "myusername" | base64
echo -n "mypassword" | base64

where myusername and mypassword are credentials for a user with vCenter privileges. 3. 4. Run following command to create the configmap

kubectl create -f vcenter-secret.yaml

Note: Name of the secret should always be vcenter-creds.

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