Your Browser is Out of Date

Nytro.ai uses technology that works best in other browsers.
For a full experience use one of the browsers below
Building Azure Arc-enabled Data Services for a SQL Managed Instance on Dell PowerFlex
Introduction Product overview Solution architecture
Solution architecture
PowerFlex setup
Kubernetes and CSI setup
Management and operations
Azure Arc-enabled SQL Managed Instance
Test scenarios Test case results Conclusion Appendix A: SQL MI and Hammer DB Test Harness details Appendix B: SQL MI related service management using kubectl Appendix C: Red Hat Linux configuration References

Kubernetes and CSI setup

Kubernetes and CSI setup

  • Five virtual machines(VMs) are created with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 operating system running on each one. Each of these VMs is configured with datastores that are mapped to the PowerFlex volumes. Upstream Kubernetes cluster v1.21.5 is built with one control plane node and four worker nodes using these VMs. PowerFlex CSI driver v2 is installed on the control plane node. This installation is done using Helm charts and Dell CSI Helm installer. PowerFlex SDC is installed on each of the worker nodes to communicate and consume PowerFlex-based storage volumes that are automatically provisioned by the CSI driver to meet the container’s storage requirement.

    Table 3.      Kubernetes cluster details

    Kubernetes cluster 

    Value

    Upstream Kubernetes

    1.21.5

    Workload cluster Kubernetes version

    1.21.5

    Control plane node count

    1

    Worker node count

    4

    Worker node operating system

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4

    Worker node VM size

    48 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM


    Storage classes

    PowerFlex CSI 1.4 onwards does not create any storage classes as part of the driver installation. It is therefore necessary to create additional storage classes during CSI installation using the sample YAML file from the GitHub.

    The following storage classes were created in the lab to meet the SQL MI storage requirements:

    NAME                        PROVISIONER                RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE

    vxflexos (default)          csi-vxflexos.dellemc.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   106d

    vxflexos-xfs                csi-vxflexos.dellemc.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   106d

    vxflexos-xfs-sql-data       csi-vxflexos.dellemc.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   105d

    vxflexos-xfs-sql-datalogs   csi-vxflexos.dellemc.com   Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   105d

    Note: Follow the compatibility matrix and the latest available CSI version before planning and configuring the PowerFlex platform. For more information about how to deploy PowerFlex CSI Driver, see CSI Driver by Dell EMC and ensure that the prerequisites are met before the installation.