Arc-enabled SQL MI requires two types of Kubernetes persistent storage: RWO and RWX. PowerStore Container Storage Interface Driver (CSI) provides these storage provisioning capabilities to Kubernetes, allowing the Arc-enabled SQL MI deployment to dynamically provision storage volumes. As data requirements grow, the volumes can also be expanded through the Kubernetes control plane by modifying the Persistent Volume Claim (PVC), eliminating the need for storage administrator involvement.

The CSI driver for PowerStore is the fundamental component that communicates with the PowerStore appliance to provide storage provisioning and insights. The CSI driver implements standard Kubernetes functionality for PowerStore, such as volume creation, mapping, expansion, replication, and deletion, which are the most common storage provisioning tasks. This allows Kubernetes deployments such as Arc-enabled SQL MI to request storage volumes at deployment time and then automatically create and map volumes to the appropriate Kubernetes node. As the workload moves around the cluster, the CSI driver will perform the necessary storage mapping changes to ensure that the storage follows the workload.

When Arc-enabled SQL MI instances are provisioned, storage sizes are specified for data, log, and backup storage. Initial sizing in some environments can be a difficult decision. PowerStore makes this decision easier by thin-provisioning storage volumes. Storage is only provisioned on the array as it is consumed, so unused space is not wasted. Additionally, PowerStore CSI allows volumes to be expanded by simply editing the Kubernetes Persistent Volume Claim (PVC) and increasing the size. This provides flexibility and manageability of storage consumption, all managed without touching the PowerStore appliance.