Note: The Dell EMC Isilon storage array has been renamed to PowerScale.

The PowerScale storage array delivers high levels of performance and efficiency with an integrated machine learning engine. For more information, see Dell EMC PowerScale Family.

Prerequisites include:

• Dell CSI Operator is installed. See Installing the CSI Operator.
• The Dell EMC PowerScale storage system is configured properly.
• Storage pools have been created along with the NFS setup as necessary

The following steps assume that there is a running Dell EMC PowerScale system:  

1. Create the namespace:

[core@csah ~]$ oc new-project Isilon

2. Create a YAML file for the secret key (see this sample file in GitHub):

Note: The secret name must be isilon-creds.

[core@csah ~]$ oc create -f isilon-creds.yaml

3. Create a CSI PowerScale driver YAML file (see this sample file in GitHub):

[core@csah ~]$ oc create -f <YAML file>

4. Validate that the PowerScale pods are running:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get pods -o wide

NAME                                 READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP             NODE                    NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES

isilon-controller-68bdf67d46-9f9x5   5/5     Running   0          19s   10.129.2.161   compute-3.example.com   <none>           <none>

isilon-controller-68bdf67d46-nw4v2   5/5     Running   0          19s   10.131.0.190   compute-2.example.com   <none>           <none>

isilon-node-2vhvn                    2/2     Running   0          19s   192.168.46.24   compute-1.example.com   <none>           <none>

isilon-node-k4rs5                    2/2     Running   0          19s   192.168.46.27   compute-3.example.com   <none>           <none>

isilon-node-npls6                    2/2     Running   0          19s   192.168.46.25   compute-2.example.com   <none>           <none>

5.        Verify that the storage class is created for using PowerScale storage:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get sc

NAME             PROVISIONER                RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE      ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE

isilon-nfs       csi-isilon.dellemc.com     Delete          WaitForFirstConsumer   true                   32s

Provision the image registry storage

To perform application builds, configure the image registry for the OpenShift cluster.

To provision storage for the image registry, create a PVC and assign the storage to the image registry configuration. Run the commands as user core on the CSAH node unless otherwise specified.

1. Create a YAML file with which to create a PVC (see this sample file in GitHub).

Note: Ensure that the namespace is openshift-image-registry. Any other namespace causes an error. The recommended size is greater than 100 G. Assign a volume that supports ReadWriteMany access mode.

2. Use the YAML file that you created in step 1 to create the PVC:

[core@csah ~]$ oc create -f dynfsreg.yaml

3. Edit the registry configuration to use the PV:

[core@csah ~]$ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

4. In the YAML output, under spec, do the following:
   1. Change the value for managementState from the Removed default value to Managed.
   2. Add the PVC name as the storage key:

spec:

  managementState: Managed

  storage:

    pvc:

      claim: isilon-nfs-image-registry

5. Type :wq to save the changes.

Note: For operators such as image-registry, apiserver, and so on, the PROGRESSING column displays the True state for a few minutes before the AVAILABLE column displays the True state.

Validate the image registry

1. Verify that the AVAILABLE column displays True for all the cluster operators:

oc get co

Note: While the image-registry cluster operator status is being verified, the status of other cluster operators such as operator-lifecycle-manager and kube-apiserver might change. We recommend that you check all cluster operators before continuing.

2. Ensure that the image registry pods are all in the Running state, as shown in the following output:

[core@csah ~]$ oc get pods -n openshift-image-registry

NAME                                               READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE

cluster-image-registry-operator-6895dd787f-knqcp   1/1     Running     0          19d

image-pruner-1609804800-jk6g2                      0/1     Completed   0          21h

image-registry-77bdfcb58b-jjgp2                    1/1     Running     0          9d

node-ca-526xv                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

node-ca-5hsks                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

node-ca-7tjxb                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

node-ca-99zx7                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

node-ca-9gjxx                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

node-ca-bgw6k                                      1/1     Running     0          19d

3. Verify that the registry storage ClaimName that is used for the image registry pod in the preceding output matches the PVC name:

[core@csah ~]$ oc describe pod image-registry-77bdfcb58b-jjgp2 -n openshift-image-registry | grep -i volumes -A 4

Volumes:

  registry-storage:

   Type:       PersistentVolumeClaim (a reference to PersistentVolumeClaim in the same namespace)

    ClaimName:  isilon-nfs-image-registry

    ReadOnly:   false

4. As user core in the CSAH node, connect to any control-plane or compute node in the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

[core@csah ~]$ oc debug nodes/etcd-0.example.com

Starting pod/etcd-0examplecom-debug ...

To use host binaries, run `chroot /host`

Pod IP: 192.168.46.21

If you don't see a command prompt, try pressing enter.

sh-4.2# chroot /host

5. Log in as kubeadmin:

sh-4.4# oc login -u kubeadmin -p xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

Login successful.

You have access to 53 projects, the list has been suppressed. You can list all projects with 'oc projects'

Using project "default".

6. Test the connection to the image registry service listening in port 5000:

sh-4.4# podman login -u kubeadmin -p $(oc whoami -t) image-registry.openshift-image-registry.svc:5000

Login Succeeded!

Create dynamic NFS volumes

1. Create a YAML file with which to create a PVC (see the sample file in GitHub):

[core@csah isilon]$ oc create -f dynfspvc.yaml

2. Ensure that the PV and the PVC for Isilon are created appropriately:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get pvc

NAME                     STATUS    VOLUME   CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE

dynamic-nfs-isilon-pvc   Pending                                      isilon-nfs     12s

Note: The volume is in a pending state. Create a pod and attach the PVC to change the status to BOUND.

Attach the volume to the pod 

1. Create a YAML file for the pod (see this sample file in GitHub):

2. Create the pod by running the following command:

[core@csah ~]$ oc create -f dynfspod.yaml

3. Validate that the storage is attached to the pod:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc exec -it dynamic-nfs-isilon-pod -- df -h /usr/share/nginx/html

Filesystem                               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

192.168.182.85:/ifs/csipscale-d68e2b6415  4.0G     0  4.0G   0% /usr/share/nginx/html

PowerScale snapshots

1. Verify that the PowerScale volume snapshot is created:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get volumesnapshotclass

NAME            DRIVER                     DELETIONPOLICY   AGE

isilon-snap     csi-isilon.dellemc.com     Delete           55s

2. Create a file in the volume attached to the pod that you created in Attach the volume to the pod

[core@csah isilon]$ oc exec -it dynamic-nfs-isilon-pod /bin/bash

kubectl exec [POD] [COMMAND] is DEPRECATED and will be removed in a future version. Use kubectl exec [POD] -- [COMMAND] instead.

root@dynamic-nfs-isilon-pod:/# touch /usr/share/nginx/html/sample

root@dynamic-nfs-isilon-pod:/# echo 'isilon backup' > /usr/share/nginx/html/sample

3. Create a snapshot of the volume and validate snapshot creation (see this sample file in GitHub):

[core@csah ~]$ oc create -f snapshot.yaml

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get volumesnapshot

NAME              READYTOUSE   SOURCEPVC                SOURCESNAPSHOTCONTENT   RESTORESIZE   SNAPSHOTCLASS   SNAPSHOTCONTENT                                    CREATIONTIME   AGE

isilon-snapshot   true         dynamic-nfs-isilon-pvc                           14            isilon-snap     snapcontent-a29c16f2-8983-46e9-9b58-546852e2322b   42m            7m46s

4.        Create a PVC by using the snapshot (see this sample file in GitHub):
5.        Create a pod and attach the PVC (see this sample file in GitHub).To verify that the pod is created with the PVC you created from the snapshot, check the contents of the mountpoint:

[core@csah isilon]$ oc create -f restorepod.yaml

pod/restore-pod created

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get pods restore-pod -o wide

NAME          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP            NODE                    NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES

restore-pod   1/1     Running   0          81s   10.128.2.68   compute-1.example.com   <none>           <none>

[core@csah isilon]$ oc get pvc isilon-restore

NAME             STATUS   VOLUME                 CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE

isilon-restore   Bound    csipscale-8aa9225fa8   4Gi        RWX            isilon-nfs     3m29s

[core@csah isilon]$ oc exec -it restore-pod -- cat /usr/share/nginx/html/sample

isilon backup