CSM 1.7 Release is Here!
Fri, 30 Jun 2023 13:42:36 -0000
|Read Time: 0 minutes
Introduction
The second release of 2023 for Kubernetes CSI Driver & Dell Container Storage Modules (CSM) is here!
The official changelog is available in the CHANGELOG directory of the CSM repository.
As you may know, Dell Container Storage Modules (CSM) bring powerful enterprise storage features and functionality to your Kubernetes workloads running on Dell primary storage arrays, and provide easier adoption of cloud native workloads, improved productivity, and scalable operations. Read on to learn more about what’s in this latest release.
CSI features
Supported Kubernetes distributions
The newly supported Kubernetes distributions are:
- Kubernetes 1.27
- OpenShift 4.12
- Amazon EKS Anywhere
- k3s on Debian
CSI PowerMax
For the last couple of versions, the CSI PowerMax reverseproxy is enabled by default. The TLS certificate secret creation is now pre-packaged using cert-manager, to avoid manual steps for the administrator.
A volume can be mounted to a Pod as `readOnly`. This is the default behavior for a `configMap` or `secret`. That option is now also supported for RawBlock devices.
apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: task-pv-pod spec: volumes: - name: task-pv-storage persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: task-pv-claim # What ever is the accessMode it will be read-only for the Pod readOnly: true ...
CSM v1.5 introduced the capacity to provision Fibre Channel LUNs to Kubernetes worker nodes through VMware Raw Device Mapping. One limitation of the RDM/LUN was that it was sticky to a single ESXi host, meaning that the Pod could not move to another worker node.
The auto-RDM feature works at the HostGroup level in PowerMax and therefore supports clusters with multiple ESXi hosts.
We are exposing the host I/O limits on the storage groups parameter using the StorageClass. The Host I/O limit is here to implement QoS at the worker node level and to prevent any noisy neighbor behavior.
CSI PowerScale
Storage Capacity Tracking is used by the Kubernetes scheduler to make sure that the node and backend storage have enough capacity for Pod/PVC.
The user can now set Quota limit parameters from the PVC and StorageClass requests. This allows the user to have better control of the quota parameters (including Soft Limit, AdvisoryLimit, Softgrace period) attached to each PVC
The PVC settings take precedence if quota limit values are specified in both StorageClass and PVC.
CSM features
CSM Operator
One can now use the CSM Operator to install Dell Unity and PowerMax CSI drivers and affiliated modules.
The CSM Operator now provides CSM resiliency and CSM-Replication for CSI-PowerFlex.
A detailed matrix of supported CSM components is available here.
CSM Installation Wizard
The CSM Installation Wizard is the easiest and most straight forward way to install the Dell CSI drivers and Container Storage Modules.
In this release, we are adding support for Dell Unity, PowerScale, and PowerFlex.
To keep it simple, we removed the option to install the driver and modules in separate namespaces.
CSM Authorization
In this release of CSM, Secrets Encryption is enabled by default.
- All secrets are encrypted by default, using the AES-CBC key type.
- After installation/upgrade, all secrets will be encrypted.
- AES-CBC is the default key type.
- AES-CBC is the only supported key type.
CSM Replication
When you use CSM replication, two volumes are created: the active volume and the replica. Prior to CSM v1.7, if you removed the two PVs, the physical replica wasn't deleted.
Now on PV deletion, we cascade the removal to all objects, including the replica block volumes in PowerStore, PowerMax, and PowerFlex, so that there are no more orphan volumes.
Useful links
Stay informed of the latest updates of the Dell CSM eco-system by subscribing to:
- The Dell CSM Github repository
- Our DevOps & Automation Youtube playlist
- Slack (under the Dell Infrastructure namespace)
Author: Florian Coulombel