IBM Block Storage System via IBM Spectrum Connect

IBM block storage can be used as persistent storage for Kubernetes via Ubiquity service. Ubiquity communicates with the IBM storage systems through IBM Spectrum Connect (SC) 3.4.0. SC creates a storage profile (for example, gold, silver or bronze) and makes it available for Ubiquity FlexVolume and Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner. Available IBM block storage systems for Ubiquity FlexVolume and Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner are listed in the Ubiquity Service.

Usage examples for Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner and FlexVolume

The IBM official solution for Kubernetes, based on the Ubiquity project, is referred to as IBM Storage Enabler for Containers. You can download the installation package and its documentation (including full usage examples) from IBM Fix Central.

Usage examples index:

Example 1 : Basic flow for running a stateful container in a pod
Example 2 : Basic flow breakdown
Example 3 : Deployment fail over

Example 1 : Basic flow for running a stateful container with Ubiquity volume

Flow overview:

Create a StorageClass gold that refers to SC storage service gold with xfs as a file system type.
Create a PVC pvc1 that uses the StorageClass gold.
Create a Pod pod1 with container container1 that uses PVC pvc1.
Start I/Os into /data/myDATA in pod1\container1.
Delete the pod1 and then create a new pod1 with the same PVC and verify that the file /data/myDATA still exists.
Delete the pod1 pvc1, pv and storage class gold.

Relevant yml files (storage_class_gold.yml, pvc1.yml and pod1.yml):

#> cat storage_class_gold.yml pvc1.yml cat pod1.yml
kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: "gold"      # Storage Class name
  annotations:
   storageclass.beta.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"  # Optional parameter. Set this Storage Class as the default
provisioner: "ubiquity/flex"  # Ubiquity provisioner name
parameters:
  profile: "gold"   # SC storage service name
  fstype: "xfs"     # Optional parameter. Possible values are ext4 or xfs. Default is configured on Ubiquity server
  backend: "scbe"   # Backend name for IBM block storage provisioning ("scbe" is the SC backend name)



kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: "pvc1"      # PVC name
spec:
  storageClassName: "gold"
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce # Currently, Ubiquity SC backend supports ReadWriteOnce mode only
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi  # Size in Gi. Default size is configured on Ubiquity server



kind: Pod
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: pod1          # Pod name
spec:
  containers:
  - name: container1  # Container name
    image: alpine:latest
    command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "--" ]
    args: [ "while true; do sleep 30; done;" ]
    volumeMounts:
      - name: vol1
        mountPath: "/data"  # mountpoint for vol1(pvc1)
  restartPolicy: "Never"
  volumes:
    - name: vol1
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: pvc1

Running the basic flow:

#> kubectl create -f storage_class_gold.yml -f pvc1.yml -f pod1.yml
storageclass "gold" created
persistentvolumeclaim "pvc1" created
pod "pod1" created

#### Wait for PV to be created and pod1 to be in the Running state...

#> kubectl get storageclass gold
NAME             TYPE
gold (default)   ubiquity/flex

#> kubectl get pvc pvc1
NAME      STATUS    VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   AGE
pvc1      Bound     pvc-ba09bf4c-80ab-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49   1Gi        RWO           2m

#> kubectl get pv
NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS    CLAIM          REASON    AGE
pvc-ba09bf4c-80ab-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49   1Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/pvc1             2m

#> kubectl get pod pod1
NAME      READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod1      1/1       Running   0          2m

#> kubectl exec pod1 -c container1  -- bash -c "df -h /data"
Filesystem          Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mpathdo  951M   33M  919M   4% /data

#> kubectl exec pod1  -c container1 -- bash -c "dd if=/dev/zero of=/data/myDATA bs=10M count=1"

#> kubectl exec pod1  -c container1 -- bash -c "ls -l /data/myDATA"
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 10485760 Aug 14 04:54 /data/myDATA

#> kubectl delete -f pod1.yml
pod "pod1" deleted

#### Wait for pod1 deletion...

#> kubectl get pod pod1
Error from server (NotFound): pods "pod1" not found

#> kubectl create -f pod1.yml
pod "pod1" created

#### Wait for pod1 to be in the Running state...

#> kubectl get pod pod1
NAME      READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod1      1/1       Running   0          2m

#### Verify the /data/myDATA still exist
#> kubectl exec pod1  -c container1 -- bash -c "ls -l /data/myDATA"
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 10485760 Aug 14 04:54 /data/myDATA

### Delete pod1, pvc1, pv and the gold storage class
#> kubectl delete -f pod1.yml -f pvc1.yml -f storage_class_gold.yml
pod "pod1" deleted
persistentvolumeclaim "pvc1" deleted
storageclass "gold" deleted

Example 2 : Basic flow breakdown

This section describes separate steps of the generic flow in greater detail.

Creating a Storage Class

For example, to create a Storage Class named gold that refers to an SCBE storage service, such as a pool from IBM FlashSystem A9000R with QoS capability, and with the xfs file system type. As a result, every volume from this storage class will be provisioned on the gold SCBE service and will be initialized with xfs file system.

#> cat storage_class_gold.yml
kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1beta1
metadata:
  name: "gold"                 # Storage Class name
  annotations:
   storageclass.beta.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true" # Optional parameter. Set this the storage class as the default
provisioner: "ubiquity/flex"   # Ubiquity provisioner name
parameters:
  profile: "gold"              # SC storage service name
  fstype: "xfs"                # Optional parameter. Possible values are ext4 or xfs. Default is configured on the Ubiquity server
  backend: "scbe"              # Backend name for IBM block storage provisioning

#> kubectl create -f storage_class_gold.yml
storageclass "gold" created

List the newly created Storage Class:

#> kubectl get storageclass gold
NAME             TYPE
gold (default)   ubiquity/flex

Creating a PersistentVolumeClaim

To create a PVC pvc1 with size 1Gi that uses the gold Storage Class:

#> cat pvc1.yml
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: "pvc1"    # PVC name
spec:
  storageClassName: "gold"
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce  # Currently, Ubiquity SC backend supports ReadWriteOnce mode only
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi  # Size in Gi. Default size is configured on Ubiquity server

#> kubectl create -f pvc1.yml
persistentvolumeclaim "pvc1 created

Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner automatically creates a PersistentVolume (PV) and binds it to the PVC. The PV name will be PVC-ID. The volume name on the storage will be u_[ubiquity-instance]_[PVC-ID]. Note: [ubiquity-instance] is set in the Ubiquity server configuration file.

List a PersistentVolumeClaim and PersistentVolume

#> kubectl get pvc
NAME   STATUS    VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   AGE
pvc1   Bound     pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49   1Gi        RWO           1m

#> kubectl get pv
NAME                                       CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS    CLAIM          REASON    AGE
pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49   1Gi        RWO           Delete          Bound     default/pvc1             8s

Display the additional PV information, such as volume WWN, its location on the storage system etc:

#> kubectl get -o json pv pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49 | grep -A15 flexVolume
        "flexVolume": {
            "driver": "ibm/ubiquity",
            "options": {
                "LogicalCapacity": "1000000000",
                "Name": "u_PROD_pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49",
                "PhysicalCapacity": "1023410176",
                "PoolName": "gold-pool",
                "Profile": "gold",
                "StorageName": "A9000 system1",
                "StorageType": "2810XIV",
                "UsedCapacity": "0",
                "Wwn": "6001738CFC9035EB0000000000CCCCC5",
                "fstype": "xfs",
                "volumeName": "pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49"
            }
        },

Create a Pod with an Ubiquity volume

The creation of a Pod/Deployment causes the FlexVolume to:

Attach the volume to the host (This action triggered from the controller-manager on the master node.)
Rescan and discover the multipath device of the new volume
Create xfs or ext4 filesystem on the device (if filesystem does not exist on the volume)
Mount the new multipath device on /ubiquity/[WWN of the volume]
Create a symbolic link /var/lib/kubelet/pods/[POD-ID]/volumes/ibm~ubiquity-k8s-flex/[PVC-ID] -> /ubiquity/[WWN of the volume]

For example, to create a Pod pod1 that uses the PVC pvc1 that was already created:

#> cat pod1.yml
kind: Pod
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: pod1          # Pod name
spec:
  containers:
  - name: container1  # Container name
    image: alpine:latest
    command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "--" ]
    args: [ "while true; do sleep 30; done;" ]
    volumeMounts:
      - name: vol1
        mountPath: "/data"  # Mountpoint for the vol1(pvc1)
  restartPolicy: "Never"
  volumes:
    - name: vol1
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: pvc1

#> kubectl create -f pod1.yml
pod "pod1" created

To display the newly created pod1 and write data to the persistent volume of pod1:

#> kubectl get pod pod1
NAME      READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
pod1      1/1       Running   0          16m

#### Wait for pod1 to be in the Running state...

#> kubectl exec pod1 -c container1  -- bash -c "df -h /data"
Filesystem          Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mpathi  951M   33M  919M   4% /data

#> kubectl exec pod1 -c container1  -- bash -c "mount | grep /data"
/dev/mapper/mpathi on /data type xfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,attr2,inode64,noquota)

#> kubectl exec pod1 touch /data/FILE
#> kubectl exec pod1 ls /data/FILE
FILE

#> kubectl describe pod pod1| grep "^Node:" # Where kubernetes deploy and run the Pod1
Node:		k8s-node1/[IP]

To display the newly attached volume on the minion node, log in to the minion that has the running pod and run the following commands:

#> multipath -ll
mpathi (36001738cfc9035eb0000000000cc2bc5) dm-12 IBM     ,2810XIV
size=954M features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='0' wp=rw
`-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=1 status=active
  |- 3:0:0:1 sdb 8:16 active ready running
  `- 4:0:0:1 sdc 8:32 active ready running

#> df | egrep "ubiquity|^Filesystem"
Filesystem                       1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mpathi                  973148   32928    940220   4% /ubiquity/6001738CFC9035EB0000000000CC2BC5

#> mount |grep ubiquity
/dev/mapper/mpathi on /ubiquity/6001738CFC9035EB0000000000CC2BC5 type xfs (rw,relatime,seclabel,attr2,inode64,noquota)

#> ls -l /var/lib/kubelet/pods/*/volumes/ibm~ubiquity-k8s-flex/*
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 42 Aug 13 22:41 pvc-254e4b5e-805d-11e7-a42b-005056a46c49 -> /ubiquity/6001738CFC9035EB0000000000CC2BC5

Deleting a Pod

The Kuberenetes delete Pod command:

Removes symbolic link /var/lib/kubelet/pods/[POD-ID]/volumes/ibm~ubiquity-k8s-flex/[PVC-ID] -> /ubiquity/[WWN of the volume]
Unmounts the new multipath device on /ubiquity/[WWN of the volume]
Removes the multipath device of the volume
Detaches (unmaps) the volume from the host
Rescans with cleanup mode to remove the physical device files of the detached volume

For example:

#> kubectl delete pod pod1
pod "pod1" deleted

Removing a volume

Removing the PVC deletes the PVC and its PV.

For example:

#> kubectl delete -f pvc1.yml
persistentvolumeclaim "pvc1" deleted

Removing a Storage Class

For example:

#> kubectl delete -f storage_class_gold.yml
storageclass "gold" deleted

Example 3 : Deployment fail over example

This section describes how to run stateful Pod with k8s Deployment object, and then delete the Pod and see how kubernetes schedule the pod on different node and the PV follows.

Prerequisits

Create the same storage class (as previous example)

#> kubectl create -f storage_class_gold.yml
storageclass "gold" created

Create the PVC (as previous example)

#> kubectl create -f pvc1.yml
persistentvolumeclaim "pvc1 created

Create Kubernetes Deployment with stateful POD (on node2) and write some data inside

#> cat sanity-deployment.yml 
apiVersion: "extensions/v1beta1"
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: sanity-deployment
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: sanity-deployment
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: container1
        image: alpine:latest
        command: [ "/bin/sh", "-c", "--" ]
        args: [ "while true; do sleep 30; done;" ]
        volumeMounts:
          - name: sanity-pvc
            mountPath: "/data"
      volumes:
      - name: sanity-pvc
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: sanity-pvc
#> kubectl create -f sanity-deployment.yml 
deployment "sanity-deployment" created

#> kubectl get -o wide deploy,pod
NAME                       DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE       CONTAINERS   IMAGES          SELECTOR
deploy/sanity-deployment   1         1         1            1           1m        container1   alpine:latest   app=sanity-deployment

NAME                                    READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE       IP             NODE
po/sanity-deployment-75f959859f-dh979   1/1       Running   0          1m        IP1            minion2

#> pod=`kubectl get pod | awk '/sanity-deployment/{print $1}'`
#> echo $pod
sanity-deployment-75f959859f-dh979

#> kubectl exec $pod -- /bin/sh -c "df -h /data"
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/36001738cfc9035eb0000000000cff94b
                        922.7M      1.2M    857.8M   0% /data
#> kubectl exec $pod -- /bin/sh -c "echo COOL > /data/file"
#> kubectl exec $pod -- /bin/sh -c "cat /data/file"
COOL

Delete the POD so Kubernetes will reschedule the POD on a different node (node1)

#> kubectl delete pod $pod
pod "sanity-deployment-75f959859f-dh979" deleted
#> kubectl get -o wide deploy,pod
NAME                       DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE       CONTAINERS   IMAGES          SELECTOR
deploy/sanity-deployment   1         1         1            0           3m        container1   alpine:latest   app=sanity-deployment

NAME                                    READY     STATUS              RESTARTS   AGE       IP             NODE
po/sanity-deployment-75f959859f-dh979   1/1       Terminating         0          3m        IP1            minion2
po/sanity-deployment-75f959859f-wpbkl   0/1       ContainerCreating   0          7s        <none>         minion1

#############
## Wait a few seconds for detaching the PV from node2 and attaching it to node1
#############

#> kubectl get -o wide deploy,pod
NAME                       DESIRED   CURRENT   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE       CONTAINERS   IMAGES          SELECTOR
deploy/sanity-deployment   1         1         1            1           4m        container1   alpine:latest   app=sanity-deployment

NAME                                    READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE       IP            NODE
po/sanity-deployment-75f959859f-wpbkl   1/1       Running   0          1m        IP2           minion1


#> pod=`kubectl get pod | awk '/sanity-deployment/{print $1}'`

#############
## Now check data remains
#############
#> pod=`kubectl get pod | awk '/sanity-deployment/{print $1}'`
#> echo $pod
sanity-deployment-75f959859f-wpbkl

#> kubectl exec $pod -- /bin/sh -c "cat /data/file"
COOL

Tier down the Deployment, PVC, PV and Storage Class

#> kubectl delete deploy/sanity-deployment
deployment "sanity-deployment" deleted

kubectl delete deploy/sanity-deployment
deployment "sanity-deployment" deleted

#> kubectl delete -f storage_class_gold.yml
storageclass "gold" deleted

Note: For detailed usage examples, refer to the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers user guide.

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ibm-block-storage-via-sc.md

ibm-block-storage-via-sc.md

IBM Block Storage System via IBM Spectrum Connect

Usage examples for Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner and FlexVolume

Example 1 : Basic flow for running a stateful container with Ubiquity volume

Example 2 : Basic flow breakdown

Creating a Storage Class

Creating a PersistentVolumeClaim

Create a Pod with an Ubiquity volume

Deleting a Pod

Removing a volume

Removing a Storage Class

Example 3 : Deployment fail over example

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IBM Block Storage System via IBM Spectrum Connect

Usage examples for Ubiquity Dynamic Provisioner and FlexVolume

Example 1 : Basic flow for running a stateful container with Ubiquity volume

Example 2 : Basic flow breakdown

Creating a Storage Class

Creating a PersistentVolumeClaim

Create a Pod with an Ubiquity volume

Deleting a Pod

Removing a volume

Removing a Storage Class

Example 3 : Deployment fail over example