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Version: 25.8

Install PX-CSI

After preparing your environment, deploy the Portworx Operator first, followed by the PX-CSI StorageCluster. The Portworx Operator automates the deployment, configuration, upgrades, and integration of PX-CSI with your Kubernetes cluster.

Follow the steps on this page to generate and deploy the Kubernetes manifests from Portworx Central.

Prerequisites​

Generate Kubernetes manifest​

To generate Kubernetes manifests for PX-CSI installation, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Portworx Central and log in or create an account.

  2. In the left sidebar, select Install and Run.

  3. On the Spec List page, click Create New Spec, then choose PX-CSI.

  4. On the Generate PX-CSI Spec page, review the options and select the appropriate values based on your requirements.

    important
    • By default, iSCSI is set as your protocol for data transfer. To change this, use the Storage Area Network dropdown.
    • For a Vanilla Kubernetes cluster or Pure Cloud Block Store (CBS), select the Distribution Name option as None.

  5. (Optional) If you are using multiple iSCSI interfaces for the iSCSI host, add the environment variable PURE_ISCSI_ALLOWED_IFACES with comma-separated names of iSCSI interfaces in Advanced Settings. Example: "iface_name_1,iface_name_2".

    note

    If your virtual machine has multiple iSCSI interfaces, Portworx cannot determine which iSCSI interface to use to communicate with FlashArray. You must specify the iSCSI interface list using the PURE_ISCSI_ALLOWED_IFACES environment variable.

    However, setting this variable alone does not add the interfaces to the iSCSI database. You must also manually add each interface using the following command:

    sudo iscsiadm -m iface -I <iface_name> -o new
    sudo iscsiadm -m iface -I <iface_name> -o update -n iface.net_ifacename -v <your_iscsi_interface>

    Repeat this command for each interface you specify in the environment variable.

  6. Click Save and Download to generate the specification.

(Optional) Enable CSI topology feature​

If you want to use CSI topology feature, follow the steps below to enable CSI topology:

  1. Ensure that you have prepared your environment for using CSI topology.

  2. Set spec.csi.topology.enabled parameter to true in the StorageCluster specification.

    csi:
        enabled: true
        topology:
            enabled: true

Apply Kubernetes manifest​

Deploy the Operator and StorageCluster specification you generated in the section above:

note
  • If you used Portworx Central to generate the StorageCluster manifest:
    • If you downloaded the specification and made changes to it, use that file with the kubectl apply command below instead of the specification URL generated by Portworx Central.
    • On the Google Anthos platform, download the ZIP file containing the Operator and StorageCluster specifications generated in the Generate Kubernetes manifest section. Unzip the file and use the included filenames with the kubectl apply command.
  • If you created the StorageCluster manifest manually, add the PURE_FLASHARRAY_SAN_TYPE environment variable in the StorageCluster specification to configure FlashArray as the backend storage. Multipath checks are performed only if this environment variable is included. This variable is not required if you are using only FlashBlade as the backend storage.

  1. Deploy the Portworx Operator:

    • OCP version 4.20 or later:
      From the OpenShift UI, go to Ecosystem > Software Catalog, search for Portworx Enterprise, and select Install to deploy the Portworx Operator in a desired namespace.
    • OCP version 4.19 or earlier:
      From the OpenShift UI, go to OperatorHub, search for Portworx Enterprise, and select Install to deploy the Portworx Operator in a desired namespace.

  2. Deploy the StorageCluster:

    oc apply -f '<url-generated-from-portworx-central-spec-gen>'
    storagecluster.core.libopenstorage.org/px-cluster-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-5db83030471e created

After deployment, PX-CSI automatically discovers any configured FlashArray or FlashBlade credentials and uses them to provision backend storage.

Verify Portworx installation​

After installing PX-CSI, verify the status of the Portworx cluster and pods to ensure everything is running correctly.

  1. Verify that all Portworx pods are running. 
    oc get pods -n <portworx> -o wide | grep -e portworx -e px
  2. Verify the status of the Portworx cluster provision. 
    oc get stc -n <portworx>

Note: PX-CSI automatically deploys a set of default StorageClass resources during installation. You can view them using kubectl get sc. You can use these default StorageClass resources or create a custom one by following the steps in Dynamic Provisioning of Volumes.

important

If you have installed PX-CSI to use Pure Cloud Block Store, storage operations such as creating or resizing a PVC and taking snapshots are the same as on FlashArray. Refer to the relevant FlashArray sections in this documentation for guidance on performing these tasks.