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Version: 25.8

Dynamic Provisioning of FlashBlade File Systems

Use PX-CSI to dynamically provision file-based volumes backed by FlashBlade file systems. This page walks you through creating a StorageClass, provisioning a PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC), and mounting it to a pod.

When PX-CSI is deployed, the following StorageClass objects are automatically created. You can use these directly or create custom StorageClass configurations:

kubectl get storageclass
NAME                        PROVISIONER        RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE   ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
px-fa-direct-access         pxd.portworx.com   Delete          Immediate           true                   4d17h
px-fb-direct-access-nfsv3   pxd.portworx.com   Delete          Immediate           true                   4d17h
px-fb-direct-access-nfsv4   pxd.portworx.com   Delete          Immediate           true                   4d17h

(Optional) Create a custom StorageClass​

Define a custom StorageClass that specifies the backend ("pure_file"), NFS configuration, and optional topology rules.

important

FlashBlade exports use root_squash by default. If your pod sets an fsGroup, this may result in permission errors (e.g., permission denied, lchown failed).

To prevent this, set the parameters.pure_export_rules field to *(rw,no_root_squash) in the StorageClass object.

Example StorageClass specifications:

To provision volumes with multiple NFS endpoints, create the StorageClass specification as follows:

Note: If CSI topology is not enabled, you can omit the allowedTopologies section.

kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
  name: portworx-csi-fb
provisioner: pxd.portworx.com
parameters:
  pure_nfs_endpoint: "<nfs-endpoint-1>"
  backend: "pure_file"
mountOptions:
  - nfsvers=3
  - tcp
allowVolumeExpansion: true
allowedTopologies:
  - matchLabelExpressions:
    - key: topology.portworx.io/zone
      values:
        - <zone-1>
    - key: topology.portworx.io/region
      values:
        - <region-1>

Ensure unique topology labels for FlashBlade​

To ensure successful PVC creation, verify that the labels in the allowedTopologies section uniquely identify a single FlashBlade endpoint from the pure.json file.

For example, if you specify topology.portworx.io/zone: <zone-1> in the StorageClass and multiple FlashBlades listed in the pure.json file, Portworx CSI will fail to create PVCs for FlashBlade Direct Access volumes and display the following error message:

Events:
Type     Reason                Age               From                                                                               Message
----     ------                ----              ----                                                                               -------
Normal   Provisioning          1s (x4 over 10s)  pxd.portworx.com_px-csi-ext-6f77f7c664-xxxx                                        External provisioner is provisioning volume for claim "default/pure-multiple-nfs"
Warning  ProvisioningFailed    1s (x4 over 9s)   pxd.portworx.com_px-csi-ext-6f77f7c664-xxx                                         failed to provision volume with StorageClass "portworx-multiple-nfs": rpc error: code = Internal desc = Failed to create volume: multiple storage backends match volume provisioner, unable to determine which backend the provided NFSEndpoint matches to
Normal   ExternalProvisioning  0s (x3 over 10s)  persistentvolume-controller                                                        Waiting for a volume to be created either by the external provisioner 'pxd.portworx.com' or manually by the system administrator. If volume creation is delayed, please verify that the provisioner is running and correctly registered.

Apply the StorageClass​

Apply the StorageClass specification using the command:

kubectl apply -f <storageclass.yml>
storageclass.storage.k8s.io/portworx-csi-fb created

Create a PVC​

  1. Once the StorageClass is created, you can create PVCs to request storage for your application.

    note

    The Pure export rules for accessing FlashBlade defined by the specified accessModes in the PVC specification. *(rw): This rule is set for ReadWriteOnce, ReadWriteMany, and ReadWriteOncePod PVC access modes. It allows clients to perform both read and write operations on the storage. *(ro): This rule is applied for ReadOnlyMany PVC access mode. It ensures that the storage can only be accessed in read-only mode, preventing modifications to the data.

    Example PVC specification:

    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: pure-multiple-nfs
    spec:
      accessModes:
        - ReadWriteMany
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 10Gi
      storageClassName: portworx-csi-fb

  2. Apply this YAML to your cluster:

    kubectl apply -f <pvc.yml>

Mount the PVC to a Pod​

  1. After creating PVCs, mount them to an application pod to make the storage available.

    Example pod specification:

    kind: Pod
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: nginx-pod
      labels:
        app: nginx
    spec:
      volumes:
      - name: pure-nfs
        persistentVolumeClaim:
          claimName: pure-multiple-nfs
      containers:
      - name: nginx
        image: nginx
        volumeMounts:
        - name: pure-nfs
          mountPath: /data
        ports:
        - containerPort: 80

  2. (Optional) To control pod scheduling based on node labels, add the nodeAffinity field to the Pod specification. For example:

    spec:
      affinity:
        nodeAffinity:
          requiredDuringSchedulingIgnoredDuringExecution:
            nodeSelectorTerms:
            - matchExpressions:
              - key: topology.portworx.io/zone
                operator: In
                values:
                - zone-0
              - key: topology.portworx.io/region
                operator: In
                values:
                - region-0

Verify pod status​

Monitor the pod’s status to ensure it is running and connected to the volume:

watch kubectl get pods

Once the pod is Running, verify it can access the FlashBlade volume mounted at /data.