Portworx CSI Release Notes

Portworx CSI (PX-CSI) is a lightweight storage orchestration solution that uses the Kubernetes Container Storage Interface (CSI) framework to integrate the Pure Storage storage solutions.

PX-CSI integrates with Kubernetes to directly access Pure Storage FlashArray Direct Access volumes (FADA) and FlashBlade Direct Access volumes (FBDA).

If you're setting up PX-CSI for the first time, see Install Portworx CSI. If you're already using PX-CSI, upgrade to the latest version. For upgrade instructions, see Upgrade Portworx CSI.

Removal of pxctl CLI

The pxctl CLI is removed starting with PX-CSI 25.8.0. Use standard Kubernetes tools such as kubectl, oc, or apply YAML manifests to manage CustomResource objects for operational and configuration tasks.

PX-CSI 25.8.0

October 16, 2025

What's New

• PX-CSI without KVDB
  PX-CSI no longer requires a key-value database (KVDB) for operation. This change enables lightweight deployments, reduces CPU and memory usage, and lowers operational overhead. Metadata is now stored in Kubernetes as CustomResource objects. During the upgrade to PX-CSI 25.8.0, volume metadata is automatically migrated to these custom resources. For more information about the new architecture, see What is PX-CSI.

• Increased volume attachments per node
  PX-CSI now supports attaching up to 512 volumes to a single node, enabling higher workload density without any architectural constraints. This improvement increases scalability and helps reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). For more information, see Volume attachment limits.

• Faster volume attachment at scale
  PX-CSI improves performance by supporting parallel volume attachments. By default, the node plugin is configured to process 25 requests in parallel. It can be tuned using the NODE_STAGE_CONCURRENCY environment variable in the StorageCluster custom resource. For more information, see StorageCluster CRD reference.

• Policy-based snapshots for FlashBlade
  PX-CSI now supports policy-based snapshots on FlashBlade. For more information, see Snapshot of FlashBlade PVC.

• Support for Pure Cloud Block Store on Amazon EKS
  PX-CSI now integrates with Pure Cloud Block Store (CBS) on Amazon EKS. This integration provides enterprise-grade storage capabilities in the cloud. For more information, see Use Pure Cloud Block Store as backend storage.

• Support for NVMe CLI version 2.11
  PX-CSI now supports NVMe CLI version 2.11 on RHEL 9.6 or later.

• Improved support for snapshot limits
  PX-CSI version 25.6.0 and earlier set a fixed limit of 64 snapshots per volume. Starting with 25.8.0, this limit is no longer enforced by PX-CSI. Snapshot limits now depend on the capabilities of the backend storage platform (FlashArray/FlashBlade).

• ComponentK8sConfig: The ComponentK8sConfig custom resource allows configuration of resources, tolerations, and placement rules for all PX-CSI components. Configurations previously defined in the StorageCluster should now be migrated to the ComponentK8sConfig custom resource. For more information, see Configure resource limits, placements, tolerations, and nodeAffinity for PX-CSI components.

Resolved Issues

Issue Number	Issue Description	Severity
PWX-40091	Resolved a false-positive LicenseExpiring alert in PX-CSI. PX-CSI no longer performs license validity checks that previously triggered this alert due to 24-hour renewal behavior.	Minor

Known Issues

• PWX-47647: If the FlashArray is configured with both NVMe-RDMA and NVMe-TCP, and the NVMEOF-RDMA SAN type is specified during PX-CSI installation, PX-CSI incorrectly selects both nvme-tcp and nvme-roce interfaces for PureVolume. This occurs because the CSI driver filters NVMe interfaces without validating their service type. As a result, Pods attempting to mount the volume may remain stuck in the ContainerCreating phase with repeated FailedMount errors.

  Workaround: You can use the environment variable PURE_NVME_ALLOWED_CIDRS in the StorageCluster to specify a subnet with NVMe interfaces.

  Affected version: 25.8.0

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• PWX-47914: When using the Emulex Fibre Channel adapter, LUNs with a LUN ID greater than 255 will fail to attach due to an issue in decoding LUN ID.

  Workaround: No workaround is available.

  Affected Version: 25.8.0

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• PWX-47985: If a StorageCluster resource includes a toleration with operator: Exists, the upgrade to Portworx version 25.8.0 will fail. This occurs because such tolerations match all taints, which interferes with the CSI migration logic during upgrade.

  Workaround: Before upgrading, remove any toleration entries in the StorageCluster that use operator: Exists.

  Affected Version: 25.8.0

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• PWX-47994: In FlashBlade-only environments, px-node-plugin pods enter a CrashLoopBackOff state if the /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file is missing on the node, even though iSCSI is not required.

  During startup, the CSI node plugin attempts to parse the initiatorname.iscsi file regardless of backend type. If the file is missing or contains invalid content, the driver fails to retrieve a TransportID and crashes.

  Workaround: Manually create an empty initiatorname.iscsi file on the affected nodes to bypass the parsing failure:

  sudo mkdir -p /etc/iscsi
  echo "InitiatorName=iqn.2025-01.com.example:empty-initiator" | sudo tee /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi

  Affected Version: 25.8.0

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• PWX-48084: FlashArray secure multi-tenancy API token does not work when using Fibre Channel (FC) protocol. The following error appears during volume provisioning:

  Warning ProvisioningFailed pxd.portworx.com_px-pure-csi-controller[...] failed to provision volume with StorageClass "px-fa-direct-access-pod": rpc error: code = Internal desc = flasharray backend provisioning failed: all potential backends failed to provision: <ip-address>: 'failed to list network interfaces: Failed to list network interfaces: Msg1: Operation not permitted.'

  Workaround: Use a FlashArray admin token. For more information, see the FlashArray without secure multi-tenancy tab in Set up user access in FlashArray.

  Affected Versions: 25.8.0

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PX-CSI 25.6.0

July 15, 2025

What's New

• PX-CSI now supports VLAN binding for FlashArray. This allows you to enforce VLAN-based network access control between hosts and FlashArray systems. With VLAN binding, administrators can associate a host with a specific VLAN ID. FlashArray then allows storage connections only if traffic originates from the assigned VLAN host. If a host is not assigned a VLAN, it discovers all the iSCSI targets by default. For more information, see Use FlashArray as backend storage for Kubernetes applications and Pure Storage FlashArray and FlashBlade JSON file.

• PX-CSI now supports IPv6 networking. You can now use IPv6 for both the host network and connectivity to FlashArray.

• PX-CSI now sets the Purity hostname to a combination of the host name and the node’s unique NODE_UID. This change prevents hostname collisions across clusters and ensures backend volumes mount to the correct hosts. Previously, only the host name was used, which could result in collisions and incorrect volume mounts in multi-cluster environments.

• PX-CSI now supports running KubeVirt virtual machines (VMs) with virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) devices backed by FlashArray file services volumes.

  This support enables:

  • Persistent vTPM state across restarts and reschedules.
  • Live migration and failover of vTPM-enabled VMs using ReadWriteMany (RWX) Filesystem volumes.

  For more information, see Run KubeVirt virtual machines with virtual TPM devices using FlashArray file services.

PX-CSI 25.4.1

July 8, 2025

Resolved Issues

Issue Number	Issue Description	Severity
PWX-45154	In clusters running KubeVirt with FADA RWX volumes, PX-CSI could return a LocalVolumeAttaches license limit error during volume mount, even when attachment limits were not exceeded.	Minor

PX-CSI 25.4.0

May 12, 2025

What's New

• FlashArray file services
  PX-CSI now supports provisioning ReadWriteMany (RWX) volumes using FlashArray File Services by mapping PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) to directories in a FlashArray file services. For information, see Configure FlashArray file services and Create and use FlashArray PVCs.

• Snapshot and restore for FlashBlade Direct Access volumes
  PX-CSI now supports snapshot and restore capabilities for FlashBlade Direct Access volumes. You can now create on-demand snapshots, restore volumes from those snapshots, and delete snapshots when they are no longer needed. For more information, see Manage snapshots for FlashBlade Direct Access volumes.

• Internal KVDB support on FlashBlade
  PX-CSI now supports internal KVDB on FlashBlade-only setup, which no longer requires pre-provisioned disks for KVDB. In FlashBlade-only installs, PX-CSI automatically creates a 32-GB file system across three nodes using the FlashBlade storage. For more information, see Internal KVDB for Portworx CSI.

• Cloud Block Store
  PX-CSI now supports Pure Cloud Block Store (CBS) for Azure.

PX-CSI 25.2.0

February 24, 2025

What's New

• FADA Raw Block (RWX)
  PX-CSI now supports FADA Raw Block (RWX), enabling live migration of KubeVirt VMs with high-performance raw block storage. This eliminates filesystem overhead, improves I/O performance, and ensures seamless migration by allowing simultaneous volume access on source and destination nodes. For more information, see Run KubeVirt VMs with raw block RWX volumes for live migration support.

• NVMe-oF/TCP support for FADA
  PX-CSI now supports NVMe-oF/TCP over IPv4, providing high-performance, low-latency storage access for Kubernetes applications using FlashArray LUNs. By leveraging standard TCP/IP, this feature eliminates the need for specialized networking hardware like RoCEv2, making deployment more flexible and cost-effective while maintaining optimal performance. For more information, see Set up NVMe-oF TCP protocol with FlashArray.

  Note: NVMe/TCP is supported with IPv4 protocol in this release. Support for NVMe/TCP with IPv6 will be available in a future release.

• Encryption support for FADA
  PX-CSI now supports FADA Encryption, providing seamless data protection by encrypting information both in transit and at rest on FlashArray storage. Encryption keys are used consistently across the cluster, even with multiple FlashArrays. This feature ensures that data remains secure throughout the process, with encryption handled at the storage level. For more information, see Encrypt FADA volumes.

Resolved Issues

Issue Number	Issue Description	Severity
PWX-41400	Updated oci-monitor image and golang.org/x/crypto package to resolve security vulnerabilities.	Major
PWX-40001	Updated stdlib and golang/go packages to resolve security vulnerabilities.	Major
PWX-41663	If Kubernetes clusters contain FlashBlade volumes migrated from Pure Storage Orchestrator (PSO) clusters, the Portworx process on these systems enters a continuous crash loop, preventing normal volume operations. Affected Versions: 25.1.0	Minor

Known Issues

• PWX-42230: On OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) versions 4.16 or earlier, Forklift requires a manual update to the StorageProfile configuration to function correctly. By default, OpenShift provisions PVCs in filesystem mode, which is incompatible with PX-CSI. Additionally, Forklift does not recognize Portworx as a provider of RWX volumes in Block mode. As a result, VM migrations from VMware to KubeVirt using PX-CSI might fail.

  Workaround: Before starting the migration, manually update the StorageProfile as follows:

  kind: StorageProfile
  metadata:
    name: <storageclass-name>
  spec:
    claimPropertySets:
      - accessModes:
        - ReadWriteMany
        volumeMode: Block

  Replace <storageclass-name> with the name of the StorageClass currently in use. Once the updated StorageProfile is applied, Forklift should operate as expected.

PX-CSI 25.1.0

PX-CSI was initially released on January 9, 2025. For installation instructions, see Install Portworx CSI.

Known Limitations

Portworx CSI has the following limitations when used with FlashArray:

• ActiveCluster, Active Disaster Recovery, and Active Workloads features are not supported.
• For FlashArray Direct Access volumes:
  • Volume import is not supported.
  • CSI ephemeral volumes are not supported.
  • The CreateOperations attribute is not honored.