Version: 3.1

Install and configure OpenShift on IBM Cloud

OpenShift can be run on IBM Cloud with a Portworx storage cluster.

This document provides instructions for installing Portworx using the IBM catalog with OpenShift (OCP) on IBM Cloud. This document provides a default installation configuration which is designed to get you up and running with a typical cluster configuration with the following properties:

The cluster is located in a single availability zone
Portworx is installed using an internal KVDB
Kubernetes has access to the public network and gateway

Prerequisites

Before you start installing Portworx, ensure you meet the following minimum prerequisites:

You must have an IBM Cloud account with admin privileges. Portworx does not support using a service ID.
You must have a OpenShift cluster with at least 3 worker nodes deployed on IBM Cloud, and that cluster must meet the Portworx minimum requirements.
You must have ability to provision cloud storage for each worker node.

(Optional) Create a StorageClass for encrypting cloud drives

If you want to set up encryption for cloud drives, create a custom StorageClass in your cluster (where you plan to deploy Portworx). This may impact the performance of your environment. Follow the steps outlined in the IBM documentation.

Install Portworx

Navigate to IBM Cloud. From the Catalog page, search for and select Portworx Enterprise.
From the configuration page, make the following selections:
- Under Select a location, specify the location in which your Kubernetes cluster is located.
- Under Select a pricing plan, select either Portworx Enterprise with Disaster Recovery (DR) or Enterprise.
- Under Configure your resource, do the following:
  - Choose a service name or accept the default.
  - Specify the resource group your Kubernetes cluster is in.
- At IBM Cloud API key, enter your IBM Cloud API key. Note, this API key is essential for populating the OpenShift cluster name for the next step.
- Choose the correct OpenShift cluster for Kubernetes or OpenShift Cluster name from the drop down list.
- At Portworx cluster name, enter a valid Portworx cluster name.
- At Cloud drives, select Use Cloud Drives from the drop-down menu. This reveals a number of new fields:
  - For Number of drives, select your desired number of cloud drives.
  - For Max storage nodes per zone, specify 3 storage nodes per zone.
  - For Storage Class name, retain the default storage class names. All cloud drives should show the same Storage Class name.
    - For encrypting cloud drives, select the custom StorageClass created by you from the dropdown.
  - For Size, define your desired disk size in GB.
- For Portworx metadata Key-value store, specify Portworx KVDB. This deploys Portworx with an internal KVDB cluster.
- For Secret type, keep Kubernetes secret.
- Leave Helm Parameters blank.
- Enable CSI.
- For Portworx versions, specify your desired Portworx version.
Agree to the terms and click Create to launch the Portworx cluster; this can take 20 minutes or more.

Verify your Portworx installation

Once you've installed Portworx, you can perform the following tasks to verify that Portworx has installed correctly.

Verify if all pods are running

Enter the following oc get pods command to list and filter the results for Portworx pods:

oc get pods -n portworx -o wide | grep -e portworx -e px

portworx-api-774c2                                      1/1     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
portworx-api-t4lf9                                      1/1     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.99    username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-94bpk                                     1/1     Running   0                4s      192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
portworx-operator-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx                    1/1     Running   0                4m1s    10.244.1.99       username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
prometheus-px-prometheus-0                              2/2     Running   0                2m41s   10.244.1.105      username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   2/2     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   1/2     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.99    username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-xxxxx                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.1.103      username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-xxxxx                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.1.102      username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-xxxxx                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.3.107      username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
px-prometheus-operator-59b98b5897-xxxxx                 1/1     Running   0                3m3s    10.244.1.104      username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>

Note the name of one of your px-cluster pods. You'll run pxctl commands from these pods in following steps.

Verify Portworx cluster status

You can find the status of the Portworx cluster by running pxctl status commands from a pod. Enter the following oc exec command, specifying the pod name you retrieved in the previous section:

oc exec px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx -n portworx -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl status

Defaulted container "portworx" out of: portworx, csi-node-driver-registrar
Status: PX is operational
Telemetry: Disabled or Unhealthy
Metering: Disabled or Unhealthy
License: Trial (expires in 31 days)
Node ID: 788bf810-57c4-4df1-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        IP: 192.168.121.99 
        Local Storage Pool: 1 pool
        POOL    IO_PRIORITY     RAID_LEVEL      USABLE  USED    STATUS  ZONE    REGION
        0       HIGH            raid0           3.0 TiB 10 GiB  Online  default default
        Local Storage Devices: 3 devices
        Device  Path            Media Type              Size            Last-Scan
        0:1     /dev/vdb        STORAGE_MEDIUM_MAGNETIC 1.0 TiB         14 Jul 22 22:03 UTC
        0:2     /dev/vdc        STORAGE_MEDIUM_MAGNETIC 1.0 TiB         14 Jul 22 22:03 UTC
        0:3     /dev/vdd        STORAGE_MEDIUM_MAGNETIC 1.0 TiB         14 Jul 22 22:03 UTC
        * Internal kvdb on this node is sharing this storage device /dev/vdc  to store its data.
        total           -       3.0 TiB
        Cache Devices:
         * No cache devices
Cluster Summary
        Cluster ID: px-cluster-1c3edc42-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Cluster UUID: 33a82fe9-d93b-435b-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Scheduler: kubernetes
        Nodes: 2 node(s) with storage (2 online)
        IP              ID                                      SchedulerNodeName       Auth            StorageNode     Used    Capacity        Status  StorageStatus       Version         Kernel                  OS
        192.168.121.196 f6d87392-81f4-459a-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx    username-k8s1-node0      Disabled        Yes             10 GiB  3.0 TiB         Online  Up 2.11.0-81faacc   3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64  CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
        192.168.121.99  788bf810-57c4-4df1-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx    username-k8s1-node1      Disabled        Yes             10 GiB  3.0 TiB         Online  Up (This node)      2.11.0-81faacc  3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64  CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
Global Storage Pool
        Total Used      :  20 GiB
        Total Capacity  :  6.0 TiB

The Portworx status will display PX is operational if your cluster is running as intended.

Verify pxctl cluster provision status

Find the storage cluster, the status should show as Online:

oc -n portworx get storagecluster

NAME                                              CLUSTER UUID                           STATUS   VERSION   AGE
px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   33a82fe9-d93b-435b-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx   Online   2.11.0    10m

Find the storage nodes, the statuses should show as Online:

oc -n portworx get storagenodes

NAME                  ID                                      STATUS   VERSION          AGE
username-k8s1-node0   f6d87392-81f4-459a-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   Online   2.11.0-81faacc   11m
username-k8s1-node1   788bf810-57c4-4df1-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   Online   2.11.0-81faacc   11m

Verify the Portworx cluster provision status . Enter the following oc exec command, specifying the pod name you retrieved in the previous section:

oc exec px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx -n portworx -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl cluster provision-status

Defaulted container "portworx" out of: portworx, csi-node-driver-registrar
NODE                                    NODE STATUS     POOL                                            POOL STATUS     IO_PRIORITY     SIZE    AVAILABLE   USED   PROVISIONED          ZONE    REGION  RACK
788bf810-57c4-4df1-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx    Up              0 ( 96e7ff01-fcff-4715-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx )      Online          HIGH            3.0 TiB 3.0 TiB    10 GiB       0 B             default default default
f6d87392-81f4-459a-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx       Up              0 ( e06386e7-b769-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx )          Online          HIGH            3.0 TiB 3.0 TiB    10 GiB       0 B             default default default

Create your first PVC

For your apps to use persistent volumes powered by Portworx, you must use a StorageClass that references Portworx as the provisioner. Portworx includes a number of default StorageClasses, which you can reference with PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) you create. For a more general overview of how storage works within Kubernetes, refer to the Persistent Volumes section of the Kubernetes documentation.

Perform the following steps to create a PVC:

Create a PVC referencing the px-csi-db default StorageClass and save the file:

kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
    name: px-check-pvc
spec:
    storageClassName: px-csi-db
    accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
        requests:
            storage: 2Gi

Run the oc apply command to create a PVC:

oc apply -f <your-pvc-name>.yaml

persistentvolumeclaim/px-check-pvc created

Verify your StorageClass and PVC

Enter the following oc get storageclass command, specify the name of the StorageClass you created in the steps above:

oc get storageclass <your-storageclass-name>

NAME                   PROVISIONER        RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE   ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
px-csi-db              pxd.portworx.com   Delete          Immediate           false                  24m

oc will return details about your storageClass if it was created correctly. Verify the configuration details appear as you intended.

Enter the oc get pvc command, if this is the only StorageClass and PVC you've created, you should see only one entry in the output:

oc get pvc <your-pvc-name>

NAME          STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS           AGE
px-check-pvc  Bound    pvc-dce346e8-ff02-4dfb-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx   2Gi        RWO            example-storageclass   3m7s

oc will return details about your PVC if it was created correctly. Verify the configuration details appear as you intended.

Prerequisites​

(Optional) Create a StorageClass for encrypting cloud drives​

Install Portworx​

Verify your Portworx installation​

Verify if all pods are running​

Verify Portworx cluster status​

Verify pxctl cluster provision status​

Create your first PVC​

Verify your StorageClass and PVC​

Further reading​