Planning your deployment

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12

Important considerations when deploying Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12

Red Hat Storage Documentation Team

Abstract

Read this document for important considerations when planning your Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation deployment.

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Chapter 1. Introduction to OpenShift Data Foundation

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is a highly integrated collection of cloud storage and data services for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. It is available as part of the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Service Catalog, packaged as an operator to facilitate simple deployment and management.

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services are primarily made available to applications by way of storage classes that represent the following components:

  • Block storage devices, catering primarily to database workloads. Prime examples include Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform logging and monitoring, and PostgreSQL.
  • Shared and distributed file system, catering primarily to software development, messaging, and data aggregation workloads. Examples include Jenkins build sources and artifacts, Wordpress uploaded content, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform registry, and messaging using JBoss AMQ.
  • Multicloud object storage, featuring a lightweight S3 API endpoint that can abstract the storage and retrieval of data from multiple cloud object stores.
  • On premises object storage, featuring a robust S3 API endpoint that scales to tens of petabytes and billions of objects, primarily targeting data intensive applications. Examples include the storage and access of row, columnar, and semi-structured data with applications like Spark, Presto, Red Hat AMQ Streams (Kafka), and even machine learning frameworks like TensorFlow and Pytorch.
Note

Running PostgresSQL workload on CephFS persistent volume is not supported and it is recommended to use RADOS Block Device (RBD) volume. For more information, see the knowledgebase solution ODF Database Workloads Must Not Use CephFS PVs/PVCs.

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.x integrates a collection of software projects, including:

  • Ceph, providing block storage, a shared and distributed file system, and on-premises object storage
  • Ceph CSI, to manage provisioning and lifecycle of persistent volumes and claims
  • NooBaa, providing a Multicloud Object Gateway
  • OpenShift Data Foundation, Rook-Ceph, and NooBaa operators to initialize and manage OpenShift Data Foundation services.

Chapter 2. Architecture of OpenShift Data Foundation

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation provides services for, and can run internally from the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Figure 2.1. Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation architecture

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation architecture

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation supports deployment into Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters deployed on installer-provisioned or user-provisioned infrastructure.

For details about these two approaches, see OpenShift Container Platform - Installation process.

To know more about interoperability of components for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, see Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Supportability and Interoperability Checker.

For information about the architecture and lifecycle of OpenShift Container Platform, see OpenShift Container Platform architecture.

2.1. About operators

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation comprises of three main operators, which codify administrative tasks and custom resources so that you can easily automate the task and resource characteristics. Administrators define the desired end state of the cluster, and the OpenShift Data Foundation operators ensure the cluster is either in that state, or approaching that state, with minimal administrator intervention.

OpenShift Data Foundation operator

A meta-operator that draws on other operators in specific tested ways to codify and enforce the recommendations and requirements of a supported Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation deployment. The rook-ceph and noobaa operators provide the storage cluster resource that wraps these resources.

Rook-ceph operator

This operator automates the packaging, deployment, management, upgrading, and scaling of persistent storage and file, block, and object services. It creates block and file storage classes for all environments, and creates an object storage class and services Object Bucket Claims (OBCs) made against it in on-premises environments.

Additionally, for internal mode clusters, it provides the ceph cluster resource, which manages the deployments and services representing the following:

  • Object Storage Daemons (OSDs)
  • Monitors (MONs)
  • Manager (MGR)
  • Metadata servers (MDS)
  • RADOS Object Gateways (RGWs) on-premises only

Multicloud Object Gateway operator

This operator automates the packaging, deployment, management, upgrading, and scaling of the Multicloud Object Gateway (MCG) object service. It creates an object storage class and services the OBCs made against it.

Additionally, it provides the NooBaa cluster resource, which manages the deployments and services for NooBaa core, database, and endpoint.

2.2. Storage cluster deployment approaches

The growing list of operating modalities is an evidence that flexibility is a core tenet of Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation. This section provides you with information that will help you to select the most appropriate approach for your environments.

You can deploy Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation either entirely within OpenShift Container Platform (Internal approach) or to make available the services from a cluster running outside of OpenShift Container Platform (External approach).

2.2.1. Internal approach

Deployment of Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation entirely within Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform has all the benefits of operator based deployment and management. You can use the internal-attached device approach in the graphical user interface (GUI) to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation in internal mode using the local storage operator and local storage devices.

Ease of deployment and management are the highlights of running OpenShift Data Foundation services internally on OpenShift Container Platform. There are two different deployment modalities available when Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is running entirely within Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform:

  • Simple
  • Optimized

Simple deployment

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services run co-resident with applications. The operators in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform manages these applications.

A simple deployment is best for situations where,

  • Storage requirements are not clear.
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services runs co-resident with the applications.
  • Creating a node instance of a specific size is difficult, for example, on bare metal.

In order for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation to run co-resident with the applications, the applications must have local storage devices, or portable storage devices attached to them dynamically, like EBS volumes on EC2, or vSphere Virtual Volumes on VMware, or SAN volumes.

Note

PowerVC dynamically provisions the SAN volumes.

Optimized deployment

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services run on dedicated infrastructure nodes. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform manages these infrastructure nodes.

An optimized approach is best for situations when,

  • Storage requirements are clear.
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services run on dedicated infrastructure nodes.
  • Creating a node instance of a specific size is easy, for example, on cloud, virtualized environment, and so on.

2.2.2. External approach

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation exposes the Red Hat Ceph Storage services running outside of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster as storage classes.

The external approach is best used when,

  • Storage requirements are significant (600+ storage devices).
  • Multiple OpenShift Container Platform clusters need to consume storage services from a common external cluster.
  • Another team, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), storage, and so on, needs to manage the external cluster providing storage services. Possibly pre-existing.

2.3. Node types

Nodes run the container runtime, as well as services, to ensure that the containers are running, and maintain network communication and separation between the pods. In OpenShift Data Foundation, there are three types of nodes.

Table 2.1. Types of nodes

Node TypeDescription

Master

These nodes run processes that expose the Kubernetes API, watch and schedule newly created pods, maintain node health and quantity, and control interaction with underlying cloud providers.

Infrastructure (Infra)

Infra nodes run cluster level infrastructure services such as logging, metrics, registry, and routing. These are optional in OpenShift Container Platform clusters. In order to separate OpenShift Data Foundation layer workload from applications, ensure that you use infra nodes for OpenShift Data Foundation in virtualized and cloud environments.

To create Infra nodes, you can provision new nodes labeled as infra. For more information, see How to use dedicated worker nodes for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation

Worker

Worker nodes are also known as application nodes since they run applications.

When OpenShift Data Foundation is deployed in internal mode, you require a minimal cluster of 3 worker nodes. Make sure that the nodes are spread across 3 different racks, or availability zones, to ensure availability. In order for OpenShift Data Foundation to run on worker nodes, you need to attach the local storage devices, or portable storage devices to the worker nodes dynamically.

When OpenShift Data Foundation is deployed in external mode, it runs on multiple nodes. This allows Kubernetes to reschedule on the available nodes in case of a failure.

Note

OpenShift Data Foundation requires the same number of subsciptions as OpenShift Container Platform. However, if OpenShift Data Foundation is running on infra nodes, OpenShift does not require OpenShift Container Platform subscription for these nodes. Therefore, the OpenShift Data Foundation control plane does not require additional OpenShift Container Platform and OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions. For more information, see Chapter 6, Subscriptions.

Chapter 3. Internal storage services

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation service is available for consumption internally to the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that runs on the following infrastructure:

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Bare metal
  • VMware vSphere
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud [Technology Preview]
  • Red Hat Virtualization 4.4.x or higher (installer-provisioned infrastructure)
  • Red Hat OpenStack 13 or higher (installer-provisioned infrastructure) [Technology Preview]
  • IBM Power
  • IBM Z and LinuxONE

Creation of an internal cluster resource results in the internal provisioning of the OpenShift Data Foundation base services, and makes additional storage classes available to the applications.

Chapter 4. External storage services

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation can use IBM FlashSystems or make services from an external Red Hat Ceph Storage cluster available for consumption through OpenShift Container Platform clusters running on the following platforms:

  • VMware vSphere
  • Bare metal
  • Red Hat OpenStack platform (Technology Preview)
  • IBM Power
  • IBM Z infrastructure

The OpenShift Data Foundation operators create and manage services to satisfy Persistent Volume (PV) and Object Bucket Claims (OBCs) against the external services. External cluster can serve block, file and object storage classes for applications that run on OpenShift Container Platform. The operators do not deploy or manage the external clusters.

Chapter 5. Security considerations

5.1. FIPS-140-2

The Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-2 (FIPS-140-2) is a standard that defines a set of security requirements for the use of cryptographic modules. Law mandates this standard for the US government agencies and contractors and is also referenced in other international and industry specific standards.

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation now uses the FIPS validated cryptographic modules. Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS/CoreOS (RHCOS) delivers these modules.

Currently, the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) processes the cryptography modules. You can see the state of these modules at Modules in Process List. For more up-to-date information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution RHEL core crypto components.

Note

Enable the FIPS mode on the OpenShift Container Platform, before you install OpenShift Data Foundation. OpenShift Container Platform must run on the RHCOS nodes, as the feature does not support OpenShift Data Foundation deployment on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7).

For more information, see Installing a cluster in FIPS mode and Support for FIPS cryptography of the Installing guide in OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

5.2. Proxy environment

A proxy environment is a production environment that denies direct access to the internet and provides an available HTTP or HTTPS proxy instead. Red Hat Openshift Container Platform is configured to use a proxy by modifying the proxy object for existing clusters or by configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file for new clusters.

Red Hat supports deployment of OpenShift Data Foundation in proxy environments when OpenShift Container Platform has been configured according to configuring the cluster-wide proxy.

5.3. Data encryption options

Encryption lets you encode your data to make it impossible to read without the required encryption keys. This mechanism protects the confidentiality of your data in the event of a physical security breach that results in a physical media to escape your custody. The per-PV encryption also provides access protection from other namespaces inside the same OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Data is encrypted when it is written to the disk, and decrypted when it is read from the disk. Working with encrypted data might incur a small penalty to performance.

Encryption is only supported for new clusters deployed using Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.6 or higher. An existing encrypted cluster that is not using an external Key Management System (KMS) cannot be migrated to use an external KMS.

Previously, HashiCorp Vault was the only supported KMS for Cluster-wide and Persistent Volume encryptions. With OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7.0 and 4.7.1, only HashiCorp Vault Key/Value (KV) secret engine API, version 1 is supported. Starting with OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7.2, HashiCorp Vault KV secret engine API, versions 1 and 2 are supported. As of OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12, Thales CipherTrust Manager has been introduced as an additional supported KMS.

Important

Red Hat works with the technology partners to provide this documentation as a service to the customers. However, Red Hat does not provide support for the Hashicorp product. For technical assistance with this product, contact Hashicorp.

5.3.1. Cluster-wide encryption

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation supports cluster-wide encryption (encryption-at-rest) for all the disks and Multicloud Object Gateway operations in the storage cluster. OpenShift Data Foundation uses Linux Unified Key System (LUKS) version 2 based encryption with a key size of 512 bits and the aes-xts-plain64 cipher where each device has a different encryption key. The keys are stored using a Kubernetes secret or an external KMS. Both methods are mutually exclusive and you can not migrate between methods.

Encryption is disabled by default for block and file storage. You can enable encryption for the cluster at the time of deployment. The MultiCloud Object Gateway supports encryption by default. See the deployment guides for more information.

Cluster wide encryption is supported in OpenShift Data Foundation 4.6 without Key Management System (KMS). Starting with OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7, it supports with and without HashiCorp Vault KMS. Starting with OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12, it supports with and without both HashiCorp Vault KMS and Thales CipherTrust Manager KMS.

Note

Requires a valid Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced subscription. To know how subscriptions for OpenShift Data Foundation work, see knowledgebase article on OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions.

Cluster wide encryption with HashiCorp Vault KMS provides two authentication methods:

  • Token: This method allows authentication using vault tokens. A kubernetes secret containing the vault token is created in the openshift-storage namespace and is used for authentication. If this authentication method is selected then the administrator has to provide the vault token that provides access to the backend path in Vault, where the encryption keys are stored.
  • Kubernetes: This method allows authentication with vault using serviceaccounts. If this authentication method is selected then the administrator has to provide the name of the role configured in Vault that provides access to the backend path, where the encryption keys are stored. The value of this role is then added to the ocs-kms-connection-details config map. This method is available from OpenShift Data Foundation 4.10.

    Currently, HashiCorp Vault is the only supported KMS. With OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7.0 and 4.7.1, only HashiCorp Vault KV secret engine, API version 1 is supported. Starting with OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7.2, HashiCorp Vault KV secret engine API, versions 1 and 2 are supported.

Note

OpenShift Data Foundation on IBM Cloud platform supports Hyper Protect Crypto Services (HPCS) Key Management Services (KMS) as the encryption solution in addition to HashiCorp Vault KMS.

Important

Red Hat works with the technology partners to provide this documentation as a service to the customers. However, Red Hat does not provide support for the Hashicorp product. For technical assistance with this product, contact Hashicorp.

5.3.2. Storage class encryption

You can encrypt persistent volumes (block only) with storage class encryption using an external Key Management System (KMS) to store device encryption keys. Persistent volume encryption is only available for RADOS Block Device (RBD) persistent volumes. See how to create a storage class with persistent volume encryption.

Storage class encryption is supported in OpenShift Data Foundation 4.7 or higher with HashiCorp Vault KMS. Storage class encryption is supported in OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12 or higher with both HashiCorp Vault KMS and Thales CipherTrust Manager KMS.

Note

Requires a valid Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced subscription. To know how subscriptions for OpenShift Data Foundation work, see knowledgebase article on OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions.

5.3.3. CipherTrust manager

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.12 introduces Thales CipherTrust Manager as an additional Key Management System (KMS) provider for your deployment. Thales CipherTrust Manager provides centralized key lifecycle management. CipherTrust Manager supports Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP), which enables communication between key management systems.

CipherTrust Manager is enabled during deployment.

5.4. Encryption in Transit

You need to enable IPsec so that all the network traffic between the nodes on the OVN-Kubernetes Container Network Interface (CNI) cluster network travels through an encrypted tunnel.

By default, IPsec is disabled. You can enable it either during or after installing the cluster. If you need to enable IPsec after cluster installation, you must first resize your cluster MTU to account for the overhead of the IPsec ESP IP header.

For more information on how to configure the IPsec encryption, see Configuring IPsec encryption of the Networking guide in OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

Chapter 6. Subscriptions

6.1. Subscription offerings

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation subscription is based on “core-pairs,” similar to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 2-core subscription is based on the number of logical cores on the CPUs in the system where OpenShift Container Platform runs.

As with OpenShift Container Platform:

  • OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions are stackable to cover larger hosts.
  • Cores can be distributed across as many virtual machines (VMs) as needed. For example, ten 2-core subscriptions will provide 20 cores and in case of IBM Power a 2-core subscription at SMT level of 8 will provide 2 cores or 16 vCPUs that can be used across any number of VMs.
  • OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions are available with Premium or Standard support.

6.2. Disaster recovery subscription requirement

Disaster Recovery features supported by Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation require all of the following prerequisites to successfully implement a disaster recovery solution:

  • A valid Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced entitlement
  • A valid Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes subscription

Any Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Cluster containing PVs participating in active replication either as a source or destination requires OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced entitlement. This subscription should be active on both source and destination clusters.

To know how subscriptions for OpenShift Data Foundation work, see knowledgebase article on OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions.

6.3. Cores versus vCPUs and hyperthreading

Making a determination about whether or not a particular system consumes one or more cores is currently dependent on whether or not that system has hyperthreading available. Hyperthreading is only a feature of Intel CPUs. Visit the Red Hat Customer Portal to determine whether a particular system supports hyperthreading.

For systems where hyperthreading is enabled and where one hyperthread equates to one visible system core, the calculation of cores is a ratio of 2 cores to 4 vCPUs. Therefore, a 2-core subscription covers 4 vCPUs in a hyperthreaded system. A large virtual machine (VM) might have 8 vCPUs, equating to 4 subscription cores. As subscriptions come in 2-core units, you will need two 2-core subscriptions to cover these 4 cores or 8 vCPUs.

Where hyperthreading is not enabled, and where each visible system core correlates directly to an underlying physical core, the calculation of cores is a ratio of 2 cores to 2 vCPUs.

6.3.1. Cores versus vCPUs and simultaneous multithreading (SMT) for IBM Power

Making a determination about whether or not a particular system consumes one or more cores is currently dependent on the level of simultaneous multithreading configured (SMT). IBM Power provides simultaneous multithreading levels of 1, 2, 4 or 8 for each core which correspond to the number of vCPUs as in the table below.

Table 6.1. Different SMT levels and their corresponding vCPUs

SMT levelSMT=1SMT=2SMT=4SMT=8

1 Core

# vCPUs=1

# vCPUs=2

# vCPUs=4

# vCPUs=8

2 Cores

# vCPUs=2

# vCPUs=4

# vCPUs=8

# vCPUs=16

4 Cores

# vCPUs=4

# vCPUs=8

# vCPUs=16

# vCPUs=32

For systems where SMT is configured the calculation for the number of cores required for subscription purposes depends on the SMT level. Therefore, a 2-core subscription corresponds to 2 vCPUs on SMT level of 1, and to 4 vCPUs on SMT level of 2, and to 8 vCPUs on SMT level of 4 and to 16 vCPUs on SMT level of 8 as seen in the table above. A large virtual machine (VM) might have 16 vCPUs, which at a SMT level 8 will require a 2 core subscription based on dividing the # of vCPUs by the SMT level (16 vCPUs / 8 for SMT-8 = 2). As subscriptions come in 2-core units, you will need one 2-core subscription to cover these 2 cores or 16 vCPUs.

6.4. Splitting cores

Systems that require an odd number of cores need to consume a full 2-core subscription. For example, a system that is calculated to require only 1 core will end up consuming a full 2-core subscription once it is registered and subscribed.

When a single virtual machine (VM) with 2 vCPUs uses hyperthreading resulting in 1 calculated vCPU, a full 2-core subscription is required; a single 2-core subscription may not be split across two VMs with 2 vCPUs using hyperthreading. See section Cores versus vCPUs and hyperthreading for more information.

It is recommended that virtual instances be sized so that they require an even number of cores.

6.4.1. Shared Processor Pools for IBM Power

IBM Power have a notion of shared processor pools. The processors in a shared processor pool can be shared across the nodes in the cluster. The aggregate compute capacity required for a Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation should be a multiple of core-pairs.

6.5. Subscription requirements

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation components can run on either OpenShift Container Platform worker or infrastructure nodes, for which you can use either Red Hat CoreOS (RHCOS) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.4 as the host operating system. RHEL 7 is now deprecated. OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions are required for every OpenShift Container Platform subscribed core with a ratio of 1:1.

When using infrastructure nodes, the rule to subscribe all OpenShift worker node cores for OpenShift Data Foundation applies even though they don’t need any OpenShift Container Platform or any OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions. You can use labels to state whether a node is a worker or an infrastructure node.

For more information, see How to use dedicated worker nodes for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation in the Managing and Allocating Storage Resources guide.

Chapter 7. Infrastructure requirements

7.1. Platform requirements

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12 is supported only on OpenShift Container Platform version 4.12 and its next minor versions.

Bug fixes for previous version of Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation will be released as bug fix versions. For more details, see the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Life Cycle Policy.

For external cluster subscription requirements, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution OpenShift Data Foundation Subscription Guide.

For a complete list of supported platform versions, see the Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Supportability and Interoperability Checker.

7.1.1. Amazon EC2

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters only.

An Internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class that provides, EBS storage via the aws-ebs provisioner.

OpenShift Data Foundation supports gp2-csi and gp3-csi drivers that were introduced by Amazon Web Services (AWS). These drivers offer better storage expansion capabilities and a reduced monthly price point (gp3-csi). You can now select the new drivers when selecting your storage class. In case a high throughput is required, gp3-csi is recommended to be used when deploying OpenShift Data Foundation.

7.1.2. Bare Metal

Supports internal clusters and consuming external clusters.

An internal cluster must meet both the storage device requirements and have a storage class that provide local SSD (NVMe/SATA/SAS, SAN) via the Local Storage Operator.

7.1.3. VMware vSphere

Supports internal clusters and consuming external clusters.

Recommended versions:

  • vSphere 6.7, Update 2 or later
  • vSphere 7.0 or later.

For more details, see the VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements.

Note

If VMware ESXi does not recognize its devices as flash, mark them as flash devices. Before Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation deployment, refer to Mark Storage Devices as Flash.

Additionally, an Internal cluster must meet both the, storage device requirements and have a storage class providing either,

  • vSAN or VMFS datastore via the vsphere-volume provisioner
  • VMDK, RDM, or DirectPath storage devices via the Local Storage Operator.

7.1.4. Microsoft Azure

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters only.

An internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class that provides, an zzure disk via the azure-disk provisioner.

7.1.5. Google Cloud [Technology Preview]

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters only.

An internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class that provides, a GCE Persistent Disk via the gce-pd provisioner.

7.1.6. Red Hat Virtualization Platform

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters only.

An internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class that provides local SSD (NVMe/SATA/SAS, SAN) via the Local Storage Operator.

7.1.7. Red Hat OpenStack Platform [Technology Preview]

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters and consuming external clusters.

An internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class that provides a standard disk via the Cinder provisioner.

7.1.8. IBM Power

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters and consuming external clusters.

An Internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class providing local SSD (NVMe/SATA/SAS, SAN) via the Local Storage Operator.

7.1.9. IBM Z and LinuxONE

Supports internal Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation clusters. Also, supports external mode where Ceph is running on x86.

An Internal cluster must meet both, storage device requirements and have a storage class providing local SSD (NVMe/SATA/SAS, SAN) via the Local Storage Operator.

7.2. External mode requirement

7.2.1. Red Hat Ceph Storage

To check the supportability and interoperability of Red Hat Ceph Storage (RHCS) with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation in external mode, go to the lab Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Supportability and Interoperability Checker.

  1. Select Service Type as ODF as Self-Managed Service.
  2. Select appropriate Version from the drop down.
  3. On Versions tab, click Supported RHCS Compatibility tab.

For instructions regarding how to install a RHCS cluster, see the Installation guide.

7.2.2. IBM FlashSystem

To use IBM FlashSystem as a pluggable external storage on other providers, you need to first deploy it before you can deploy OpenShift Data Foundation, which would use the IBM FlashSystem storage class as a backing storage.

For the latest supported FlashSystem storage systems and versions, see ODF FlashSystem driver documentation.

For instructions on how to deploy OpenShift Data Foundation, see Creating an OpenShift Data Foundation Cluster for external IBM FlashSystem storage.

7.3. Resource requirements

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services consist of an initial set of base services, and can be extended with additional device sets. All of these Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services pods are scheduled by kubernetes on OpenShift Container Platform nodes. Expanding the cluster in multiples of three, one node in each failure domain, is an easy way to satisfy the pod placement rules.

Important

These requirements relate to OpenShift Data Foundation services only, and not to any other services, operators or workloads that are running on these nodes.

Table 7.1. Aggregate avaliable resource requirements for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation only

Deployment ModeBase servicesAdditional device Set

Internal

  • 30 CPU (logical)
  • 72 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices
  • 6 CPU (logical)
  • 15 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices

External

  • 4 CPU (logical)
  • 16 GiB memory

Not applicable

Example: For a 3 node cluster in an internal mode deployment with a single device set, a minimum of 3 x 10 = 30 units of CPU are required.

For more information, see Chapter 6, Subscriptions and CPU units.

For additional guidance with designing your Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation cluster, see the ODF Sizing Tool.

CPU units

In this section, 1 CPU Unit maps to the Kubernetes concept of 1 CPU unit.

  • 1 unit of CPU is equivalent to 1 core for non-hyperthreaded CPUs.
  • 2 units of CPU are equivalent to 1 core for hyperthreaded CPUs.
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation core-based subscriptions always come in pairs (2 cores).

Table 7.2. Aggregate minimum resource requirements for IBM Power

Deployment ModeBase services

Internal

  • 48 CPU (logical)
  • 192 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices, each with additional 500GB of disk

External

  • 24 CPU (logical)
  • 48 GiB memory

Example: For a 3 node cluster in an internal-attached devices mode deployment, a minimum of 3 x 16 = 48 units of CPU and 3 x 64 = 192 GB of memory is required.

7.3.1. Resource requirements for IBM Z and LinuxONE infrastructure

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services consist of an initial set of base services, and can be extended with additional device sets.

All of these Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation services pods are scheduled by kubernetes on OpenShift Container Platform nodes . Expanding the cluster in multiples of three, one node in each failure domain, is an easy way to satisfy the pod placement rules.

Table 7.3. Aggregate available resource requirements for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation only (IBM Z and LinuxONE)

Deployment ModeBase servicesAdditional device SetIBM Z and LinuxONE minimum hardware requirements

Internal

  • 30 CPU (logical)

    • 3 nodes with 10 CPUs (logical) each
  • 72 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices
  • 6 CPU (logical)
  • 15 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices

1 IFL

External

  • 4 CPU (logical)
  • 16 GiB memory

Not applicable

Not applicable

CPU
Is the number of virtual cores defined in the hypervisor, IBM z/VM, Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM), or both.
IFL (Integrated Facility for Linux)
Is the physical core for IBM Z and LinuxONE.

Minimum system environment

  • In order to operate a minimal cluster with 1 logical partition (LPAR), one additional IFL is required on top of the 6 IFLs. OpenShift Container Platform consumes these IFLs .

7.3.2. Minimum deployment resource requirements

An OpenShift Data Foundation cluster will be deployed with minimum configuration when the standard deployment resource requirement is not met.

Important

These requirements relate to OpenShift Data Foundation services only, and not to any other services, operators or workloads that are running on these nodes.

Table 7.4. Aggregate resource requirements for OpenShift Data Foundation only

Deployment ModeBase services

Internal

  • 24 CPU (logical)
  • 72 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices

If you want to add additional device sets, we recommend converting your minimum deployment to standard deployment.

7.3.3. Compact deployment resource requirements

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation can be installed on a three-node OpenShift compact bare metal cluster, where all the workloads run on three strong master nodes. There are no worker or storage nodes.

Important

These requirements relate to OpenShift Data Foundation services only, and not to any other services, operators or workloads that are running on these nodes.

Table 7.5. Aggregate resource requirements for OpenShift Data Foundation only

Deployment ModeBase servicesAdditional device Set

Internal

  • 24 CPU (logical)
  • 72 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices
  • 6 CPU (logical)
  • 15 GiB memory
  • 3 storage devices

To configure OpenShift Container Platform on a compact bare metal cluster, see Configuring a three-node cluster and Delivering a Three-node Architecture for Edge Deployments.

7.3.4. Resource requirements for MCG only deployment

An OpenShift Data Foundation cluster deployed only with the Multicloud Object Gateway (MCG) component provides the flexibility in deployment and helps to reduce the resource consumption.

Table 7.6. Aggregate resource requirements for MCG only deployment

Deployment ModeCoreDatabase (DB)Endpoint

Internal

  • 1 CPU
  • 4 GiB memory
  • 0.5 CPU
  • 4 GiB memory
  • 1 CPU
  • 2 GiB memory
Note

The defaut auto scale is between 1 - 2.

7.3.5. Resource requirements for using Network File system

With the release of Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.12, you can create exports using Network File System (NFS) that can then be accessed externally from the OpenShift cluster as a Technology preview. If you plan to use this feature, the NFS service consumes 3 CPUs and 8Gi of Ram. NFS is optional and is disabled by default.

The NFS volume can be accessed two ways:

  • In-cluster: by an application pod inside of the Openshift cluster.
  • Out of cluster: from outside of the Openshift cluster.

For more information about the NFS feature, see Creating exports using NFS

Important

NFS is a Technology Preview feature. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

7.4. Pod placement rules

Kubernetes is responsible for pod placement based on declarative placement rules. The Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation base service placement rules for Internal cluster can be summarized as follows:

  • Nodes are labeled with the cluster.ocs.openshift.io/openshift-storage key
  • Nodes are sorted into pseudo failure domains if none exist
  • Components requiring high availability are spread across failure domains
  • A storage device must be accessible in each failure domain

This leads to the requirement that there be at least three nodes, and that nodes be in three distinct rack or zone failure domains in the case of pre-existing topology labels.

For additional device sets, there must be a storage device, and sufficient resources for the pod consuming it, in each of the three failure domains. Manual placement rules can be used to override default placement rules, but generally this approach is only suitable for bare metal deployments.

7.5. Storage device requirements

Use this section to understand the different storage capacity requirements that you can consider when planning internal mode deployments and upgrades. We generally recommend 9 devices or less per node. This recommendation ensures both that nodes stay below cloud provider dynamic storage device attachment limits, and to limit the recovery time after node failures with local storage devices. Expanding the cluster in multiples of three, one node in each failure domain, is an easy way to satisfy pod placement rules.

Storage nodes should have at least two disks, one for the operating system and the remaining disks for OpenShift Data Foundation components.

Note

You can expand the storage capacity only in the increment of the capacity selected at the time of installation.

7.5.1. Dynamic storage devices

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation permits the selection of either 0.5 TiB, 2 TiB or 4 TiB capacities as the request size for dynamic storage device sizes. The number of dynamic storage devices that can run per node is a function of the node size, underlying provisioner limits and resource requirements.

7.5.2. Local storage devices

For local storage deployment, any disk size of 4 TiB or less can be used, and all disks should be of the same size and type. The number of local storage devices that can run per node is a function of the node size and resource requirements. Expanding the cluster in multiples of three, one node in each failure domain, is an easy way to satisfy pod placement rules.

Note

Disk partitioning is not supported.

7.5.3. Capacity planning

Always ensure that available storage capacity stays ahead of consumption. Recovery is difficult if available storage capacity is completely exhausted, and requires more intervention than simply adding capacity or deleting or migrating content.

Capacity alerts are issued when cluster storage capacity reaches 75% (near-full) and 85% (full) of total capacity. Always address capacity warnings promptly, and review your storage regularly to ensure that you do not run out of storage space. When you get to 75% (near-full), either free up space or expand the cluster. When you get the 85% (full) alert, it indicates that you have run out of storage space completely and cannot free up space using standard commands. At this point, contact Red Hat Customer Support.

The following tables show example node configurations for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation with dynamic storage devices.

Table 7.7. Example initial configurations with 3 nodes

Storage Device sizeStorage Devices per nodeTotal capacityUsable storage capacity

0.5 TiB

1

1.5 TiB

0.5 TiB

2 TiB

1

6 TiB

2 TiB

4 TiB

1

12 TiB

4 TiB

Table 7.8. Example of expanded configurations with 30 nodes (N)

Storage Device size (D)Storage Devices per node (M)Total capacity (D * M * N)Usable storage capacity (D*M*N/3)

0.5 TiB

3

45 TiB

15 TiB

2 TiB

6

360 TiB

120 TiB

4 TiB

9

1080 TiB

360 TiB

7.6. Network requirements

Use this section to understand the different network considerations when planning deployments.

7.6.1. IPv6 support

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.12 introduces the support of IPv6. IPv6 is supported in single stack only, and cannot be used simultaneously with IPv4. IPv6 is the default behavior in OpenShift Data Foundation when IPv6 is turned on in Openshift Container Platform.

7.7. Multi network plug-in (Multus) support [Technology Preview]

By default, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is configured to use the Red Hat OpenShift Software Defined Network (SDN). In this default configuration the SDN carries the following types of traffic:

  • Pod to pod traffic
  • Pod to OpenShift Data Foundation traffic, known as the OpenShift Data Foundation public network traffic
  • OpenShift Data Foundation replication and rebalancing, known as the OpenShift Data Foundation cluster network traffic

However, OpenShift Data Foundation 4.8 and later supports as a Technology Preview the ability to use Multus to improve security and performance by isolating the different types of network traffic.

Important

Multus support is a Technology Preview feature that is only supported and has been tested on bare metal and VMWare deployments. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

7.7.1. Understanding multiple networks

In Kubernetes, container networking is delegated to networking plug-ins that implement the Container Network Interface (CNI).

OpenShift Container Platform uses the Multus CNI plug-in to allow chaining of CNI plug-ins. During cluster installation, you configure your default pod network. The default network handles all ordinary network traffic for the cluster. You can define an additional network based on the available CNI plug-ins and attach one or more of these networks to your pods. You can define more than one additional network for your cluster, depending on your needs. This gives you flexibility when you configure pods that deliver network functionality, such as switching or routing.

7.7.1.1. Usage scenarios for an additional network

You can use an additional network in situations where network isolation is needed, including data plane and control plane separation. Isolating network traffic is useful for the following performance and security reasons:

Performance
You can send traffic on two different planes in order to manage how much traffic is along each plane.
Security
You can send sensitive traffic onto a network plane that is managed specifically for security considerations, and you can separate private data that must not be shared between tenants or customers.

All of the pods in the cluster still use the cluster-wide default network to maintain connectivity across the cluster. Every pod has an eth0 interface that is attached to the cluster-wide pod network. You can view the interfaces for a pod by using the oc exec -it <pod_name> -- ip a command. If you add additional network interfaces that use Multus CNI, they are named net1, net2, …​, netN.

To attach additional network interfaces to a pod, you must create configurations that define how the interfaces are attached. You specify each interface by using a NetworkAttachmentDefinition custom resource (CR). A CNI configuration inside each of these CRs defines how that interface is created.

7.7.2. Segregating storage traffic using Multus

In order to use Multus, before deployment of the OpenShift Data Foundation cluster you must create network attachment definitions (NADs) that later will be attached to the cluster. For more information, see:

Using Multus, the following configurations are possible depending on your hardware setup or your VMWare instance network setup:

  • Nodes with a dual network interface recommended configuration

    • Segregated storage traffic

      • Configure one interface for OpenShift SDN (pod to pod traffic)
      • Configure one interface for all OpenShift Data Foundation traffic
  • Nodes with a triple network interface recommended configuration

    • Full traffic segregation

      • Configure one interface for OpenShift SDN (pod to pod traffic)
      • Configure one interface for all pod to OpenShift Data Foundation traffic (OpenShift Data Foundation public traffic)
      • Configure one interface for all OpenShift Data Foundation replication and rebalancing traffic (OpenShift Data Foundation cluster traffic)

Chapter 8. Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery (DR) helps an organization to recover and resume business critical functions or normal operations when there are disruptions or disasters. OpenShift Data Foundation provides High Availability (HA) & DR solutions for stateful apps which are broadly categorized into two broad categories:

  • Metro-DR: Single Region and cross data center protection with no data loss.
  • Regional-DR: Cross Region protection with minimal potential data loss. [Technology Preview]
Important

OpenShift Data Foundation Metro-DR feature with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) 2.7 is now Generally Available.

The Regional-DR solution for both Blocks and Files is offered as Technology Preview and is subject to Technology Preview support limitations.

8.1. Metro-DR

Metro-DR is composed of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (RHACM), Red Hat Ceph Storage and OpenShift Data Foundation components to provide application and data mobility across OpenShift Container Platform clusters.

This release of Metro-DR solution provides volume persistent data and metadata replication across sites that are geographically dispersed. In the public cloud these would be similar to protecting from an Availability Zone failure. Metro-DR ensures business continuity during the unavailability of a data center with no data loss. This solution is entitled with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) and OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced SKUs and related bundles.

Prerequisites

Disaster Recovery features supported by Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation require all of the following prerequisites in order to successfully implement a Disaster Recovery solution:

  • A valid Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced entitlement
  • A valid Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes subscription

To know how subscriptions for OpenShift Data Foundation work, see knowledgebase article on OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions.

For detailed solution requirements, see Metro-DR requirements, deployment requirements for Red Hat Ceph Storage stretch cluster with arbiter and RHACM requirements.

8.2. Regional-DR [Technology Preview]

Regional-DR is composed of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (RHACM) and OpenShift Data Foundation components to provide application and data mobility across OpenShift Container Platform clusters. It is built on Asynchronous data replication and hence could have a potential data loss but provides the protection against a broad set of failures.

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is backed by Ceph as the storage provider, whose lifecycle is managed by Rook and it’s enhanced with the ability to:

  • Enable pools for mirroring.
  • Automatically mirror images across RBD pools.
  • Provides csi-addons to manage per Persistent Volume Claim mirroring.

This release of Regional-DR supports Multi-Cluster configuration that is deployed across different regions and data centers. For example, a 2-way replication across two managed clusters located in two different regions or data centers. This solution is entitled with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM) and OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced SKUs and related bundles.

Prerequisites

Disaster Recovery features supported by Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation require all of the following prerequisites in order to successfully implement a Disaster Recovery solution:

  • A valid Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Advanced entitlement
  • A valid Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes subscription

To know how subscriptions for OpenShift Data Foundation work, see knowledgebase article on OpenShift Data Foundation subscriptions.

For detailed solution requirements, see Regional-DR requirements and RHACM requirements.

Important

Configuring OpenShift Data Foundation for Regional-DR with Advanced Cluster Management is a Technology Preview feature and is subject to Technology Preview support limitations. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.

Chapter 9. Disconnected environment

Disconnected environment is a network restricted environment where the Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) cannot access the default Operator Hub and image registries, which require internet connectivity.

Red Hat supports deployment of OpenShift Data Foundation in disconnected environments where you have installed OpenShift Container Platform in restricted networks.

To install OpenShift Data Foundation in a disconnected environment, see Using Operator Lifecycle Manager on restricted networks of the Operators guide in OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

Note

When you install OpenShift Data Foundation in a restricted network environment, apply a custom Network Time Protocol (NTP) configuration to the nodes, because by default, internet connectivity is assumed in OpenShift Container Platform and chronyd is configured to use the *.rhel.pool.ntp.org servers.

For more information, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution A newly deployed OCS 4 cluster status shows as "Degraded", Why? and Configuring chrony time service in the Installing guide of OpenShift Container Platform documentation.

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.12 introduces the Agent-based Installer for disconnected environment deployment. The Agent-based Installer allows you to use a mirror registry for disconnected installations. For more information, see Preparing to install with Agent-based Installer.

Packages to include for OpenShift Data Foundation

When you prune the redhat-operator index image, include the following list of packages for the OpenShift Data Foundation deployment:

  • ocs-operator
  • odf-operator
  • mcg-operator
  • odf-csi-addons-operator
  • odr-cluster-operator
  • odr-hub-operator
  • Optional: local-storage-operator

    Only for local storage deployments.

  • Optional: odf-multicluster-orchestrator

    Only for Regional Disaster Recovery (Regional-DR) configuration.

Important

Name the CatalogSource as redhat-operators.

Chapter 10. Supported and Unsupported features for IBM Power and IBM Z infrastructure

Table 10.1. List of supported and unsupported features on IBM Power and IBM Z infrastructure

FeaturesIBM PowerIBM Z infrastructure

Compact deployment

Unsupported

Unsupported

Dynamic storage devices

Unsupported

Supported

Stretched Cluster - Arbiter

Supported

Unsupported

Federal Information Processing Standard Publication (FIPS)

Supported

Unsupported

Ability to view pool compression metrics

Supported

Unsupported

Automated scaling of Multicloud Object Gateway (MCG) endpoint pods

Supported

Unsupported

Alerts to control overprovision

Supported

Unsupported

Alerts when Ceph Monitor runs out of space

Supported

Unsupported

Deployment of standalone Multicloud Object Gateway component

Supported

Unsupported

Extended OpenShift Data Foundation control plane which allows pluggable external storage such as IBM Flashsystem

Unsupported

Unsupported

IPV6 support

Unsupported

Unsupported

Multus

Unsupported

Unsupported

Multicloud Object Gateway (MCG) bucket replication

Supported

Unsupported

Quota support for object data

Supported

Unsupported

Minimum deployment

Unsupported

Unsupported

Regional-Disaster Recovery (Regional-DR) with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RHACM)

Supported

Unsupported

Metro-Disaster Recovery (Metro-DR) multiple clusters with RHACM

Supported

Unsupported

Single Node solution for Radio Access Network (RAN)

Unsupported

Unsupported

Support for network file system (NFS) services

Supported

Unsupported

Ability to change Multicloud Object Gateway (MCG) account credentials

Supported

Unsupported

Multicluster monitoring in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management console

Supported

Unsupported

Deletion of expired objects in Multicloud Object Gateway lifecycle

Supported

Unsupported

Chapter 11. Next steps

To start deploying your OpenShift Data Foundation, you can use the internal mode within OpenShift Container Platform or use external mode to make available services from a cluster running outside of OpenShift Container Platform.

Depending on your requirement, go to the respective deployment guides.