Using the IBM Block Storage CSI Driver in a Red Hat OpenShift Environment

RedHat OpenShift container platform is one of the leading enterprise-grade container orchestration platforms. It is designed for rapid deployment of web applications, databases, and microservices.

Categorized as a container orchestration Platform as a Service (PaaS), it is based on open industry standards, such as the Container Runtime Interface - Open (CRI-O) and Kubernetes. OpenShift allow developers to focus on the code, while the platform manages the complex IT operations and processes.

Although open-source, community-driven container orchestration platforms are available, such as OKD and Kubernetes, this IBM® Redpaper® publication focuses on Red Hat OpenShift. It describes the basic concepts of OpenShift persistent storage architecture and its integration into IBM Cloud® Paks. The deployment of the IBM block storage CSI driver also is discussed.

This publication also describes the concepts, technology and current working practices for installing the Container Storage Interface (CSI) plug-in for Kubernetes to use IBM Enterprise Storage platforms for persistent storage coupled with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP).

This publication also provides an overview of containers, Kubernetes, and Openshift for context (it is expected that the reader has a working knowledge of these underlying technologies). It also includes architectural examples of the orchestration platform will be given.

This paper serves as a guide about how to deploy the CSI driver for block storage by using the DS8000® and Spectrum Virtualize platforms as persistent storage in a Red Hat OpenShift platform.

The publication is intended for storage administrators, IT architects, OpenShift technical specialists and anyone who wants to integrate IBM Enterprise storage on OpenShift V4.3/4.4/4.5 on IBM Power, IBM Z®, and x86 systems.