Install Portworx on VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integration

This page offers instructions for installing Portworx within a VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition environment (formerly known as VMware Enterprise PKS). VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition (TKGI) allows you to provision, operate, and manage vSphere-based Kubernetes clusters.

You can also deploy Portworx on TKGI environment using the shared datastores.

The following diagram gives an overview of the Portworx architecture on vSphere using shared datastores.

• Portworx runs on each Kubernetes minion/worker.
• Based on the given spec by the end user, Portworx on each node will create its disk on the configured shared datastores or datastore clusters.
• Portworx will aggregate all of the disks and form a single storage cluster. End users can carve PVCs (Persistent Volume Claims), PVs (Persistent Volumes) and Snapshots from this storage cluster.
• Portworx tracks and manages the disks that it creates. In a failure event, if a new VM spins up, Portworx on the new VM will be able to attach to the same disk that was previously created by the node on the failed VM.

Prerequisites

Ensure that your Tanzu cluster meets the minimum requirements for Portworx.

Configure your environment

Follow the instructions in this section to configure your environment before installing Portworx.

Enable privileged containers and kubectl exec

Ensure that the following options are selected on all plans on the TKGi tile:

• Enable Privileged Containers
• Disable DenyEscalatingExec (this is useful for using kubectl exec to run pxctl commands)

Configure Bosh Director addon

Bosh Director ensures the upgrades to Portworx TKGI clusters are performed with minimal disruption to the cluster's availability and functionality.

In the process of stopping and upgrading instances within a TKGI cluster, Kubernetes add-on expects all sharedv4 volumes to be unmounted. Portworx add-on does the job of unmounting the sharedv4 volume. This will ensure zero downtime upgrades for Portworx TKGI cluster.

Perform these steps on any machine where you have access to the Bosh CLI.

Upload a Portworx release to your Bosh Director environment

1. Run the following command to clone the portworx-stop-bosh-release repositories:

   git clone https://github.com/portworx/portworx-stop-bosh-release.git
   cd portworx-stop-bosh-release

2. Create the Portworx release with a final version (in this example, version 2.0.0) using the Bosh CLI:

   mkdir src
   bosh create-release --final --version=2.0.0

3. Upload the release to your Bosh Director environment (replace director-environment with your actual environment):

   bosh -e director-environment upload-release

Add the Addon to the Bosh Director

1. Get your current Bosh Director runtime config:

   bosh -e director-environment runtime-config

   • If this is empty, you can simply use the runtime config at runtime-configs/director-runtime-config.yaml.

   • If you already have an existing runtime config, add the release and addon in runtime-configs/director-runtime-config.yaml to your existing runtime config.

2. Once you have the runtime config file prepared, update it in the Director:

   bosh -e director-environment update-runtime-config runtime-configs/director-runtime-config.yaml

Apply the changes

After the runtime config is updated, navigate to your Operations Manager Installation Dashboard and click Apply Changes. This will ensure Bosh will add the addon on all new VM instances.

Create shared datastores

Create one or more shared datastore(s) or datastore cluster(s) which is dedicated for Portworx storage. Use a common prefix for the names of the datastores or datastore cluster(s). You will need to provide this prefix during Portworx installation later.

Create vCenter user for Portworx

You will need to provide Portworx with a vCenter server user. This user should either possess the full Admin role or, for enhanced security, assigned a custom-created role with the following minimum vSphere privileges:

• Datastore
  • Allocate space
  • Browse datastore
  • Low level file operations
  • Remove file
• Host
  • Local operations
  • Reconfigure virtual machine
• Virtual machine
  • Change Configuration
  • Add existing disk
  • Add new disk
  • Add or remove device
  • Advanced configuration
  • Change Settings
  • Extend virtual disk
  • Modify device settings
  • Remove disk

If you create a custom role as above, make sure to select Propagate to children when assigning the user to the role.

Create a Kubernetes secret

Create a Kubernetes secret in Portworx to store your vCenter user and password securely. The Kubernetes secret is used by Portworx to access vCenter for managing storage resources.

1. Get VCenter user and password by running the following commands:

   • For VSPHERE_USER: echo '<vcenter-server-user>' | base64
   • For VSPHERE_PASSWORD: echo '<vcenter-server-password>' | base64

   Note the output of both commands for use in the next step.

2. Update the following Kubernetes Secret template by using the values obtained in step 1 for VSPHERE_USER and VSPHERE_PASSWORD.

   apiVersion: v1
   kind: Secret
   metadata:
     name: px-vsphere-secret
     namespace: <px-namespace>
   type: Opaque
   data:
     VSPHERE_USER: XXXX
     VSPHERE_PASSWORD: XXXX

3. Apply the above spec to update the spec with your VCenter username and password:

   kubectl apply -f <updated-secret-template.yaml>

Install Portworx

Once you've configured your physical network and ensured that you meet the prerequisites, you're ready to deploy Portworx.

Generate the specs

1. Navigate to Portworx Central and log in, or create an account.

2. Select Portworx Enterprise from the product catalog and click Continue.

3. On the Product Line page, choose any option depending on which license you intend to use, then select Continue to start the spec generator.

4. For Platform, select vSphere. Specify your vCenter IP or host name and the prefix of the datastore that Portworx should use.

5. For Distribution Name, select Pivotal Container Service (PKS), then click Save Spec to generate the specs.

Apply the specs

Apply the generated specs to your cluster.

kubectl apply -f px-spec.yaml

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 kubectl get pods command to list and filter the results for Portworx pods:

kubectl get pods -n <px-namespace> -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-api-dvw64                                      1/1     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.99    username-k8s1-node2    <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-94bpk                                     1/1     Running   0                4s      192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-8b67l                                     1/1     Running   0                10s     192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-fj72p                                     1/1     Running   0                30s     192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node2    <none>           <none>
portworx-operator-58967ddd6d-kmz6c                      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-b173-3e9bf3cd834d-9gs79   2/2     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.196   username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-3e9bf3cd834d-vpptx   2/2     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.99    username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-3e9bf3cd834d-bxmpn   2/2     Running   0                2m55s   192.168.121.191   username-k8s1-node2    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-54bmc                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.1.103      username-k8s1-node0    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-8tk79                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.1.102      username-k8s1-node2    <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-868fcb9fc6-vbqzk                             4/4     Running   0                3m5s    10.244.3.107      username-k8s1-node1    <none>           <none>
px-prometheus-operator-59b98b5897-9nwfv                 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 kubectl exec command, specifying the pod name you retrieved in the previous section:

kubectl exec <pod-name> -n <px-namespace> -- /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: 788bf810-57c4-4df1-9a5a-70c31d0f478e
        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-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-3e9bf3cd834d
        Cluster UUID: 33a82fe9-d93b-435b-943e-6f3fd5522eae
        Scheduler: kubernetes
        Nodes: 3 node(s) with storage (3 online)
        IP              ID                                      SchedulerNodeName       Auth            StorageNode     Used    Capacity        Status  StorageStatus       Version         Kernel                  OS
        192.168.121.196 f6d87392-81f4-459a-b3d4-fad8c65b8edc    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  788bf810-57c4-4df1-9a5a-70c31d0f478e    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)
        192.168.121.191 a8c76018-43d7-4a58-3d7b-19d45b4c541a    username-k8s1-node2      Disabled        Yes             10 GiB  3.0 TiB         Online  Up  2.11.0-81faacc  3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64  CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
Global Storage Pool        
        Total Used      :  30 GiB
        Total Capacity  :  9.0 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:

  kubectl -n <px-namespace> get storagecluster

  NAME                                              CLUSTER UUID                           STATUS   VERSION   AGE
  px-cluster-1c3edc42-4541-48fc-b173-3e9bf3cd834d   33a82fe9-d93b-435b-943e-6f3fd5522eae   Online   2.11.0    10m

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

  kubectl -n <px-namespace> get storagenodes

  NAME                  ID                                     STATUS   VERSION          AGE
  username-k8s1-node0   f6d87392-81f4-459a-b3d4-fad8c65b8edc   Online   2.11.0-81faacc   11m
  username-k8s1-node1   788bf810-57c4-4df1-9a5a-70c31d0f478e   Online   2.11.0-81faacc   11m
  username-k8s1-node2   a8c76018-43d7-4a58-3d7b-19d45b4c541a   Online   2.11.0-81faacc   11m

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

  kubectl exec <pod-name> -n <px-namespace> -- /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
  788bf810-57c4-4df1-9a5a-70c31d0f478e    Up              0 ( 96e7ff01-fcff-4715-b61b-4d74ecc7e159 )      Online          HIGH            3.0 TiB 3.0 TiB    10 GiB   0 B             default default default
  f6d87392-81f4-459a-b3d4-fad8c65b8edc    Up              0 ( e06386e7-b769-4ce0-b674-97e4359e57c0 )      Online          HIGH            3.0 TiB 3.0 TiB    10 GiB   0 B             default default default
  a8c76018-43d7-4a58-3d7b-19d45b4c541a    Up              0 ( a2e0af91-bb02-1574-611b-8904cab0e019 )      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:

1. 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

2. Run the kubectl apply command to create a PVC:

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

   persistentvolumeclaim/example-pvc created

Verify your StorageClass and PVC

1. Enter the kubectl get storageclass command:

   kubectl get storageclass

   NAME                                 PROVISIONER                     RECLAIMPOLICY   VOLUMEBINDINGMODE   ALLOWVOLUMEEXPANSION   AGE
   px-csi-db                            pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-db-cloud-snapshot             pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-db-cloud-snapshot-encrypted   pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-db-encrypted                  pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-db-local-snapshot             pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-db-local-snapshot-encrypted   pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-replicated                    pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-csi-replicated-encrypted          pxd.portworx.com                Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db                                kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db-cloud-snapshot                 kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db-cloud-snapshot-encrypted       kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db-encrypted                      kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db-local-snapshot                 kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-db-local-snapshot-encrypted       kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-replicated                        kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   px-replicated-encrypted              kubernetes.io/portworx-volume   Delete          Immediate           true                   43d
   stork-snapshot-sc                    stork-snapshot                  Delete          Immediate           true                   43d

   kubectl returns details about the StorageClasses available to you. Verify that px-csi-db appears in the list.

2. Enter the kubectl get pvc command. If this is the only StorageClass and PVC that you've created, you should see only one entry in the output:

   kubectl get pvc <your-pvc-name>

   NAME          STATUS   VOLUME                                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS           AGE
   example-pvc   Bound    pvc-dce346e8-ff02-4dfb-935c-2377767c8ce0   2Gi        RWO            example-storageclass   3m7s

   kubectl returns details about your PVC if it was created correctly. Verify that the configuration details appear as you intended.