Deploying VAST Block CSI Driver on OpenShift with VAST CSI Operator

VAST CSI Operator is an OpenShift operator that helps deploy, configure and upgrade VAST CSI drivers in Red Hat OpenShift environments.

To deploy VAST Block CSI Driver using VAST CSI Operator:

Note
Before you start, ensure that the VAST cluster on which you are going to provision storage is configured for CSI use.

Follow OpenShift Operator guidelines to install VAST CSI Operator.
Use VAST CSI Operator to deploy the VAST Block CSI Driver custom resources: VastCSIDriver, VastCluster and VastStorage.
Each of the three resources is required.
Use the storage class generated by the VastStorage custom resource instance in your PVCs to provision storage.
Assign OpenShift Security Context Constraints (SCCs) to VAST Block CSI Driver.

Note
VAST CSI Operator does not provide a CRD for VAST snapshots. If you are going to use VAST snapshots with VAST Block CSI Driver, install the snapshot CRDs manually.

Custom Resource Definitions in VAST CSI Operator

VAST CSI Operator introduces the following Custom Resource Definitions (CRD):

VastCSIDriver is a common specification for the VAST CSI Controller and VAST CSI Node, for example:
```
apiVersion: storage.vastdata.com/v1
kind: VastCSIDriver
metadata:
  name: block.csi.vastdata.com
  namespace: vast-csi
spec:
  driverType: "block"
  image:
    csiVastPlugin:
      repository: docker.io/vastdataorg/csi:v2.6.4
```
Ensure that the specification includes the correct driver type for VAST Block CSI Driver: driverType: "block". (If not specified, the parameter defaults to nfs.)
VastCluster specifies the VAST endpoint, username and password to connect to the VAST cluster where volumes will be provisioned. These settings are stored in a VAST Block CSI Driver's Kubernetes secret.
The specification can include either a VMS authentication token, or a username and a password.
For example:
- With a VMS authentication token:
```
apiVersion: storage.vastdata.com/v1
kind: VastCluster
metadata:
  name: cluster
  namespace: vast-csi
spec:
  endpoint: 198.151.100.12
  token: "<token>"
```
- With a username and password:
```
apiVersion: storage.vastdata.com/v1
kind: VastCluster
metadata:
  name: cluster
  namespace: vast-csi
spec:
  endpoint: 198.151.100.12
  username: admin
  password: "<password>"
```
You can create multiple VastCluster instances to access different VAST clusters, or to access the same VAST cluster using different credentials.

VastStorage defines VAST storage options to be used when provisioning volumes on the VAST cluster. This resource generates a storage class (and optionally a snapshot class) that you can use in your PVCs.

For example:

apiVersion: storage.vastdata.com/v1
kind: VastStorage
metadata:
  name: vastdata-block
  namespace: vast-csi
spec:
  driverType: "block"
  provisioner: "block.csi.vastdata.com"
  clusterName: vastcluster
  subsystem: "myblock"
  vipPool: "vippool-1"
  createSnapshotClass: false

Using VastStorage-generated Storage Class in PVCs

In your PVC, specify the name of the storage class generated based on the VastStorage CRD as the storageClassName, for example:

For example:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: csi-block-pvc
spec:
  volumeMode: Block
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: vastdata-block

Assigning SCCs to VAST Block CSI Driver

Assign OpenShift Security Context Constraints (SCC) to VAST Block CSI Driver service accounts so that VAST Block CSI Driver is able to create mount points on the host machine:

oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z <release name>-vast-controller-sa -n <namespace name>
oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z <release name>-vast-node-sa -n <namespace name>

Where:

<release name> identifies the VAST Block CSI Driver release being deployed.
<namespace name> is the namespace to which VAST Block CSI Driver will be deployed.

For example:

oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z csi-vast-controller-sa -n vastcsi
oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged -z csi-vast-node-sa -n vastcsi