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Kubernetes cluster sprawl is no match for HPE Alletra 6000 and Nimble Storage
Since the release of HPE CSI Driver for Kubernetes v2.0.0 and the introduction of HPE Alletra 6000, customers have been empowered to be much smarter about dealing with security and resource utilization for stateful applications running on Kubernetes.
In this blog post, Iโll frame the use cases for multitenancy from a storage perspective when dealing with Kubernetes cluster sprawl.
The top challenges that need to be tackled for each tenant are:
- Secure management of access, credentials, and permissions
- Capacity boundaries and management
- Performance constraints and management
- Delegation of data management capabilities
Once all these challenges have been met, DevOps teams, managed service providers, and large enterprises are offered a smorgasbord of agile, highly efficient data services offered by HPE Alletra 6000 and HPE Nimble Storage.
Letโs get to work!
The tenant primitives
Each Persistent Volume Claim that a Kubernetes user creates maps to a clustered Persistent Volume resource, and this in turn maps to an actual array volume. The most important primitive is the volume. Volumes can be organized on the array in a construct called a folder. A folder may hold as many volumes as the array supports โ and the array may have up 128 folders. The storage administrator creates folders and applies capacity limits (either based on usage or provisioned) and performance limits (IOPS and bandwidth).
A tenant is created by a storage administrator using the โtenantadminโ CLI utility and mapped to one or many folders. A tenant is merely a restricted array user only capable of performing the necessary REST API calls needed for performance data management from the HPE CSI Driver for Kubernetes running on the tenant cluster.
Other resources on the array required to securely present volumes to hosts include initiator groups, iSCSI CHAP credentials and volume collections (volume grouping feature for snapshots with referential integrity). As only volumes formally may be placed in folders, metadata is added to those resources managed by the tenant API requests.
Itโs also prudent to secure the networks between the array and tenant Kubernetes hosts using VLANs, not only for the control plane but also for data if using iSCSI. The HPE Alletra 6000 Container Storage Provider running on the tenant Kubernetes cluster negotiates what networks to use based on what is available on the host and array.
For use cases where multiple tenants are hosted on the same Kubernetes cluster (tenants may be divided by StorageClass and using namespace resourceQuotas), the iSCSI CHAP configuration is per cluster.
The tenant use cases
A plethora of multitenancy use cases for persistent storage with Kubernetes fall into three main categories:
- Managed Service Providers (MSP) who monetize infrastructure and create value by offering differentiated services
- IT departments fighting shadow IT that must offer a high degree of self-service and agile data management within budget
- Distinct workload separation for DevOps teams tracking KPIs and metrics per value stream delivered by the business
If we focus on the MSP use case, it can be generalized and be used as an example for the other two.
Infrastructure administrators and architects are geared towards being generalists today. Delegating capabilities securely to their users and customers is becoming more crucial across the entire stack, not just storage. Using automation frameworks for infrastructure management to scale provisioning without adding additional labor is the key formula to improve business outcomes while keeping a close eye on utilization.
In this high-level diagram, itโs clear that the MSP controls the infrastructure resources while leaving a customer with an endpoint for self-service. Sometimes it doesnโt have to be a grandiose GUI that encompasses everything under the sun. A simple authorization and a CRUD operation with a handful of well documented parameters is sometimes all that it takes, the outcome will remain the same, infrastructure management is just a means to an end serving a higher purpose: Deploy a Kubernetes cluster in a timely fashion to allow a new stateful application to be onboarded.
Additional content
A step-by-step tutorial is available on the HPE Developer Community: Multitenancy for Kubernetes clusters using HPE Alletra 6000 and Nimble Storage. It walks through a use case to setup ephemeral inline volumes to a namespace-confined user.
An HPE lightboard showcase that elaborates on multitenancy for Kubernetes clusters and what the benefits are with HPE Alletra 6000 and Nimble Storage is now available.
All configuration details on the HPE CSI Driver and HPE Alletra 6000 Container Storage Provider are available on the HPE Storage Container Orchestrator Documentation portal. Multitenancy is enabled by default and the storage administrator only creates folders and tenants to get started.
See you in Valencia, Spain
Itโs no secret that KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe kicks off next week in Valencia, Spain. HPE is participating across multiple disciplines from edge to cloud to emphasize the importance of open source and collaboration in the Kubernetes and cloud native ecosystem.
Come find us in the sponsorship showcase in the HPE booth (G11), youโll get to talk with HPE experts and HPE Developer Community team members who can give you the run down on key open source projects weโre involved in, like SPIFFE/SPIRE, HPE CSI Driver, Apache Sparkโข, and many more.
Stay tuned to Around The Storage Block for more updates around everything Kubernetes storage and data protection.
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