NetApp Driver for SolidFire¶

SolidFire Cinder Driver Configuration¶

The OpenStack Cinder driver enables communication between OpenStack SolidFire storage system. The user can use information from the SF-Series cluster to configure the driver by modifying the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf service file on the controller host. For more information on the configuration and best practices please visit the following link: http://www.netapp.com/us/media/tr-4620.pdf

Table 4.18 lists the required storage system attributes used in the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf configuration file.

SolidFire Attribute	Default	Description
`san_ip`	None	SolidFire cluster MVIP
`san_login`	None	SolidFire cluster administrative user
`san_password`	None	SolidFire cluster administrative password

Table 4.18. Required SolidFire Attributes

Add the following lines to the file, replacing login and password with the cluster admin login credentials

[solidfire]
volume_backend_name=solidfire
volume_driver=cinder.volume.drivers.solidfire.SolidFireDriver
san_ip=172.17.1.182
san_login=login
san_password=password

[DEFAULT]
enabled_backends=solidfire

Optional Cinder Configuration Attributes¶

You can optionally use the following attributes specific to SolidFire in the [solidfire] section of the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf configuration file to control the interaction between the storage system and the OpenStack Cinder service. (See Table 4.19.)

SolidFire Attribute	Default	Description
`sf_account_prefix`	None	Create storage system accounts with this prefix. The default is no prefix.
`sf_allow_template_caching`	True	Create an internal cache of image copies when a bootable volume is created to eliminate the fetch from OpenStack Glance and QEMU conversion on subsequent calls.
`sf_allow_tenant_qos`	False	Allow individual tenants to specify QoS on volume creation. Setting this value to True disables dynamic QOS as well as administrative control over QOS. Changing from the default is not recommended.
`sf_api_port`	443	The SolidFire storage system API port. Change this value if the device API is behind a proxy on a different port.
`sf_emulate_512`	True	Set 512-byte emulation on volume creation. Note: The default is to enable 512 emulation. Required for KVM hypervisors.
`sf_enable_vag`	False	Use volume access groups on a per tenant basis instead of using CHAP secrets.
`sf_enable_volume_mapping`	True	Create an internal mapping of volume IDs and accounts. This option optimizes look-ups and performance at the expense of memory. Use with caution. For very large deployments, this can cause performance issues.
`sf_svip`	None	Overrides the default cluster SVIP with the one specified. This option should only be used when multiple OpenStack instances are accessing the storage cluster from non-default VLANs.
`sf_template_account_name`	`openstack-vtemplate`	The account name on the SF-Series cluster to use as the owner of the template and cache volumes.
`sf_volume_prefix`	`UUID-`	Create volumes on the cluster with this prefix. Volumes use the prefix format `<sf_volume_prefix><cindervolume-id>`. The default is to use the prefix `UUID-`.
`replication_device`	None	SolidFire Target Cluster for Replication. This option uses the format `backend_id:<backend-id>,mvip:<target-mvip>,login:<target-login>,password:<target-password>`

Table 4.19. Optional SolidFire Attributes

Note

Set sf_allow_template_caching to False and use the generalized Cinder global caching feature instead of the SolidFire internal image caching feature.

Tip

NetApp recommends the use of the generalized Cinder global caching feature over the SolidFire internal image cache. As of the Queens release, the default value of sf_allow_template_caching will be set to False. Also in the Queens release, the SolidFire internal image caching feature will be deprecated.

Multiple OpenStack Cloud Instances¶

There are several facilities in the SolidFire driver that can accommodate scenarios involving multiple OpenStack cloud instances using a single SolidFire cluster. These features include account prefixes, volume prefixes, virtual networks, and multiple virtual interfaces (VIFs).

You can configure an account prefix using the variable sf_account_prefix in the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf file. You can set this variable differently for each OpenStack cloud instance, allowing the storage cluster administrator to distinguish between accounts for each OpenStack instance. By default, the sf_account_prefix variable is not set, and account names have no prefix.

The OpenStack Mitaka release introduced the sf_volume_prefix variable to allow creation of unique volume prefixes for each OpenStack cloud instance.

The default value of the sf_volume_prefix variable is UUID-, which automatically configures the driver to work as it has prior to the OpenStack Mitaka release. If you have multiple OpenStack cloud instances attached to a single SolidFire system, NetApp recommends that you change this variable for each instance using the SolidFire system.

Note

The variable sf_volume_prefix should not be changed within a cloud after a volume has been provisioned on the SolidFire storage system with OpenStack.

You can use VLANs and multiple VIFs to separate multiple OpenStack cloud instances. Element OS supports multiple storage virtual interfaces (SVIPs) on separate virtual networks. Each OpenStack cloud instance accesses the storage system through the shared management port. NetApp recommends that you configure each OpenStack cloud instance with a unique cluster admin account.

Note

When you use a single SVIP with OpenStack, the SolidFire driver acquires the SVIP by querying the cluster. If multiple SVIP addresses are configured, the query returns the default SVIP on the native virtual network. You can configure an alternate virtual network for the OpenStack cloud instance by modifying the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf file. Set the sf_svip variable in the [solidfire] section of the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf file for that OpenStack cloud instance to the IP address you want the iSCSI initiator to use to access volumes on the storage system.

SolidFire Replication Setup¶

In order to use SolidFire with Replication enabled you must have a secondary target backend configured and being referenced by primary host under replication_device attribute. Example:

[solidfire]
volume_backend_name=solidfire
volume_driver=cinder.volume.drivers.solidfire.SolidFireDriver
san_ip=172.17.1.182
san_login=login
san_password=password
replication_device=backend_id:solidfire2,mvip:172.17.1.142,login:login2,password:password2

[solidfire-2]
volume_backend_name=solidfire2
volume_driver=cinder.volume.drivers.solidfire.SolidFireDriver
san_ip=172.17.1.142
san_login=login2
san_password=password2

[DEFAULT]
enabled_backends=solidfire

Note

The secondary cluster is not required to be in the enabled_backends like in the example above.

You also need a volume type with replication_enabled=<is> True set as an extra-spec:

$ cinder type-show solidfire

+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property                        | Value                                |
+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| description                     | None                                 |
| extra_specs                     | replication_enabled : <is> True      |
|                                 | volume_backend_name : solidfire      |
| id                              | 6910843e-0d49-4f8b-84f5-288d3672699d |
| is_public                       | True                                 |
| name                            | solidfire                            |
| os-volume-type-access:is_public | True                                 |
| qos_specs_id                    | None                                 |
+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

When using SolidFire with Replication enabled you can use three different replication modes:

Real-time (Asynchronous): Writes are acknowledged to the client after they are committed on the source cluster.
Real-time (Synchronous): Writes are acknowledged to the client after they are committed on both the source and target clusters.
Snapshot-Only: Only snapshots created on the source cluster are replicated. Active writes from the source volume are not replicated.

Important

From Ussuri release, the support for Active/Active (including replication) was added to the SolidFire driver. So the replication can also happen in clustered environments.

The default mode is Real-time (Asynchronous), and a new volume type extra-spec must be set in order to change it. This extras-spec is solidfire:replication_mode and its possible values are Sync, Async and SnapshotsOnly. For example:

$ cinder type-show solidfire

+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property                        | Value                                |
+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| description                     | None                                 |
| extra_specs                     | replication_enabled : <is> True      |
|                                 | solidfire:replication_mode : Sync    |
|                                 | volume_backend_name : solidfire      |
| id                              | 6910843e-0d49-4f8b-84f5-288d3672699d |
| is_public                       | True                                 |
| name                            | solidfire                            |
| os-volume-type-access:is_public | True                                 |
| qos_specs_id                    | None                                 |
+---------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

SolidFire Storage Assisted Migration¶

Starting on Victoria Release, NetApp SolidFire implements support for Storage Assisted Migration. With storage-assisted migration, the operation is optimized because it is managed by the storage driver instead of OpenStack Block Storage service.

More details about Volume Migration can be found under the official OpenStack Documentation in the following link: https://docs.openstack.org/cinder/victoria/contributor/migration.html

There are a few requirements to perform a storage-assisted migration:

The volume status must be available.
Storage-assisted migration can not be performed on replicated volumes.
If the destination backend or cluster is the one where the volume is currently placed, nothing will be done.

Here is an example using cinder retype:

$ cinder list

+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+--------------+----------+-------------+
| ID                                   | Status    | Name | Size | Volume Type  | Bootable | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+--------------+----------+-------------+
| ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020 | available | v1   | 10   | solidfire-1  | false    |             |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+--------------+----------+-------------+

$ cinder retype --migration-policy on-demand v1 solidfire-2

+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+
| ID                                   | Status    | Name | Size | Volume Type   | Bootable | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+
| caa7f059-f2e4-44bc-a6c2-c2fdba41d986 | available | v1   | 10   | solidfire-2   | false    |             |
| ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020 | retyping  | v1   | 10   | solidfire-1   | false    |             |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+

$ cinder show ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property                       | Value                                |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| attached_servers               | []                                   |
| attachment_ids                 | []                                   |
| availability_zone              | nova                                 |
| bootable                       | false                                |
| consistencygroup_id            | None                                 |
| created_at                     | 2021-01-08T16:22:27.000000           |
| description                    | None                                 |
| encrypted                      | False                                |
| id                             | ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020 |
| metadata                       |                                      |
| migration_status               | migrating                            |
| multiattach                    | False                                |
| name                           | v1                                   |
| os-vol-host-attr:host          | host1@solidfire-1#solidfire-1        |
| os-vol-mig-status-attr:migstat | migrating                            |
| os-vol-mig-status-attr:name_id | None                                 |
| os-vol-tenant-attr:tenant_id   | 08d8fe03a3e74032afd1c4ee665ff2bc     |
| replication_status             | None                                 |
| size                           | 10                                   |
| snapshot_id                    | None                                 |
| source_volid                   | None                                 |
| status                         | retyping                             |
| updated_at                     | 2021-01-08T16:23:56.000000           |
| user_id                        | a5a3b146f67447b1abea8f1a929afdce     |
| volume_type                    | solidfire-1                          |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property                       | Value                                |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| attached_servers               | []                                   |
| attachment_ids                 | []                                   |
| availability_zone              | nova                                 |
| bootable                       | false                                |
| consistencygroup_id            | None                                 |
| created_at                     | 2021-01-08T16:22:27.000000           |
| description                    | None                                 |
| encrypted                      | False                                |
| id                             | ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020 |
| metadata                       |                                      |
| migration_status               | success                              |
| multiattach                    | False                                |
| name                           | v1                                   |
| os-vol-host-attr:host          | host1@solidfire-2#solidfire-2        |
| os-vol-mig-status-attr:migstat | success                              |
| os-vol-mig-status-attr:name_id | caa7f059-f2e4-44bc-a6c2-c2fdba41d986 |
| os-vol-tenant-attr:tenant_id   | 08d8fe03a3e74032afd1c4ee665ff2bc     |
| replication_status             | None                                 |
| size                           | 10                                   |
| snapshot_id                    | None                                 |
| source_volid                   | None                                 |
| status                         | available                            |
| updated_at                     | 2021-01-08T16:24:25.000000           |
| user_id                        | a5a3b146f67447b1abea8f1a929afdce     |
| volume_type                    | solidfire-2                          |
+--------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

$ cinder list

+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+
| ID                                   | Status    | Name | Size | Volume Type   | Bootable | Attached to |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+
| ed841a96-4692-4368-a011-5c792aa47020 | available | v1   | 10   | solidfire-2   | false    |             |
+--------------------------------------+-----------+------+------+---------------+----------+-------------+