Storage Providers

Connecting storage and platforms...


Overview

This page reviews the storage providers and platforms supported by libStorage.

Client/Server Configuration

Regarding the examples below, please read the provision about client/server configurations before proceeding.

Isilon

The Isilon driver registers a storage driver named isilon with the libStorage driver manager and is used to connect and manage Isilon NAS storage. The driver creates logical volumes in directories on the Isilon cluster. Volumes are exported via NFS and restricted to a single client at a time. Quotas can also be used to ensure that a volume directory doesn't exceed a specified size.

Configuration

The following is an example configuration of the Isilon driver.

isilon:
  endpoint: https://endpoint:8080
  insecure: true
  username: username
  group: groupname
  password: password
  volumePath: /libstorage
  nfsHost: nfsHost
  dataSubnet: subnet
  quotas: true

For information on the equivalent environment variable and CLI flag names please see the section on how configuration properties are transformed.

Extra Parameters

The following items are configurable specific to this driver.

Optional Parameters

The following items are not required, but available to this driver.

Activating the Driver

To activate the Isilon driver please follow the instructions for activating storage drivers, using isilon as the driver name.

Examples

Below is a full config.yml file that works with Isilon.

libstorage:
  server:
    services:
      isilon:
        driver: isilon
        isilon:
          endpoint: https://endpoint:8080
          insecure: true
          username: username
          password: password
          volumePath: /libstorage
          nfsHost: nfsHost
          dataSubnet: subnet
          quotas: true

Instructions

It is expected that the volumePath exists already within the Isilon system. This example would reflect a directory create under /ifs/volumes/libstorage for created volumes. It is not necessary to export this volume. The dataSubnet parameter is required so the Isilon driver can restrict access to attached volumes to the host that REX-Ray is running on.

If quotas are enabled, a SmartQuotas license must also be enabled on the Isilon cluster for the capacity size functionality of libStorage to work.

A SnapshotIQ license must be enabled on the Isilon cluster for the snapshot functionality of libStorage to work.

Caveats

The Isilon driver is not without its caveats:

ScaleIO

The ScaleIO driver registers a storage driver named scaleio with the libStorage driver manager and is used to connect and manage ScaleIO storage.

Requirements

Configuration

The following is an example with all possible fields configured. For a running example see the Examples section.

scaleio:
  endpoint:             https://host_ip/api
  apiVersion:           "2.0"
  insecure:             false
  useCerts:             true
  userName:             admin
  password:             mypassword
  systemID:             0
  systemName:           sysv
  protectionDomainID:   0
  protectionDomainName: corp
  storagePoolID:        0
  storagePoolName:      gold
  thinOrThick:          ThinProvisioned

Configuration Notes

For information on the equivalent environment variable and CLI flag names please see the section on how non top-level configuration properties are transformed.

Runtime Behavior

The storageType field that is configured per volume is considered the ScaleIO Storage Pool. This can be configured by default with the storagePool setting. It is important that you create unique names for your Storage Pools on the same ScaleIO platform. Otherwise, when specifying storageType it may choose at random which protectionDomain the pool comes from.

The availabilityZone field represents the ScaleIO Protection Domain.

Configuring the Gateway

Activating the Driver

To activate the ScaleIO driver please follow the instructions for activating storage drivers, using scaleio as the driver name.

Troubleshooting

Examples

Below is a full config.yml file that works with ScaleIO.

libstorage:
  server:
    services:
      scaleio:
        driver: scaleio
        scaleio:
          endpoint: https://gateway_ip/api
          insecure: true
          userName: username
          password: password
          systemName: tenantName
          protectionDomainName: protectionDomainName
          storagePoolName: storagePoolName

VirtualBox

The VirtualBox driver registers a storage driver named virtualbox with the libStorage driver manager and is used by VirtualBox's VMs to connect and manage volumes provided by VirtualBox.

Prerequisites

In order to leverage the virtualbox driver, the libStorage client or must be located on each VM that you wish to be able to consume external volumes. The driver leverages the vboxwebserv HTTP SOAP API which is a process that must be started from the VirtualBox host (ie OS X) using vboxwebsrv -H 0.0.0.0 -v or additionally with -b for running in the background. This allows the VMs running libStorage to remotely make calls to the underlying VirtualBox application. A test for connectivity can be done with telnet virtualboxip 18083 from the VM. The virtualboxip is what you would put in the endpoint value.

Leveraging authentication for the VirtualBox webserver is optiona.. The HTTP SOAP API can have authentication disabled by running VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null.

Hot-Plugging is required, which limits the usefulness of this driver to SATA only. Ensure that your VM has pre-created this controller and it is named SATA. Otherwise the controllerName field must be populated with the name of the controller you wish to use. The port count must be set manually as it cannot be increased when the VMs are on. A count of 30 is suggested.

VirtualBox 5.0.10+ must be used.

Configuration

The following is an example configuration of the VirtualBox driver.
The localMachineNameOrId parameter is for development use where you force libStorage to use a specific VM identity. Choose a volumePath to store the volume files or virtual disks. This path should be created ahead of time.

virtualbox:
  endpoint: http://virtualboxhost:18083
  userName: optional
  password: optional
  tls: false
  volumePath: $HOME/VirtualBox/Volumes
  controllerName: name
  localMachineNameOrId: forDevelopmentUse

For information on the equivalent environment variable and CLI flag names please see the section on how non top-level configuration properties are transformed.

Activating the Driver

To activate the VirtualBox driver please follow the instructions for activating storage drivers, using virtualbox as the driver name.

Examples

Below is a working config.yml file that works with VirtualBox.

libstorage:
  server:
    services:
      virtualbox:
        driver: virtualbox
        virtualbox:
          endpoint:       http://10.0.2.2:18083
          tls:            false
          volumePath:     $HOME/VirtualBox/Volumes
          controllerName: SATA

Caveats