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Install Portworx for PX-Fast

PX-Fast is a Portworx feature that enables an accelerated IO path for the volumes that meet certain prerequisites. It is optimized for workloads requiring consistent low latencies. PX-Fast is built on top of PX-StoreV2 datastore, and requires a special license for the functionality to be active. Contact Portworx support team for obtaining this license.

PX-StoreV2 is a Portworx datastore optimized for supporting IO intensive workloads for configurations utilizing high performance NVMe class devices. It’s the platform that enables PX-Fast. PX-StoreV2 is targeted for workloads requiring high data ingestion rates with consistent latencies.

Prerequisites

You must have a Kubernetes cluster deployed on infrastructure that meets the following minimum requirements for Portworx:

  • Linux kernel version: 4.20 or newer is the minimum required version. 5.0 or newer is recommended, with the following packages:

    • Rhel: device-mapper mdadm lvm2 device-mapper-persistent-data augeas
    • Debian: dmsetup mdadm lvm2 thin-provisioning-tools augeas-tools
    • Suse: dmsetup mdadm lvm2 device-mapper-persistent-data augeas
    NOTE: During installation, Portworx will automatically try to pull the required packages from distribution specific repositories. This is a mandatory requirement and installation will fail if this prerequisite is not met.

  • A minimum of 64 GB system metadata device on each node where you want to deploy Portworx.

  • An NVMe or SSD drive (cloud drives are not supported).

Install Portworx

Follow the instructions in this section to deploy Portworx with the PX-StoreV2 datastore.

NOTE:

  • PX-StoreV2 datastore installation is supported only with a fresh on-premises installation.

  • Upgrading from a previous Portworx version to deploy PX-StoreV2 datastore is not supported.

Generate the specs

To install Portworx with Kubernetes, you must first generate Kubernetes manifests that you will deploy in your cluster:

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

  2. Select Portworx Enterprise from the Product Catalog page.

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

  4. For Platform, select DAS/SAN, then click Customize at the bottom of the Summary section.

  5. On the Basic page, choose version 2.12 or newer from the Portworx version dropdown. In the Namespace field, specify an existing namespace where you will be deploying Portworx and click Next.

  6. On the Storage page, select On Premises as your environment and select the type of OnPrem storage. Choose the PX-StoreV2 option and provide your meta device path in the Metadata Path textbox, then click Next.

  7. Provide your network options and click Next.

  8. On the Customize page, choose None for the Are you running on either of these? option, then click Finish to generate the specs.

Once you’ve generated your specs, you’re ready to apply them and deploy Portworx. You also can save your specs on PX-Central for future reference.

Apply specs

Apply the specs using the following commands:

  1. Deploy the Operator:

    kubectl apply -f 'https://install.portworx.com/<version-number>?comp=pxoperator'
    serviceaccount/portworx-operator created
podsecuritypolicy.policy/px-operator created
clusterrole.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/portworx-operator created
clusterrolebinding.rbac.authorization.k8s.io/portworx-operator created
deployment.apps/portworx-operator created

  2. Deploy the StorageCluster:

    kubectl apply -f 'https://install.portworx.com/<version-number>?operator=true&mc=false&kbver=&b=true&c=px-cluster-0d8dad46-f9fd-4945-b4ac-8dfd338e915b&stork=true&csi=true&mon=true&tel=false&st=k8s&promop=true'
    storagecluster.core.libopenstorage.org/px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6 created

NOTE:

  • In your output, the image pulled will differ based on your chosen Portworx license type and version.
  • For Portworx Enterprise , the default license activated on the cluster is a 30 day trial that you can convert to a SaaS-based model or a generic fixed license.
  • For Portworx Essentials , your cluster must have internet connectivity so that it can send usage information every 24 hours to renew the license on the cluster. You can convert a Portworx Essentials license to either a fixed license or SaaS-based license.

Verify your Portworx installation

Once you’ve installed Portworx, you can perform the following tasks to verify that Portworx is correctly installed and using the PX-StoreV2 datastore.

Verify if all pods are running

Enter the following command to list and filter the results for Portworx pods and specify the namespace where you have deployed Portworx:

kubectl get pods -n <px-namespace> -o wide | grep -e portworx -e px
NAME                                                    READY   STATUS    RESTARTS         AGE     IP              NODE                         NOMINATED NODE   READINESS GATES
portworx-api-8scq2                                      1/1     Running   1 (90m ago)      5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
portworx-api-f24b9                                      1/1     Running   1 (108m ago)     5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-3   <none>           <none>
portworx-api-f95z5                                      1/1     Running   1 (90m ago)      5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-2   <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-558g5                                     1/1     Running   0                3m46s   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-2   <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-9tfjd                                     1/1     Running   0                2m57s   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
portworx-kvdb-cjcxg                                     1/1     Running   0                3m7s    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-3   <none>           <none>
portworx-operator-548b8d4ccc-qgnkc                      1/1     Running   13 (4m26s ago)   5h2m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
portworx-pvc-controller-ff669698-62ngd                  1/1     Running   1 (108m ago)     5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-3   <none>           <none>
portworx-pvc-controller-ff669698-6b4zj                  1/1     Running   1 (90m ago)      5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-2   <none>           <none>
portworx-pvc-controller-ff669698-pffvl                  1/1     Running   1 (90m ago)      5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
prometheus-px-prometheus-0                              2/2     Running   2 (90m ago)      5h      xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6-2qsp4   2/2     Running   13 (108m ago)    3h20m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-3   <none>           <none>
px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6-5vnzv   2/2     Running   16 (90m ago)     3h20m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6-lxzd5   2/2     Running   16 (90m ago)     3h20m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-2   <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-77fbdcdcc9-7hkpm                             4/4     Running   4 (108m ago)     3h19m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-3   <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-77fbdcdcc9-9ck26                             4/4     Running   4 (90m ago)      3h18m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <none>           <none>
px-csi-ext-77fbdcdcc9-ddmjr                             4/4     Running   14 (90m ago)     3h20m   xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-2   <none>           <none>
px-prometheus-operator-7d884bc8bc-5sv9r                 1/1     Running   1 (90m ago)      5h1m    xx.xx.xxx.xxx   username-vms-silver-sight-0   <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 <px-pod>  -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: 24508311-e2fe-42cd-88f3-bf578f9addc1
	IP: xx.xx.xxx.xxx 
 	Local Storage Pool: 1 pool
	POOL	IO_PRIORITY	RAID_LEVEL	USABLE	USED	STATUS	ZONE	REGION
	0	HIGH		raid0		25 GiB	33 MiB	Online	default	default
	Local Storage Devices: 1 device
	Device	Path		Media Type		Size		Last-Scan
	0:0	/dev/sda	STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD	32 GiB		10 Oct 22 23:45 UTC
	total			-			32 GiB
	Cache Devices:
	 * No cache devices
	Kvdb Device:
	Device Path	Size
	/dev/sdc	1024 GiB
	 * Internal kvdb on this node is using this dedicated kvdb device to store its data.
	Metadata Device: 
	1	/dev/sdd	STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD	64 GiB
Cluster Summary
	Cluster ID: px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6
	Cluster UUID: 482b18b1-2a8b-4f10-b992-5d610fa334bd
	Scheduler: kubernetes
	Nodes: 3 node(s) with storage (3 online)
	IP		ID					SchedulerNodeName		Auth		StorageNode		Used	Capacity	Status	StorageStatus	Version		Kernel				OS
	xx.xx.xxx.xxx	24508311-e2fe-42cd-88f3-bf578f9addc1	username-vms-silver-sight-3	Disabled	Yes(PX-StoreV2)	33 MiB	25 GiB		Online	Up (This node)	2.12.0-28944c8	5.4.217-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64	CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
	xx.xx.xxx.xxx	1e89102f-0510-4df3-aba4-4a1bafeff5bc	username-vms-silver-sight-0	Disabled	Yes(PX-StoreV2)	33 MiB	25 GiB		Online	Up		2.12.0-28944c8	5.4.217-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64	CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
	xx.xx.xxx.xxx	0c99e1f2-9d49-4d53-9315-502e658bc307	username-vms-silver-sight-2	Disabled	Yes(PX-StoreV2)	33 MiB	25 GiB		Online	Up		2.12.0-28944c8	5.4.217-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64	CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
Global Storage Pool
	Total Used    	:  99 MiB
	Total Capacity	:  74 GiB

The Portworx status will display PX is operational, and the StorageNode entries for each node will read Yes(PX-StoreV2).

Verify Portworx pool status

Run the following command to view the Porworx drive configurations for your pod:

kubectl exec <px-pod>  -n <px-namespace> -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl service pool show
Defaulted container "portworx" out of: portworx, csi-node-driver-registrar
PX drive configuration:
Pool ID: 0 
	Type:  PX-StoreV2 
	UUID:  58ab2e3f-a22e-492a-ad39-db8abe01d4f0 
	IO Priority:  HIGH 
	Labels:  kubernetes.io/arch=amd64,kubernetes.io/hostname=username-vms-silver-sight-3,kubernetes.io/os=linux,medium=STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD,beta.kubernetes.io/arch=amd64,beta.kubernetes.io/os=linux,iopriority=HIGH 
	Size: 25 GiB 
	Status: Online 
	Has metadata:  No 
	Balanced:  Yes 
	Drives:
	0: /dev/sda, Total size 32 GiB, Online
	Cache Drives:
	No Cache drives found in this pool
Metadata  Device:
	1: /dev/sdd, STORAGE_MEDIUM_SSD

The Type: PX-StoreV2 output shows that your pod is using the PX-StoreV2 datastore.

Verify pxctl cluster provision status

  • Find the storage cluster using the following command; the status should show the cluster is Online:

    kubectl -n <px-namespace> get storagecluster
    NAME                                              CLUSTER UUID                           STATUS   VERSION          AGE
px-cluster-378d7ae1-f4ca-4f92-914d-fab038f0bbe6   482b18b1-2a8b-4f10-b992-5d610fa334bd   Online   2.12.0-dev-rc1   5h6m

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

    kubectl -n <px-namespace> get storagenodes
    NAME                          ID                                     STATUS   VERSION          AGE
username-vms-silver-sight-0   1e89102f-0510-4df3-aba4-4a1bafeff5bc   Online   2.12.0-28944c8   3h25m
username-vms-silver-sight-2   0c99e1f2-9d49-4d53-9315-502e658bc307   Online   2.12.0-28944c8   3h25m
username-vms-silver-sight-3   24508311-e2fe-42cd-88f3-bf578f9addc1   Online   2.12.0-28944c8   3h25m

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

    kubectl exec <px-pod> -n <px-namespace> -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl cluster provision-status
    NODE                                    NODE STATUS  POOL                                     POOL STATUS  IO_PRIORITY  SIZE    AVAILABLE   USED   PROVISIONED ZONE REGION  RACK
0c99e1f2-9d49-4d53-9315-502e658bc307    Up          0 ( 8ec9e6aa-7726-4855-a9f1-f9131bf7ef9d )  Online      HIGH        32 GiB  32 GiB      33 MiB  0 B     default default default
1e89102f-0510-4df3-aba4-4a1bafeff5bc    Up          0 ( 06fcc73a-7e2f-4365-95ce-434152789beb )  Online      HIGH        32 GiB  32 GiB      33 MiB  0 B     default default default
24508311-e2fe-42cd-88f3-bf578f9addc1    Up          0 ( 58ab2e3f-a22e-492a-ad39-db8abe01d4f0 )  Online      HIGH        32 GiB  32 GiB      33 MiB  0 B     default default default

Create PVCs

Once Portwox is installed, you can proceed to Create PX-Fast PVCs.

NOTE: The following are not supported with PX-StoreV2/PX-Fast:

  • XFS Volumes
  • PX-Cache
  • Autopilot
  • PDS
  • Portworx Backup/DR
  • Cloud/ASG drives
Last edited: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
Questions? Visit the Portworx forum.