Prerequisites

Installation Prerequisites

The minimum supported size for a Portworx cluster is three nodes. Each node must meet the following hardware, software, and network requirements:

Hardware
CPU	4 cores minimum, 8 cores recommended
RAM	4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
Disk `/var` `/opt`	2GB free 3GB free
Backing drive	8GB (minimum required) 128 GB (minimum recommended)
Operating system root partition	64 GB is the minimum required size for the root filesystem which contains the operating system 128 GB minimum recommended
Storage drives	Storage drives must be unmounted block storage: raw disks, drive partitions, LVM, or cloud block storage.
Network connectivity	Bandwidth: 10 Gbps recommended 1 Gbps minimum Latency requirements for synchronous replication: less than 10ms between nodes in the cluster
Node type	Bare metal and virtual machine (VM)

Network

Open needed ports

Network
Open needed ports	Portworx requires different open ports depending on how it’s installed: Spec-based installations require all Portworx nodes to have open TCP ports at 9001-9022 and an open UDP port at 9002. Portworx on OpenShift 4+ requires open TCP ports at 17001-17020 and an open UDP port at 17002. Telemetry components require the following open ports: 9024, 12001 and 12002. Portworx also requires an open KVDB port. For example, if you’re using `etcd` externally, open port 2379. If you intend to use Portworx with sharedv4 volumes, you may need to open your NFS ports.

Portworx requires different open ports depending on how it’s installed:

Spec-based installations require all Portworx nodes to have open TCP ports at 9001-9022 and an open UDP port at 9002.
Portworx on OpenShift 4+ requires open TCP ports at 17001-17020 and an open UDP port at 17002.
Telemetry components require the following open ports: 9024, 12001 and 12002.

Portworx also requires an open KVDB port. For example, if you’re using etcd externally, open port 2379.

If you intend to use Portworx with sharedv4 volumes, you may need to open your NFS ports.

Software
Linux kernel and distro	Kernel version 3.10 or greater. To check if your Linux distro and kernel are supported, see Supported Kernels.
Docker	Version 1.13.1 or greater.
Key-value store	Portworx needs a key-value store to perform its operations. As such, install a clustered key-value database (`etcd`) with a three node cluster. With Portworx 2.0 or greater, you can use Internal KVDB during installation. In this mode, Portworx will create and manage an internal key-value store (kvdb) cluster. If you plan of using your own etcd, refer to Etcd for Portworx for details on recommendations for installing and tuning etcd.
Disable swap	Please disable swap on all nodes that will run the Portworx software. Ensure that the swap device is not automatically mounted on server reboot.

Hypervisor
VMware vSphere	Version 7.0 Version 8.0

Supported Kubernetes versions

Before you install Portworx on Kubernetes, ensure that you’re using a supported Kubernetes version:

Type	Supported Kubernetes Version
On-prem Kubernetes	1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26
Managed Kubernetes	KOPS: 1.23.12 GKE: 1.25.5 AKS: 1.25.5 EKS: 1.24 IKS: 1.24.10, 1.25.6, 1.26.1 PKS: 1.15.1 OKE: 1.22.5, 1.23.3, 1.24.1, 1.25.1
Distribution Kubernetes	Red Hat OpenShift: Openshift 4.9: 1.22 (Openshift version verified up to 4.9.55) Openshift 4.10: 1.23 (Openshift version verified up to 4.10.51) Openshift 4.11: 1.24 (Openshift version verified up to 4.11.26) Openshift 4.12: 1.25 (Openshift version verified up to 4.12.2) Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud: ROKS 4.10: (Verified up to 4.10.47) ROKS 4.11: (Verified up to 4.11.22) ROKS 4.12: (Verified up to 4.12.2) NOTE: Supports both bare metal and VM.
vSphere with Tanzu (TKGs)	1.22.9+vmware.1-tkg.1.cc71bc8 1.23.8+vmware.3
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated (TKGI)	PKS version: 1.12.1; Kubernetes version: 1.21.5 PKS version: 1.13.7-build.12; Kubernetes version: 1.22.12 PKS version: 1.14.1-build.16; Kubernetes version: 1.23.7 PKS version: 1.15.1-build.17; Kubernetes version: 1.24.7

K3s users: You must use CSI integration to generate / use PVCs.

Air-gapped prerequisites

If you intend to use the sharedv4 feature, your host systems must be running the NFS service. For more information on options for installing the NFS service, refer to the installation article for air-gapped clusters.

Installation

Whether you’re using Portworx Enterprise or Essentials, you can install Portworx on the cloud or on-premises. Proceed to one of the following sections for Kubernetes and OpenShift install instructions.

For all other environments, continue to the following section:

Portworx on other orchestrators

Post-installation

If you have an existing Portworx cluster, continue to below sections for using and managing Portworx.