EMC ScaleIO Block Storage driver configuration

EMC ScaleIO Block Storage driver configuration

ScaleIO is a software-only solution that uses existing servers’ local disks and LAN to create a virtual SAN that has all of the benefits of external storage, but at a fraction of the cost and complexity. Using the driver, Block Storage hosts can connect to a ScaleIO Storage cluster.

This section explains how to configure and connect the block storage nodes to a ScaleIO storage cluster.

Support matrix

ScaleIO version Supported Linux operating systems
1.32 CentOS 6.x, CentOS 7.x, SLES 11 SP3, SLES 12
2.0 CentOS 6.x, CentOS 7.x, SLES 11 SP3, SLES 12, Ubuntu 14.04

Deployment prerequisites

  • ScaleIO Gateway must be installed and accessible in the network. For installation steps, refer to the Preparing the installation Manager and the Gateway section in ScaleIO Deployment Guide. See Official documentation.
  • ScaleIO Data Client (SDC) must be installed on all OpenStack nodes.

Note

Ubuntu users must follow the specific instructions in the ScaleIO deployment guide for Ubuntu environments. See the Deploying on Ubuntu servers section in ScaleIO Deployment Guide. See Official documentation.

Official documentation

To find the ScaleIO documentation:

  1. Go to the ScaleIO product documentation page.
  2. From the left-side panel, select the relevant version (1.32 or 2.0).
  3. Search for “ScaleIO Installation Guide 1.32” or “ScaleIO 2.0 Deployment Guide” accordingly.

Supported operations

  • Create, delete, clone, attach, and detach volumes
  • Create and delete volume snapshots
  • Create a volume from a snapshot
  • Copy an image to a volume
  • Copy a volume to an image
  • Extend a volume
  • Get volume statistics
  • Manage and unmanage a volume
  • Create, list, update, and delete consistency groups
  • Create, list, update, and delete consistency group snapshots

ScaleIO QoS support

QoS support for the ScaleIO driver includes the ability to set the following capabilities in the Block Storage API cinder.api.contrib.qos_specs_manage QoS specs extension module:

  • minBWS
  • maxBWS

The QoS keys above must be created and associated with a volume type. For information about how to set the key-value pairs and associate them with a volume type, run the following commands:

$ cinder help qos-create

$ cinder help qos-key

$ cinder help qos-associate
maxBWS
The QoS I/O issue bandwidth rate limit in KBs. If not set, the I/O issue bandwidth rate has no limit. The setting must be a multiple of 1024.
maxIOPS
The QoS I/O issue bandwidth rate limit in MBs. If not set, the I/O issue bandwidth rate has no limit. The setting must be larger than 10.

Since the limits are per SDC, they will be applied after the volume is attached to an instance, and thus to a compute node/SDC.

ScaleIO thin provisioning support

The Block Storage driver supports creation of thin-provisioned volumes, in addition to thick provisioning. The provisioning type settings should be added as an extra specification of the volume type, as follows:

sio:provisioning_type = thin\thick

If the provisioning type value is not specified, the default value of “thick” will be used.

ScaleIO Block Storage driver configuration

Edit the cinder.conf file by adding the configuration below under the [DEFAULT] section of the file in case of a single back end, or under a separate section in case of multiple back ends (for example [ScaleIO]). The configuration file is usually located at /etc/cinder/cinder.conf.

For a configuration example, refer to the example cinder.conf .

ScaleIO driver name

Configure the driver name by adding the following parameter:

volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.emc.scaleio.ScaleIODriver

ScaleIO MDM server IP

The ScaleIO Meta Data Manager monitors and maintains the available resources and permissions.

To retrieve the MDM server IP address, use the drv_cfg –query_mdms command.

Configure the MDM server IP address by adding the following parameter:

san_ip = ScaleIO GATEWAY IP

ScaleIO Protection Domain name

ScaleIO allows multiple Protection Domains (groups of SDSs that provide backup for each other).

To retrieve the available Protection Domains, use the command scli –query_all and search for the Protection Domains section.

Configure the Protection Domain for newly created volumes by adding the following parameter:

sio_protection_domain_name = ScaleIO Protection Domain

ScaleIO Storage Pool name

A ScaleIO Storage Pool is a set of physical devices in a Protection Domain.

To retrieve the available Storage Pools, use the command scli –query_all and search for available Storage Pools.

Configure the Storage Pool for newly created volumes by adding the following parameter:

sio_storage_pool_name = ScaleIO Storage Pool

ScaleIO Storage Pools

Multiple Storage Pools and Protection Domains can be listed for use by the virtual machines.

To retrieve the available Storage Pools, use the command scli –query_all and search for available Storage Pools.

Configure the available Storage Pools by adding the following parameter:

sio_storage_pools = Comma-separated list of protection domain:storage pool name

ScaleIO user credentials

Block Storage requires a ScaleIO user with administrative privileges. ScaleIO recommends creating a dedicated OpenStack user account that has an administrative user role.

Refer to the ScaleIO User Guide for details on user account management.

Configure the user credentials by adding the following parameters:

san_login = ScaleIO username

san_password = ScaleIO password

Multiple back ends

Configuring multiple storage back ends allows you to create several back-end storage solutions that serve the same Compute resources.

When a volume is created, the scheduler selects the appropriate back end to handle the request, according to the specified volume type.

Configuration example

cinder.conf example file

You can update the cinder.conf file by editing the necessary parameters as follows:

[Default]
enabled_backends = scaleio

[scaleio]
volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.emc.scaleio.ScaleIODriver
volume_backend_name = scaleio
san_ip = GATEWAY_IP
sio_protection_domain_name = Default_domain
sio_storage_pool_name = Default_pool
sio_storage_pools = Domain1:Pool1,Domain2:Pool2
san_login = SIO_USER
san_password = SIO_PASSWD

Configuration options

The ScaleIO driver supports these configuration options:

Description of EMC SIO volume driver configuration options
Configuration option = Default value Description
[DEFAULT]  
sio_protection_domain_id = None (String) Protection Domain ID.
sio_protection_domain_name = None (String) Protection Domain name.
sio_rest_server_port = 443 (String) REST server port.
sio_round_volume_capacity = True (Boolean) Round up volume capacity.
sio_server_certificate_path = None (String) Server certificate path.
sio_storage_pool_id = None (String) Storage Pool ID.
sio_storage_pool_name = None (String) Storage Pool name.
sio_storage_pools = None (String) Storage Pools.
sio_unmap_volume_before_deletion = False (Boolean) Unmap volume before deletion.
sio_verify_server_certificate = False (Boolean) Verify server certificate.
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