Violin Memory 7000 Series FSP volume driver¶

The OpenStack V7000 driver package from Violin Memory adds Block Storage service support for Violin 7300 Flash Storage Platforms (FSPs) and 7700 FSP controllers.

The driver package release can be used with any OpenStack Liberty deployment for all 7300 FSPs and 7700 FSP controllers running Concerto 7.5.3 and later using Fibre Channel HBAs.

System requirements¶

To use the Violin driver, the following are required:

Violin 7300/7700 series FSP with:
- Concerto OS version 7.5.3 or later
- Fibre channel host interfaces
The Violin block storage driver: This driver implements the block storage API calls. The driver is included with the OpenStack Liberty release.
The vmemclient library: This is the Violin Array Communications library to the Flash Storage Platform through a REST-like interface. The client can be installed using the python ‘pip’ installer tool. Further information on vmemclient can be found on PyPI.
```
pip install vmemclient
```

Supported operations¶

Create, delete, attach, and detach volumes.
Create, list, and delete volume snapshots.
Create a volume from a snapshot.
Copy an image to a volume.
Copy a volume to an image.
Clone a volume.
Extend a volume.

Note

Listed operations are supported for thick, thin, and dedup luns, with the exception of cloning. Cloning operations are supported only on thick luns.

Driver configuration¶

Once the array is configured as per the installation guide, it is simply a matter of editing the cinder configuration file to add or modify the parameters. The driver currently only supports fibre channel configuration.

Fibre channel configuration¶

Set the following in your cinder.conf configuration file, replacing the variables using the guide in the following section:

volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.violin.v7000_fcp.V7000FCPDriver
volume_backend_name = vmem_violinfsp
extra_capabilities = VMEM_CAPABILITIES
san_ip = VMEM_MGMT_IP
san_login = VMEM_USER_NAME
san_password = VMEM_PASSWORD
use_multipath_for_image_xfer = true

Configuration parameters¶

Description of configuration value placeholders:

VMEM_CAPABILITIES: User defined capabilities, a JSON formatted string specifying key-value pairs (string value). The ones particularly supported are dedup and thin. Only these two capabilities are listed here in cinder.conf file, indicating this backend be selected for creating luns which have a volume type associated with them that have dedup or thin extra_specs specified. For example, if the FSP is configured to support dedup luns, set the associated driver capabilities to: {“dedup”:”True”,”thin”:”True”}.
VMEM_MGMT_IP: External IP address or host name of the Violin 7300 Memory Gateway. This can be an IP address or host name.
VMEM_USER_NAME: Log-in user name for the Violin 7300 Memory Gateway or 7700 FSP controller. This user must have administrative rights on the array or controller.
VMEM_PASSWORD: Log-in user’s password.