Hitachi NAS Platform NFS driver

Hitachi NAS Platform NFS driver

This OpenStack Block Storage volume drivers provides NFS support for Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) Models 3080, 3090, 4040, 4060, 4080, and 4100 with NAS OS 12.2 or higher.

Supported operations

The NFS driver support these 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.
  • Get volume statistics.
  • Manage and unmanage a volume.
  • Manage and unmanage snapshots (HNAS NFS only).
  • List manageable volumes and snapshots (HNAS NFS only).

HNAS storage requirements

Before using NFS services, use the HNAS configuration and management GUI (SMU) or SSC CLI to configure HNAS to work with the drivers. Additionally:

  1. General:
  • It is mandatory to have at least 1 storage pool, 1 EVS and 1 file system to be able to run any of the HNAS drivers.
  • HNAS drivers consider the space allocated to the file systems to provide the reports to cinder. So, when creating a file system, make sure it has enough space to fit your needs.
  • The file system used should not be created as a replication target and should be mounted.
  • It is possible to configure HNAS drivers to use distinct EVSs and file systems, but all compute nodes and controllers in the cloud must have access to the EVSs.
  1. For NFS:
  • Create NFS exports, choose a path for them (it must be different from /) and set the :guilabel: Show snapshots option to hide and disable access.
  • For each export used, set the option norootsquash in the share Access configuration so Block Storage services can change the permissions of its volumes. For example, "* (rw, norootsquash)".
  • Make sure that all computes and controllers have R/W access to the shares used by cinder HNAS driver.
  • In order to use the hardware accelerated features of HNAS NFS, we recommend setting max-nfs-version to 3. Refer to Hitachi NAS Platform command line reference to see how to configure this option.

Block Storage host requirements

The HNAS drivers are supported for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, SUSE OpenStack Cloud, and Ubuntu OpenStack. The following packages must be installed in all compute, controller and storage (if any) nodes:

  • nfs-utils for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
  • nfs-client for SUSE OpenStack Cloud
  • nfs-common, libc6-i386 for Ubuntu OpenStack

Package installation

If you are installing the driver from an RPM or DEB package, follow the steps below:

  1. Install the dependencies:

    In Red Hat:

    # yum install nfs-utils nfs-utils-lib
    

    Or in Ubuntu:

    # apt-get install nfs-common
    

    Or in SUSE:

    # zypper install nfs-client
    

    If you are using Ubuntu 12.04, you also need to install libc6-i386

    # apt-get install libc6-i386
    
  2. Configure the driver as described in the Driver configuration section.

  3. Restart all Block Storage services (volume, scheduler, and backup).

Driver configuration

HNAS supports a variety of storage options and file system capabilities, which are selected through the definition of volume types combined with the use of multiple back ends and multiple services. Each back end can configure up to 4 service pools, which can be mapped to cinder volume types.

The configuration for the driver is read from the back-end sections of the cinder.conf. Each back-end section must have the appropriate configurations to communicate with your HNAS back end, such as the IP address of the HNAS EVS that is hosting your data, HNAS SSH access credentials, the configuration of each of the services in that back end, and so on. You can find examples of such configurations in the Configuration example section.

Note

HNAS cinder drivers still support the XML configuration the same way it was in the older versions, but we recommend configuring the HNAS cinder drivers only through the cinder.conf file, since the XML configuration file from previous versions is being deprecated as of Newton Release.

Note

We do not recommend the use of the same NFS export for different back ends. If possible, configure each back end to use a different NFS export/file system.

The following is the definition of each configuration option that can be used in a HNAS back-end section in the cinder.conf file:

Configuration options in cinder.conf
Option Type Default Description
volume_backend_name Optional N/A A name that identifies the back end and can be used as an extra-spec to redirect the volumes to the referenced back end.
volume_driver Required N/A The python module path to the HNAS volume driver python class. When installing through the rpm or deb packages, you should configure this to cinder.volume.drivers.hitachi.hnas_nfs.HNASNFSDriver.
nfs_shares_config Required (only for NFS) /etc/cinder/nfs_shares Path to the nfs_shares file. This is required by the base cinder generic NFS driver and therefore also required by the HNAS NFS driver. This file should list, one per line, every NFS share being used by the back end. For example, all the values found in the configuration keys hnas_svcX_hdp in the HNAS NFS back-end sections.
hnas_mgmt_ip0 Required N/A HNAS management IP address. Should be the IP address of the Admin EVS. It is also the IP through which you access the web SMU administration frontend of HNAS.
hnas_username Required N/A HNAS SSH username
hds_hnas_nfs_config_file Optional (deprecated) /opt/hds/hnas/cinder_nfs_conf.xml Path to the deprecated XML configuration file (only required if using the XML file)
hnas_cluster_admin_ip0 Optional (required only for HNAS multi-farm setups) N/A The IP of the HNAS farm admin. If your SMU controls more than one system or cluster, this option must be set with the IP of the desired node. This is different for HNAS multi-cluster setups, which does not require this option to be set.
hnas_ssh_private_key Optional N/A Path to the SSH private key used to authenticate to the HNAS SMU. Only required if you do not want to set hnas_password.
hnas_ssh_port Optional 22 Port on which HNAS is listening for SSH connections
hnas_password Required (unless hnas_ssh_private_key is provided) N/A HNAS password
hnas_svcX_hdp [1] Required (at least 1) N/A HDP (export) where the volumes will be created. Use exports paths to configure this.
hnas_svcX_pool_name Required N/A A unique string that is used to refer to this pool within the context of cinder. You can tell cinder to put volumes of a specific volume type into this back end, within this pool. See, Service Labels and Configuration example sections for more details.
[1]Replace X with a number from 0 to 3 (keep the sequence when configuring the driver)

Service labels

HNAS driver supports differentiated types of service using the service labels. It is possible to create up to 4 types of them for each back end. (For example gold, platinum, silver, ssd, and so on).

After creating the services in the cinder.conf configuration file, you need to configure one cinder volume_type per service. Each volume_type must have the metadata service_label with the same name configured in the hnas_svcX_pool_name option of that service. See the Configuration example section for more details. If the volume_type is not set, the cinder service pool with largest available free space or other criteria configured in scheduler filters.

$ openstack volume type create default
$ openstack volume type set --property service_label=default default
$ openstack volume type create platinum-tier
$ openstack volume type set --property service_label=platinum platinum

Multi-backend configuration

You can deploy multiple OpenStack HNAS Driver instances (back ends) that each controls a separate HNAS or a single HNAS. If you use multiple cinder back ends, remember that each cinder back end can host up to 4 services. Each back-end section must have the appropriate configurations to communicate with your HNAS back end, such as the IP address of the HNAS EVS that is hosting your data, HNAS SSH access credentials, the configuration of each of the services in that back end, and so on. You can find examples of such configurations in the Configuration example section.

If you want the volumes from a volume_type to be casted into a specific back end, you must configure an extra_spec in the volume_type with the value of the volume_backend_name option from that back end.

For multiple NFS back ends configuration, each back end should have a separated nfs_shares_config and also a separated nfs_shares file defined (For example, nfs_shares1, nfs_shares2) with the desired shares listed in separated lines.

SSH configuration

Note

As of the Newton OpenStack release, the user can no longer run the driver using a locally installed instance of the SSC utility package. Instead, all communications with the HNAS back end are handled through SSH.

You can use your username and password to authenticate the Block Storage node to the HNAS back end. In order to do that, simply configure hnas_username and hnas_password in your back end section within the cinder.conf file.

For example:

[hnas-backend]
# ...
hnas_username = supervisor
hnas_password = supervisor

Alternatively, the HNAS cinder driver also supports SSH authentication through public key. To configure that:

  1. If you do not have a pair of public keys already generated, create it in the Block Storage node (leave the pass-phrase empty):

    $ mkdir -p /opt/hitachi/ssh
    $ ssh-keygen -f /opt/hds/ssh/hnaskey
    
  2. Change the owner of the key to cinder (or the user the volume service will be run as):

    # chown -R cinder.cinder /opt/hitachi/ssh
    
  3. Create the directory ssh_keys in the SMU server:

    $ ssh [manager|supervisor]@<smu-ip> 'mkdir -p /var/opt/mercury-main/home/[manager|supervisor]/ssh_keys/'
    
  4. Copy the public key to the ssh_keys directory:

    $ scp /opt/hitachi/ssh/hnaskey.pub [manager|supervisor]@<smu-ip>:/var/opt/mercury-main/home/[manager|supervisor]/ssh_keys/
    
  5. Access the SMU server:

    $ ssh [manager|supervisor]@<smu-ip>
    
  6. Run the command to register the SSH keys:

    $ ssh-register-public-key -u [manager|supervisor] -f ssh_keys/hnaskey.pub
    
  7. Check the communication with HNAS in the Block Storage node:

    For multi-farm HNAS:

    $ ssh -i /opt/hitachi/ssh/hnaskey [manager|supervisor]@<smu-ip> 'ssc <cluster_admin_ip0> df -a'
    

    Or, for Single-node/Multi-Cluster:

    $ ssh -i /opt/hitachi/ssh/hnaskey [manager|supervisor]@<smu-ip> 'ssc localhost df -a'
    
  8. Configure your backend section in cinder.conf to use your public key:

    [hnas-backend]
    # ...
    hnas_ssh_private_key = /opt/hitachi/ssh/hnaskey
    

Managing volumes

If there are some existing volumes on HNAS that you want to import to cinder, it is possible to use the manage volume feature to do this. The manage action on an existing volume is very similar to a volume creation. It creates a volume entry on cinder database, but instead of creating a new volume in the back end, it only adds a link to an existing volume.

Note

It is an admin only feature and you have to be logged as an user with admin rights to be able to use this.

  1. Under the System > Volumes tab, choose the option Manage Volume.
  2. Fill the fields Identifier, Host, Volume Name, and Volume Type with volume information to be managed:
    • Identifier: ip:/type/volume_name (For example: 172.24.44.34:/silver/volume-test)
    • Host: host@backend-name#pool_name (For example: ubuntu@hnas-nfs#test_silver)
    • Volume Name: volume_name (For example: volume-test)
    • Volume Type: choose a type of volume (For example: silver)

By CLI:

$ cinder manage [--id-type <id-type>][--name <name>][--description <description>]
[--volume-type <volume-type>][--availability-zone <availability-zone>]
[--metadata [<key=value> [<key=value> ...]]][--bootable] <host> <identifier>

Example:

$ cinder manage --name volume-test --volume-type silver
ubuntu@hnas-nfs#test_silver 172.24.44.34:/silver/volume-test

Managing snapshots

The manage snapshots feature works very similarly to the manage volumes feature, currently supported on HNAS cinder drivers. So, if you have a volume already managed by cinder which has snapshots that are not managed by cinder, it is possible to use manage snapshots to import these snapshots and link them with their original volume.

Note

For HNAS NFS cinder driver, the snapshots of volumes are clones of volumes that were created using file-clone-create, not the HNAS snapshot-* feature. Check the HNAS users documentation to have details about those 2 features.

Currently, the manage snapshots function does not support importing snapshots (generally created by storage’s file-clone operation) without parent volumes or when the parent volume is in-use. In this case, the manage volumes should be used to import the snapshot as a normal cinder volume.

Also, it is an admin only feature and you have to be logged as a user with admin rights to be able to use this.

Note

Although there is a verification to prevent importing snapshots using non-related volumes as parents, it is possible to manage a snapshot using any related cloned volume. So, when managing a snapshot, it is extremely important to make sure that you are using the correct parent volume.

$ cinder snapshot-manage <volume> <identifier>
  • Identifier: evs_ip:/export_name/snapshot_name (For example: 172.24.44.34:/export1/snapshot-test)
  • Volume: Parent volume ID (For example: 061028c0-60cf-499f-99e2-2cd6afea081f)

Example:

$ cinder snapshot-manage 061028c0-60cf-499f-99e2-2cd6afea081f 172.24.44.34:/export1/snapshot-test

Note

This feature is currently available only for HNAS NFS Driver.

Configuration example

Below are configuration examples for NFS backend:

  1. HNAS NFS Driver

    1. For HNAS NFS driver, create this section in your cinder.conf file:

      [hnas-nfs]
      volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.hitachi.hnas_nfs.HNASNFSDriver
      nfs_shares_config = /home/cinder/nfs_shares
      volume_backend_name = hnas_nfs_backend
      hnas_username = supervisor
      hnas_password = supervisor
      hnas_mgmt_ip0 = 172.24.44.15
      
      hnas_svc0_pool_name = nfs_gold
      hnas_svc0_hdp = 172.24.49.21:/gold_export
      
      hnas_svc1_pool_name = nfs_platinum
      hnas_svc1_hdp = 172.24.49.21:/silver_platinum
      
      hnas_svc2_pool_name = nfs_silver
      hnas_svc2_hdp = 172.24.49.22:/silver_export
      
      hnas_svc3_pool_name = nfs_bronze
      hnas_svc3_hdp = 172.24.49.23:/bronze_export
      
    2. Add it to the enabled_backends list, under the DEFAULT section of your cinder.conf file:

      [DEFAULT]
      enabled_backends = hnas-nfs
      
    3. Add the configured exports to the nfs_shares file:

      172.24.49.21:/gold_export
      172.24.49.21:/silver_platinum
      172.24.49.22:/silver_export
      172.24.49.23:/bronze_export
      
    4. Register a volume type with cinder and associate it with this backend:

      $ openstack volume type create hnas_nfs_gold
      $ openstack volume type set --property volume_backend_name=hnas_nfs_backend \
        service_label=nfs_gold hnas_nfs_gold
      $ openstack volume type create hnas_nfs_platinum
      $ openstack volume type set --property volume_backend_name=hnas_nfs_backend \
        service_label=nfs_platinum hnas_nfs_platinum
      $ openstack volume type create hnas_nfs_silver
      $ openstack volume type set --property volume_backend_name=hnas_nfs_backend \
        service_label=nfs_silver hnas_nfs_silver
      $ openstack volume type create hnas_nfs_bronze
      $ openstack volume type set --property volume_backend_name=hnas_nfs_backend \
        service_label=nfs_bronze hnas_nfs_bronze
      

Additional notes and limitations

  • The get_volume_stats() function always provides the available capacity based on the combined sum of all the HDPs that are used in these services labels.

  • After changing the configuration on the storage node, the Block Storage driver must be restarted.

  • On Red Hat, if the system is configured to use SELinux, you need to set virt_use_nfs = on for NFS driver work properly.

    # setsebool -P virt_use_nfs on
    
  • It is not possible to manage a volume if there is a slash (/) or a colon (:) in the volume name.

  • File system auto-expansion: Although supported, we do not recommend using file systems with auto-expansion setting enabled because the scheduler uses the file system capacity reported by the driver to determine if new volumes can be created. For instance, in a setup with a file system that can expand to 200GB but is at 100GB capacity, with 10GB free, the scheduler will not allow a 15GB volume to be created. In this case, manual expansion would have to be triggered by an administrator. We recommend always creating the file system at the maximum capacity or periodically expanding the file system manually.

  • The hnas_svcX_pool_name option must be unique for a given back end. It is still possible to use the deprecated form hnas_svcX_volume_type, but this support will be removed in a future release.

  • SSC simultaneous connections limit: In very busy environments, if 2 or more volume hosts are configured to use the same storage, some requests (create, delete and so on) can have some attempts failed and re-tried ( 5 attempts by default) due to an HNAS connection limitation ( max of 5 simultaneous connections).

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