Install Simplyblock CSI
Simplyblock provides a seamless integration with Kubernetes through its Kubernetes CSI driver.
Simplyblock is built upon the NVMe over Fabrics standard and uses NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP) by default.
While the driver is part of the Linux kernel with kernel versions 5.x and later, it is not enabled by default. Hence, when using simplyblock, the driver needs to be loaded.
modprobe nvme-tcp
When loading the NVMe/TCP driver, the NVMe over Fabrics driver automatically get loaded to, as the former depends on its provided foundations.
It is possible to check for successful loading of both drivers with the following command:
lsmod | grep 'nvme_'
The response should list the drivers as nvme_tcp and nvme_fabrics as seen in the following example:
[demo@demo ~]# lsmod | grep 'nvme_'
nvme_tcp 57344 0
nvme_keyring 16384 1 nvme_tcp
nvme_fabrics 45056 1 nvme_tcp
nvme_core 237568 3 nvme_tcp,nvme,nvme_fabrics
nvme_auth 28672 1 nvme_core
t10_pi 20480 2 sd_mod,nvme_core
To make the driver loading persistent and survive system reboots, it has to be configured to be loaded at system startup time. This can be achieved by either adding it to /etc/modules (Debian / Ubuntu) or creating a config file under /etc/modules-load.d/ (Red Hat / Alma / Rocky).
echo "nvme-tcp" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/nvme-tcp.conf
echo "nvme-tcp" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
After rebooting the system, the driver should be loaded automatically. It can be checked again via the above provided
lsmod command.
To install the Simplyblock CSI Driver, a helm chart is provided. While it can be installed manually, the helm chart is strongly recommended. If a manual installation is preferred, see the CSI Driver Repository.
Either way, the installation requires a few values to be available.
First we need the unique cluster id. Note down the cluster uuid of the cluster to access.
sudo sbcli-pre cluster list
An example of the output is below.
[demo@demo ~]# sbcli-pre cluster list
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+---------+-------+------------+---------------+-----+--------+
| UUID | NQN | ha_type | tls | mgmt nodes | storage nodes | Mod | Status |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+---------+-------+------------+---------------+-----+--------+
| 4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a | nqn.2023-02.io.simplyblock:4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a | ha | False | 1 | 4 | 1x1 | active |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+---------+-------+------------+---------------+-----+--------+
In addition, we need the cluster secret. Note down the cluster secret.
sbcli-pre cluster get-secret <CLUSTER_UUID>
Retrieving the cluster secret will look somewhat like that.
[demo@demo ~]# sbcli-pre cluster get-secret 4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a
oal4PVNbZ80uhLMah2Bs
Additionally, a storage pool is required. If a pool already exists, it can be reused. Otherwise, creating a storage pool can be created as following:
sbcli-pre pool add <POOL_NAME> <CLUSTER_UUID>
The last line of a successful storage pool creation returns the new pool id.
[demo@demo ~]# sbcli-pre pool add test 4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a
2025-03-05 06:36:06,093: INFO: Adding pool
2025-03-05 06:36:06,098: INFO: {"cluster_id": "4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a", "event": "OBJ_CREATED", "object_name": "Pool", "message": "Pool created test", "caused_by": "cli"}
2025-03-05 06:36:06,100: INFO: Done
ad35b7bb-7703-4d38-884f-d8e56ffdafc6 # <- Pool Id
The last item necessary before deploying the CSI driver is the control plane address. It is recommended to front the simplyblock API with an AWS load balancer service. Hence, your control plane address is the "public" endpoint of this load balancer.
Anyhow, deploying the Simplyblock CSI Driver using the provided helm chart comes down to providing the four necessary values, adding the helm chart repository, and installing the driver.
CLUSTER_UUID="<UUID>"
CLUSTER_SECRET="<SECRET>"
CNTR_ADDR="<CONTROL-PLANE-ADDR>"
POOL_NAME="<POOL-NAME>"
helm repo add simplyblock-csi https://install.simplyblock.io/helm
helm repo update
helm install -n simplyblock-csi --create-namespace simplyblock-csi simplyblock-csi/spdk-csi \
--set csiConfig.simplybk.uuid=${CLUSTER_UUID} \
--set csiConfig.simplybk.ip=${CNTR_ADDR} \
--set csiSecret.simplybk.secret=${CLUSTER_SECRET} \
--set logicalVolume.pool_name=${POOL_NAME}
demo@demo ~> export CLUSTER_UUID="4502977c-ae2d-4046-a8c5-ccc7fa78eb9a"
demo@demo ~> export CLUSTER_SECRET="oal4PVNbZ80uhLMah2Bs"
demo@demo ~> export CNTR_ADDR="http://192.168.10.1/"
demo@demo ~> export POOL_NAME="test"
demo@demo ~> helm repo add simplyblock-csi https://install.simplyblock.io/helm
"simplyblock-csi" has been added to your repositories
demo@demo ~> helm repo update
Hang tight while we grab the latest from your chart repositories...
...Successfully got an update from the "simplyblock-csi" chart repository
...Successfully got an update from the "kasten" chart repository
Update Complete. ⎈Happy Helming!⎈
demo@demo ~> helm install -n simplyblock-csi --create-namespace simplyblock-csi simplyblock-csi/spdk-csi \
--set csiConfig.simplybk.uuid=${CLUSTER_UUID} \
--set csiConfig.simplybk.ip=${CNTR_ADDR} \
--set csiSecret.simplybk.secret=${CLUSTER_SECRET} \
--set logicalVolume.pool_name=${POOL_NAME}
NAME: simplyblock-csi
LAST DEPLOYED: Wed Mar 5 15:06:02 2025
NAMESPACE: simplyblock-csi
STATUS: deployed
REVISION: 1
TEST SUITE: None
NOTES:
The Simplyblock SPDK Driver is getting deployed to your cluster.
To check CSI SPDK Driver pods status, please run:
kubectl --namespace=simplyblock-csi get pods --selector="release=simplyblock-csi" --watch
demo@demo ~> kubectl --namespace=simplyblock-csi get pods --selector="release=simplyblock-csi" --watch
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
spdkcsi-controller-0 6/6 Running 0 30s
spdkcsi-node-tzclt 2/2 Running 0 30s