Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) via Marketplace

Walkthrough guide to install Ondat onto a Rancher Cluster via Marketplace

Overview

This guide will demonstrate how to install Ondat onto a Rancher Kubernetes Engine (RKE) cluster using either the Ondat kubectl plugin or Helm Chart

Prerequisites

1 - Cluster and Node Prerequisites

The minimum cluster requirements for a non-production installation of ondat are as follows:

  • Linux with a 64-bit architecture.
  • 2 vCPU and 4GB of RAM per node.
  • 3 worker nodes in the cluster and sufficient Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) permissions to deploy and manage applications in the cluster.
  • Make sure your RKE cluster uses a Linux distribution that is officially supported by Rancher as your node operating system and has the required LinuxIO related kernel modules are available for Ondat to run successfully. A strong recommendation would be to review SUSE Rancher Support Matrix documentation to ensure that you are using a supported Linux distribution.

For a comprehensive list of prerequisites and how to build a production installation of Ondat please refer to Ondat Prerequisites

2 - Installing a Local Path Provisioner

By default, a newly provisioned RKE cluster does not have any CSI driver deployed. Run the following commands against the cluster to deploy a Local Path Provisioner and make it the default storageclass to provide local storage for Ondat’s embedded etcd cluster operator deployment.

kubectl apply --filename="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rancher/local-path-provisioner/v0.0.22/deploy/local-path-storage.yaml"
kubectl patch storageclass local-path -p '{"metadata": {"annotations":{"storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class":"true"}}}'

Verify that the Local Path Provisioner was successfully deployed and ensure that that the deployment is in a RUNNING status, run the following kubectl commands.

kubectl get pod --namespace=local-path-storage
kubectl get storageclass

3 - Client Tools Prerequisites

The following CLI utilities are installed on your local machine and available in your $PATH:

Ondat can be installed either via Helm Chart or using our command-line tool. Depending on which installation method you choose you will require either:

Installing Ondat Using Rancher’s Apps & Marketplace

Step 1 - Setup An etcd Cluster

  • Ensure that you have an etcd cluster deployed first before installing Ondat through the Helm chart located on Apps & Marketplace. There are two different methods listed below with instructions on how to deploy an etcd cluster;

    1. Embedded Deployment - deploy an etcd cluster operator into your RKE cluster, recommended for non production environments.
    2. External Deployment - deploy an etcd cluster in dedicated virtual machines, recommended for production environments.

  • Once you have an etcd cluster up and running, ensure that you note down the list of etcd endpoints as comma-separated values that will be used when configuring Ondat in Step 3.

    • For example, 203.0.113.10:2379,203.0.113.11:2379,203.0.113.12:2379

Step 2 - Locate Ondat Operator Helm Chart

  1. In the Rancher UI, under the RKE cluster where Ondat will be deployed - select the Menu button in the top-left corner of the page and then select Apps & Marketplace.
  2. Under Apps & Marketplace, a Charts page will be displayed where you can locate the Ondat Operator Helm chart by searching for “Ondat” in the search filter box.
  3. Once you have located the Ondat Operator Helm chart, select the chart. This will direct you to a page showing you more information about the Ondat Operator and how to install it.
  4. Select the Install button.

Step 3 - Customising & Installing The Helm Chart

  1. Upon selecting the Install button in the previous step, you will be directed to a page to configure the Application Metadata. Define the namespace and application name where Ondat will be deployed and click Next.

    Parameter Value Description
    Namespace storageos Namespace name for the deployment.
    Name ondat-operator Application name for the deployment.

  2. The next page will allow you to configure the Ondat Operator through Helm chart values. Under Edit Options, you are provided with 3 configurable sections called;

    • Questions
    • Container Images
    • StorageOS Cluster

  3. Select the StorageOS Cluster section. This will show you a form with configurable parameters that have predefined values for an Ondat deployment. Below are following parameters that will need to be populated before beginning the installation;

    Parameter Value Description
    Password $STORAGEOS_PASSWORD Password of the StorageOS administrator account. Must be at least 8 characters long, for example > storageos
    External etcd address(es) $ETCD_ENDPOINTS List of etcd endpoints as comma-separated values. Prefer multiple direct endpoints over a single load-balanced endpoint, for example > 203.0.113.10:2379,203.0.113.11:2379,203.0.113.12:2379

    💡 Advanced Users - For users who are looking to make further customisations to the Helm chart through additional configurable parameters or import your own StorageOSCluster custom resource manifest, review the Ondat Operator README.md document, Operator Configuration and Operator Examples reference pages for more information.

  4. Once the parameters have been successfully populated, select Install to deploy Ondat.

Step 4 - Verifying Ondat Installation

  • Run the following kubectl commands to inspect Ondat’s resources (the core components should all be in a RUNNING status)

    kubectl get all --namespace=storageos
kubectl get all --namespace=storageos-etcd  # only if the etcd cluster was deployed inside the RKE cluster.
kubectl get storageclasses | grep "storageos"

Applying a Licence to the Cluster

⚠️ Newly installed Ondat clusters must be licensed within 24 hours. Our Community Edition tier supports up to 1TiB of provisioned storage.

To obtain a licence, follow the instructions on our licensing operations page.