IBM® Storage
IBM FlashSystem for
VMware vSphere with
Tanzu Basic Edition
An IBM Validated Solution Guide
IBM Storage Team
© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2021.
US Government Users Restricted Rights – Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule
Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Lab setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Configuring VM Storage Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Assigning VM Storage Policy to a namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
StorageClass object and Persistent Volume Claim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
More information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Terms and conditions for product documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Applicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Commercial use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Privacy policy considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2021. i
ii IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
Overview
The focus of this Blueprint is to demonstrate how IBM FlashSystem® with IBM Spectrum®
Virtualize can be used as a preferred back-end persistent storage for VMware Tanzu-based
deployments.
This document describes the use of IBM® FlashSystem storage volumes as virtual volumes
(vVols) that are made available to provision persistent volumes for a VMware Tanzu
deployment.
All models of IBM FlashSystem family are supported by this document, including:
• FlashSystem 9100 and 9200
• FlashSystem 7200
• FlashSystem 5000
• IBM SAN Volume Controller
• All storage that is running IBM Spectrum Virtualize software
By using IBM Spectrum Connect VASA provider with IBM Spectrum Virtualize, the vVols are
used to create a data store under vCenter. Post provisioning of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes
grid service (TKGS), the vVols data store is used to provision the persistent volumes for future
applications that are deployed on the worker nodes.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2021. 1
Executive summary
Container adoption is growing rapidly as enterprises increasingly create and deploy
containerized applications into production environments. Most companies are building and
containerizing new applications to support their evolving business challenges, which gives
them the agility that is needed to address dynamic market needs.
Another key area for container growth concerns developing container native applications.
These applications provide developers with the ability to spin up environments for application
development with persistent self-service storage capabilities that support fast, flexible
application delivery.
VMware Tanzu allows businesses to run Kubernetes in vSphere and manage Kubernetes
across multiple clouds, whether its public or private, while allowing customers to automate the
delivery of containerized workloads.
According to VMware, VMware Tanzu Basic simplifies the operation of Kubernetes
on-premises by placing cloud native constructs at the virtualization administrator's fingertips
as part of vSphere 7. It delivers an open source-aligned Kubernetes distribution, which is
packaged for the enterprise and delivered as part of your infrastructure to support application
modernization.
Whether the use case is operations or development, providing persistent storage that reliable,
available, secure, and Enterprise-class is a key requirement for customers. As customers
scale containerized applications in Tanzu beyond dev/test or departmental use, IBM’s
award-winning FlashSystem storage solutions deliver the enterprise data resources and
storage to containers. Therefore, mission-critical infrastructure is now possible, delivering
shared-storage operational efficiency, price-performance leadership, and security.
IBM integrated, qualified, and documented a step-by-step approach for IBM FlashSystem
with VMware Tanzu environments, which reduces risk and speeds deployment time of the
end-to-end solution.
2 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
Scope
The focus of this Blueprint is to use IBM FlashSystem storage as vVols volumes for
TKGS-based container application deployments.
This document does not discuss installing VMWare Tanzu or IBM Spectrum Connect. The
document focuses on how to use a vVol data store that is provisioned by using IBM Spectrum
Connect VASA provider to a host TKGS cluster. This document also discusses how to
provision a persistent volume by using a StorageClass entity in TKGS clusters during
deployment of MySQL database image.
For more information about installing and configuring IBM Spectrum Connect, see this IBM
Docs web page.
For more information about configuring vVols with IBM Spectrum Virtualize, see Quick-start
Guide to Configuring VMware Virtual Volumes for Systems Powered by IBM Spectrum
Virtualize, REDP-5321.
For more information about installing Tanzu with vSphere, see vSphere with Tanzu
Configuration and Management.
3
Introduction
VMware Tanzu is the suite of products and solutions that allows customers to build, run, and
manage Kubernetes-controlled, container-based applications. VMWare Tanzu is available in
three editions: Basic, Standard, and Advanced, all of which support running Kubernetes in
vSphere. By using Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service, informally known as TKGS, you can
create and operate Tanzu Kubernetes clusters natively in vSphere with Tanzu.
This environment provides an end-to-end integrated platform that consists of vSphere, virtual
machines, a TKGS cluster node template, and vSAN storage, which are tightly integrated with
VMware vSphere platform.
The cluster nodes are created from the VMware Photon operating system. With the current
release of TKGS, cluster provisioning by using Photon operating system images does not
support external storage connectivity by using Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or NFS. However, vVols
data stores are supported by the VMware Tanzu architecture, which allows users to connect
enterprise-class storage products, such as IBM FlashSystem storage, to their Tanzu
environment.
IBM FlashSystem storage that is powered by IBM’s award-winning IBM Spectrum Virtualize
software supported vVols’ functions since it was introduced by VMware. IBM’s Spectrum
Connect product seamlessly integrates with VMware’s vStorage APIs for storage awareness
(VASA) provider.
The IBM Spectrum Connects VASA plug-in is registered in VMware vCenter as storage
provider. It communicates to a wide range of IBM storage systems that are available within
the customer environment to provision required storage.
In this Blueprint, we demonstrate how IBM FlashSystem can be used to provision persistent
storage to Tanzu Kubernetes clusters running natively in vSphere with Tanzu by way of the
vVols functions.
4 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
Prerequisites
This document does not describe the process to installation or configure IBM Spectrum
Connect, IBM Spectrum Connect VASA provider, or VMware Tanzu Basic Edition.
For more information about various resources and a compatibility matrix about installing
these components, see “More information” on page 13.
The document assumes that the following components are installed and configured per best
practices:
• Tanzu Basic Edition with vSphere
• IBM Spectrum Connect: The configuration includes, but is not limited to:
– vCenter registration
– vVol storage service creation
– Addition of a Storage system to Spectrum Connect
– vVol services are attached to storage pool
– vCenter interface is registered in Spectrum Connect
• vVol functions are enabled on the IBM Storage. Although we focus on IBM FlashSystem
FS9100 storage product in this document, any of the IBM FlashSystem storage products
that use IBM Spectrum Virtualize software can be used in this environment. This also
includes IBM Storage Volume Controller, IBM SAN Volume Controller, and IBM Spectrum
Virtualize for Public Cloud.
• IBM Spectrum Connect VASA storage provider is registered in vCenter that is managing
TKGS and the storage provider can detect FS9100 storage system.
5
Lab setup
The lab setup that was used in this validation process is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Lab setup
As shown in Figure 1, the lab setup is orchestrated by vCenter, which is available with
VMware Tanzu Basic Edition. The IBM Spectrum Connect VASA storage provider plug-in is
registered with vCenter and can detect the FS9100 storage system.
The vVol data store is backed by FS9100 storage internally and uses iSCSI protocol to map
the storage volume to ESXi hosts. This data store was mounted on all ESXi hosts from the
workload domain.
Post availability of the data store, storage policies were assigned to the data store, followed by
the creation of the namespace entity and eventually a TKGS cluster. With the defaults chosen
after a four-node TKGS cluster was provisioned, a persistent storage volume was provisioned
from the storage class that points to vVol data store. This volume was used by the
containerized IBM MySQL application deployment to store the database data.
6 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
Configuring VM Storage Policy
Complete the following steps to configure VM Storage Policy. After the VM Storage Policy is
created, it is assigned to a namespace:
1. Log on to vSphere client (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 vSphere client view
2. Click vSphere Client in the upper left of the window and choose VM Storage Policies to
assign the policies to the data store, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 vSphere menu option to assign VM Storage policies
7
3. Click CREATE in the VM Storage Policies window, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 VM Storage Policies
4. In the Create VM Storage Policy wizard, choose the correct vCenter server and enter a
relevant name and description. In the example that is shown in Figure 5, VVOL-FS9100 was
chosen as name of the VM Storage Policy to indicate a vVol type of data store from IBM
FS9100 storage system.
Figure 5 Name and description
8 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
5. Enable the data store-specific rules by selecting Enable rules for
com.ibm.storageprofile.policy storage, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 Policy structure
6. Choose the specific rule set that is displayed in the next window for the Storage Profile
policy that was selected in Step 5, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 Policy rules
During this step, the storage that is compatible with the selected policy rules is displayed,
as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8 Storage compatibility
9
7. Complete the wizard by reviewing the newly created VM Storage Policy summary, as
shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Review
The VM Storage Policy creation process is now complete.
Assigning VM Storage Policy to a namespace
After the required VM Storage Policy is created, it is assigned to a specific namespace, as
shown Figure 10. In this case, the name of the namespace was created as cluster1.
Figure 10 Assigning Storage Policy to a cluster
A namespace can have more than one Storage Policy, as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11 Choosing the suitable VM Storage Policy
10 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
By following these steps, the vVol volumes are now available for use by the TKGS cluster
workload.
StorageClass object and Persistent Volume Claim
The Storage Policy that is assigned to the namespace is now shown as a StorageClass object
under the Kubernetes cluster, as shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12 Storage Policy that is seen as Kubernetes StorageClass
The example PersistentVolumeClaim that is shown in Figure 13, uses the vvol-fs9100
StorageClass to create a PersistentVolume on IBM FlashSystem. The persistent storage that
is provided by vvol-fs9100-mysql-pvc also is used by the IBM MySQL application
deployment to host the database.
Figure 13 PersistentVolumeClaim and IBM MySQL application deployment
11
Summary
This Blueprint described the use of IBM FlashSystems as persistent storage for VMWare
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service deployment by using IBM FlashSystem VMware vVols
integration through IBM Spectrum Connect’s VASA provider.
The IBM FlashSystem family is a portfolio of hybrid cloud-enabled storage systems. Each
system is easily deployed and quickly scaled to help optimize storage configurations,
streamline issue resolution, and lower storage costs through IBM’s award winning Spectrum
Virtualize software.
IBM SAN Volume Controller, with IBM Spectrum Virtualize software, offers powerful
technology that enables efficient, cost-effective SDS solutions for containers and hybrid
multicloud environments.
It also provides comprehensive data services and storage virtualization capabilities, including
advanced replication, high-performance, thin provisioning, encryption, compression,
deduplication, and IBM Easy Tier®. These advanced functions improve administrator
productivity and boost storage usage while also enhancing and extending the value of
existing storage investments.
In addition to the support for VMware Tanzu Basic Edition that is described in this publication,
these offerings support Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes container environments that
accelerate deployment of persistent volumes with the IBM block storage CSI driver, which is
certified by Red Hat and IBM.
12 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
More information
For more information, see the following resources:
• Configuring Virtual Volumes on IBM FlashSystem:
http://www.ibm.com/docs/en/flashsystem-9x00/8.4.0?topic=c-configuring-virtual-v
olumes
• IBM Spectrum Connect:
http://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spectrum-connect/3.8.0
• IBM Spectrum Connect compatibility matrix:
http://www.ibm.com/docs/en/spectrum-connect?topic=vmware-compatibility-matrix
• VMware Tanzu:
http://www.tanzu.vmware.com/tanzu
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid:
http://www.docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tanzu-Kubernetes-Grid/index.html
• vSphere with Tanzu configuration and management:
http://www.docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/vmware-vsphere-with-tanzu/GUID
-152BE7D2-E227-4DAA-B527-557B564D9718.html
Author
This Blueprint guide was produced by an author working at IBM Redbooks, Poughkeepsie
Center.
Shashank Shingornikar is a Storage Solutions Architect with IBM Systems, Pune, India. He
writes extensively and presents at various conferences worldwide about IBM Storage-based
solutions and other areas, such as Oracle, MSSQL, and MySQL databases; OpenShift
Container platform; and Cyber Resiliency. Before joining IBM Systems 11 years ago,
Shashank worked in The Netherlands as and Application Specialist on various database
solutions.
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:
Sandeep R Patil
Vincent Hsu
Michelle Tidwell
Carlos F Fuente
Hemanth Kantak
Douglas O’flaherty
Bill Martinson
13
14 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
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16 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
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Notices 17
18 IBM FlashSystem for VMware vSphere with Tanzu Basic Edition
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© Copyright IBM Corporation
June 2021
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Contract with IBM Corp.
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