INFINIDAT InfiniBox Block Storage driver¶

The INFINIDAT Block Storage volume driver provides iSCSI and Fibre Channel support for INFINIDAT InfiniBox storage systems.

This section explains how to configure the INFINIDAT driver.

Supported operations¶

Create, delete, attach, and detach volumes.
Create, list, and delete volume snapshots.
Create a volume from a snapshot.
Copy a volume to an image.
Copy an image to a volume.
Clone a volume.
Extend a volume.
Get volume statistics.
Create, modify, delete, and list consistency groups.
Create, modify, delete, and list snapshots of consistency groups.
Create consistency group from consistency group or consistency group snapshot.
Revert a volume to a snapshot.
Manage and unmanage volumes and snapshots.
List manageable volumes and snapshots.
Attach a volume to multiple instances at once (multi-attach).
Host and storage assisted volume migration.
Efficient non-disruptive volume backup.

External package installation¶

The driver requires the infinisdk package for communicating with InfiniBox systems. Install the package from PyPI using the following command:

$ pip install infinisdk

Setting up the storage array¶

Create a storage pool object on the InfiniBox array in advance. The storage pool will contain volumes managed by OpenStack. Mixing OpenStack APIs and non-OpenStack methods are not supported when used to attach the same hosts via the same protocol. For example, it is not possible to create boot-from-SAN volumes and OpenStack volumes for the same host with Fibre Channel. Instead, use a different protocol for one of the volumes. Refer to the InfiniBox manuals for details on pool management.

Driver configuration¶

Edit the cinder.conf file, which is usually located under the following path /etc/cinder/cinder.conf.

Add a section for the INFINIDAT driver back end.
Under the [DEFAULT] section, set the enabled_backends parameter with the name of the new back-end section.

Configure the driver back-end section with the parameters below.

Configure the driver name by setting the following parameter:

volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.infinidat.InfiniboxVolumeDriver

Configure the management IP of the InfiniBox array by adding the following parameter:
```
san_ip = InfiniBox management IP
```
Verify that the InfiniBox array can be managed via an HTTPS connection. And the driver_use_ssl parameter should be set to true to enable use of the HTTPS protocol. HTTP can also be used if driver_use_ssl is set to (or defaults to) false. To suppress requests library SSL certificate warnings, set the suppress_requests_ssl_warnings parameter to true.
```
driver_use_ssl = true/false
suppress_requests_ssl_warnings = true/false
```
These parameters defaults to false.
Configure user credentials.

The driver requires an InfiniBox user with administrative privileges. We recommend creating a dedicated OpenStack user account that holds a pool admin user role. Refer to the InfiniBox manuals for details on user account management. Configure the user credentials by adding the following parameters:
```
san_login = infinibox_username
san_password = infinibox_password
```
Configure the name of the InfiniBox pool by adding the following parameter:
```
infinidat_pool_name = Pool defined in InfiniBox
```
The back-end name is an identifier for the back end. We recommend using the same name as the name of the section. Configure the back-end name by adding the following parameter:
```
volume_backend_name = back-end name
```
Thin provisioning.

The INFINIDAT driver supports creating thin or thick provisioned volumes. Configure thin or thick provisioning by adding the following parameter:
```
san_thin_provision = true/false
```
This parameter defaults to true.
Configure the connectivity protocol.

The InfiniBox driver supports connection to the InfiniBox system in both the fibre channel and iSCSI protocols. Configure the desired protocol by adding the following parameter:
```
infinidat_storage_protocol = iscsi/fc
```
This parameter defaults to fc.
Configure iSCSI netspaces.

When using the iSCSI protocol to connect to InfiniBox systems, you must configure one or more iSCSI network spaces in the InfiniBox storage array. Refer to the InfiniBox manuals for details on network space management. Configure the names of the iSCSI network spaces to connect to by adding the following parameter:
```
infinidat_iscsi_netspaces = iscsi_netspace
```
Multiple network spaces can be specified by a comma separated string.

This parameter is ignored when using the FC protocol.
Configure CHAP

InfiniBox supports CHAP authentication when using the iSCSI protocol. To enable CHAP authentication, add the following parameter:
```
use_chap_auth = true
```
To manually define the username and password, add the following parameters:
```
chap_username = username
chap_password = password
```
If the CHAP username or password are not defined, they will be auto-generated by the driver.

The CHAP parameters are ignored when using the FC protocol.
Volume compression

Volume compression is available for all supported InfiniBox versions. By default, compression for all newly created volumes is inherited from its parent pool at creation time. All pools are created by default with compression enabled.

To explicitly enable or disable compression for all newly created volumes, add the following configuration parameter:
```
infinidat_use_compression = true/false
```
Or leave this configuration parameter unset (commented out) for all created volumes to inherit their compression setting from their parent pool at creation time. The default value is unset.

After modifying the cinder.conf file, restart the cinder-volume service.

Create a new volume type for each distinct volume_backend_name value that you added in the cinder.conf file. The example below assumes that the same volume_backend_name=infinidat-pool-a option was specified in all of the entries, and specifies that the volume type infinidat can be used to allocate volumes from any of them. Example of creating a volume type:

$ openstack volume type create infinidat
$ openstack volume type set --property volume_backend_name=infinidat-pool-a infinidat

Configuration example¶

[DEFAULT]
enabled_backends = infinidat-pool-a

[infinidat-pool-a]
volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.infinidat.InfiniboxVolumeDriver
volume_backend_name = infinidat-pool-a
driver_use_ssl = true
suppress_requests_ssl_warnings = true
san_ip = 10.1.2.3
san_login = openstackuser
san_password = openstackpass
san_thin_provision = true
infinidat_pool_name = pool-a
infinidat_storage_protocol = iscsi
infinidat_iscsi_netspaces = default_iscsi_space

Driver-specific options¶

The following table contains the configuration options that are specific to the INFINIDAT driver.

Description of INFINIDAT InfiniBox configuration options¶
Configuration option = Default value	Description
`infinidat_iscsi_netspaces` = `[]`	(List of String) List of names of network spaces to use for iSCSI connectivity
`infinidat_pool_name` = `None`	(String) Name of the pool from which volumes are allocated
`infinidat_storage_protocol` = `fc`	(String(choices=[‘iscsi’, ‘fc’])) Protocol for transferring data between host and storage back-end.
`infinidat_use_compression` = `None`	(Boolean) Specifies whether to enable (true) or disable (false) compression for all newly created volumes. Leave this unset (commented out) for all created volumes to inherit their compression setting from their parent pool at creation time. The default value is unset.

INFINIDAT InfiniBox Block Storage driver