Dell EMC PS Series volume driver (Deprecated)

The Dell PS Series (EqualLogic) volume driver interacts with configured PS Series arrays and supports various operations.

Note

The Dell PS Series volume driver is moving into maintanence mode in S release and will be removed in the T release.

Supported operations

  • Create, delete, attach, and detach volumes.

  • Create, list, and delete volume snapshots.

  • Clone a volume.

Configuration

The OpenStack Block Storage service supports:

  • Multiple instances of Dell EqualLogic Groups or Dell EqualLogic Group Storage Pools and multiple pools on a single array.

  • Multiple instances of Dell EqualLogic Groups or Dell EqualLogic Group Storage Pools or multiple pools on a single array.

The Dell EqualLogic volume driver’s ability to access the EqualLogic Group is dependent upon the generic block storage driver’s SSH settings in the /etc/cinder/cinder.conf file (see Block Storage service sample configuration files for reference).

Description of PS Series configuration options

Configuration option = Default value

Description

eqlx_cli_max_retries = 5

(Integer(min=0)) Maximum retry count for reconnection. Default is 5.

eqlx_group_name = group-0

(String) Group name to use for creating volumes. Defaults to “group-0”.

eqlx_pool = default

(String) Pool in which volumes will be created. Defaults to “default”.

Default (single-instance) configuration

The following sample /etc/cinder/cinder.conf configuration lists the relevant settings for a typical Block Storage service using a single Dell EqualLogic Group:

[DEFAULT]
# Required settings

volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.dell_emc.ps.PSSeriesISCSIDriver
san_ip = IP_EQLX
san_login = SAN_UNAME
san_password = SAN_PW
eqlx_group_name = EQLX_GROUP
eqlx_pool = EQLX_POOL

# Optional settings

san_thin_provision = true|false
use_chap_auth = true|false
chap_username = EQLX_UNAME
chap_password = EQLX_PW
eqlx_cli_max_retries = 5
san_ssh_port = 22
ssh_conn_timeout = 30
san_private_key = SAN_KEY_PATH
ssh_min_pool_conn = 1
ssh_max_pool_conn = 5

In this example, replace the following variables accordingly:

IP_EQLX

The IP address used to reach the Dell EqualLogic Group through SSH. This field has no default value.

SAN_UNAME

The user name to login to the Group manager via SSH at the san_ip. Default user name is grpadmin.

SAN_PW

The corresponding password of SAN_UNAME. Not used when san_private_key is set. Default password is password.

EQLX_GROUP

The group to be used for a pool where the Block Storage service will create volumes and snapshots. Default group is group-0.

EQLX_POOL

The pool where the Block Storage service will create volumes and snapshots. Default pool is default. This option cannot be used for multiple pools utilized by the Block Storage service on a single Dell EqualLogic Group.

EQLX_UNAME

The CHAP login account for each volume in a pool, if use_chap_auth is set to true. Default account name is chapadmin.

EQLX_PW

The corresponding password of EQLX_UNAME. The default password is randomly generated in hexadecimal, so you must set this password manually.

SAN_KEY_PATH (optional)

The filename of the private key used for SSH authentication. This provides password-less login to the EqualLogic Group. Not used when san_password is set. There is no default value.

In addition, enable thin provisioning for SAN volumes using the default san_thin_provision = true setting.

Multiple back-end configuration

The following example shows the typical configuration for a Block Storage service that uses two Dell EqualLogic back ends:

enabled_backends = backend1,backend2
san_ssh_port = 22
ssh_conn_timeout = 30
san_thin_provision = true

[backend1]
volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.dell_emc.ps.PSSeriesISCSIDriver
volume_backend_name = backend1
san_ip = IP_EQLX1
san_login = SAN_UNAME
san_password = SAN_PW
eqlx_group_name = EQLX_GROUP
eqlx_pool = EQLX_POOL

[backend2]
volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.dell_emc.ps.PSSeriesISCSIDriver
volume_backend_name = backend2
san_ip = IP_EQLX2
san_login = SAN_UNAME
san_password = SAN_PW
eqlx_group_name = EQLX_GROUP
eqlx_pool = EQLX_POOL

In this example:

  • Thin provisioning for SAN volumes is enabled (san_thin_provision = true). This is recommended when setting up Dell EqualLogic back ends.

  • Each Dell EqualLogic back-end configuration ([backend1] and [backend2]) has the same required settings as a single back-end configuration, with the addition of volume_backend_name.

  • The san_ssh_port option is set to its default value, 22. This option sets the port used for SSH.

  • The ssh_conn_timeout option is also set to its default value, 30. This option sets the timeout in seconds for CLI commands over SSH.

  • The IP_EQLX1 and IP_EQLX2 refer to the IP addresses used to reach the Dell EqualLogic Group of backend1 and backend2 through SSH, respectively.

For information on configuring multiple back ends, see Configure a multiple-storage back end.