Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance NFS driver¶

The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance (ZFSSA) NFS driver enables the ZFSSA to be used seamlessly as a block storage resource. The driver enables you to create volumes on a ZFS share that is NFS mounted.

Requirements¶

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Software version 2013.1.2.0 or later.

Supported operations¶

Create, delete, attach, detach, manage, and unmanage volumes.
Create and delete snapshots.
Create a volume from a snapshot.
Extend a volume.
Copy an image to a volume.
Copy a volume to an image.
Clone a volume.
Volume migration.
Local cache of a bootable volume

Appliance configuration¶

Appliance configuration using the command-line interface (CLI) is described below. To access the CLI, ensure SSH remote access is enabled, which is the default. You can also perform configuration using the browser user interface (BUI) or the RESTful API. Please refer to the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance documentation for details on how to configure the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance using the BUI, CLI, and RESTful API.

Log in to the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance CLI and enable the REST service. REST service needs to stay online for this driver to function.
```
zfssa:>configuration services rest enable
```
Create a new storage pool on the appliance if you do not want to use an existing one. This storage pool is named 'mypool' for the sake of this documentation.
Create a new project and share in the storage pool (mypool) if you do not want to use existing ones. This driver will create a project and share by the names specified in the cinder.conf file, if a project and share by that name does not already exist in the storage pool (mypool). The project and share are named NFSProject and nfs_share’ in the sample cinder.conf file as entries below.

To perform driver operations, create a role with the following authorizations:

scope=svc - allow_administer=true, allow_restart=true, allow_configure=true
scope=nas - pool=pool_name, project=project_name, share=share_name, allow_clone=true, allow_createProject=true, allow_createShare=true, allow_changeSpaceProps=true, allow_changeGeneralProps=true, allow_destroy=true, allow_rollback=true, allow_takeSnap=true, allow_changeAccessProps=true, allow_changeProtocolProps=true

The following examples show how to create a role with authorizations.

zfssa:> configuration roles
zfssa:configuration roles> role OpenStackRole
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole (uncommitted)> set description="OpenStack NFS Cinder Driver"
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole (uncommitted)> commit
zfssa:configuration roles> select OpenStackRole
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole> authorizations create
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set scope=svc
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_administer=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_restart=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_configure=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> commit

zfssa:> configuration roles OpenStackRole authorizations> set scope=nas

The following properties need to be set when the scope of this role needs to be limited to a pool (mypool), a project (NFSProject) and a share (nfs_share) created in the steps above. This will prevent the user assigned to this role from being used to modify other pools, projects and shares.

zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set pool=mypool
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set project=NFSProject
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set share=nfs_share

The following properties only need to be set when a share and project has not been created following the steps above and wish to allow the driver to create them for you.

zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_createProject=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_createShare=true

zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_clone=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_changeSpaceProps=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_destroy=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_rollback=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_takeSnap=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_changeAccessProps=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> set allow_changeProtocolProps=true
zfssa:configuration roles OpenStackRole auth (uncommitted)> commit

Create a new user or modify an existing one and assign the new role to the user.

The following example shows how to create a new user and assign the new role to the user.

zfssa:> configuration users
zfssa:configuration users> user cinder
zfssa:configuration users cinder (uncommitted)> set fullname="OpenStack Cinder Driver"
zfssa:configuration users cinder (uncommitted)> set initial_password=12345
zfssa:configuration users cinder (uncommitted)> commit
zfssa:configuration users> select cinder set roles=OpenStackRole

Ensure that NFS and HTTP services on the appliance are online. Note the HTTPS port number for later entry in the cinder service configuration file (cinder.conf). This driver uses WebDAV over HTTPS to create snapshots and clones of volumes, and therefore needs to have the HTTP service online.

The following example illustrates enabling the services and showing their properties.
```
zfssa:> configuration services nfs
zfssa:configuration services nfs> enable
zfssa:configuration services nfs> show
Properties:
<status>= online
...
```
```
zfssa:configuration services http> enable
zfssa:configuration services http> show
Properties:
<status>= online
require_login = true
protocols = http/https
listen_port = 80
https_port = 443
```
Note

You can also run this workflow to automate the above tasks. Refer to Oracle documentation on how to download, view, and execute a workflow.
Create a network interface to be used exclusively for data. An existing network interface may also be used. The following example illustrates how to make a network interface for data traffic flow only.

Note

For better performance and reliability, it is recommended to configure a separate subnet exclusively for data traffic in your cloud environment.
```
zfssa:> configuration net interfaces
zfssa:configuration net interfaces> select igbx
zfssa:configuration net interfaces igbx> set admin=false
zfssa:configuration net interfaces igbx> commit
```
For clustered controller systems, the following verification is required in addition to the above steps. Skip this step if a standalone system is used.
```
zfssa:> configuration cluster resources list
```
Verify that both the newly created pool and the network interface are of type singleton and are not locked to the current controller. This approach ensures that the pool and the interface used for data always belong to the active controller, regardless of the current state of the cluster. Verify that both the network interface used for management and data, and the storage pool belong to the same head.

Note

There will be a short service interruption during failback/takeover, but once the process is complete, the driver should be able to access the ZFSSA for data as well as for management.

Cinder service configuration¶

Define the following required properties in the cinder.conf configuration file:

volume_driver = cinder.volume.drivers.zfssa.zfssanfs.ZFSSANFSDriver
san_ip = myhost
san_login = username
san_password = password
zfssa_data_ip = mydata
zfssa_nfs_pool = mypool

Note

Management interface san_ip can be used instead of zfssa_data_ip, but it is not recommended.

You can also define the following additional properties in the cinder.conf configuration file:

zfssa_nfs_project = NFSProject
zfssa_nfs_share = nfs_share
zfssa_nfs_mount_options =
zfssa_nfs_share_compression = off
zfssa_nfs_share_logbias = latency
zfssa_https_port = 443

Note

The driver does not use the file specified in the nfs_shares_config option.

ZFSSA local cache¶

The local cache feature enables ZFSSA drivers to serve the usage of bootable volumes significantly better. With the feature, the first bootable volume created from an image is cached, so that subsequent volumes can be created directly from the cache, instead of having image data transferred over the network multiple times.

The following conditions must be met in order to use ZFSSA local cache feature:

A storage pool needs to be configured.
REST and NFS services need to be turned on.
On an OpenStack controller, cinder.conf needs to contain necessary properties used to configure and set up the ZFSSA NFS driver, including the following new properties:

zfssa_enable_local_cache
(True/False) To enable/disable the feature.

zfssa_cache_directory
The directory name inside zfssa_nfs_share where cache volumes are stored.

Every cache volume has two additional properties stored as WebDAV properties. It is important that they are not altered outside of Block Storage when the driver is in use:

image_id: stores the image id as in Image service.
updated_at: stores the most current timestamp when the image is updated in Image service.

Driver options¶

The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance NFS driver supports these options:

Description of ZFS Storage Appliance NFS configuration options¶
Configuration option = Default value	Description
`zfssa_cache_directory` = `os-cinder-cache`	(String) Name of directory inside zfssa_nfs_share where cache volumes are stored.
`zfssa_data_ip` = `None`	(String) Data path IP address
`zfssa_enable_local_cache` = `True`	(Boolean) Flag to enable local caching: True, False.
`zfssa_https_port` = `443`	(String) HTTPS port number
`zfssa_manage_policy` = `loose`	(String(choices=[‘loose’, ‘strict’])) Driver policy for volume manage.
`zfssa_nfs_mount_options` = `<>`	(String) Options to be passed while mounting share over nfs
`zfssa_nfs_pool` = `<>`	(String) Storage pool name.
`zfssa_nfs_project` = `NFSProject`	(String) Project name.
`zfssa_nfs_share` = `nfs_share`	(String) Share name.
`zfssa_nfs_share_compression` = `off`	(String(choices=[‘off’, ‘lzjb’, ‘gzip-2’, ‘gzip’, ‘gzip-9’])) Data compression.
`zfssa_nfs_share_logbias` = `latency`	(String(choices=[‘latency’, ‘throughput’])) Synchronous write bias-latency, throughput.
`zfssa_rest_timeout` = `None`	(Integer) REST connection timeout. (seconds)

This driver shares additional NFS configuration options with the generic NFS driver. For a description of these, see Description of NFS storage configuration options.