Using the CSI

Deploying HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric for Kubernetes automatically configures the HPE Container Storage Interface (CSI) plug-in as the default Storage Class. Your application pod can then set up PV/PVC to connect to the CSI plug-in. See the CSI Overview in the HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric documentation (link opens in new browser window or tab).

If desired, you may alternatively use a non-HPE local persistent-volume CSI provided by a third party. If you do this, HPE Ezmeral Container Platform complies with how OSS Kubernetes works with that CSI.

Supported HPE CSI Driver Versions

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.3.5 supports the following versions of the HPE CSI driver:

Both CSI driver types support Kubernetes 1.17 and later.

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.3.1 supports the following versions of the HPE CSI driver:

Both CSI driver types support Kubernetes 1.17 and 1.18.

Types of HPE CSI Plug-In Drivers

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.3 allows you to choose from two types of HPE CSI plugins:
  • FUSE binary driver. This is the default plug-in.
  • Loopback NFS driver.

Both plug-ins are functionally the same and offer similar performance. The Loopback NFS driver is newer.

Both plug-ins can be used on bare metal implementations of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric and on implementations of HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric on HPE Ezmeral Container Platform.

Both plug-ins support Raw Block Volumes (link opens in new browser window or tab).

HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.3 automatically creates the Kubernetes storage class for each CSI when the Kubernetes cluster is created. The default storage class is the FUSE version, but you can choose to use either CSI version when creating the PV/PVC.

More Information About CSI

For information about CSI, see the HPE Ezmeral Data Fabric documentation (links open in a new browser window or tab):