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Unleash the full potential of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization with IBM Fusion Access for SAN and IBM FlashSystem

By Sandeep Zende posted 24 days ago

  

Enterprises running traditional virtualization platforms often rely on existing high-performance Storage area network (SAN) storage for critical workloads. But when transitioning to modern platforms like Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine, they face barriers such as: 

  • Replacing or duplicating the SAN storage is expensive and disruptive. 

  • Migrating Virtual Machines (VM) while maintaining storage performance and availability is complex. 

  • Integrating block-based SAN storage with container-native environments isn't straightforward. 

 

IBM Fusion Access for SAN + IBM FlashSystem 

Powered by IBM Storage Scale, IBM Fusion Access for SAN,  bridges the gap between using traditional SAN storage with next-generation containerized and virtualized workloads running on Red Hat OpenShift. With the high-performance, massively scalable file system at its core, Fusion Access empowers enterprises to extend the life of their existing storage investments while embracing modern hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

IBM FlashSystem is a powerful and versatile family of all-flash storage solutions designed to address the evolving demands of modern businesses—from agile startups to global enterprises. Whether you're running mission-critical applications, managing hybrid cloud workloads, or planning for disaster recovery, IBM FlashSystem delivers unmatched speed, reliability, and intelligence in a compact, cost-efficient footprint.  

 
IBM FlashSystem combines advanced storage capabilities with AI-driven insights, helping organizations transform data into a competitive advantage. 

 
With IBM Fusion Access for SAN, enterprises can bridge the gap between legacy block storage and modern container-native virtualization. Combined with IBM FlashSystem, this solution delivers blazing-fast, scalable, and reliable storage access to virtual machines running on OpenShift platform. 

 

Key Benefits 

Preserve SAN Investments 

 Zero efforts to decommission or reconfigure your IBM FlashSystem volumes. IBM Fusion Access makes them file-accessible to OpenShift workloads instantly. 

Boost VM Performance 

Benefit from IBM FlashSystem's ultra-low latency and IBM Fusion Access's high-speed file interface to maximize virtual machine performance for enterprise applications. 

Accelerate Cloud-Native Adoption 

Seamlessly onboard existing VM based workloads to OpenShift virtualization while retaining familiar storage environments and operational models. 

Simplify Storage Management 

Use Fusion Access’s wizard-based UI to configure filesystems, manage multipath storage, and expose storage classes—all in minutes. 

Scale Without Bottlenecks 

Scale up to thousands of VMs and container workloads on Fusion Access without the need to rearchitect the backend storage. Add more file systems or storage classes as needed. 

 

Reference Architecture 

Below is the reference diagram of IBM Fusion Access & IBM FlashSystem configured for OpenShift Virtualization.

 

The architecture discussed here has following components:  

  • IBM FlashSystem presents multiple volumes to the Fusion Access nodes. 

  • IBM Fusion Access for SAN aggregates these block devices into a unified file system via IBM Storage Scale. 

  • Each VM running on OpenShift accesses its disk as a file image (disk.img) within a unique fileset. 

This provides shared, scalable, and high-speed file access across all OpenShift worker nodes  

Ideal Use Cases 

  • Enterprises migrating from VMware or other hypervisors to OpenShift Virtualization. 

  • Organizations with existing IBM FlashSystem SAN infrastructure. 

  • Environments requiring high performance and file-based access to block storage. 

  • Use cases like VDI, analytics, legacy app modernization, and multi-tenancy VM hosting. 

 

VM Migration Use Case 

Below is the reference architecture of enterprises migrating from VMware using IBM FlashSystem to OpenShift Virtualization Engine 

 

The architecture demonstrates the migration of a VM from a VMware environment to  OpenShift container platform, leveraging IBM Fusion Access and IBM FlashSystem for storage continuity and performance.  

  1. Source: VMware Environment 

  • A VM named Demo-vm is running in a VMware ESXi Cluster. 

  • The virtual disk for Demo-vm is stored in a VMFS datastore located at: 
    /vmfs/volumes/datastore1. 

  • This datastore is backed by IBM FlashSystem, which provides the physical storage. 

2. Migration Process 

  • The Migration Toolkit for Virtualization (MTV) is used to: 

  • Extract the VM’s disk image (demo-vm.vmdk) from VMware. 

  • Convert the .vmdk file into a raw image format (disk.img) compatible with OpenShift. 

3. Destination: OpenShift Cluster 

  • The converted disk image (disk.img) is deployed into an OpenShift Pod representing the migrated VM (Demo-vm). 

  • This image is stored via a Persistent Volume Claim (PVC), which is backed by IBM Fusion Access. 

  • The PVC maps to a fileset and stores the disk image in a path like: 
    /mnt/gpfs/pvc-*/pvc-*-data/disk.img. 

4. Unified Storage Layer 

  • The /mnt/gpfs directory in OpenShift is a mount point to the Fusion Access File System. It  is also backed by IBM FlashSystem. 

This setup ensures consistent storage performance and simplifies management across both VMware and OpenShift. 

For more details on the solution, follow the link.

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