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IBM Storage Fusion 2.5 now supports IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift

  

Introduction

IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift now supports IBM Storage Fusion 2.5 as an enterprise-level persistent, highly scalable, resilient, abstracted data storage for containerized applications deployed on IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift (zCX for OpenShift) cluster running on z/OS. IBM Storage Fusion, formerly known as IBM Spectrum Fusion, provides enterprise-grade persistent data-storage for containerized deployments leveraging IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation, formerly known as OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF).

Clients that are licensed to deploy and use IBM Storage Fusion 2.5 (5900-AOY) have full access to the OpenShift Data Foundation and now can take advantage of the benefits of enterprise grade data storage in zCX for OpenShift to provide container-native enterprise data services for cloud-native applications deployed on zCX for OpenShift running on z/OS.

For more information on IBM Storage Fusion, see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-fusion/2.5

For more information on OpenShift Data Foundation, see https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_openshift_data_foundation/4.12

Software Requirements:

  • IBM zCX Foundation for Red Hat OpenShift (PID:5655-ZCX and 5655-ZCY)

    • Apply the following maintenance:

      • PTFs for APAR OA64240, APAR OA64246, and APAR OA64254

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) 4.12

  • IBM Spectrum Fusion 2.5 (which includes OpenShift Data Foundation 4.12)

Resource Requirements:

  • Minimum of 3 zCX for OpenShift compute node instances (to deploy a local storage cluster)

  • Additional 1 zIIP (in addition to zCX for OpenShift requirements)

    • Specify 10 virtual CPUs for zCX for OpenShift compute node instances where you are planning to deploy the storage cluster (3 in total).

    • Note: Depending on workloads and data storage use, additional zIIPs may be required.

  • Additional 16GB of memory (z/OS fixed memory) for each zCX for OpenShift compute node instance (3 in total).

  • Additional 512GB of VSAM Linear Data Set (LDS) allocated for each zCX for OpenShift compute node instance (3 in total).

    • Any disk size of 4 TiB or less can be used for the local storage disk.

    • Must be the same size on all zCX for OpenShift compute node instances where the local storage cluster will be deployed

    • Use the provided zCX for OpenShift z/OSMF workflow to allocate VSAM LDS.

    • These data sets will be locally attached as disks and will be used to provision a local storage cluster by IBM Storage Fusion.

    • The disks will be formatted when a zCX for OpenShift compute node instance is started for the first time after allocation.

    • They must be on Extended Address Volumes (EAV).

How to add local disks to zCX for OpenShift compute node instances

Work with your storage administrators to define the local storage disk volumes to be used with your IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation. Obtain the allocation parameters for the VSAM data sets (Volume Serial, STORCLAS, DATACLAS and MGMTCLAS) from your storage administrator. This information is required by the workflow to allocate your local disks. Note that the local storage disk volumes must be empty and newly formatted EAV volumes.

  1. Use the provided zCX for OpenShift add local storage disk z/OSMF workflow (ocp_add_local_storage_disks.xml) to allocate and attach a VSAM data set to the zCX for OpenShift compute node instances. This workflow is shipped with the product and installed by default in /usr/lpp/zcx_ocp/workflows. From the z/OSMF Workflows task, create the zCX for OpenShift add local storage disk workflow.

  1. Manually perform step 1 of the workflow and provide the zCX instance name and the path to the zCX instance registry directory.

  1. Manually perform step 2 of the workflow to add the local storage disks. Specify the number of local storage disk volumes to add, the disk size, and the allocation parameters. Then click Next until the Finish button is enabled. Then click Finish.

  1. The remaining steps of the workflow can be performed automatically to allocate and attach the local storage disk volumes to the zCX for OpenShift compute node.

  2. Once the workflow completes, restart the zCX for OpenShift compute node.

Repeat steps 1-5 above for all zCX for OpenShift compute nodes that will be used for the IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation.

Once the zCX for OpenShift Container Platform Cluster is provisioned with above resource requirements, and successfully started, follow the link below to install and use IBM Storage Fusion: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-fusion/2.5?topic=fusion-installing-storage-premises-linux-zsystems-zcx

Restrictions:

The following IBM Storage Fusion functions are not currently supported in the zCX for OpenShift environment:

  • Dynamic storage provisioning and de-provisioning

  • Backup and Restore via Storage Fusion UI

  • Global Data Platform (Developer Preview)

    • Crash consistent backup using remote storage cluster

  • Data Cataloging Service

References: