Compatibility: 
Source: Mayastor
MicroK8s supports a cluster-ready replicated storage solution based on OpenEBS Mayastor. This does require some initial setup and configuration, as detailed below.
ⓘ Note: This documentation page describes the Mayastor addon v2.0.0, available in MicroK8s 1.27 or newer. For Mayastor v1.0.0 found in previous versions, see mayastor v1.0.0
Requirements
ⓘ Note: These requirements apply to ALL the nodes in a MicroK8s cluster. Please run the commands on each node.
-
HugePages must be enabled. Mayastor requires at least 1024 4MB HugePages.
This can be achieved by running the following commands on each host:
sudo sysctl vm.nr_hugepages=1024 echo 'vm.nr_hugepages=1024' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf -
The
nvme_fabricsandnvme_tcpmodules are required on all hosts. Install the modules with:sudo apt install -y linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)Then enable them with:
sudo modprobe nvme_tcp echo 'nvme-tcp' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules-load.d/microk8s-mayastor.conf -
If MicroK8s is already installed, you should restart MicroK8s at this point:
microk8s stop microk8s start -
The MicroK8s DNS and Helm3 addons. These will be automatically installed if missing.
Installation
Assuming you have configured your cluster as mentioned above, you can now enable Mayastor.
-
Enable the Mayastor addon:
sudo microk8s enable core/mayastor --default-pool-size 20G -
Wait for the mayastor control plane and data plane pods to come up:
microk8s kubectl get pod -n mayastor -
The mayastor addon will automatically create one DiskPool per node in the MicroK8s cluster. This pool is backed by a sparse image file. Refer to the Mayastor documentation for information on using existing block devices.
Verify that all diskpools are up and running with:
microk8s kubectl get diskpool -n mayastorIn a 3-node cluster, the output should look like this:
NAME NODE STATUS CAPACITY USED AVAILABLE microk8s-m2-pool m2 Online 21449670656 0 21449670656 microk8s-m1-pool m1 Online 21449670656 0 21449670656 microk8s-m3-pool m3 Online 21449670656 0 21449670656
Mayastor is now deployed!
Deploy a test workload
The mayastor addon creates two storage classes:
mayastor: This can be used in single-node clusters.mayastor-3: This requires at least 3 cluster nodes, as it replicates volume data across 3 storage pools, ensuring data redundancy.
Let’s create a simple pod that uses the mayastor storage class:
# pod-with-pvc.yaml
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
name: test-pvc
spec:
storageClassName: mayastor
accessModes: [ReadWriteOnce]
resources: { requests: { storage: 5Gi } }
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: test-nginx
spec:
volumes:
- name: pvc
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: test-pvc
containers:
- name: nginx
image: nginx
ports:
- containerPort: 80
volumeMounts:
- name: pvc
mountPath: /usr/share/nginx/html
Then, create the pod with:
microk8s kubectl create -f pod-with-pvc.yaml
Verify that our PVC and pod have been created with:
microk8s kubectl get pod,pvc
The output should look like this:
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
pod/test-nginx 1/1 Running 0 4m
NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES STORAGECLASS AGE
persistentvolumeclaim/test-pvc Bound pvc-e280b734-3224-4af3-af0b-e7ad3c4e6d79 5Gi RWO mayastor 4m
Configure storage classes
For advanced use-cases, it is possible to define a custom storage class and configure parameters for the number of replicas, the underlying protocol etc. For example, to define a storage class with 2 replicas, execute the following:
microk8s kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: StorageClass
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
metadata:
name: mayastor-2
parameters:
repl: '2'
protocol: 'nvmf'
ioTimeout: '60'
local: 'true'
provisioner: io.openebs.csi-mayastor
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer
EOF
For more information, see Create Mayastor StorageClass(s)
Configure MayaStor pools
By default, the MayaStor addon will create one pool per node, backed by a local image file. For production use, it is recommended that you instead use designated disks.
For convenience, a helper script is provided to easily create, list and delete mayastor pools from the cluster. It will be available as microk8s mayastor-pools after enabling the addon:
Examples:
# get help
microk8s mayastor-pools --help
# create a mayastor pool using `/dev/sdb` on node `uk8s-1`
microk8s mayastor-pools add --node uk8s-1 --device /dev/sdb
# create a mayastor pool of 100GB using a sparse image file on node `uk8s-1`. The image file will be placed under `/var/snap/microk8s/common/mayastor/data`.
microk8s mayastor-pools add --node uk8s-1 --size 100GB
# list mayastor pools
microk8s mayastor-pools list
# delete a mayastor pool. --force removes it even if the pool is in use, --purge removes the backing image file
# the mayastor pool name is required, as it appears in the output of the list command
microk8s mayastor-pools remove microk8s-uk8s-1-pool --force --purge
For more information, see Create Mayastor Pool(s).
Troubleshooting
Unable to start mayastor data plane
Verify
Depending on the underlying hardware, starting the mayastor data plane pods may get stuck in CrashLoopBackOff state. This can be due to failing to initialize EAL. Verify this by checking the logs of the daemonset with the following command…
microk8s kubectl logs -n mayastor daemonset/mayastor
… and check that the logs contain an error message similar to this:
EAL: alloc_pages_on_heap(): couldn't allocate memory due to IOVA exceeding limits of current DMA mask
EAL: alloc_pages_on_heap(): Please try initializing EAL with --iova-mode=pa parameter
EAL: error allocating rte services array
EAL: FATAL: rte_service_init() failed
EAL: rte_service_init() failed
thread 'main' panicked at 'Failed to init EAL', mayastor/src/core/env.rs:543:13
stack backtrace:
0: std::panicking::begin_panic
1: mayastor::core::env::MayastorEnvironment::init
2: mayastor::main
note: Some details are omitted, run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=full` for a verbose backtrace.
For more details, see canonical/microk8s-core-addons#25.
Solution
Edit the manifest of the mayastor daemonset with:
microk8s kubectl edit -n mayastor daemonset mayastor
Then, edit the command line of the mayastor pod by adding the following argument --env-context=--iova-mode=pa. Save and exit the editor to apply the changes, then wait for the mayastor pods to restart.