Configuring storage

The storage configuration must satisfy your sizing requirements.

Different IBM Cloud Paks have different storage needs. For more information, see Storage considerations.

No matter which environment you plan on installing your IBM Cloud Pak to, after you install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, you must configure your storage. The following diagram illustrates the three fundamental steps that it takes to install an IBM Cloud Pak:

Step 2: Configure storage

Important: You must define storage classes in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and set your storage configuration to satisfy your sizing requirements. Most IBM Cloud Paks require both a persistent volume in ReadWriteMany (RWX) mode, and be deployed into a persistent volume in ReadWriteOnce (RWO) mode.

For more information information about configuring storage for your specific environment, see the following tables:

On-premise
IBM Cloud
Amazon Web Services
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure Stack Hub
Google Cloud

On-premise

The following table illustrates the supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in an on-premises environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	IBM Cloud Satellite supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx NFS
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	IBM Cloud Satellite supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	The following storage options are supported on bare metal and VMware infrastructure: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native Portworx NFS
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	IBM Cloud Satellite supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	IBM Cloud File Storage IBM Cloud Block Storage OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx However, not all providers are supported for each capability in Cloud Pak for Integration. See Supported options on IBM Cloud for details.
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Not applicable	OpenShift Data Foundation Red Hat Ceph Portworx
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	Not applicable	IBM Storage Fusion IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud® Paks. The following IBM and Red Hat storage providers are not tested with IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation, but are recommended alternative options: IBM Storage Fusion IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud® Paks: Block storage from IBM Spectrum® Virtualize, FlashSystem, or DS8000® File storage from IBM Spectrum Scale Object storage from IBM Cloud Object Storage or Red Hat Ceph Red Hat OpenShift Ceph Storage (rook-ceph-block and rook-cephfs)
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Not applicable	IBM Cloud® Block Storage and IBM Cloud File Storage IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud® Paks. This suite of offerings includes the following validated storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation 4.2+ with the block or file storage type IBM Spectrum® Scale Container Native CNSA 5.1.1.3+ or CSI 2.3.0+ Red Hat Ceph IBM Spectrum Fusion 2.2 or later Portworx Storage, version 2.5.5 or later OpenShift Data Foundation 4.2+ with the block or file storage type
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	Not applicable	On Red Hat Openshift Container Platform we support the following storage providers: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native Storage Access Version 5.1.1.3 or higher, with IBM Spectrum Scale Container Storage Interface Version 2.3.0 or higher (only on OCP 4.8 or higher) IBM Spectrum Fusion 2.2 or higher Portworx storage 2.6.3 or higher

IBM Cloud

The following table illustrates supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in an IBM Cloud environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud supports the following storage options: Portworx	The following storage options are supported on classic IBM Cloud infrastructure: IBM Cloud File Storage IBM Cloud Block Storage Portworx NFS The following storage options are supported on VPC IBM Cloud infrastructure: Portworx NFS
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	IBM Cloud File Storage IBM Cloud Block Storage OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx However, not all providers are supported for each capability in Cloud Pak for Integration. See Supported options on IBM Cloud for details.	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Object storage from IBM Cloud Object Storage or Red Hat Ceph OpenShift Data Foundation version 4.x, from version 4.2 or higher	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	IBM Storage Fusion IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud® Paks. The following products are included in this suite of offerings: Block storage from IBM Spectrum Virtualize, FlashSystem, or DS8000® File storage from IBM Spectrum Scale Object storage from IBM Cloud Object Storage or Red Hat® Ceph® OpenShift Data Foundation Red Hat® Ceph® Storage (rook-ceph-block and rook-cephfs)	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Block storage: IBM Cloud (Classic) IBM Cloud (VPC2) IBM Storage Fusion IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native File storage: IBM Cloud (Classic) IBM Storage Fusion IBM Spectrum Scale Container Native	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	See Managed OpenShift column

Amazon Web Services

The following table illustrates supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in an AWS environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	Managed OpenShift Data Foundation For access to Managed OpenShift Data Foundation contact your Red Hat representative Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) supports the following storage options: Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) OpenShift Data Foundation as a Service	The following storage options are supported on AWS infrastructure: OpenShift Data Foundation as a Service Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) Portworx NFS
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) OpenShift Data Foundation as a Service Portworx However, not all providers are supported for each capability in Cloud Pak for Integration. See Supported options on IBM Cloud for details.	Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	Not supported	The following storage options are supported on AWS infrastructure: Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Block storage: Red Hat Ceph File storage: Red Hat Ceph	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	On Red Hat Openshift Service on AWS (ROSA) we support the following storage: Portworx 2.6.3 or higher (Persistent RWX storage required)	See Managed OpenShift column

Microsoft Azure

The following table illustrates supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in a Microsoft Azure environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation	The following storage options supported on Microsoft Azure infrastructure: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx NFS, specifically Microsoft Azure locally redundant Premium SSD storage
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	Azure managed disks (Azure Disk) Azure file shares (Azure Files) OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx However, not all providers are supported for each capability in Cloud Pak for Integration. See Supported options on IBM Cloud for details.	Azure Disk Aure File
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Block storage: managed-premium	See Managed OpenShift column
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	Not supported	Not supported

Microsoft Azure Stack Hub

The following table illustrates supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in a Microsoft Azure Stack Hub environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	Not supported	Not supported

Google Cloud

The following table illustrates supported storage types for each IBM Cloud Pak in a Google Cloud environment:

IBM Cloud Pak	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	Not supported	The following storage options are supported on Google Cloud infrastructure: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx NFS
IBM Cloud Pak for Integration	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Security	Not supported	Not supported
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps	Not supported	Not supported