Storage considerations

To install IBM® Concert, you must have a supported persistent storage solution that is accessible to your Red Hat® OpenShift® cluster.

Review the following sections to determine what storage is best for you:

What storage options are supported for the platform?
What storage options are supported on my deployment environment?
What storage options are supported on the version of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that I am running?
What storage options are supported on my hardware?
Storage comparison
Recommended disks

What storage options are supported for the platform?

Concert supports and is optimized for several types of persistent storage.

Concert uses dynamic storage provisioning. A Red Hat OpenShift cluster administrator must properly configure storage before Concert is installed.

Important: It is your responsibility to review the documentation for the storage that you plan to use. Ensure that you understand any limitations that are associated with the storage.

As you plan your installation, remember that not all services support all types of storage. For complete information on the storage that each service supports, see Storage requirements. If the services that you want to install don't support the same type of storage, you can have a mixture of different storage types on your cluster. However, it is recommended to use one type of storage, if possible.

Storage option	Version	Notes
OpenShift Data Foundation	Version 4.12 or later fixes Version 4.14 or later fixes Version 4.15 or later fixes	Available in Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus. Ensure that you install a version of OpenShift Data Foundation that is compatible with the version of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that you are running. For details, see https://access.redhat.com/articles/4731161.
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	Version 2.6.1 or later fixes Version 2.7.1 or later fixes	Available in IBM Storage Fusion. Ensure that you install a version of IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation that is compatible with the version of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that you are running.
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	Version 2.6.1 or later fixes Version 2.7.1 or later fixes	Available in IBM Storage Fusion or IBM Storage Fusion HCI System
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	Version 5.1.7 or later fixes, with CSI Version 2.9.0 or later fixes	Available in the following storage: IBM Storage Fusion IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud® Paks
Portworx	Version 2.13.3 or later fixes Version 3.0.2 or later fixes	If you are running Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Version 4.12, you must use Portworx Version 2.13.3 or later. If you are running Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Version 4.14, you must use Portworx Version 3.0.2 or later.
NFS	Version 3 or 4	Version 3 is recommended if you are using any of the following services: Db2® Db2 Big SQL Db2 Warehouse IBM Knowledge Catalog Watson™ Query If you use Version 4, ensure that your storage class uses NFS Version 3 as the mount option. For details, see Configuring dynamic storage.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	Not applicable	In addition to EBS storage, your environment must also include EFS storage.
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	Not applicable	It is recommended that you use both EBS and EFS storage.
IBM Cloud Block Storage	Not applicable	In addition to IBM Cloud Block Storage, your environment must also include IBM Cloud File Storage.
IBM Cloud File Storage	Not applicable	It is recommended that you use both IBM Cloud Block Storage and IBM Cloud File Storage storage.
NetApp Trident	Version 22.4.0 or later fixes	This information applies to both self-managed and managed NetApp Trident.

Note: The preceding storage options have been evaluated by IBM. However, you should run the Concert storage validation tool on your Red Hat OpenShift cluster to:

Evaluate whether the storage on your cluster is sufficient for use with Concert.
Assess storage provided by other vendors. This tool does not guarantee support for other types of storage. You can use other storage environments at your own risk.

What storage options are supported on my deployment environment?

If Concert supports a storage option, you can install Concert with that storage if it is supported on your deployment option. Ensure that you select a storage option that:

Works on your chosen deployment environment.
Some storage options are supported only on a specific deployment environment.

Best practice: For clusters hosted on third-party infrastructure, such as IBM Cloud or Amazon Web Services, it is recommended that you use storage that is native to the infrastructure or well integrated with the infrastructure, if possible.
Supports the services that you plan to install.
Some services support a subset of the storage options that are supported by the platform. For details, see Storage requirements.

Has sufficient I/O performance.

For information on how to test I/O performance, see Disk requirements.

Deployment environment	Managed OpenShift	Self-managed OpenShift
On-premises	IBM Cloud Satellite supports the following storage options with managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx	The following storage options are supported on bare metal and VMware infrastructure with self-managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform IBM Storage Scale Container Native Portworx NFS NetApp Trident
IBM Cloud	Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud supports the following storage options on VPC infrastructure: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation Portworx IBM Cloud File Storage IBM Cloud Block Storage	The following storage options are supported on VPC IBM Cloud infrastructure with self-managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation Portworx NFS
Amazon Web Services (AWS)	Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) supports the following storage options: IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) NetApp Trident (includes Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP)	The following storage options are supported on AWS infrastructure with self-managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) Portworx NFS NetApp Trident (includes Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP)
Microsoft Azure	Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) supports the following storage options: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation Portworx NFS NetApp Trident (includes Azure NetApp Files)	The following storage options are supported on Microsoft Azure infrastructure with self-managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation Portworx NFS, specifically Microsoft Azure locally redundant Premium SSD storage NetApp Trident (includes Azure NetApp Files)
Google Cloud	Managed OpenShift on Google Cloud is not supported.	The following storage options are supported on Google Cloud infrastructure with self-managed OpenShift: OpenShift Data Foundation Portworx NFS

What storage options are supported on the version of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform that I am running?

Storage option	Version 4.12	Version 4.14
OpenShift Data Foundation	✓	✓
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	✓	✓
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	✓	✓
IBM Storage Scale Container Native	✓	✓
Portworx	✓	✓
NFS	✓	✓
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	✓	✓
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	✓	✓
IBM Cloud Block Storage	✓	✓
IBM Cloud File Storage	✓	✓
NetApp Trident	✓	✓

What storage options are supported on my hardware?

Storage option	x86-64	Power®	s390x
OpenShift Data Foundation	✓	✓	✓
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	✓	✓	✓
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	✓	✓	✓
IBM Storage Scale Container Native	✓	✓	✓
Portworx	✓
NFS	✓	✓	✓
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	✓
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	✓
IBM Cloud Block Storage	✓		✓
IBM Cloud File Storage	✓		✓
NetApp Trident	✓

Storage comparison

Use the following information to decide which storage solution is best for you:

Storage classes

The person who installs Concert and the services on the cluster must know which storage classes to use during installation. The following table lists the required types of storage. When applicable, the table also lists the recommended storage classes to use and points to additional guidance on how to create the storage classes.

Storage option	Details
OpenShift Data Foundation	The recommended storage classes are automatically created when you install OpenShift Data Foundation. Concert uses the following storage classes: RWX file storage: `ocs-storagecluster-cephfs` RWO block storage: `ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd`
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	The recommended storage classes are automatically created when you install IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation. Concert uses the following storage classes: RWX file storage: `ocs-storagecluster-cephfs` RWO block storage: `ocs-storagecluster-ceph-rbd`
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	The recommended storage class name depends on your environment: If you are using IBM Storage Fusion, the recommended RWX storage class is called `ibm-spectrum-scale-sc`. If you are using IBM Storage Fusion HCI System, the recommended storage class is called `ibm-storage-fusion-cp-sc`. IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platformsupports both ReadWriteMany (RWX access) and ReadWriteOnce (RWO access) with the same storage class.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	Use either of the following RWO storage classes: `gp2-csi` `gp3-csi`
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	The recommended RWX storage class is called `ibm-spectrum-scale-sc`. IBM Storage Scale Container Native supports both ReadWriteMany (RWX access) and ReadWriteOnce (RWO access) with the same storage class.
Portworx	The recommended storage class varies according to your environment.
NFS	The recommended RWX storage class is called `managed-nfs-storage`. For details on setting up dynamic provisioning and creating the recommended storage class, see Setting up NFS storage.
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	The recommended RWX storage class is called `efs-nfs-client`.
IBM Cloud Block Storage	Use the following RWO storage class: `ibmc-block-gold`
IBM Cloud File Storage	Use either of the following RWX storage classes: `ibmc-file-gold-gid` `ibm-file-custom-gold-gid`
NetApp Trident	Self-managed NetApp Trident The recommended RWX storage class is called `ontap-nas`. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP The requirements are the same as self-managed NetApp Trident. Azure NetApp Files The requirements are the same as self-managed NetApp Trident.

Storage-level backup and restore

Storage-level backup and restore does not include backup and restore of Concert deployments.

Storage option	Details
OpenShift Data Foundation	Container Storage Interface support for snapshots and clones. Tight integration with Velero CSI plug-in for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform backup and recovery.
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	Container Storage Interface support for snapshots and clones. Tight integration with Velero CSI plug-in for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform backup and recovery.
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	For storage level backup, see Backing up and restoring your data in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation. Version 2.4 Version 2.5
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	For details, see Data protection and disaster recovery in the IBM Storage Scale documentation.
Portworx	On-premises Limited support. IBM Cloud Supported with the Portworx Enterprise Disaster Recovery plan.
NFS	Limited support.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
IBM Cloud Block Storage
IBM Cloud File Storage	Supported, but not enabled by default. For details, see Backing up and restoring data.
NetApp Trident

Encryption of data at rest

Storage option	Details
OpenShift Data Foundation	Supported. OpenShift Data Foundation uses Linux Unified Key System (LUKS) version 2 based encryption with a key size of 512 bits and the aes-xts-plain64 cipher. You must enable encryption for your whole cluster during cluster deployment to ensure encryption of data at rest. Encryption is disabled by default. Working with encrypted data incurs a small performance penalty. For more information, see Cluster-wide encryption in the OpenShift Data Foundation documentation: Version 4.12 Version 4.14 Version 4.15 You can also encrypt persistent volume in addition to enabling encryption for the whole cluster. You can enable persistent volume encryption for block storage only. For more information, see Storage class encryption in the OpenShift Data Foundation documentation: Version 4.12 Version 4.14 Version 4.15 Support for FIPS cryptography By storing all data in volumes that use RHEL-provided disk encryption and enabling FIPS mode for your cluster, both data at rest and data in motion, or network data, are protected by FIPS Validated Modules in Process encryption. You can configure your cluster to encrypt the root file system of each node. For more information, see FIPS-140-2 in the OpenShift Data Foundation documentation: Version 4.12 Version 4.14 Version 4.15
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	Supported. IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation uses Linux Unified Key System (LUKS) version 2 based encryption with a key size of 512 bits and the aes-xts-plain64 cipher. You must enable encryption for your whole cluster during cluster deployment to ensure encryption of data at rest. Encryption is disabled by default. Working with encrypted data incurs a small performance penalty. For details, see Security considerations in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.5 Support for FIPS cryptography By storing all data in volumes that use RHEL-provided disk encryption and enabling FIPS mode for your cluster, both data at rest and data in motion, or network data, are protected by FIPS Validated Modules in Process encryption. You can configure your cluster to encrypt the root file system of each node. For details, see FIPS-140-2 in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.5
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	Supported For details, see Encryption in the IBM Storage Scale documentation.
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	Supported For details, see Encryption in the IBM Storage Scale documentation.
Portworx	Supported with Portworx Enterprise only. Portworx uses the LUKS format of dm-crypt and AES-256 as the cipher with xts-plain64 as the cipher mode. On-premises deployments Refer to Enabling Portworx volume encryption in the Portworx documentation. IBM Cloud deployments To protect the data in your Portworx volumes, encrypt the volumes with IBM Key Protect or Hyper Protect Crypto Services.
NFS	Check with your storage vendor on the steps to enable encryption of data at rest.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
IBM Cloud Block Storage
IBM Cloud File Storage	Supported IBM Cloud File Storage supports provider-managed encryption of data at rest. This feature is only available in select data centers. All storage that is ordered in these data centers is automatically provisioned with encryption for data at rest. All snapshots and replicas of encrypted file storage are also encrypted by default in these select data centers.
NetApp Trident	Self-managed NetApp Trident Supported For details, see Encryption of data at rest in the NetApp Trident documentation. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP The requirements are the same as self-managed NetApp Trident. Azure NetApp Files

Network and I/O requirements

Storage option	Details
OpenShift Data Foundation	Network requirements Your network must support a minimum of 10 Gbps. I/O requirements Each node must have at least one enterprise-grade SSD or NVMe device that meets the Disk requirements in the system requirements. If SSD or NVMe aren't supported in your deployment environment, use an equivalent or better device.
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	Network requirements Your network must support a minimum of 10 Gbps. I/O requirements Each node must have at least one enterprise-grade SSD or NVMe device that meets the Disk requirements in the system requirements. If SSD or NVMe aren't supported in your deployment environment, use an equivalent or better device.
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
Portworx	Network requirements Your network must support a minimum of 10 Gbps. For details, see Prerequisites in the Portworx documentation. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements. For details on performance, see FIO performance in the Portworx documentation.
NFS	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
IBM Cloud Block Storage	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements.
IBM Cloud File Storage	Network requirements You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. For details, see Network connection in the IBM Cloud File Storage documentation. I/O requirements For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements. The default I/O settings are typically less than the minimums specified in the Disk requirements section. To improve the I/O performance for production environments, you must adjust the I/O settings. For more information, see Changing the size and IOPS of your existing storage device.
NetApp Trident	Network requirements Self-managed NetApp Trident You must have sufficient network performance to meet the storage I/O requirements. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP The requirements are the same as self-managed NetApp Trident. Azure NetApp Files I/O requirements Self-managed NetApp Trident For details, see Disk requirements in the system requirements. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP The requirements are the same as self-managed NetApp Trident. Azure NetApp Files

Recommended disks

For optimal performance, the following storage disks are recommended:

Deployment environment	Disks
On-premises	SSD drives NVMe drives
IBM Cloud
Amazon Web Services (AWS)	GP2 disks IO1 disks or better For details, see Amazon EBS volume types.
Microsoft Azure	Ultra disks or better
Google Cloud

Additional documentation

Storage option	Documentation links
OpenShift Data Foundation	Installation See the Product Documentation for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation: Version 4.12 Version 4.14 Version 4.15 Troubleshooting See Troubleshooting in the OpenShift Data Foundation documentation: Version 4.12 Version 4.14 Version 4.15
IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation	Installation See the Product Documentation for Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation: Version 4.14 Version 4.15 Troubleshooting See Troubleshooting in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.6 Version 2.7
IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform	Installation To deploy IBM Storage Fusion, see Deploying IBM Storage Fusion in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.6 Version 2.7 To install the Global Data Platform service, see IBM Storage Fusion Global Data Platform in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.6 Version 2.7 Troubleshooting See Troubleshooting IBM Storage Fusion in the IBM Storage Fusion documentation: Version 2.6 Version 2.7
IBM Storage Scale Container Native (with IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface)	Installation See Installing the IBM Storage Scale container native operator and cluster in the IBM Storage Scale Container Native documentation: Version 5.1.7 Troubleshooting For IBM Storage Scale, see Troubleshooting and support in the IBM Storage Scale Container Native documentation. For IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface, see Troubleshooting and support in the IBM Storage Scale Container Storage Interface documentation.
Portworx	Installation See Install Portworx on OpenShift in the Portworx documentation. Troubleshooting See the product documentation for Troubleshoot Portworx on Kubernetes.
NFS	Installation Refer to the installation documentation for your NFS storage provider. Troubleshooting Refer to the documentation from your NFS provider.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)	Installation Managed OpenShift EBS is provisioned by default when you install Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA). Self-managed OpenShift EBS is provisioned by default when you install Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on AWS infrastructure. Troubleshooting See the AWS documentation.
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)	Installation Install EFS from the AWS Console. It is recommended that you create a regional file system. For details, see Getting started in the Amazon Elastic File System documentation. Troubleshooting See Troubleshooting Amazon EFS in the AWS documentation.
IBM Cloud Block Storage	Installation Managed OpenShift See Setting up Block Storage for VPC in the Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud documentation. Self-managed OpenShift See Creating Block Storage for VPC volumes in the Virtual Private Cloud documentation. Troubleshooting See Debugging Block Storage failures in the IBM Cloud documentation. Managed OpenShift See the Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud documentation. Self-managed OpenShift See Troubleshooting Block Storage for VPC in the IBM Cloud Virtual Private Cloud documentation.
IBM Cloud File Storage	Installation Managed OpenShift See Enabling the IBM Cloud File Storage for VPC add-on in the Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud documentation. Self-managed OpenShift See Creating file shares and mount targets in the Virtual Private Cloud documentation. Troubleshooting Managed OpenShift See the Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud documentation. Self-managed OpenShift See Troubleshooting File Storage for VPC in the IBM Cloud Virtual Private Cloud documentation.
NetApp Trident	Installation Self-managed NetApp Trident See Learn about Astra Trident installation in the NetApp Astra Trident documentation. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP Subscribe to the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP service. Use the following recommendations when you set up your Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system: Use the Standard create option. For high availability, you must use multi-AZ deployment type The provisioned throughput should be 128 MB per second or higher. For more information about creating the file system, see Step 1: Create an Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system. Azure NetApp Files Subscribe to the Azure NetApp Files service and create a NetApp account. Use the following recommendations when you set up Azure NetApp Files capacity pool: Use the Ultra service level. Use the Auto QoS type. For more information about creating the capacity pool, see Create a capacity pool for Azure NetApp Files. Troubleshooting See Troubleshooting in the product documentation.