Remote file system

To configure a file system in the IBM Storage Scale container native cluster, a Filesystem custom resource (CR) must be defined for each file system you want mounted.

An IBM Storage Scale remote storage cluster serves the file system. Create a RemoteCluster custom resource for that storage cluster before proceeding. For more information, see RemoteCluster.

Download Remote file system CR sample

Samples are provided as a starting point with some defaults already set in the configuration based on the target environment. Use one of the following commands to download a copy of the sample.

Use caution to select the correct curl command based on your environment. The source files are different but the downloaded files are all named filesystem.remote.yaml.

Red Hat OpenShift

Use the command to download a copy of the sample for Red Hat OpenShift:

curl -fs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/ibm-spectrum-scale-container-native/v5.2.3.x/generated/scale/cr/filesystem/filesystem.remote.yaml > filesystem.remote.yaml || echo "Failed to download Filesystem sample CR"

Kubernetes and Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

IBM Storage Scale container native deployed in a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is available as a technology preview. For more information, see Support for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE).

Use the command to download a copy of the sample for Kubernetes or Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE):

curl -fs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/ibm-spectrum-scale-container-native/v5.2.3.x/generated/scale/cr/filesystem/filesystem.remote-kubernetes.yaml > filesystem.remote.yaml || echo "Failed to download Filesystem sample CR"

Apply the Remote file system resource

Edit the filesystem.remote.yaml file and change the fields that are specific to your installation. For more information, see Filesystem Spec.
Use the following command to apply the changed yaml:
```
kubectl apply -f filesystem.remote.yaml
```
View the Filesystem resources with the following command:
```
 kubectl get filesystem -n ibm-spectrum-scale
```

Use the command kubectl edit filesystem <filesystem-name> -n ibm-spectrum-scale to modify the properties of the resource.

Create a EncryptionConfig custom resource to encrypt the remote mounted file system for the IBM Storage Scale container native cluster. For more information, see EncryptionConfig.

Filesystem spec

The following table describes the properties for Filesystem:

Table 1. Filesystem property and description
Property	Required	Default	Description
`metadata.name`	Yes	None	The name of the CR.
`remote`	No	None	If specified, describes the file system to be a remote mounted file system.
`remote.fs`	Yes, if `remote` is specified	None	It is the name of the file system to mount, served by the remote cluster.
`remote.cluster`	Yes, if `remote` is specified	None	It is the name of the `RemoteCluster` resource.

You can define 1 or more Filesystem custom resources, one for each file system that you want to mount from the storage cluster.

All file systems are mounted under /mnt. The mount path cannot be changed.

remote

The spec.remote section defines the remote file system properties and consists of two fields:

remote.cluster: This field specifies the name of the RemoteCluster CR that is defined that is serving the file system.
remote.fs: This field specifies the file system name on the remote storage cluster that is mounted into the container native cluster.

In the following example:

apiVersion: scale.spectrum.ibm.com/v1beta1
kind: Filesystem
...
spec:
  remote:
    cluster: remotecluster-sample
    fs: fs1

The file system fs1 provided by the remote cluster, which is defined in remotecluster-sample is made available in the container.

If a Filesystem custom resource is deleted, the file system configuration from the IBM Storage Scale Cluster is not deleted.

Enter the kubectl explain filesystem.spec.remote command to view more details.

File system status

Status Conditions can be viewed as a snapshot of the current and most up-to-date status of a Filesystem instance.

The Success condition is set to True if the Filesystem is created and mounted.

Examples

More file systems

To create more file systems int the container native cluster, define a custom resource for each file system and apply it to the Kubernetes cluster.

Following the prior examples result in a single file system resource:

$ kubectl get filesystem -n ibm-spectrum-scale
NAME            ESTABLISHED   AGE
remote-sample   True          25h

To create another file system that is served by the same remote cluster, remotecluster-sample, define a yaml as follows:

 apiVersion: scale.spectrum.ibm.com/v1beta1
 kind: Filesystem
 metadata:
   labels:
     app.kubernetes.io/instance: ibm-spectrum-scale
     app.kubernetes.io/name: cluster
   name: c1-fs2
   namespace: ibm-spectrum-scale
 spec:
   remote:
     cluster: remotecluster-sample
     fs: fs2

When applied, the file system fs2 hosted by the remote cluster remotecluster-sample is made available to the container native cluster.

Displaying the Filesystem custom resources shows the following output:

 $ kubectl get filesystem -n ibm-spectrum-scale -o wide
 NAME            ESTABLISHED   REMOTE CLUSTER         MAINTENANCE MODE   AGE
 remote-sample   True          remotecluster-sample   not supported      25h
 c1-fs2          True          remotecluster-sample   not supported      10m

To create another file system that is served by a different remote cluster than remotecluster-sample-2, define a yaml as follows:

As a prerequisite a RemoteCluster resource that is called remotecluster-sample-2 must exist. For more information, see RemoteClusters.

 apiVersion: scale.spectrum.ibm.com/v1beta1
 kind: Filesystem
 metadata:
   labels:
     app.kubernetes.io/instance: ibm-spectrum-scale
     app.kubernetes.io/name: cluster
   name: xyz-fs2
   namespace: ibm-spectrum-scale
 spec:
   remote:
     cluster: remotecluster-sample-2
     fs: fs2

When applied, the file system fs2 hosted by the remote cluster remotecluster-sample-2 is made available to the container native cluster.

Displaying the Filesystem custom resources shows the following output:

 $ kubectl get filesystem -n ibm-spectrum-scale -o wide
 NAME            ESTABLISHED   REMOTE CLUSTER           MAINTENANCE MODE   AGE
 remote-sample   True          remotecluster-sample     not supported      25h
 c1-fs2          True          remotecluster-sample     not supported      20m
 xyz-fs2         True          remotecluster-sample-2   not supported      10m