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Deploy with Trident operator

Contributors juliantap netapp-mwallis balaramesh
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You can deploy Astra Trident using the Trident operator. You can deploy the Trident operator in one of two ways:

  • Using the Trident Helm Chart: The Helm Chart deploys the Trident operator and installs Trident in one step.

  • Manually: Trident provides a bundle.yaml file that can be used to install the operator and create associated objects.

Tip If you have not already familiarized yourself with the basic concepts, now is a great time to do that.
What you'll need

To deploy Astra Trident, the following prerequisites should be met:

  • You have full privileges to a supported Kubernetes cluster running Kubernetes 1.19 - 1.24.

  • You have access to a supported NetApp storage system.

  • You have the capability to mount volumes from all of the Kubernetes worker nodes.

  • You have a Linux host with kubectl (or oc, if you are using OpenShift) installed and configured to manage the Kubernetes cluster that you want to use.

  • You have set the KUBECONFIG environment variable to point to your Kubernetes cluster configuration.

  • You have enabled the feature gates required by Astra Trident.

  • If you are using Kubernetes with Docker Enterprise, follow their steps to enable CLI access.

Got all that? Great! Let's get started.

Deploy the Trident operator and install Astra Trident using Helm

Perform the steps listed to deploy the Trident operator by using Helm.

What you'll need

In addition to the prerequisites listed above, to deploy Trident operator by using Helm, you need the following:

  • Kubernetes 1.19 - 1.24

  • Helm version 3

Steps

  1. Add Trident's Helm repository:

    helm repo add netapp-trident https://netapp.github.io/trident-helm-chart

  2. Use the helm install command and specify a name for your deployment.
    See the following example:

    helm install <release-name> netapp-trident/trident-operator --version 22.4.0 --create-namespace <trident-namespace>
    Note If you already created a namespace for Trident, the --create-namespace parameter will not create an additional namespace.

There are two ways to pass configuration data during the install:

  • --values (or -f): Specify a YAML file with overrides. This can be specified multiple times and the rightmost file will take precedence.

  • --set: Specify overrides on the command line.

For example, to change the default value of debug, run the following --set command:

helm install <name> netapp-trident/trident-operator --version 22.7.0 --set tridentDebug=true

The values.yaml file, which is part of the Helm chart provides the list of keys and their default values.

helm list shows you details about the installation, such as name, namespace, chart, status, app version, revision number, and so on.

Deploy the Trident operator manually

Perform the steps listed to manually deploy the Trident operator.

Step 1: Qualify your Kubernetes cluster

The first thing you need to do is log in to the Linux host and verify that it is managing a working, supported Kubernetes cluster that you have the necessary privileges to.

Note With OpenShift, use oc instead of kubectl in all of the examples that follow, and log in as system:admin first by running oc login -u system:admin or oc login -u kube-admin.

To verify your Kubernetes version, run the following command:

kubectl version

To see if you have Kubernetes cluster administrator privileges, run the following command:

kubectl auth can-i '*' '*' --all-namespaces

To verify if you can launch a pod that uses an image from Docker Hub and reach your storage system over the pod network, run the following command:

kubectl run -i --tty ping --image=busybox --restart=Never --rm -- \
  ping <management IP>

Step 2: Download and set up the operator

Note Beginning with 21.01, the Trident operator is cluster scoped. Using the Trident operator to install Trident requires creating the TridentOrchestrator Custom Resource Definition (CRD) and defining other resources. You should perform these steps to set up the operator before you can install Astra Trident.

  1. Download and extract the latest version of the Trident installer bundle from the Assets section on GitHub.

    wget https://github.com/NetApp/trident/releases/download/v22.04.0/trident-installer-22.04.0.tar.gz
tar -xf trident-installer-22.04.0.tar.gz
cd trident-installer

  2. Use the appropriate CRD manifest to create the TridentOrchestrator CRD. You then create a TridentOrchestrator Custom Resource later on to instantiate an installation by the operator.

    Run the following command:

    kubectl create -f deploy/crds/trident.netapp.io_tridentorchestrators_crd_post1.16.yaml

  3. After the TridentOrchestrator CRD is created, create the following resources required for the operator deployment:

    • A ServiceAccount for the operator

    • A ClusterRole and ClusterRoleBinding to the ServiceAccount

    • A dedicated PodSecurityPolicy

    • The operator itself

      The Trident installer contains manifests for defining these resources. By default, the operator is deployed in the trident namespace. If the trident namespace does not exist, use the following manifest to create one.

      kubectl apply -f deploy/namespace.yaml

  4. To deploy the operator in a namespace other than the default trident namespace, you should update the serviceaccount.yaml, clusterrolebinding.yaml and operator.yaml manifests and generate your bundle.yaml.

    Run the following command to update the YAML manifests and generate your bundle.yaml using the kustomization.yaml:

    kubectl kustomize deploy/ > deploy/bundle.yaml

    Run the following command to create the resources and deploy the operator:

    kubectl create -f deploy/bundle.yaml

  5. To verify the status of the operator after you have deployed, do the following:

    kubectl get deployment -n <operator-namespace>

NAME               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
trident-operator   1/1     1            1           3m
    kubectl get pods -n <operator-namespace>

NAME                              READY   STATUS             RESTARTS   AGE
trident-operator-54cb664d-lnjxh   1/1     Running            0          3m

The operator deployment successfully creates a pod running on one of the worker nodes in your cluster.

Important There should only be one instance of the operator in a Kubernetes cluster. Do not create multiple deployments of the Trident operator.

Step 3: Create TridentOrchestrator and install Trident

You are now ready to install Astra Trident using the operator! This will require creating TridentOrchestrator. The Trident installer comes with example definitions for creating TridentOrchestrator. This kicks off an installation in the trident namespace.

kubectl create -f deploy/crds/tridentorchestrator_cr.yaml
tridentorchestrator.trident.netapp.io/trident created

kubectl describe torc trident
Name:        trident
Namespace:
Labels:      <none>
Annotations: <none>
API Version: trident.netapp.io/v1
Kind:        TridentOrchestrator
...
Spec:
  Debug:     true
  Namespace: trident
Status:
  Current Installation Params:
    IPv6:                      false
    Autosupport Hostname:
    Autosupport Image:         netapp/trident-autosupport:21.04
    Autosupport Proxy:
    Autosupport Serial Number:
    Debug:                     true
    Image Pull Secrets:
    Image Registry:
    k8sTimeout:           30
    Kubelet Dir:          /var/lib/kubelet
    Log Format:           text
    Silence Autosupport:  false
    Trident Image:        netapp/trident:21.04.0
  Message:                  Trident installed  Namespace:                trident
  Status:                   Installed
  Version:                  v21.04.0
Events:
    Type Reason Age From Message ---- ------ ---- ---- -------Normal
    Installing 74s trident-operator.netapp.io Installing Trident Normal
    Installed 67s trident-operator.netapp.io Trident installed

The Trident operator enables you to customize the manner in which Astra Trident is installed by using the attributes in the TridentOrchestrator spec. See Customize your Trident deployment.

The Status of TridentOrchestrator indicates if the installation was successful and displays the version of Trident installed.

Status Description

Installing

The operator is installing Astra Trident using this TridentOrchestrator CR.

Installed

Astra Trident has successfully installed.

Uninstalling

The operator is uninstalling Astra Trident, because
spec.uninstall=true.

Uninstalled

Astra Trident is uninstalled.

Failed

The operator could not install, patch, update or uninstall
Astra Trident; the operator will automatically try to recover from this state. If this state persists you will require troubleshooting.

Updating

The operator is updating an existing installation.

Error

The TridentOrchestrator is not used. Another one already
exists.

During the installation, the status of TridentOrchestrator changes from Installing to Installed. If you observe the Failed status and the operator is unable to recover by itself, you should check the logs of the operator. See the troubleshooting section.

You can confirm if the Astra Trident installation completed by taking a look at the pods that have been created:

kubectl get pod -n trident

NAME                                READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
trident-csi-7d466bf5c7-v4cpw        5/5     Running   0           1m
trident-csi-mr6zc                   2/2     Running   0           1m
trident-csi-xrp7w                   2/2     Running   0           1m
trident-csi-zh2jt                   2/2     Running   0           1m
trident-operator-766f7b8658-ldzsv   1/1     Running   0           3m

You can also use tridentctl to check the version of Astra Trident installed.

./tridentctl -n trident version

+----------------+----------------+
| SERVER VERSION | CLIENT VERSION |
+----------------+----------------+
| 21.04.0        | 21.04.0        |
+----------------+----------------+

Now you can go ahead and create a backend. See post-deployment tasks.

Tip For troubleshooting issues during deployment, see the troubleshooting section.