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Version: 3.4

Installation on VMware vSphere

You can install Portworx Enterprise on a VMware vSphere environment using either a custom Kubernetes manifest or Helm chart, based on your infrastructure requirement. Portworx Enterprise supports clusters running on major cloud service providers and on-premises data centers in both air-gapped and connected environments. The installation process includes preparing the environment, configuring the Kubernetes cluster, and deploying Portworx with a generated specification.

You can install Portworx on a VMware vSphere cluster with a PX-StoreV2 datastore. For more information on PX-StoreV2 datastore, see PX-StoreV2.

note

Portworx by Pure Storage recommends installing Portworx using the console plugin on VMware vSphere clusters running OpenShift 4.12 and later.

The following diagram gives an overview of the Portworx architecture on vSphere using shared datastores.

  • Portworx runs on each Kubernetes minion/worker.
  • Based on the given spec by the end user, Portworx on each node will create its disk on the configured shared datastores or datastore clusters.
  • Portworx will aggregate all of the disks and form a single storage cluster. End users can carve PVCs (Persistent Volume Claims), PVs (Persistent Volumes) and Snapshots from this storage cluster.
  • Portworx tracks and manages the disks that it creates. In a failure event, if a new VM spins up, Portworx on the new VM will be able to attach to the same disk that was previously created by the node on the failed VM.

Portworx architecture for PKS on vSphere using shared datastores or datastore clusters

Prerequisites​

In addition to the System Requirements, ensure that your VMware vSphere cluster meets the following requirements before installing Portworx Enterprise:

  • Use one of the following disk types:
    • eagerzeroedthick
    • lazyzeroedthick
    • thin
  • Allocate a dedicated disk for KVDB (internal or external) on at least three nodes. Each disk must have a unique device name across all KVDB nodes. For more information, see KVDB for Portworx.
  • Any underlying nodes used for Portworx in OCP have Secure Boot disabled.
  • For air-gapped installation, your OpenShift cluster must temporarily have its internal registry reachable externally to the cluster using the procedure here.
  • For air-gapped installation, you must have a Linux host with internet access that has either Podman or Docker installed.
  • For Helm based installation, you must have Helm installed on the client machine. For information on how to install Helm, see Installing Helm. Also, review the Helm compatibility matrix and the configurable parameters.

Installation Options for Portworx Enterprise on VMware vSphere Clusters​

To install Portworx Enterprise on a VMware vSphere cluster, see the following topics:

Best practices​

Prevent Accidental Deletion: If your virtualization software has a feature to prevent accidental deletion, you should enable it for the VMs hosting PX nodes. While PX is designed to handle the loss of some nodes without issue, losing a significant number of storage nodes due to VM deletion can result in a loss of quorum and an outage. For more information on how to prevent accidental deletion of VM, refer to Maintaining Health of vSphere Cluster Services.