Skip to main content
Version: v1.0

Harvester CSI Driver

The Harvester Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver provides a CSI interface used by guest Kubernetes clusters in Harvester. It connects to the host cluster and hot-plugs host volumes to the virtual machines (VMs) to provide native storage performance.

Deploying​

Prerequisites​

  • The Kubernetes cluster is built on top of Harvester virtual machines.
  • The Harvester virtual machines run as guest Kubernetes nodes are in the same namespace.
note

Currently, the Harvester CSI driver only supports single-node read-write(RWO) volumes. Please follow the issue #1992 for future multi-node read-only(ROX) and read-write(RWX) support.

Deploying with Harvester RKE1 Node Driver​

# depend on kubectl to operate the Harvester cluster
./deploy/generate_addon_csi.sh <serviceaccount name> <namespace>

Deploying with Harvester RKE2 Node Driver​

When spinning up a Kubernetes cluster using Rancher RKE2 node driver, the Harvester CSI driver will be deployed when Harvester cloud provider is selected.

select-harvester-cloud-provider

Install CSI Driver Manually in the RKE2 Cluster​

If you prefer to deploy the Harvester CSI driver without enabling the Harvester cloud provider, you can choose either Default - RKE2 Embedded or External in the Cloud Provider field. If you are using Rancher v2.6, select None instead.

Prerequisites​

Ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

  • You have kubectl and jq installed on your system.
  • You have the kubeconfig file for your bare-metal Harvester cluster. 
    export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/your/harvester-kubeconfig

Perform the following steps to deploy the Harvester CSI Driver manually:

Deploy Harvester CSI Driver​

  1. Generate cloud-config.

    You can generate the kubeconfig file using the generate_addon_csi.sh script. It is available on the harvester/harvester-csi-driver repo. You can follow the steps below to get the cloud-config and cloud-init data:

The <serviceaccount name> usually corresponds to your guest cluster name (the value of "Cluster Name" in the figure below), and <namespace> should match the namespace (the value of "Namespace") of the guest cluster.

# ./generate_addon_csi.sh <serviceaccount name> <namespace> RKE2
########## cloud-config ############
apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster: <token>
    server: https://<YOUR HOST HARVESTER VIP>:6443
  name: default
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: default
    namespace: default
    user: rke2-guest-01-default-default
  name: rke2-guest-01-default-default
current-context: rke2-guest-01-default-default
kind: Config
preferences: {}
users:
- name: rke2-guest-01-default-default
  user:
    token: <token>

########## cloud-init user data ############
write_files:
  - encoding: b64
    content: YXBpVmVyc2lvbjogdjEKY2x1c3RlcnM6Ci0gY2x1c3RlcjoKICAgIGNlcnRpZmljYXRlLWF1dGhvcml0eS1kYXRhOiBMUzB0TFMxQ1JVZEpUaUJEUlZKVVNVWkpRMEZVUlMwdExTMHRDazFKU1VKbFZFTkRRVklyWjBGM1NVSkJaMGxDUVVSQlMwSm5aM0ZvYTJwUFVGRlJSRUZxUVd0TlUwbDNTVUZaUkZaUlVVUkVRbXg1WVRKVmVVeFlUbXdLWTI1YWJHTnBNV3BaVlVGNFRtcG5NVTE2VlhoT1JGRjNUVUkwV0VSVVNYcE5SRlY1VDFSQk5VMVVRVEJOUm05WVJGUk5lazFFVlhsT2FrRTFUVlJCTUFwTlJtOTNTa1JGYVUxRFFVZEJNVlZGUVhkM1dtTnRkR3hOYVRGNldsaEtNbHBZU1hSWk1rWkJUVlJaTkU1VVRURk5WRkV3VFVSQ1drMUNUVWRDZVhGSENsTk5ORGxCWjBWSFEwTnhSMU5OTkRsQmQwVklRVEJKUVVKSmQzRmFZMDVTVjBWU2FsQlVkalJsTUhFMk0ySmxTSEZEZDFWelducGtRa3BsU0VWbFpHTUtOVEJaUTNKTFNISklhbWdyTDJab2VXUklNME5ZVURNeFZXMWxTM1ZaVDBsVGRIVnZVbGx4YVdJMGFFZE5aekpxVVdwQ1FVMUJORWRCTVZWa1JIZEZRZ292ZDFGRlFYZEpRM0JFUVZCQ1owNVdTRkpOUWtGbU9FVkNWRUZFUVZGSUwwMUNNRWRCTVZWa1JHZFJWMEpDVWpaRGEzbEJOSEZqYldKSlVESlFWVW81Q2xacWJWVTNVV2R2WjJwQlMwSm5aM0ZvYTJwUFVGRlJSRUZuVGtsQlJFSkdRV2xCZUZKNU4xUTNRMVpEYVZWTVdFMDRZazVaVWtWek1HSnBZbWxVSzJzS1kwRnhlVmt5Tm5CaGMwcHpMM2RKYUVGTVNsQnFVVzVxZEcwMVptNTZWR3AxUVVsblRuTkdibFozWkZRMldXWXpieTg0ZFRsS05tMWhSR2RXQ2kwdExTMHRSVTVFSUVORlVsUkpSa2xEUVZSRkxTMHRMUzBLCiAgICBzZXJ2ZXI6IGh0dHBzOi8vMTkyLjE2OC4wLjEzMTo2NDQzCiAgbmFtZTogZGVmYXVsdApjb250ZXh0czoKLSBjb250ZXh0OgogICAgY2x1c3RlcjogZGVmYXVsdAogICAgbmFtZXNwYWNlOiBkZWZhdWx0CiAgICB1c2VyOiBya2UyLWd1ZXN0LTAxLWRlZmF1bHQtZGVmYXVsdAogIG5hbWU6IHJrZTItZ3Vlc3QtMDEtZGVmYXVsdC1kZWZhdWx0CmN1cnJlbnQtY29udGV4dDogcmtlMi1ndWVzdC0wMS1kZWZhdWx0LWRlZmF1bHQKa2luZDogQ29uZmlnCnByZWZlcmVuY2VzOiB7fQp1c2VyczoKLSBuYW1lOiBya2UyLWd1ZXN0LTAxLWRlZmF1bHQtZGVmYXVsdAogIHVzZXI6CiAgICB0b2tlbjogZXlKaGJHY2lPaUpTVXpJMU5pSXNJbXRwWkNJNklreGhUazQxUTBsMWFsTnRORE5TVFZKS00waE9UbGszTkV0amNVeEtjM1JSV1RoYVpUbGZVazA0YW1zaWZRLmV5SnBjM01pT2lKcmRXSmxjbTVsZEdWekwzTmxjblpwWTJWaFkyTnZkVzUwSWl3aWEzVmlaWEp1WlhSbGN5NXBieTl6WlhKMmFXTmxZV05qYjNWdWRDOXVZVzFsYzNCaFkyVWlPaUprWldaaGRXeDBJaXdpYTNWaVpYSnVaWFJsY3k1cGJ5OXpaWEoyYVdObFlXTmpiM1Z1ZEM5elpXTnlaWFF1Ym1GdFpTSTZJbkpyWlRJdFozVmxjM1F0TURFdGRHOXJaVzRpTENKcmRXSmxjbTVsZEdWekxtbHZMM05sY25acFkyVmhZMk52ZFc1MEwzTmxjblpwWTJVdFlXTmpiM1Z1ZEM1dVlXMWxJam9pY210bE1pMW5kV1Z6ZEMwd01TSXNJbXQxWW1WeWJtVjBaWE11YVc4dmMyVnlkbWxqWldGalkyOTFiblF2YzJWeWRtbGpaUzFoWTJOdmRXNTBMblZwWkNJNkltTXlZak5sTldGaExUWTBNMlF0TkRkbU1pMDROemt3TFRjeU5qWXpNbVl4Wm1aaU5pSXNJbk4xWWlJNkluTjVjM1JsYlRwelpYSjJhV05sWVdOamIzVnVkRHBrWldaaGRXeDBPbkpyWlRJdFozVmxjM1F0TURFaWZRLmFRZmU1d19ERFRsSWJMYnUzWUVFY3hmR29INGY1VnhVdmpaajJDaWlhcXB6VWI0dUYwLUR0cnRsa3JUM19ZemdXbENRVVVUNzNja1BuQmdTZ2FWNDhhdmlfSjJvdUFVZC04djN5d3M0eXpjLVFsTVV0MV9ScGJkUURzXzd6SDVYeUVIREJ1dVNkaTVrRWMweHk0X0tDQ2IwRHQ0OGFoSVhnNlMwRDdJUzFfVkR3MmdEa24wcDVXUnFFd0xmSjdEbHJDOFEzRkNUdGhpUkVHZkUzcmJGYUdOMjdfamR2cUo4WXlJQVd4RHAtVHVNT1pKZUNObXRtUzVvQXpIN3hOZlhRTlZ2ZU05X29tX3FaVnhuTzFEanllbWdvNG9OSEpzekp1VWliRGxxTVZiMS1oQUxYSjZXR1Z2RURxSTlna1JlSWtkX3JqS2tyY3lYaGhaN3lTZ3o3QQo=
    owner: root:root
    path: /var/lib/rancher/rke2/etc/config-files/cloud-provider-config
    permissions: '0644'

Copy and paste the output below cloud-init user data to Machine Pools >Show Advanced > User Data.

  1. Set up cloud-provider-config.

    The cloud-provider-config should be created after you apply the above cloud-init user data.

    You can check again on the path /var/lib/rancher/rke2/etc/config-files/cloud-provider-config.

note

If you want to change the cloud-provider-config path, you should update the cloud-init user data.

  1. Install Harvester CSI Driver.

    Install the Harvester CSI Driver chart from the Rancher marketplace. (Note: by default, you do not need to change the cloud-config path).

note

If you prefer not to install the Harvester CSI driver using Rancher (Apps > Charts), you can use Helm instead. The Harvester CSI driver is packaged as a Helm chart. For more information, see https://charts.harvesterhci.io.

By following the above steps, you should be able to see those CSI driver pods are up and running, and you can verify it by provisioning a new PVC using the default storageClass harvester..

Deploying with Harvester K3s Node Driver​

You can follow the Deploy Harvester CSI Driver steps described in the RKE2 section for Prerequisites

The only difference is that you need to change the script command as follows:

# ./generate_addon_csi.sh <serviceaccount name> <namespace> k3s