Performing installation

You can install the IBM® Storage Enabler for Containers software on a compatible version of Kubernetes. For more information, refer to the release notes of this software package.

Before you begin

Verify that you have completed the preliminary configuration steps, as detailed in Compatibility and requirements.

Important:

During installation of the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers, the IBM Storage Kubernetes FlexVolume driver is automatically installed on all master and worker nodes in a Kubernetes cluster, using the ubiquity-k8s-flex DaemonSet.
A single IBM Storage Enabler for Containers instance can be installed per one Kubernetes cluster.

Procedure

Follow these steps to install IBM Storage Enabler for Containers:

Add IBM Helm charts repository:

helm repo add ibm-stable https://raw.githubusercontent.com/IBM/charts/master/repo/stable

Download the Helm chart from the stable IBM repository. See Helm documentation for details.
```
helm fetch --untar ibm-stable/ibm-storage-enabler-for-containers
```

Configure parameters in the values.yaml file. The file is located in the ./ibm-storage-enabler-for-containers folder. However, it is recommended to save the values.yaml file in a different location, rename it, and configure the new file, while preserving the original values.yaml.

Table 1. Configuration parameters in values.yaml
Parameter	Description
backend	Backend type for Provisioner and FlexVolume. Allowed values: `spectrumConnect` (default) or `spectrumScale`.
spectrumConnect. connectionInfo.fqdn	IP address or FQDN of the Spectrum Connect server.
spectrumConnect. connectionInfo.port	Communication port of the Spectrum Connect server. Default value is `8440`.
spectrumConnect. connectionInfo. existingSecret	Secret for Spectrum Connect interface. The value must be the same as configured in Spectrum Connect. Keys username and password are mandatory.
spectrumConnect. backendConfig. instanceName	A prefix for any new volume created on the storage system.
spectrumConnect. backendConfig. defaultStorageService	Default Spectrum Connect storage service to be used, if not specified by the storage class.
spectrumConnect. backendConfig. newVolumeDefaults. fsType	File system type of a new volume, if not specified by the user in the storage class. Allowed values: `ext4` (default) or `xfs`.
spectrumConnect. backendConfig. newVolumeDefaults.size	Default volume size (in GB), if not specified by the user when creating a new volume. Default value is `1`.
spectrumConnect. storageClass. storageService	Storage Class profile pointing to the Spectrum Connect storage service name.
spectrumConnect. storageClass. fsType	Storage class filesystem type. Allowed values: `ext4` (default) or `xfs`.
ubiquityDb.spectrumConnect. dbCredentials. existingSecret	Existing secret object if it is defined.
ubiquityDb.persistence. pvName	Name of the persistent volume to be used for the ubiquity-db database. For the Spectrum Virtualize and Spectrum Accelerate storage systems, use the default value (`ibm-ubiquity-db`). For the DS8000 storage system, use a shorter value, such as (`ibmdb`). This is necessary because the DS8000 volume name length cannot exceed 8 characters.
ubiquityDb.persistence. pvSize	Default size (in GB) of the persistent volume to be used for the ubiquity-db database. Default value is `20`.
ubiquityDb.persistence. useExistingPv	Enabling the usage of an existing PV as the ubiquity-db database PV. This parameter is in use only when upgrading Enabler for Containers from an older version, which has been installed via script. Allowed values: `True` or `False` (default).
ubiquityDb.persistence. storageClass. storageClassName	Storage class name. Note: The storage class parameters are used for creating an initial storage class for the ubiquity-db PVC. You can use this storage class for other applications as well. It is recommended to set the storage class name to be the same as the Spectrum Connect storage service name.
ubiquityDb.persistence. storageClass. existingStorageClass	Enabling the usage of an existing storage class object if it exists.
ubiquityDb.persistence. storageClass. defaultClass	Setting StorageClass as the default storage class. Allowed values: `True` or `False` (default).
ubiquityK8sFlex. flexLogDir	Directory for storing the ubiquity-k8s-flex.log file. Set by default to /var/log.
globalConfig.logLevel	Log level. Allowed values: `debug`, `info` (default), `error`.
globalConfig.sslMode	SSL verification mode. Allowed values: `require` (No validation is required, the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers server generates self-signed certificates on the fly.) or `verify-full` (Certificates are provided by the user.). The `verify-full` mode requires additional configuration steps, as detailed in the Managing SSL certificates section.
customPodSecurityPolicy. enabled	Custom pod security policy for ICP deployment. Allowed values: `True` or `False` (default). If set to `True`, the policy is applied to all pods in the chart. New policies cannot be defined. Configure a policy in advance or use existing ones. Then, attach one or more policies to a role or clusterRole, and provide the name for the role or clusterRole. Currently, only clusterRole is supported. It will be bound to all serviceAccounts under the current namespace.
customPodSecurityPolicy. clusterRole	In ICP deployment, the name of clusterRole that has the required policies attached. Default value is `ibm-anyuid-hostpath-clusterrole`.

If the values.yaml file was downloaded to a local machine, use the scp <path_to_values.yaml> user@master_ip:<path_to _master_node_store_values.yaml command to copy the updated values.yaml file to a master node.
Start the installation. Make sure to use the same namespace names that were used for secret generation during the preparation stage ( Compatibility and requirements).
- Kubernetes:
  - Run this command:
```
helm install --name <release_name> --namespace <namespace_name> 
-f <path_to_values.yaml> ./ibm-storage-enabler-for-containers
```
  When the installation is complete, the notes.txt file is displayed.
- ICP:
  1. In the ICP GUI, go to Catalog, then locate the ibm-storage-enabler-for-containers Helm chart.
  2. In the Configuration tab, set the values according to your environment requirements. See the values.yml table above.
  3. Click Install to start the installation. You can monitor the progress by going to Workloads > Helm Releases.

What to do next

Verify the post-installation status of the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers service and check that the status of all components is error-free:
```
$ helm status <release_name>
```
Perform the sanity test:
```
$ helm test <release_name>
```
The following message must be displayed: Sanity finished successfully (pvc1 and pod1 were successfully created and deleted).
Implement the standard data protection methods and practices to safeguard the data in the Enabler for Containers database. This will ensure the proper operation of the IBM Storage Enabler for Containers.