Kubernetes clusters require persistent storage to unlock their full potential. Without persistent storage, workarounds are needed that sacrifice Kubernetes benefits. StorageOS provides persistent storage through storage classes, allowing multi-tenancy, data encryption, and migration of legacy apps to Kubernetes without additional scaffolding. It also enables features like read-write-many volumes through orchestrating user space NFS.

1. Kubernetes Clusters Need Persistent Data

2. © StorageOS, Inc.
About Me: James Spurin
• StorageOS Product Evangelist, formerly a
founding StorageOS Advisory Board member
• 20+ years of Engineering experience covering
Storage, Automation, DevOps and Software
Development
• Previously worked at Nomura, Goldman Sachs, Dell
EMC and many more - Connect with me on
LinkedIn
• Published Technical Author: Dive Into Ansible

3. • How organisations are using Kubernetes
• Problems + missed opportunities with ephemeral workloads
• Use of StorageClasses for Kubernetes multi tenancy
• How to simplify the transition of Legacy apps to Kubernetes
• Features like Data Encryption
• Features like Read-Write-Many volumes
• GitOps design patterns with StorageClasses
+ Demo
© StorageOS, Inc.
Agenda

4. • Self Managed Kubernetes (On-Prem / Cloud)
• Rancher – Kubernetes as a Service (On-Prem / Cloud)|
• OpenShift – Kubernetes with a PaaS (On-Prem / Cloud)
© StorageOS, Inc.
How is Kubernetes Deployed and Consumed
Common Approaches for Hosting and Managing Kubernetes
• Hosted Kubernetes (Amazon EKS, Microsoft AKS, Google GKE)
• Developer Environments (Self Hosted / Minikube / Kind)

5. © StorageOS, Inc.
How are Organisations Using Kubernetes
Kubernetes Market Adoption – Heavily utilised for Ephemeral Workloads
• Very easy to deploy and use without storage
• Application can sync/download content on init
• Pod can be destroyed/recreated for site
updates
• Very easy to deploy and use without storage
• Instances can access keys/values from other
nodes on failure

6. © StorageOS, Inc.
Ephemeral First Problems
When a Kubernetes environment does not factor for the use of persistent data,
we solve for ephemeral environments, this results in -
Legacy Environments running alongside Kubernetes Applications may be running in less than optimal ways
• Natively supports persistent storage
• Improves recovery time
• Re-deploying the container is not the only
answer
Scaffolding to work around non-persistent storage
… no really …

7. © StorageOS, Inc.
Ephemeral First Problems
PersitentVolume:
NodeAffinity has been used to restrict this
workload so that it can only runs on
k8snode1
This achieves “Persistent Storage” but
sacrifices the benefits, of Kubernetes!
What happens if k8snode1 fails?
Example ”Workaround”

8. © StorageOS, Inc.
Treating Persistent Data like Networking Technologies
A typical setup procedure or consideration when deploying a Kubernetes
cluster is the Installation of a networking technology as a DaemonSet
StorageOS installs as an Operator
and runs as a DaemonSet

9. © StorageOS, Inc.
Unlocking the Full Potential of Kubernetes
Adding an advanced dataplane like unlocks
huge potential across the entire Kubernetes cluster
+ =

10. StorageClasses
• Development: Not
concerned about the
number of copies, data
to be highly available
across all nodes
• Production:
Highly available
with 2 replicas
© StorageOS, Inc.
• Top Secret:
Encryption Enabled
and 2 replicas
• Archived:
Compression with
1 replica
StorageClasses Promote Multi-Tenancy and Agility

11. © StorageOS, Inc.
Using Storage Classes and Persistent Volume Claims
* PV, Persistent Volume automatically
created as part of the claim!

12. © StorageOS, Inc.
Data Encryption at Rest
Data Encryption enabled via a single label
With the increased market use of Kubernetes as a cloud
managed service and strict data compliance regulations that
include the Payment Card Industry Standard (PCI DSS) and the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA),
organisations are dependent on encrypted data as a
requirement for Kubernetes workloads using persistent storage

13. © StorageOS, Inc.
Transition of Legacy Applications is Simplified
Applications that rely on Persistent Data can
just be run, as you’d expect them to run
without scaffolding or legacy environments

14. Pool
• Allow a filesystem to be shared by multiple containers
• Useful for legacy applications (e.g. filesystem as message bus)
that rely on a shared filesystem
• ReadWriteOnce semantics – 1 application per volume
• Some applications require ReadWriteMany (RWX) semantics
• Orchestrates a user space NFS layer to provide RWX volumes
© StorageOS, Inc.
Alternative Approaches for Solution Architects – RWX Volumes
N1 N2 N3 N4 N5
• All pods, share same data
• Updates to the main volume updates all
• No restarts of Pods, needed
• Additional benefit of replicas

15. © StorageOS, Inc.
Containers Can Run More Effectively
Unlock intended functionality!
Redis natively supports persistent data,
improving recovery time
Without persistent storage, Redis running in a
Kubernetes environment will not make use of
this functionality
See –
https://storageos.com/redis-with-kubernetes-
persistent-storage

16. GitOps Approach
myapp1 (OnPrem):
Highly Available
with 2 replicas
© StorageOS, Inc.
myapp1 (Cloud):
Highly Available
with 2 replicas
+ Encryption
StorageClass shares the same name (myapp1)
but with different configurations

17. www.storageos.com
© StorageOS, Inc.
Demo

18. Further Reading
© StorageOS, Inc.
StorageOS
Platform Architecture
Overview
https://bit.ly/3r7cx6g
StorageOS
Documentation
https://docs.storageos.com
Supporting Civo’s
Lightning-Fast Managed
Kubernetes Development
and Deployment
https://bit.ly/3r4S1nD
Speak to StorageOS
Engineers on Slack
https://slack.storageos.com
Performance
Benchmarking
Cloud Native Storage
Solutions
https://bit.ly/3l8cTqQ