Installing a NFS-provisioner

Gerrit requires access to a persistent volume capable of running in Read Write Many (RWM)-mode to store the git repositories, since the repositories have to be accessed by mutiple pods. One possibility to provide such volumes is to install a provisioner for NFS-volumes into the same Kubernetes-cluster. This document will guide through the process.

The Kubernetes external-storage project provides an out-of-tree dynamic provisioner for NFS volumes. A chart exists for easy deployment of the project onto a Kubernetes cluster. The chart's sources can be found here.

Prerequisites

This guide will use Helm to install the NFS-provisioner. Thus, Helm has to be installed.

Installing the nfs-server-provisioner chart

A custom values.yaml-file containing a configuration tested with the gerrit charts can be found in the supplements/nfs-directory in the gerrit chart's root directory. In addition a file stating the tested version of the nfs-server-provisioner chart is present in the same directory.

If needed, adapt the values.yaml-file for the nfs-server-provisioner chart further and then run:

cd $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/helm-charts/gerrit/supplements/nfs
helm install nfs \
  stable/nfs-server-provisioner \
  -f values.yaml \
  --version $(cat VERSION)

For a description of the configuration options, refer to the chart's documentation.

Here are some tips for configuring the nfs-server-provisioner chart to work with the gerrit chart:

  • Deploying more than 1 replica led to some reliability issues in tests and should be further tested for now, if required.
  • The name of the StorageClass created for NFS-volumes has to be the same as the one defined in the gerrit chart for storageClasses.shared.name
  • The StorageClas for NFS-volumes needs to have the parameter mountOptions: vers=4.1, due to compatibility issues with Ganesha.

Deleting the nfs-server-provisioner chart

Attention: Never delete the nfs-server-provisioner chart, if there is still a PersistentVolumeClaim and Pods using a NFS-volume provisioned by the NFS server provisioner. This will lead to crashed pods, that will not be terminated correctly.

If no Pod or PVC is using a NFS-volume provisioned by the NFS server provisioner anymore, delete it like any other chart:

helm delete nfs