Trident is an open-source storage provisioner and orchestrator maintained by NetApp. It facilitates the creation of storage volumes for containerized applications managed by Docker and Kubernetes. Trident allows for the consumption of feature-rich ONTAP storage, both on-premises and in the cloud, by stateful containerized applications and virtual machines on KubeVirt/OpenShift Virtualization. Beyond dynamically provisioning persistent volumes, Trident manages the entire lifecycle of the storage. It supports NAS and SAN (iSCSI, NVMe over TCP, and FC) provisioning through various drivers, offering File and Block access with RWO, ROX, RWX, and RWOP access mode capabilities for applications.
NetApp Trident Protect provides advanced application data management capabilities that enhance the functionality and availability of stateful Kubernetes applications backed by NetApp ONTAP storage systems and the NetApp Trident CSI storage provisioner. It provides application-aware data protection and migration capabilities in a Kubernetes-native way. The fantastic thing about Trident and Trident Protect is that they come totally free of cost for customers using ONTAP storage, on-premises or in the cloud.
Here are four reasons I am particularly excited about the 25.02 release of Trident and Trident Protect:
1. Simplified Installation with the Red Hat Certified Trident Operator
Trident can be installed in various ways, such as using the tridentctl tool, the Trident operator with the kubectl CLI, or a Helm chart. With the release of Trident 25.02, users of Trident in Red Hat OpenShift on premises and in the cloud and managed services like Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS can now install Trident using the Trident Certified Operator from the Operator Hub. This is significant for the OpenShift user community, as Trident was previously available only as a community operator. The new Red Hat Certified Operator offers several advantages:
Enhanced Interoperability: Deploying Trident using the Trident Red Hat Certified Operator from the OpenShift Operator Hub ensures compatibility with the OpenShift Container Platform. Certified Operators are continuously tested on new Red Hat OpenShift releases to identify and resolve upgrade issues before they affect customers.
Seamless Upgrades and Support: Upgrading to newer Trident releases will be seamless, and NetApp remains committed to providing robust support for Trident issues. Moreover, Trident is available free of cost, allowing you to install the software from the Operator Hub and utilize it as your dynamic storage provisioner for NetApp storage.
2. Automated iSCSI Configuration
Another exciting feature in the 25.02 release addresses a common challenge. While most Unix systems come with NFS tools pre-installed, they lack pre-configured iSCSI and multipathing. Previously, users had to complete additional manual steps to prepare the Kubernetes cluster worker nodes for iSCSI. For users of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) using FSx for NetApp ONTAP(FSxN), this was not feasible due to permission restrictions.
With Trident 25.02, you can now optionally automate the preparation of your worker nodes for iSCSI during Trident installation. This feature is available across all platforms where Trident is installed, including ROSA clusters connected to FSxN storage. Whether you install Trident using tridentctl, helm chart or the Red Hat Certified Operator from the OpenShift Operator Hub, this capability is at your disposal.
3. Fiber Channel Protocol Support
Trident can now provision block storage using the Fiber Channel (FC) protocol for ONTAP-based systems. Previously, using ONTAP block storage with Trident was possible with iSCSI and NVMe protocols over TCP. The Fiber Channel support in the Trident 25.02 release is great news, particularly for our customers on VMware who predominantly use FC for their storage network and want to migrate to OpenShift virtualization while still maintaining the FC network for storage. FC support allows customers to keep their investments in FC while they run their modern containerized workloads or their VMs on OpenShift Virtualization.
4. Backup and Restore Capabilities for VMs in KubeVirt
In earlier releases, Asynchronous Disaster Recovery of VMs was possible. Now, this new backup and restore capability completes the comprehensive data protection capabilities for VMs on KubeVirt-based platforms. Customers can perform crash-consistent backups of VMs to Object Storage and restore them when needed.
With these enhancements in the new 25.02 release, Trident continues to provide robust and flexible storage solutions for OpenShift users.
I will be providing detailed insights into each of these new enhancements in separate blogs in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned!
Here are the links to the blogs detailing the the above enhancements:
Unlock Seamless iSCSI Storage Integration: A Guide to FSxN on ROSA Clusters for iSCSI
Crash-Consistent Backup and Restore Operations for OpenShift Virtualization VMs using Trident 25.02
Simplifying Trident Installation on Red Hat OpenShift with the New Certified Trident Operator
Leveraging Fiber Channel Protocol with Trident 25.02 for Persistent Storage on OpenShift
