As organizations are adopting Kubernetes at scale, simplicity has become one of the key design principles. Users want to do more with their limited time and resources. This is where the NetApp® ASA r2 systems help users: by simplifying their storage footprint for Kubernetes applications.
NetApp Trident™ software, our Container Storage Interface (CSI)–compliant storage orchestrator, already supports these systems using the iSCSI protocol. With Trident 25.06, support has been extended for NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP). This support can provide further scalability and performance benefits of NVMe/TCP with ASA r2 systems.
In this article, we’ll explore the cutting-edge features of the ASA r2 systems, demonstrate how to seamlessly integrate them with your Kubernetes workloads, and explore how to use them in Trident with NVMe/TCP. So, let's dive in.
Introducing the ASA r2 systems
Before we begin, let’s look at what ASA r2 systems are and, at a high level, what they offer. The NetApp ASA r2 systems, which include the NetApp ASA A1K, ASA A90, ASA A70, ASA A50, ASA A30, and ASA A20 models, offer a unified hardware and software solution tailored to the specific needs of SAN-only customers. Built on the new NetApp ONTAP® design center architecture, these systems introduce a revolutionary approach to storage provisioning, which makes them an ideal choice for modern Kubernetes workloads.
One of the key differentiators of the ASA r2 systems is their disaggregated architecture. Unlike traditional systems, they don’t expose the concept of aggregates to the user. Instead, these systems treat the NVMe namespace as a first-class citizen, eliminating the need for wrapping NVMe namespaces inside volumes. This innovative design enables a simplified, streamlined experience for managing block storage.
Trident and CSI integration
To enable integration with ASA r2 systems, Trident 25.06 now supports provisioning block storage using the NVMe/TCP. The best part is that if you’re an existing Trident customer, you can transition to using ASA r2 systems with minimal changes. All you need to do is provide the right credentials in the Trident back end, and everything else is dynamically determined.
Simple provisioning process
Whether or not you’re a new Trident user, the process of provisioning storage with Trident is straightforward. Here are the simple steps.
- Step 1: Create a Trident back end. Start by creating a Trident back end with the storage driver ontap-san. You can do this either by configuring the TridentBackendConfig (TBC) custom resource definition using the Kubernetes-native approach or by using a custom JSON file with tridentctl, a command-line utility for managing Trident. The configuration is similar to any other ontap-san NVMe back end, with the only changes being the user name and password. You can either use a cluster management IP with administrator credentials or specify a specific storage virtual machine (SVM) with its management IP and credentials. For more information, refer to ONTAP SAN driver details in the Trident documentation.
# Kubernetes secret required for creating Trident backend from TBC
[root@scs000711920 demo]# cat secret.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
name: asa-r2-nvme-secret
type: Opaque
stringData:
username: <username>
password: <password>
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl create -f secret.yaml -n trident
secret/asa-r2-nvme-secret created
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl get secret asa-r2-nvme-secret -n trident
NAME TYPE DATA AGE
asa-r2-nvme-secret Opaque 2 9s
# Kubernetes CR TridentBackendConfig (TBC)
[root@scs000711920 demo]# cat tbc.yaml
apiVersion: trident.netapp.io/v1
kind: TridentBackendConfig
metadata:
name: asa-r2-nvme-backend-tbc
spec:
version: 1
backendName: asa-r2-nvme-backend
storageDriverName: ontap-san
managementLIF: 1.1.1.1
svm: svm0
sanType: nvme
credentials:
name: asa-r2-nvme-secret
# Or, Trident backend json
[root@scs000711920 demo]# cat backend.json
{
"version": 1,
"storageDriverName": "ontap-san",
"managementLIF": "1.1.1.1",
"backendName": "asa-r2-nvme-backend"
"svm": "svm0",
"username": "<username>",
"password": "<password>",
"sanType": "nvme"
}
- Step 2: Add the back end. Once the back end is configured, you can add it to Trident using either kubectl or tridentctl. These tools provide a convenient way to add the newly configured back end to Trident and make it available for use.
# Create Trident Backend via kubectl
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl create -f tbc.yaml -n trident
tridentbackendconfig.trident.netapp.io/asa-r2-nvme-backend-tbc created
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl get tbc asa-r2-nvme-backend-tbc -n trident
NAME BACKEND NAME BACKEND UUID PHASE STATUS
asa-r2-nvme-backend-tbc asa-r2-nvme-backend c3ee3907-5dc8-448f-abe6-d5c7621481eb Bound Success
[root@scs000711920 demo]# tridentctl -n trident get b
+---------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
| NAME | STORAGE DRIVER | UUID | STATE | USER-STATE | VOLUMES |
+---------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
| asa-r2-nvme-backend | ontap-san | 934dbf99-7fb2-4a3b-905f-2a9fb2dce7c2 | online | normal | 0 |
+---------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
# Or, create Trident Backend via tridentctl
[root@scs000711920 demo]# tridentctl create b -f backend.json -n trident
+--------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
| NAME | STORAGE DRIVER | UUID | STATE | USER-STATE | VOLUMES |
+--------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
| asa-r2-nvme-backend | ontap-san | 7111337e-a27e-4cde-8707-0f66892614e2 | online | normal | 0|
+--------------------+----------------+--------------------------------------+--------+------------+---------+
- Step 6: Use the PVC. Congratulations! You’re now ready to use the PVC in any pod of your choice. Mount the PVC in your pod’s specification, and your application will have seamless access to the high-performance block storage provided by the ASA r2 systems using NVMe/TCP.
[root@scs000711920 demo]# cat pod.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
name: asa-r2-nvme-pod
spec:
containers:
- image: nginx:alpine
name: nginx
volumeMounts:
- mountPath: mnt/pvc
name: local-storage
nodeSelector:
kubernetes.io/arch: amd64
kubernetes.io/os: linux
volumes:
- name: local-storage
persistentVolumeClaim:
claimName: asa-r2-nvme-pvc
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl create -f pod.yaml
pod/asa-r2-nvme-pod created
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl get po
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
asa-r2-nvme-pod 1/1 Running 0 5s
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl exec -it asa-r2-nvme-pod -- /bin/ash -c "mount | fgrep mnt/pvc"
/dev/nvme0n1 on /mnt/pvc type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime,stripe=256)
Troubleshooting made easy
If you encounter any issues, we’ve got you covered with some handy commands for troubleshooting. Use kubectl describe on the problematic resource to gather detailed information. For more insights into the system’s behavior, you can check the Trident logs by using kubectl or tridentctl.
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl get pvc
NAME STATUS VOLUME CAPACITY ACCESS MODES STORAGECLASS VOLUMEATTRIBUTESCLASS AGE
asa-r2-nvme-pvc Bound pvc-e6f4d487-a3fe-45e5-a15c-e557a07b026e 1Gi RWO asa-r2-nvme-sc <unset> 7s
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl describe pvc asa-r2-nvme-pvc
Name: asa-r2-nvme-pvc
Namespace: default
StorageClass: asa-r2-nvme-sc
Status: Bound
Volume: pvc-e6f4d487-a3fe-45e5-a15c-e557a07b026e
Labels: <none>
Annotations: pv.kubernetes.io/bind-completed: yes
pv.kubernetes.io/bound-by-controller: yes
volume.beta.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: csi.trident.netapp.io
volume.kubernetes.io/storage-provisioner: csi.trident.netapp.io
Finalizers: [kubernetes.io/pvc-protection]
Capacity: 1Gi
Access Modes: RWO
VolumeMode: Filesystem
Used By: <none>
Events:
Type Reason Age From Message
---- ------ ---- ---- -------
Normal ExternalProvisioning 16s persistentvolume-controller Waiting for a volume to be created either by the external provisioner 'csi.trident.netapp.io' or manually by the system administrator. If volume creation is delayed, please verify that the provisioner is running and correctly registered.
Normal Provisioning 16s csi.trident.netapp.io_trident-controller-55549b957f-9xrjr_778ac595-1728-4c2d-844a-8879678a67fb External provisioner is provisioning volume for claim "default/asa-r2-nvme-pvc"
Normal ProvisioningSuccess 10s csi.trident.netapp.io provisioned a volume
Normal ProvisioningSucceeded 10s csi.trident.netapp.io_trident-controller-55549b957f-9xrjr_778ac595-1728-4c2d-844a-8879678a67fb Successfully provisioned volume pvc-e6f4d487-a3fe-45e5-a15c-e557a07b026e
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl -n trident get po
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
trident-controller-55549b957f-9xrjr 6/6 Running 0 28h
trident-node-linux-5zk4g 2/2 Running 0 2d
[root@scs000711920 demo]# kubectl logs trident-controller-55549b957f-9xrjr -n trident
Defaulted container "trident-main" out of: trident-main, trident-autosupport, csi-provisioner, csi-attacher, csi-resizer, csi-snapshotter
time="2025-06-26T06:12:00Z" level=trace msg=">>>> ReconcileNodeAccess" Method=ReconcileNodeAccess Nodes="[]" Type=ASAStorageDriver requestID=f824e6af-8162-491d-91e2-a81ad8160f19 requestSource=Periodic
[root@scs000711920 demo]# tridentctl -n trident logs
trident-controller log:
time="2025-06-26T03:30:08Z" level=debug msg="Node updated in cache." logLayer=csi_frontend name=scs000757455 requestID=a15aa399-13c5-49c3-9fea-9fab19c0290b requestSource=Kubernetes workflow="node=update"
Conclusion
With the power of NetApp ASA r2 systems and integration provided by NetApp Trident, provisioning high-performance block storage for your Kubernetes applications has never been easier. Notably, ASA r2 support for NVMe/TCP leveraged by Trident enables you to deliver low-latency, scalable storage to your Kubernetes workloads with exceptional efficiency and flexibility. We hope this article has equipped you with the knowledge and confidence to configure your Kubernetes workloads on ASA r2 systems, taking advantage of NVMe/TCP support. Happy configuring, and may your Kubernetes journey be smooth and successful.
