The Dell CSM Installation Wizard

Even though this has been around for a while, I simply never stumbled upon it: The Dell CSM Installation Wizard. In this short blogpost I’ll talk a bit more on this. Disclaimer: #Iwork4Dell

An easier way to create your values.yaml

Whenever you install a CSI/CSM driver for a Dell storage array, you need to make adjustments to this file called values.yaml which basically tells the system what to install, which namespace to use, what CSM modules to include etc. etc. This file is different for each storage platform (makes sense as the platforms themselves have different architectures).

In an ongoing effort to make things simpler we thought about using some kind of web form which you complete and have it spit out your custom values.yaml. And that is exactly what this Dell Installation Wizard does.

Accessing the Dell CSM Installation Wizard

You can access the Dell CSM Installation Wizard through the Dell CSI/CSM documentation under “deployment” and then selecting the “CSM installation Wizard”, or use the direct link to the wizard.

After you’ve selected “Helm” and the storage platform you’ll be using, the form will adjust it’s shape to match the storage platform type you selected. After filling out all the required fields it can create your specific values.yaml file on the fly!

*The CSM Installation Wizard initial screen. Select the array you’ll be using and off you go!*

An example of the wizard

You can play around freely with the wizard. In this blog post I’ll be looking at generating a values.yaml file for the Dell PowerFlex.

*For this example Dell PowerFlex was selected. Using “dellemc” as the repository and the latest CSM version selected.*

Next, you can select the modules and features you want enabled for the CSM installation. For PowerFlex you can opt to install things like Observability, Replication and Resilliency modules:

*Modules and Features required can be checkboxed and the resulting yaml code will reflects these reuirements (and execute upon them).*

Now all you need to do is set some miscellaneous options before you click “generate”:

*Finally, configure miscellaneous options and simply click “Generate YAML” to get your values.yaml file!*

And presto! Out comes your values.yaml file, fully adapted and ready to go. Below is a small code snippet from the generated yaml file:

## K8S/CSI-PowerFlex ATTRIBUTES
##########################################
csi-vxflexos:
  enabled: true
  version: v2.7.0
  images:
    driverRepository: dellemc
    powerflexSdc: dellemc/sdc:3.6.0.6
  certSecretCount: 1
  controller:
    replication:
      enabled: false
      image: dellemc/dell-csi-replicator:v1.5.0
    healthMonitor:
       enabled: false
    controllerCount: 2
    volumeNamePrefix: csivol
    snapshot:
      enabled: true
    resizer:
      enabled: true

Like it yes or no? Please leave a comment below.

An easier way to create your values.yaml

Accessing the Dell CSM Installation Wizard

An example of the wizard

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