Decide on NFS Provisioner chart direction

[scottrigby]

There are several competing chart PRs for this, which take different approaches:

• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870
• NFS client provisioner #2779
• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559

Let's discuss and choose the direction.

[scottrigby]

@kingdonb #2559 (comment) seems to support favoring #3870

[kiall]

I'll try summarise some differences, I'm going to refer to each PR by the number, and the authors name, in an attempt to make it easier to follow.

Automated vs Manual Provisioning

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) is manual provisioning of the NFS exports for use by volumes
• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall - aka me) and NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) are automated based on PVC creation / StorageClasses.

Based on $what container

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) is based on gcr.io/google-containers/volume-nfs
• NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) is based on quay.io/external_storage/nfs-client-provisioner
• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) is based on quay.io/kubernetes_incubator/nfs-provisioner

Honestly. I have no idea what the differences between each are.

Helm "Standards Compliance" / "Best Practice"

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) and [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) appear to closely follow the current Helm Best Practice's
• NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) is behind, and would need updating.

Deployment vs StatefulSet

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) and NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) both use a Deployment resource to deploy the NFS server.
• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) uses a StatefulSet to deploy the NFS server.

Creating of matching StorageClass object to consume the NFS volumes

• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) and NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) both will create the StorageClass by default (And, this creation is optional in [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall))
• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) will not create the StorageClass resource..

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I'm sure there are more differences. But this is probably a reasonable start.

[nbyl]

Hi @kiall,

thanks for starting this thread to unify the existing proposals. Some thoughts on my behalf regarding the PRs.

NFS-Server

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) and [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) both deploy a NFS server inside the cluster to be consumed by Pods.
• NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) only deploys a provisioner for external NFS Shares like AWS EFS or some on-premise storage solution.

Deployment

• As NFS client provisioner #2779 only the deploy the provisioner part, IMHO only a single instance inside the cluster is needed, because storage is provided externally.
• If th NFS-Server is provided inside the cluster a highly available mechanism like in [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 is a much better way.

StorageClass

• Providing the optional creation of a storageclass seems like a better user experience to me.

So what would be way forward? I would currently prefer #3870 as it is more feature complete and uses the "official" image. But currently my main use case is not covered.

Maybe we can join forces. An idea would be to make the NFS server optional. In this case the user could provide some external NFS storage himself and only use the provisioning part.

[kiall]

So what would be way forward? I would currently prefer #3870 as it is more feature complete and uses the "official" image. But currently my main use case is not covered.

Is it the official image? I wasn't aware of the other 2 images when I wrote it, so, no idea :)

Maybe we can join forces. An idea would be to make the NFS server optional. In this case the user could provide some external NFS storage himself and only use the provisioning part.

If the general sentiment is to keep #3870 (@kiall) - then - lets see if we can make the NFS server optional, so it covers your use case. I can look at that late next week, but, if others get to it first - great. We can either just sync here until we get everything in order, or a PR could be sent to the branch #3870 is sourced from (https://github.com/kiall/kubernetes-charts/tree/add-nfs-provisioner-chart )

If the general sentiment is NOT to keep #3870 (@kiall) - then - I'm happy to collaborate anywhere that works.

[kiall]

I went digging to see what the differences are between the different images:

• [incubator/nfs-pv-provider] ReadWriteMany NFS PV Provisioner #2559 (@kingdonb) - gcr.io/google-containers/volume-nfs

  • Based on: https://github.com/kubernetes/examples/tree/master/staging/volumes/nfs
  • Designed as a sample, not really intended to be used as is - the NFS server container appears to put together purely to demonstrate how NFS PVs work within K8S - i.e. instead of the examples starting with "Go build a NFS server somewhere else", they start with "run this container".

• [stable/nfs-server-provisioner]: Add nfs-server-provisioner chart #3870 (@kiall) - quay.io/kubernetes_incubator/nfs-provisioner

  • Based on: https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/external-storage/tree/master/nfs
  • Designed to run the NFS server itself
  • Part of the K8S external-storage project.

• NFS client provisioner #2779 (@nbyl) - quay.io/external_storage/nfs-client-provisioner

  • Based on: https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/external-storage/tree/master/nfs-client
  • Designed to tie into an external NFS server
  • Part of the K8S external-storage project.

---

So - I actually think the differences between #3870 (@kiall - quay.io/kubernetes_incubator/nfs-provisioner) and #2779 (@nbyl - quay.io/external_storage/nfs-client-provisioner) warrant two different charts. Ideally, we'd try and make sure the distinction is made clear and keep things like naming as close and clear as possible - e.g. call the charts "nfs-server-provisioner" and "nfs-client-provisioner".

[kiall]

I've updated #3870 (@kiall) to call the chart nfs-server-provisioner, and included a note within the README.md pointing towards the nfs-client provisioner within the external-storage project. Assuming both charts merge, the README.md's should be updated to cross-reference each other.

[kingdonb]

This discussion is awesome, I wish I got here sooner!

Can I offer to review both charts, or is there a clear winner, or ... someone mentioned that this might be warranting of two separate charts, I think I figured that out as well during my own attempt at this

it looks like one of your implementations is only a Client (expects an outside provider of the NFS resource), whereas the other one is both Client and Server (@kiall actually provisions a NFS server using StatefulSet) Is that a valid characterization?

The amount of writeup here and discussion of the differences between all three PRs is really fantastic, I am so glad there are options now, because this has been an itch I've needed to scratch!

[kiall]

it looks like one of your implementations is only a Client (expects an outside provider of the NFS resource), whereas the other one is both Client and Server (@kiall actually provisions a NFS server using StatefulSet) Is that a valid characterization?

Kinda :) #2779 (@nbyl) expects an external NFS server to exist, yes. And #3870 (@kiall) expects to manage it's own NFS server inside the cluster, but it doesn't offer a clean way to tie into an existing NFS server[1].

Can I offer to review both charts, or is there a clear winner, or ... someone mentioned that this might be warranting of two separate charts, I think I figured that out as well during my own attempt at this

In my opinion, #3870 (@kiall) and #2779 (@nbyl) both serve different purposes, both use different+supported external-storage subprojects, and both should be reviewed + merged. i.e. I don't think there is as much overlap between the charts as there might seem at face value.

[1]: It looks like #3870 (@kiall) can tie into another server at face value, but in reality, it can only tie into a server that's running in the same pod (or same machine if ran outside K8S) - which isn't all that useful when running inside K8S.

[prydonius]

The amount of writeup here and discussion of the differences between all three PRs is really fantastic, I am so glad there are options now, because this has been an itch I've needed to scratch!

Huge +1, thanks for all the discussion @kiall, @nbyl, @kingdonb & @scottrigby .

There's been some interest in an NFS provisioner to make the WordPress chart scalable in #5009 and #5049 , so I'm interested in making a decision here.

I suggest closing out #2559 (@kingdonb) and #5049 (@vtuson) in favour of the StorageClass/provisioner approach.

I agree that both #3870 (@kiall) and #2779 (@nbyl) should exist as different options so I suggest we work on getting these reviewed and merged.

[yebyen]

I closed #2559 because I don't think it has anything to offer that the other #3870 and #2779 don't offer

[kiall]

@prydonius - makes sense to me!

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Any further update will cause the issue/pull request to no longer be considered stale. Thank you for your contributions.

[kingdonb]

It looks like PR #3870 was merged, and #2779 was closed in favor of #6433 which has also been merged now.

I'm not sure there's any reason to keep this issue open anymore! It looks like we have a chart that can be used to make PVCs against a backing ReadWriteOnce, and make them available via NFS to ReadWriteMany, ... then another chart that can take an existing NFS service and access it as a ReadWriteMany PV, via its own PVC.

Can anyone who has used both charts comment on whether there are any gaps remaining between them?

[davidkarlsen]

One uses https://github.com/kubernetes-incubator/external-storage/tree/master/nfs-client - the other is for https://github.com/helm/charts/tree/master/stable/nfs-server-provisioner .
I actively use the client one myself. The main difference is that one provides a NFS server - while the client one is based on the availability of an already provided NFS server outside of Kubernetes.

Yes I think this issue should be closed.

[kingdonb]

I'm reading the READMEs now. Trying to decide if it's possible to use them together... it seems like it should be!

The point of #2559 was originally supposed to be to provide a way for ReadWriteMany PVCs to consume a single PV block device over NFS. It vaguely looks like stable/nfs-client-provisioner does that pretty handily, as long as you already have that block device exposed via NFS.

I haven't really been following these closely, but now that they are both merged I may have some issues with the documentation of at least the client chart. But if so that is a separate issue, I'll reopen separately. So I'll go ahead and test some more, but...

I vote in favor of closing #4142.