Prerequisites and Integration Model

Nutanix
Audience
Public
Product
FlashArray
FlashArray > Purity//FA
Technology Integrations
Source Type
Documentation

The following requirements must be met before deploying NKP with FlashArray-backed storage.

Platform & Software Requirements

  • Everpure FlashArray

  • Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP)

    • Nutanix Acropolis Operating System (AOS) 7.5 or newer

    • Nutanix (Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 11 or newer

Integration Requirements

Note:

This guide assumes that FlashArray external storage integration has already been completed. Refer to the FlashArray + Nutanix External Storage Quick Start Guide for setup details.

  • The FlashArray must be set up within Prism Element as External Storage for the NKP AHV cluster.

  • The FlashArray-backed Nutanix external storage container must be accessible to all AHV hosts intended to run NKP controlplane and worker node VMs.

  • FlashArray volume limits, capacity constraints, and performance characteristics apply to NKP Persistent Volumes, as CSI provisions Nutanix Volume Groups that are ultimately backed by FlashArray storage. A list of those limitations are available here.

Integration Stack Overview

The integration stack consists of the following layers:

  • Everpure FlashArray

    • Provides block storage to Nutanix NKP clusters over NVMe-oF/TCP.

  • Nutanix AOS / AHV

    • Provides the compute and virtualization layer.

    • AHV hosts consume FlashArray storage, and AOS abstracts it into storage containers and Nutanix Volume Groups.

  • Prism Element / Prism Central

    • Manages the Nutanix cluster and external storage integration.

    • NKP communicates with Prism Central and Prism Element during cluster deployment and lifecycle operations.

  • Nutanix CSI driver (csi.nutanix.com)

    • Provisions and manages Nutanix Volume Groups within AOS and attaches them to Kubernetes worker node VMs.

  • Nutanix Kubernetes Platform (NKP)

    • Orchestrates Kubernetes cluster lifecycle and deploys the CSI driver.

Note:
Important :

  • Kubernetes and NKP do not communicate directly with FlashArray.

  • All storage lifecycle operations are executed through Nutanix AOS via the Nutanix CSI driver.

  • FlashArray-backed storage is abstracted as Nutanix storage containers and is consumed both as CSI-backed Persistent Volumes (PVs) for Kubernetes workloads and as the underlying storage for NKP control plane and worker node virtual machines.

Out of Scope

This article applies only to FlashArray block storage with Nutanix Kubernetes Platform and explicitly excludes:

  • Direct Kubernetes CSI drivers from Portworx

  • Everpure File or Object services

  • Everpure FlashBlade platforms

  • Nutanix Objects