Feature Overview (aka. Goal Summary)

Support the SMB CSI driver through an OLM operator as tech preview. The SMB CSI driver allows OCP to consume SMB/CIFS storage with a dynamic CSI driver. This enables customers to leverage their existing storage infrastructure with either SAMBA or Microsoft environment.

https://github.com/kubernetes-csi/csi-driver-smb

Goals (aka. expected user outcomes)

Customers can start testing connecting OCP to their backend exposing CIFS. This can allow to consume net new volume or consume existing data produced outside OCP.

Requirements (aka. Acceptance Criteria):

Driver already exists and is under the storage SIG umbrella. We need to make sure the driver is meeting OCP quality requirement and if so develop an operator to deploy and maintain it.

Review and clearly define all driver limitations and corner cases.

Use Cases (Optional):

• As an OCP admin, I want OCP to consume storage exposed via SMB/CIFS to capitalise on my existing infrastructure.
• As an user, I want to consume external data stored on a SMB/CIFS backend.

Questions to Answer (Optional):

Review the different authentication method.

Out of Scope

Windows containers support.

Only storage class login/password authentication method. Other methods can be reviewed and considered for GA.

Background

Customers are expecting to consume storage and possibly existing data via SMB/CIFS. As of today vendor's drivers support is really limited in terms of CIFS support whereas this protocol is widely used on premise especially with MS/AD customers.

Customer Considerations

Need to understand what customers expect in terms of authentication.

How to extend this feature to windows containers.

Documentation Considerations

Document the operator and driver installation, usage capabilities and limitations.

Interoperability Considerations

Future: How to manage interoperability with windows containers (not for TP)