Skip to main content

Storage Client Guide

This guide covers three common ways to access NetActuate storage services: Ceph RBD block storage on Ubuntu, S3-compatible object storage with s3cmd, and Kubernetes persistent volumes with the Ceph CSI driver.

Ceph RBD on Ubuntu​

Ceph RBD (RADOS Block Device) provides block storage that you can map and mount as a local disk on your VM.

Prerequisites​

  • Ubuntu VM deployed on NetActuate
  • Ceph monitor addresses (provided by NetActuate)
  • Ceph user ID and key (provided by NetActuate)
  • Pool name and image/volume name

Install Ceph client tools​

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ceph ceph-common -y

Configure authentication​

Create the keyring file:

sudo tee /etc/ceph/ceph.client.<YOUR_USER_ID>.keyring <<'EOF'
[client.<YOUR_USER_ID>]
    key = <YOUR_SECRET_KEY>
EOF
sudo chmod 600 /etc/ceph/ceph.client.<YOUR_USER_ID>.keyring

Create the Ceph configuration file:

sudo tee /etc/ceph/ceph.conf <<'EOF'
[global]
mon_host = <MON1>,<MON2>,<MON3>
EOF

Map the RBD image​

sudo rbd map <POOL_NAME>/<IMAGE_NAME> \
  --id <YOUR_USER_ID> \
  --keyring /etc/ceph/ceph.client.<YOUR_USER_ID>.keyring

Format the device (first time only)​

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/rbd/<POOL_NAME>/<IMAGE_NAME>

Mount the device​

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/rbd
sudo mount /dev/rbd/<POOL_NAME>/<IMAGE_NAME> /mnt/rbd

Persist across reboots​

echo "/dev/rbd/<POOL_NAME>/<IMAGE_NAME> /mnt/rbd ext4 defaults 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Verify​

df -h /mnt/rbd

s3cmd Object Storage​

s3cmd is a command-line tool for working with S3-compatible object storage. Use it to manage buckets and objects on NetActuate S3 storage.

Prerequisites​

  • Access Key and Secret Key (from the NetActuate portal)
  • Object Store Endpoint (from the NetActuate portal)

Install s3cmd​

sudo apt update
sudo apt install s3cmd -y

Configure s3cmd​

s3cmd --configure

Enter the following when prompted:

Access Key: <your-access-key>
Secret Key: <your-secret-key>
S3 Endpoint: <endpoint:port>
Use HTTPS: Yes

Common operations​

# List buckets
s3cmd ls

# Create a bucket
s3cmd mb s3://mybucket

# Upload a file
s3cmd put file.txt s3://mybucket/

# Download a file
s3cmd get s3://mybucket/file.txt

# Make a file public
s3cmd setacl s3://mybucket/file.txt --acl-public

# Sync a folder
s3cmd sync ./local-folder/ s3://mybucket/

Public access​

Objects are private by default. To make objects public:

  • Use s3cmd setacl --acl-public on individual objects.
  • Or disable Private in the portal, which applies a bucket policy allowing public read access.

Kubernetes CSI Driver​

The Ceph CSI RBD driver allows Kubernetes pods to use Ceph block storage as persistent volumes. This section provides a working pattern for deploying the driver and provisioning tenant-scoped storage.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Kubernetes cluster on NetActuate
  • kubectl configured with cluster access
  • Ceph cluster ID, monitor addresses, user ID, and key (provided by NetActuate)

Overview​

The deployment includes:

  1. CSI driver namespace (ceph-csi-rbd) with ConfigMaps, RBAC, and the CSI controller and node plugin
  2. Tenant objects in your workload namespace: Secret, StorageClass, PVC, and an optional test Pod

Deploy the CSI driver and tenant storage​

Save the full manifest (see Storage - RBD (Ceph) for the complete template), replace all placeholders with your actual values, and apply:

kubectl apply -f ceph-csi-rbd-tenant.yaml

Verify CSI pods​

kubectl -n ceph-csi-rbd get pods

All pods should show Running status.

Verify PVC binding​

kubectl -n <YOUR_NAMESPACE> get pvc

The PVC status should show Bound.

Verify mount in pod​

kubectl -n <YOUR_NAMESPACE> exec -it <POD_NAME> -- sh -c "df -h /mnt/rbd && mount | grep rbd"

Key points​

  • All block volumes live in the global-block-pool pool
  • Tenant isolation is enforced by the Ceph user and RADOS namespace scoping
  • The StorageClass supports volume expansion (allowVolumeExpansion: true)
  • The reclaim policy is set to Delete by default; change to Retain if you need to preserve data after PVC deletion

Need Help?​

For guidance on storage setups, connect with a NetActuate infrastructure expert at support@netactuate.com or open a support ticket from the portal: portal.netactuate.com.