Deploy Longhorn

This guide walks you through deploying Longhorn on a Kubernetes cluster. Longhorn is a distributed block storage system for Kubernetes that is built using containers. It provides features such as snapshots, backups, and volume expansion.

What you’ll need

To complete this guide, you’ll need the following:

Procedure

Follow the steps below to deploy Longhorn on a Kubernetes cluster:.

Step 1: Install Requirements

Follow the steps below to install the required libraries on each Kubernetes node:

  1. SSH into each Kubernetes node:

    user:~/virtlml$ ssh root@<node-ip>

    Note

    Replace <node-ip> with the IP address of the node.

  2. Install the required libraries:

    root@node1:~# apt update && apt install -y sudo jq

Important

Repeat this process for each Kubernetes node.

Step 2: Deploy Longhorn

Follow the steps below to deploy Longhorn on the Kubernetes cluster:

  1. Return to your local environment:

    root@node1:~# exit

  2. Apply the Longhorn manifests:

    user:~/virtlml$ kubectl apply -k manifests/longhorn/overlays/kubeflow

    Note

    This command will deploy Longhorn on the Kubernetes cluster. It may take a few minutes for the deployment to complete.

Verify

To verify that Longhorn is running, run the following commands:

  1. Check that the Longhorn pods are running. This may take a few minutes, so don’t worry if some pods are in a failed state initially:

    user:~/virtlml$ kubectl get pods -n longhorn-system
csi-attacher-5c4bfdcf59-76dpt                       1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-attacher-5c4bfdcf59-zc96c                       1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-attacher-5c4bfdcf59-zpcrd                       1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-provisioner-667796df57-l4bvn                    1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-provisioner-667796df57-tn5mt                    1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-provisioner-667796df57-wr9gz                    1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-resizer-694f8f5f64-krdwn                        1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-resizer-694f8f5f64-q7r64                        1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-resizer-694f8f5f64-st9vb                        1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-snapshotter-959b69d4b-2trb4                     1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-snapshotter-959b69d4b-44bdw                     1/1     Running   0          6m34s
csi-snapshotter-959b69d4b-nmxxz                     1/1     Running   0          6m34s
engine-image-ei-5cefaf2b-2cpx5                      1/1     Running   0          6m40s
engine-image-ei-5cefaf2b-5kkpx                      1/1     Running   0          6m40s
engine-image-ei-5cefaf2b-6lw22                      1/1     Running   0          6m40s
engine-image-ei-5cefaf2b-7tj7g                      1/1     Running   0          6m40s
engine-image-ei-5cefaf2b-bmbxl                      1/1     Running   0          6m40s
instance-manager-143975653f867415efd89c7528bfdfd9   1/1     Running   0          6m39s
instance-manager-931660a4d81395a5ee4a44842096109a   1/1     Running   0          6m40s
instance-manager-d7ddfb2f3c3853b122fcc734777e3447   1/1     Running   0          6m39s
instance-manager-e3d1d6988014e64b4f12d6d513f72715   1/1     Running   0          6m40s
instance-manager-e58918fd8369607e8bff43f3856618be   1/1     Running   0          6m39s
longhorn-csi-plugin-8twkq                           3/3     Running   0          6m34s
longhorn-csi-plugin-cq6pw                           3/3     Running   0          6m34s
longhorn-csi-plugin-fvf6p                           3/3     Running   0          6m34s
longhorn-csi-plugin-rwgg9                           3/3     Running   0          6m34s
longhorn-csi-plugin-xzrlt                           3/3     Running   0          6m34s
longhorn-driver-deployer-7449f56699-h52tj           1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-iscsi-installation-2jgww                   1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-iscsi-installation-6p9f8                   1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-iscsi-installation-r8bbc                   1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-iscsi-installation-v9pz2                   1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-iscsi-installation-vwphj                   1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-manager-4k2hl                              1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-manager-4zvhw                              1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-manager-7p99c                              1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-manager-96rnf                              1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-manager-rxfr6                              1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-nfs-installation-4h9qq                     1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-nfs-installation-7d847                     1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-nfs-installation-9krbq                     1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-nfs-installation-bt4x2                     1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-nfs-installation-pggtb                     1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-ui-6c8c4fcbb8-2p7ld                        1/1     Running   0          6m47s
longhorn-ui-6c8c4fcbb8-fhrbh                        1/1     Running   0          6m47s

    Note

    This command will list all the Longhorn pods in the longhorn-system namespace. After a couple of minutes, all the pods should be in the Running state.

  2. Launch the Longhorn UI:

    user:~/virtlml$ kubectl port-forward -n longhorn-system svc/longhorn-frontend 8080:80

    Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080. You should see the Longhorn UI:

    Longhorn UI