Trident can automatically install the required :ref:`NFS` and :ref:`iSCSI` tools on nodes present in the Kubernetes cluster. This is a beta feature and is not meant for production clusters just yet. Today, the feature is available for nodes that run CentOS, RHEL, and Ubuntu.
For this, Trident includes a new install flag: --enable-node-prep.
Warning
The --enable-node-prep installation option instructs Trident to install and
ensure that NFS and iSCSI packages and/or services are running when a volume is
mounted on a worker node. This is a beta feature meant to be used in
Dev/Test environments that is not qualified for production use.
When the --enable-node-prep flag is included for Trident installations made with
tridentctl (for the Trident operator, use the Boolean option enableNodePrep), the following happens:
- As part of the installation, Trident registers the nodes it runs on.
- When a PVC request is made, Trident creates a PV from one of the backends it manages.
- Using the PVC in a pod would require Trident to mount the volume on the node the pod runs on. Trident attempts to install the required NFS/iSCSI client utilities and to ensure that the required services are active. This is done before mounting the volume.
The preparation of a worker node is done only once as part of the first attempt made to mount a volume. All subsequent volume mounts should succeed as long as no changes outside Trident touch the :ref:`NFS` and :ref:`iSCSI` utilities.
In this manner, Trident can make sure that all the nodes in a Kubernetes cluster have the required utilities needed to mount and attach volumes. For NFS volumes, the export policy should also permit the volume to be mounted. Trident can automatically manage export policies per backend; alternatively, users can manage export policies out-of-band.