External mode storage cluster

For external storage clusters, ocs-operator follows a slightly different setup process. The ocs-operator looks for the existence of the rook-ceph-external-cluster-details ConfigMap, which must be created by someone else, either the administrator or the Console.

For information about how to create the ConfigMap, see Deploying Data Foundation in external mode. The ocs-operator then creates some or all of the following resources, as specified in the ConfigMap:
Important: Be sure to create IBM Storage Fusion Data Foundation in external mode before Fusion deployment.
External Ceph Configuration A ConfigMap that specifies the endpoints of the external mons.
External Ceph Credentials Secret A Secret that contains the credentials to connect to the external Ceph instance.
External Ceph StorageClasses One or more StorageClasses to enable the creation of volumes for RBD, CephFS, and/or RGW.
Enable CephFS CSI Driver If a CephFS StorageClass is specified, configure rook-ceph-operator to deploy the CephFS CSI Pods.
Ceph RGW Configuration If an RGW StorageClass is specified, create various Ceph Object CRs to enable and provide access to the Ceph RGW object storage endpoint.

After creating the resources specified in the ConfigMap, the StorageCluster creation process proceeds as follows:

CephCluster Create the CephCluster CR to trigger Ceph reconciliation from rook-ceph-operator (see subsequent sections).
SnapshotClasses Create the SnapshotClasses that applications use to create snapshots of Ceph volumes.
NoobaaSystem Create the NooBaa CR to trigger reconciliation from noobaa-operator (see subsequent sections).
QuickStarts Create the Quickstart CRs that display the quickstart guides in the Console.