Description
IBM Software Hub supports deployment on Red Hat OpenShift environments using Nutanix infrastructure and Nutanix CSI storage.
However, watsonx Orchestrate currently lists Nutanix storage as unsupported, even when the Nutanix CSI environment meets the IBM Software Hub platform requirements and provides the required ReadWriteOnce and ReadWriteMany storage capabilities.
We request official support and validation of Nutanix CSI storage for watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Software Hub on-premises.
Business need
Organizations running IBM Software Hub on Nutanix AHV need to deploy watsonx Orchestrate on their existing strategic infrastructure.
The current limitation prevents these customers from deploying watsonx Orchestrate in a fully supported configuration, although the underlying Nutanix storage platform is already supported by IBM Software Hub and can provide equivalent block and file storage classes.
Introducing support would:
- Remove the need to deploy and operate a separate storage solution specifically for watsonx Orchestrate.
- Reduce infrastructure complexity, operational costs and administration overhead.
- Enable customers to standardize IBM Software Hub services on their existing Nutanix platform.
- Improve the adoption of watsonx Orchestrate in sovereign, private-cloud and on-premises environments.
- Provide a consistent storage support model across IBM Software Hub and its individual services.
Current behavior
watsonx Orchestrate cannot currently be deployed as a supported configuration using Nutanix CSI storage classes.
Customers must introduce another supported storage technology or accept an unsupported deployment, even when Nutanix CSI provides storage classes with the required access modes, capacity, performance and dynamic provisioning capabilities.
Expected behavior
watsonx Orchestrate should support Nutanix CSI-provisioned storage classes for:
- ReadWriteOnce block storage.
- ReadWriteMany file storage.
- Dynamic persistent volume provisioning.
- Backup, restore, upgrade and disaster-recovery operations supported by IBM Software Hub.
The installation process should allow administrators to specify equivalent Nutanix CSI file and block storage classes through the standard IBM Software Hub installation parameters.
Suggested acceptance criteria
- IBM validates watsonx Orchestrate on a supported Nutanix AHV, AOS, Files and CSI configuration.
- Nutanix is added to the watsonx Orchestrate supported-storage matrix.
- Installation, upgrade, backup and restore procedures are documented.
- Supported ReadWriteOnce and ReadWriteMany storage requirements are clearly specified.
- IBM Support accepts watsonx Orchestrate cases running on validated Nutanix CSI configurations.
- Nutanix support applies to both connected and air-gapped IBM Software Hub deployments.
Example customer scenario
Our IBM Software Hub environment runs on Red Hat OpenShift deployed on Nutanix AHV and uses Nutanix CSI for persistent block and file storage.
Other IBM Software Hub components can use this infrastructure, but the current watsonx Orchestrate storage restriction prevents us from deploying the complete solution in a fully supported configuration.
Supporting Nutanix CSI would allow us to adopt watsonx Orchestrate without adding a second storage platform solely for this service.