Install Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (previously known as OpenShift Container Storage) 4.X in External Mode using command line interface.

Updated 15 Jan 2026

Overview

Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) can be deployed in 3 modes: Internal, Internal-Attached, and External Mode. In the internal modes(internal, internal-attached), deployment of Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation is entirely within the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and has all the benefits of operator based deployment and management. The internal mode approach can be used to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation using dynamic device provisioning whereas the internal-attached mode can be used to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation using the local storage operator and local storage devices. In the external mode, Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation exposes the Red Hat Ceph Storage services running outside of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster as storage classes.

This article documents how we can deploy OpenShift Data Foundation in External Mode.

Preparing Nodes

You will need to add the OpenShift Data Foundation label to each OpenShift Container Platform node that has storage devices. The OpenShift Data Foundation operator looks for this label to know which nodes can be scheduling targets for OpenShift Data Foundation components. Later we will configure Local Storage Operator Custom Resources to create PVs from storage devices on nodes with this label.

To label the nodes use the following command:

# oc label node <NodeName> cluster.ocs.openshift.io/openshift-storage=''

Installing OpenShift Data Foundation

Use the following instructions to install generally available (GA) OpenShift Data Foundation version.

Install Operator

Create the openshift-storage namespace.

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  labels:
    openshift.io/cluster-monitoring: "true"
  name: openshift-storage
spec: {}
EOF

Create the openshift-storage-operatorgroup for OpenShift Data Foundation Operator.

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1
kind: OperatorGroup
metadata:
  name: openshift-storage-operatorgroup
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  targetNamespaces:
  - openshift-storage
EOF

Subscribe to the ocs-operator for version 4.8 or lower

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: ocs-operator
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  channel: "stable-4.7" # <-- Channel should be modified depending on the OCS version to be installed. Please ensure to maintain compatibility with OCP version
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: ocs-operator
  source: redhat-operators  # <-- Modify the name of the redhat-operators catalogsource if not default
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
EOF

Subscribe to the odf-operator for version 4.9 or above

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: operators.coreos.com/v1alpha1
kind: Subscription
metadata:
  name: odf-operator
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  channel: "stable-4.9" # <-- Channel should be modified depending on the OCS version to be installed. Please ensure to maintain compatibility with OCP version
  installPlanApproval: Automatic
  name: odf-operator
  source: redhat-operators  # <-- Modify the name of the redhat-operators catalogsource if not default
  sourceNamespace: openshift-marketplace
EOF

Create Storage Cluster

Get the ceph-external-cluster-details-exporter.py script:

# oc get csv $(oc get csv -n openshift-storage | grep ocs-operator | awk '{print $1}') -n openshift-storage -o jsonpath='{.metadata.annotations.external\.features\.ocs\.openshift\.io/export-script}' | base64 --decode > ceph-external-cluster-details-exporter.py

Login to one of the Ceph Monitor daemon nodes and run the above script to generate the JSON containing the External Ceph cluster details:

# python ceph-external-cluster-details-exporter.py --rbd-data-pool-name ceph-rbd --monitoring-endpoint xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx --monitoring-endpoint-port xxxx --rgw-endpoint xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:xxxx --run-as-user client.ocs

For more options please refer to Creating an OpenShift Data Foundation Cluster service for external mode

Create the secret rook-ceph-external-cluster-details containing the external cluster JSON output in base64 encoding

cat << EOF | oc create -f -
kind: Secret 
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: rook-ceph-external-cluster-details
  namespace: openshift-storage
data:
  external_cluster_details:
    W3sia2luZCI6ICJDb.....    # Replace this with the external cluster JSON output in `base64` encoding
type: Opaque
EOF

Create the Storage Cluster CR for the External Mode:

cat << EOF | oc create -f -
apiVersion: ocs.openshift.io/v1
kind: StorageCluster
metadata:
  name: ocs-external-storagecluster
  namespace: openshift-storage
spec:
  externalStorage:
    enable: true
  labelSelector: {}
EOF

Enable the Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation console plugin:

$ oc patch console.operator cluster -n openshift-storage --type json -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/plugins", "value": ["odf-console"]}]'

Verifying the Installation

Verify if all the pods are up and running
```
# oc get pods -n openshift-storage
```
All the pods in the openshift-storage namespace must be in either Running or Completed state.
Cluster creation might take around 5 mins to complete. Please keep monitoring until you see the expected state or you see an error or you find progress stuck even after waiting for a longer period.

List CSV to see that ocs-operator is in Succeeded phase

   $ oc get csv -n openshift-storage
   NAME                  DISPLAY                       VERSION   REPLACES   PHASE
   ocs-operator.v4.7.3   OpenShift Container Storage   4.7.3                Succeeded

   $ oc get csv -n openshift-storage
   NAME                  DISPLAY                       VERSION   REPLACES   PHASE
   mcg-operator.v4.9.0   NooBaa Operator               4.9.0                Succeeded
   ocs-operator.v4.9.0   OpenShift Container Storage   4.9.0                Succeeded
   odf-operator.v4.9.0   OpenShift Data Foundation     4.9.0                Succeeded

[OPTIONAL] Storage Class for OpenShift Virtualization

Create below Storage Class for OpenShift Virtualization workload:

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: ocs-external-storagecluster-ceph-rbd-virtualization
  annotations:
    description: Provides RWO Filesystem volumes, and RWO and RWX Block volumes. Optimized for VM workloads
    reclaimspace.csiaddons.openshift.io/schedule: '@weekly'
    storageclass.kubevirt.io/is-default-virt-class: "true"
parameters:
  clusterID: openshift-storage
  csi.storage.k8s.io/controller-expand-secret-name: rook-csi-rbd-provisioner
  csi.storage.k8s.io/controller-expand-secret-namespace: openshift-storage
  csi.storage.k8s.io/fstype: ext4
  csi.storage.k8s.io/node-stage-secret-name: rook-csi-rbd-node
  csi.storage.k8s.io/node-stage-secret-namespace: openshift-storage
  csi.storage.k8s.io/provisioner-secret-name: rook-csi-rbd-provisioner
  csi.storage.k8s.io/provisioner-secret-namespace: openshift-storage
  imageFeatures: layering,deep-flatten,exclusive-lock,object-map,fast-diff
  imageFormat: "2"
  pool: rbdpool
  mounter: rbd
  mapOptions: krbd:rxbounce
provisioner: openshift-storage.rbd.csi.ceph.com
reclaimPolicy: Delete
volumeBindingMode: Immediate
allowVolumeExpansion: true
EOF

Creating test CephRBD PVC and CephFS PVC

Example for RBD PVC:

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: rbd-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
   - ReadWriteOnce
    resources:
      requests:
        storage: 1Gi
    storageClassName: ocs-external-storagecluster-ceph-rbd
EOF

Example for CephFS PVC:

cat <<EOF | oc apply -f -
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: cephfs-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteMany
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: ocs-external-storagecluster-cephfs
EOF

Validate that the new PVCs are created.

# oc get pvc | grep rbd-pvc
# oc get pvc | grep cephfs-pvc

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