Longhorn - Block-based Software Defined Storage for Kubernetes
July 01, 2024

Longhorn - Block-based Software Defined Storage for Kubernetes

Szymon Madej | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Longhorn Block Storage

We use Longhorn Block Storage as primary Persistent Storage in our Kubernetes platform based on Rancher. Before changing to Longhorn we used file-based solutions NFS and GlusterFS, which were incapable of hosting databases especially NoSQL blob storage used in ElasticSearch, Redis, ETCD, RabbitMQ and similar products, what resulted in common data corruption issues. Longhorn Block Storage gave us what we needed: secure, replicated and reasonably fast persistent storage.

Pros

  • Leverages industry standard protocol (iSCSI)
  • Is block-based storage instead of file-based
  • Is truly software defined storage (SDS)
  • Can use commodity hardware to build redundant SDS
  • Is open-source software
  • Is one of the CNCF projects
  • Provides enterprise functionalities like snapshots or backups

Cons

  • ReadWriteMany Longhorn volumes are still using NFS (file-based) protocol in the core.
  • Using iSCSI as main protocol instead of FC ties Longhorn to Ethernet-based LAN which is in most architectures much slower that FC-based SAN.
  • Longhorn could implement S3 as alternative access protocol to its volumes.
  • Backups, and snapshots configuration could be configured at each volume-level by administrators (maybe from additional CRD object?), because currently is configured at storage-class level which is not granular enough.
  • Longhorn is fully open source. One can try and/or use Longhorn for free even in enterprise and buy subscriptions only for environments that must be fully supported. We started with Longhorn in our lab environment and followed on through reference platform to non-production and production environments.
  • Longhorn subscriptions are not cheap, but its biggest advantage is that price-to-functionality ratio is very reasonable.
  • We have volumes with hundreds of gigabytes of data and these on Longhorn perform well in solutions where file-based GlusterFS volumes were corrupting data.
Longhorn is mature software defined storage solution that is still developed and receive new functionalities. From the beginning every Longhorn volume have multiple (at least two) replicas, can leverage manual or automatic snapshots and backup to external S3 volume. Longhorn provides nice and clear GUI for administrators, but also can be managed from CLI.
GlusterFS was first Persistent Storage solution used in our Kubernetes-based clusters. It is file-based what in some usages led us to many data corruptions. CEPH is object-based persistent storage which can be used as file-based Persistent Storage in Kubernetes. It is also is much more resource-hungry than other solutions including Longhorn. Dell PowerScale (or Isilon) is a hardware-software solution, that provides volumes that can be accessed by file-based NFS and CIFS protocols. Recently was added access to its volumes with object-based S3 protocol. Longhorn is in the middle. It is block-based, it is build on industry standards like iSCSI, performs very well on 10Gbit or faster LAN and commodity hardware (or in virtual machines).

Do you think Longhorn Block Storage delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Longhorn Block Storage's feature set?

Yes

Did Longhorn Block Storage live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Longhorn Block Storage go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Longhorn Block Storage again?

Yes

Longhorn is performing well as storage for databases and in almost any solution that uses exclusive access to volumes (ReadWriteOnce in Kubernetes nomenclature). When write access is required from many clients (ReadWriteMany) Longhorn Block Storage covers its volumes with NFS (file-based) access. Longhorn Block Storage also is well fitted in every architecture where data security (snapshots, backups, multiple replicas) is more important than access speed (in terms on IOPS and MiB/s).

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