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Installation

MeshStor is deployed using standard Kubernetes manifests. The deployment creates a namespace, CRDs, RBAC resources, a controller StatefulSet, and a node DaemonSet.

Before you start: complete the Prerequisites checklist.

Already have MeshStor running? Jump straight to Create Your First Volume below.

Deploy

Apply all manifests from the deploy/ directory:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meshstor/meshstor-csi/main/deploy/namespace.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meshstor/meshstor-csi/main/deploy/

This creates:

Resource Name Description
Namespace meshstor All MeshStor components run here
CRDs meshstorvolumes, meshstornodedevices Volume and device tracking
CSIDriver io.meshstor.csi.mesh Registers MeshStor with Kubernetes
ServiceAccounts meshstor-csi-controller, meshstor-csi-node Identity for controller and node pods
ClusterRoles meshstor-csi-controller, meshstor-csi-node Permissions for CRs, nodes, PVCs, events
StatefulSet meshstor-csi-controller Controller (1 replica)
DaemonSet meshstor-csi-node Node plugin (every node)

Verify the Deployment

Check that all pods are running:

kubectl -n meshstor get pods

NAME                          READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
meshstor-csi-controller-0     4/4     Running   0          30s
meshstor-csi-node-abc12       3/3     Running   0          30s
meshstor-csi-node-def34       3/3     Running   0          30s

Verify the CSI driver is registered:

kubectl get csidriver io.meshstor.csi.mesh

NAME                    ATTACHREQUIRED   PODINFOONMOUNT   STORAGECAPACITY   TOKENREQUESTS   REQUIRESREPUBLISH   MODES   AGE
io.meshstor.csi.mesh    false            false            false             <unset>          false               <unset> 30s

Verify device discovery (each node reports its NVMe drives):

kubectl get msnd

NAME              NODE    DEVICE    MODEL              SIZE      FREE      VOLS   AGE
node1-nvme0n1     node1   nvme0n1   Samsung 990 PRO    1.0TB     1.0TB     0      30s
node2-nvme0n1     node2   nvme0n1   Samsung 990 PRO    1.0TB     1.0TB     0      30s

No devices listed

If kubectl get msnd returns no resources, check that:

  • NVMe drives are present on the nodes (lsblk -d | grep nvme)
  • The node pods are running and not crash-looping (kubectl -n meshstor logs daemonset/meshstor-csi-node -c csi-plugin)
  • Drive selection labels are correct if set (see Prerequisites)

Create Your First Volume

Create a replicated volume and verify it works end-to-end.

1. StorageClass

kubectl apply -f - <<'EOF'
apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: mesh-2copy-tcp
provisioner: io.meshstor.csi.mesh
parameters:
  numberOfCopies: "2"
  drivesPerCopy: "1"
reclaimPolicy: Delete
allowVolumeExpansion: true
EOF

2. PersistentVolumeClaim

kubectl apply -f - <<'EOF'
apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: my-first-volume
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi
  storageClassName: mesh-2copy-tcp
  volumeMode: Filesystem
EOF

3. Workload

kubectl apply -f - <<'EOF'
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: writer
spec:
  containers:
    - name: writer
      image: busybox
      command: ["sh", "-c", "while true; do date >> /data/log.txt; sleep 5; done"]
      volumeMounts:
        - name: data
          mountPath: /data
  volumes:
    - name: data
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: my-first-volume
EOF

4. Verify the Volume

Check that the PVC is bound:

kubectl get pvc my-first-volume

NAME              STATUS   VOLUME         CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS     AGE
my-first-volume   Bound    pvc-abc123..   1Gi        RWO            mesh-2copy-tcp   30s

Check the volume status — it should reach Synced with 2 active devices:

kubectl get msvol

NAME            PHASE    MDSTATE   TOTAL   ACTIVE   FAILED   DOWN   SYNC   AGE
pvc-abc123..    Synced   active    2       2        0        0             1m

Check the partitions are on different nodes:

kubectl get msvol pvc-abc123.. -o jsonpath='{range .status.partitions[*]}{.nodeID} {.state}{"\n"}{end}'

node1 Synced
node2 Synced

Verify the workload is writing data:

kubectl exec writer -- tail -3 /data/log.txt

Tue Apr  1 12:00:00 UTC 2026
Tue Apr  1 12:00:05 UTC 2026
Tue Apr  1 12:00:10 UTC 2026

Clean Up the Test Volume

kubectl delete pod writer
kubectl delete pvc my-first-volume
kubectl delete storageclass mesh-2copy-tcp

Uninstall MeshStor

To remove MeshStor and all its resources:

Data loss

Uninstalling MeshStor removes all CRDs, which deletes all MeshStorVolume and MeshStorNodeDevice custom resources. Volumes will become inaccessible. Ensure all PVCs are deleted and data is backed up before uninstalling.

kubectl delete -f deploy/

What's Next