[Feature Request] - TCMU Userspace Kernel Module for Amazon EKS optimised AMI

[cvlc]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Several storage fabric systems use LinuxIO/TCM in user-space in order to provide abstracted block storage access to applications, eg. for Kubernetes and containerised workloads. Without this feature, these systems won't work at all and we have to use alternative machine images. The benefit of TCMU is that it enables developers more flexibility in the way that underlying block storage is handled using technologies native to the Linux kernel.

Describe the solution you'd like
CONFIG_TCM_USER2=m set in kernel.config for Amazon Linux for EKS 2022 in order to build the kernel module target_core_user that currently isn't included in Amazon EKS optimised (and is currently included in non-EKS-optimised AMIs and Ubuntu EKS Optimised AMIs).

Describe alternatives you've considered
The alternative is to use Canonical Ubuntu, Flatcar Container Linux, Bottlerocket or other AMIs that provide this feature.

Additional context
Documentation on TCMU
Slide deck from Redhat on TCMU
Merged Bottlerocket PR

[liesenml]

Hello, thank you for submitting your request! We review all requests on a weekly basis and will reply to this ticket by with our evaluation.

[cvlc]

Thanks @liesenml, I'd be happy to assist in any way!

[cvlc]

Hi @liesenml, are there any updates on this?

[AdamWallek]

Hi @liesenml, are there any updates on this?

[Arau]

Hi,

is there any progress on this issue?

Thank you

[HarishKM7]

Hi @liesenml (& others at AWS). I'm Harish from MYCOM OSI. We're eagerly awaiting the implementation of this feature in Amazon Linux, especially since the lack of these kernel modules is blocking us from adopting Kubernetes storage management solutions like Ondat. Please prioritize this request! 🙏🏻

[shapirov103]

Hi Amazon Linux team! Is there an ETA for triage of this issue? I will submit a PFR for this as well with more details and customer references (internal PFR not referenced here).

[abuehaze14]

Hey, We are currently working on enabling this feature on our AL2022 & AL2 kernels, I will provide an update with the estimated time of this feature availability once our kernel tests finish successfully.

[shapirov103]

@abuehaze14 and AWS team: could please share your ETA for this feature? We have AWS partners waiting on it (EKS Storage CSI drivers). Also if you could share any dependency issues (if any) that would be helpful as well.

[abuehaze14]

Hey, This is currently available on all our latest AL2 5.4 & 5.10 and 5.15 kernels so you should be able to use that module by upgrading the kernel, We are currently integrating this module to AL2022 as well and I will provide the exact ETA very soon.

[abuehaze14]

Hey, This module is currently available on our latest AL2022 AMI so we should be good on all AL2 supported kernel versions 5.4 & 5.10 and 5.15 as well as AL2022 5.15 kernel.

[Arau]

Hi @abuehaze14,

We have been trying to use the AMI to test, etc. I can see that the AMI has the modules, which is great. I thought that EKS default use of the AmazonLinux2 would point to the latest, however, I don't see the changes applied when using EKS clusters. Do you know when or how the changes are ported, or EKS reference to the new images applied?

I apologise if you are not the person to ask this.

[nmeyerhans]

Hi @Arau. The kernel support is enabled in AL2023, so I'm going to resolve this issue. EKS is working on support for AL2023 in their AMIs. You can track their availability at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/eks-optimized-ami.html and https://github.com/awslabs/amazon-eks-ami