Portworx StorageCluster health

Red Hat

Audience
Public
Technology Integrations
Linux
Source Type
Documentation

Once the core OpenShift platform has been confirmed healthy, the next daily check is the Portworx storage layer. This is especially important in environments where Portworx provides storage services for both OpenShift Virtualization and containerized applications backed by FlashArray.

A Portworx issue may not immediately appear as an OpenShift platform failure. Instead, it often shows up first as a degraded volume, a VM that cannot migrate, a PVC that remains pending, or storage latency that affects workloads before the cluster itself appears unhealthy.

This check validates that:

  • The StorageCluster is healthy

  • Portworx nodes are online

  • Storage pools are available and not near exhaustion

  • Volumes are healthy and properly attached

  • No storage-side condition is developing that could impact workloads

  1. In the OpenShift web console, go to Operators > Installed Operators.
  2. Open the Portworx operator.
  3. Select the StorageCluster tab.
  4. Confirm that the StorageCluster exists and is in a healthy or ready state.
  5. Open the StorageCluster object and review status, conditions, and any warning messages.
  6. If the Portworx console plugin is enabled, open the Portworx section in the OpenShift console. Review the cluster summary and confirm: the cluster is online, storage capacity is within normal range, no storage node is offline, no major cluster alert is active.
  7. Open the Nodes view. Confirm that all expected Portworx nodes are online and healthy.
  8. Open the Pools view. Confirm that: pools are online, no pool is unexpectedly degraded, no pool is critically full, capacity consumption is consistent with expected usage.
  9. Open the Volumes view. Look for status : degraded volumes, unavailable volumes, unusual attachment state, replication-related issues.
  10. If the environment runs virtual machines, check volumes associated with VM workloads and confirm they appear healthy.

What Healthy Looks Like

Check Expected
StorageCluster is not degraded Pass
All storage nodes are online Pass
Pools are online and have safe available capacity Pass
No critical volume state is visible Pass
No storage-side alerts suggest an impending failure Pass

What to Review First When Portworx Health Is Degraded

Check StorageCluster object

  • The StorageCluster status often shows the fastest summary of what is wrong. If the operator is reconciling unsuccessfully or the StorageCluster has health conditions set, review those first.

Review node state

  • If one or more Portworx nodes are offline, identify whether those nodes back critical VM or PVC workloads. A node-level Portworx issue may affect only a subset of the environment at first.

Review pool capacity

  • A nearly full pool may not break the cluster immediately, but it can block new provisioning, PVC expansion, snapshot operations, or migration workflows. Capacity pressure is one of the most common early warning signs that administrators can catch before users report problems.

Review volumes

  • Degraded or unavailable volumes are the most direct indication that applications or VMs may soon be affected. If a volume is unhealthy, identify the workload that depends on it before proceeding with unrelated maintenance activity.