Use an Alternative Storage Provider#

This project deploys Longhorn as the default CSI (Container Storage Interface) provider. If you prefer a different storage solution — such as local-path, NFS, Rook-Ceph, or OpenEBS — follow this guide.

What Longhorn provides#

Longhorn gives you:

Replicated block storage distributed across worker nodes
A web UI for volume management
Volume snapshots and backups
Automatic replica rebuilding when nodes go down

If you do not need these features, or your environment has a different storage solution, you can replace Longhorn entirely.

Step 1: Remove Longhorn from ArgoCD#

Delete the Longhorn ArgoCD Application template and its additions:

rm kubernetes-services/templates/longhorn.yaml
rm -rf kubernetes-services/additions/longhorn/

Step 2: Remove Longhorn-specific kernel settings#

The kernel-settings.yaml DaemonSet includes iSCSI-related configuration that is specifically for Longhorn. Review kubernetes-services/templates/kernel-settings.yaml and either:

Delete it entirely if you do not need the sysctl tuning:

rm kubernetes-services/templates/kernel-settings.yaml

Edit it to keep only the network buffer settings (rmem_max/wmem_max) and remove the multipathd blacklist for Longhorn iSCSI devices.

Step 3: Remove `open-iscsi` dependency (optional)#

Longhorn requires open-iscsi on each node. If your replacement does not need it, you can remove it from the update_packages role. Edit roles/update_packages/tasks/main.yml and remove open-iscsi from the package list.

Step 4: Update storage references in other services#

Some services request persistent volumes using Longhorn’s storageClassName. Search for longhorn references in other templates:

Grafana / Prometheus#

In kubernetes-services/templates/grafana.yaml, update the storage configuration:

# Change from:
storageSpec:
  volumeClaimTemplate:
    spec:
      storageClassName: longhorn
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 40Gi

# To your provider:
storageSpec:
  volumeClaimTemplate:
    spec:
      storageClassName: your-storage-class   # or remove to use the cluster default
      resources:
        requests:
          storage: 40Gi

Update both the Prometheus and Grafana volume claims in this file.

Tip

If your replacement storage provider registers itself as the default StorageClass, you can simply remove the storageClassName field entirely and Kubernetes will use the default.

Step 5: Add your replacement storage provider#

Create a new ArgoCD Application template for your CSI driver. For example, to use the built-in K3s local-path provisioner (already included in K3s by default):

# No template needed — local-path-provisioner is built into K3s
# Just remove Longhorn and update storageClassName references to "local-path"

For NFS:

# kubernetes-services/templates/nfs-csi.yaml
apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Application
metadata:
  name: nfs-csi
  namespace: argo-cd
  finalizers:
    - resources-finalizer.argocd.argoproj.io
spec:
  project: kubernetes
  destination:
    server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    namespace: nfs-csi
  syncPolicy:
    automated:
      prune: true
      selfHeal: true
    syncOptions:
      - CreateNamespace=true
  sources:
    - repoURL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-csi/csi-driver-nfs/master/charts
      targetRevision: "4.9.0"
      chart: csi-driver-nfs
      helm:
        valuesObject:
          storageClass:
            create: true
            name: nfs-csi
            reclaimPolicy: Retain
            server: 192.168.1.100       # Your NFS server IP
            share: /export/k8s          # Your NFS export path

Step 6: Commit and push#

git add -A
git commit -m "Replace Longhorn with <your-provider>"
git push

ArgoCD will remove Longhorn and deploy your replacement storage provider.

Common alternative providers#

Provider	Best for	Notes
`local-path`	Single-node, dev clusters	Built into K3s, no replication
NFS CSI	Shared storage, NAS	Requires external NFS server
Rook-Ceph	Production, multi-node	Complex setup, high resource usage
OpenEBS	Flexible, lightweight	Multiple engine options
Democratic CSI	iSCSI/NFS to TrueNAS	Good for home labs with NAS