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Chapter 3. Installing on bare metal

3.1. Installing a cluster on bare metal

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.1, you can install a cluster on bare metal infrastructure that you provision.

Important

While you might be able to follow this procedure to deploy a cluster on virtualized or cloud environments, you must be aware of additional considerations for non-bare metal platforms. Review the information in the guidelines for deploying OpenShift Container Platform on non-tested platforms before you attempt to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in such an environment.

Prerequisites

3.1.1. Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.1, Telemetry is the component that provides metrics about cluster health and the success of updates. To perform subscription management, including legally entitling your purchase from Red Hat, you must use the Telemetry service and access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page.

Because there is no disconnected subscription management, you cannot both opt out of sending data back to Red Hat and entitle your purchase. Support for disconnected subscription management might be added in future releases of OpenShift Container Platform

Important

Your machines must have direct internet access to install the cluster.

You must have internet access to:

  • Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site to download the installation program
  • Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster
  • Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates
  • Access Red Hat’s software as a service page to perform subscription management

3.1.2. Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure

For a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure, you must deploy all of the required machines.

3.1.2.1. Required machines

The smallest OpenShift Container Platform clusters require the following hosts:

  • One bootstrap machine
  • Three control plane, or master, machines
  • At least two compute machines, which are also known as worker machines
Note

The cluster requires the bootstrap machine to deploy the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on the three control plane machines. You can remove the bootstrap machine after you install the cluster.

Important

To maintain high availability of your cluster, use separate physical hosts for these cluster machines.

The bootstrap and control plane machines must use Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) as the operating system.

Note that RHCOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and inherits all of its hardware certifications and requirements. See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits.

3.1.2.2. Network connectivity requirements

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot to fetch Ignition config files from the Machine Config Server. During the initial boot, the machines require a DHCP server in order to establish a network connection to download their Ignition config files.

3.1.2.3. Minimum resource requirements

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

MachineOperating SystemvCPURAMStorage

Bootstrap

RHCOS

4

16 GB

120 GB

Control plane

RHCOS

4

16 GB

120 GB

Compute

RHCOS or RHEL 7.6

2

8 GB

120 GB

3.1.2.4. Certificate signing requests management

Because your cluster has limited access to automatic machine management when you use infrastructure that you provision, you must provide a mechanism for approving cluster certificate signing requests (CSRs) after installation. The kube-controller-manager only approves the kubelet client CSRs. The machine-approver cannot guarantee the validity of a serving certificate that is requested by using kubelet credentials because it cannot confirm that the correct machine issued the request. You must determine and implement a method of verifying the validity of the kubelet serving certificate requests and approving them.

3.1.3. Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure, you must create the underlying infrastructure.

Prerequistes

Procedure

  1. Configure DHCP.
  2. Provision the required load balancers.
  3. Configure the ports for your machines.
  4. Configure DNS.
  5. Ensure network connectivity.

3.1.3.1. Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

All the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot to fetch Ignition config from the Machine Config Server.

During the initial boot, the machines require a DHCP server in order to establish a network connection to download their Ignition config files.

It is recommended to use the DHCP server to manage the machines for the cluster long-term. Ensure that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses and host names to the cluster machines.

The Kubernetes API server must be able to resolve the node names of the cluster machines. If the API servers and worker nodes are in different zones, you can configure a default DNS search zone to allow the API server to resolve the node names. Another acceptable approach is to always refer to hosts by their fully-qualified domain names in both the node objects and all DNS requests.

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow cluster components to communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the host names of all other machines in the cluster.

Table 3.1. All machines to all machines
2379-2380etcd server, peer, and metrics ports

6443

Kubernetes API

9000-9999

Host level services, including the node exporter on ports 9100-9101 and the Cluster Version Operator on port 9099.

10249-10259

The default ports that Kubernetes reserves

10256

openshift-sdn

30000-32767

Kubernetes NodePort

Network topology requirements

The infrastructure that you provision for your cluster must meet the following network topology requirements.

Important

OpenShift Container Platform requires all nodes to have internet access to pull images for platform containers and provide telemetry data to Red Hat.

Load balancers

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, you must provision two layer-4 load balancers. The API requires one load balancer and the default Ingress Controller needs the second load balancer to provide ingress to applications.

PortMachinesInternalExternalDescription

6443

Bootstrap and control plane. You remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer after the bootstrap machine initializes the cluster control plane.

x

x

Kubernetes API server

22623

Bootstrap and control plane. You remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer after the bootstrap machine initializes the cluster control plane.

x

 

Machine Config server

443

The machines that run the Ingress router pods, compute, or worker, by default.

x

x

HTTPS traffic

80

The machines that run the Ingress router pods, compute, or worker by default.

x

x

HTTP traffic

Note

A working configuration for the Ingress router is required for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. You must configure the Ingress router after the control plane initializes.

3.1.3.2. User-provisioned DNS requirements

The following DNS records are required for an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify in the install-config.yaml file.

Table 3.2. Required DNS records
ComponentRecordDescription

Kubernetes API

api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

This DNS record must point to the load balancer for the control plane machines. This record must be resolvable by both clients external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

api-int.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

This DNS record must point to the load balancer for the control plane machines. This record must be resolvable from all the nodes within the cluster.

Important

The API server must be able to resolve the worker nodes by the host names that are recorded in Kubernetes. If it cannot resolve the node names, proxied API calls can fail, and you cannot retrieve logs from Pods.

Routes

*.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

A wildcard DNS record that points to the load balancer that targets the machines that run the Ingress router pods, which are the worker nodes by default. This record must be resolvable by both clients external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

etcd

etcd-<index>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

OpenShift Container Platform requires DNS records for each etcd instance to point to the control plane machines that host the instances. The etcd instances are differentiated by <index> values, which start with 0 and end with n-1, where n is the number of control plane machines in the cluster. The DNS record must resolve to an unicast IPV4 address for the control plane machine, and the records must be resolvable from all the nodes in the cluster.

_etcd-server-ssl._tcp.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

For each control plane machine, OpenShift Container Platform also requires a SRV DNS record for etcd server on that machine with priority 0, weight 10 and port 2380. A cluster that uses three control plane machines requires the following records: 

# _service._proto.name.                            TTL    class SRV priority weight port target.
_etcd-server-ssl._tcp.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>  86400 IN    SRV 0        10     2380 etcd-0.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.
_etcd-server-ssl._tcp.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>  86400 IN    SRV 0        10     2380 etcd-1.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.
_etcd-server-ssl._tcp.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>  86400 IN    SRV 0        10     2380 etcd-2.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.

3.1.4. Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses to the installer.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

Note

You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.

Procedure

  1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your computer, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command: 

    $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -N '' \
    -f <path>/<file_name> 1
    1
    Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the SSH key.

    Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location that you specified.

  2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task: 

    $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Agent pid 31874

  3. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent: 

    $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)
    1
    Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Next steps

When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installer. If you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision, you must provide this key to your cluster’s machines.

3.1.5. Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

  • You must install the cluster from a computer that uses Linux or macOS.
  • You need 300 MB of local disk space to download the installation program.

Procedure

  1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

  2. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.

    Important

    The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep both the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster.

  3. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command: 

    $ tar xvf <installation_program>.tar.gz
  4. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your installation pull secret as a .txt file or copy it to your clipboard. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

3.1.6. Installing the OpenShift Command-line Interface

You can download and install the OpenShift Command-line Interface (CLI), commonly known as oc.

Important

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform 4.1. You must download and install the new version of oc.

Procedure

  1. From the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, navigate to the page for your installation type and click Download Command-line Tools.

  2. From the site that is displayed, download the compressed file for your operating system.

    Note

    You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

  3. Extract the compressed file and place it in a directory that is on your PATH.

3.1.7. Manually creating the installation configuration file

For installations of OpenShift Container Platform that use user-provisioned infrastructure, you must manually generate your installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the access token for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create an installation directory to store your required installation assets in: 

    $ mkdir <installation_directory>
    Important

    You must create a directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

  2. Customize the following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the <installation_directory>.

    Note

    You must name this configuration file install-config.yaml.

  3. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    Important

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the next step of the installation process. You must back it up now.

3.1.7.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for bare metal

You can customize the install-config.yaml file to specify more details about your OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s platform or modify the values of the required parameters. 

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled 2 3
  name: worker
  replicas: 0 4
controlPlane:
  hyperthreading: Enabled 5 6
  name: master 7
  replicas: 3 8
metadata:
  name: test 9
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14 10
    hostPrefix: 23 11
  networkType: OpenShiftSDN
  serviceNetwork: 12
  - 172.30.0.0/16
platform:
  none: {} 13
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' 14
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' 15
1
The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the cluster name.
2 5
The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Although both sections currently define a single machine pool, it is possible that future versions of OpenShift Container Platform will support defining multiple compute pools during installation. Only one control plane pool is used.
3 6 7
Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or hyperthreading. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores. You can disable it by setting the parameter value to Disabled. If you disable simultanous multithreading in some cluster machines, you must disable it in all cluster machines.
Important

If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance.

4
You must set the value of the replicas parameter to 0. This parameter controls the number of workers that the cluster creates and manages for you, which are functions that the cluster does not perform when you use user-provisioned infrastructure. You must manually deploy worker machines for the cluster to use before you finish installing OpenShift Container Platform.
8
The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses this values as the number of etcd endpoints in the cluster, the value must match the number of control plane machines that you deploy.
9
The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.
10
A block of IP addresses from which Pod IP addresses are allocated. This block must not overlap with existing physical networks. These IP addresses are used for the Pod network, and if you need to access the Pods from an external network, configure load balancers and routers to manage the traffic.
11
The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual node. For example, if hostPrefix is set to 23, then each node is assigned a /23 subnet out of the given cidr, which allows for 510 (2^(32 - 23) - 2) pod IPs addresses. If you are required to provide access to nodes from an external network, configure load balancers and routers to manage the traffic.
12
The IP address pool to use for service IP addresses. You can enter only one IP address pool. If you need to access the services from an external network, configure load balancers and routers to manage the traffic.
13
You must set the platform to none. You cannot provide additional platform configuration variables for bare metal infrastructure.
14
The pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.
15
The public portion of the default SSH key for the core user in Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS).
Note

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses to the installation program.

3.1.8. Creating the Ignition config files

Because you must manually start the cluster machines, you must generate the Ignition config files that the cluster needs to make its machines.

Important

The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours. You must complete your cluster installation and keep the cluster running for 24 hours in a non-degraded state to ensure that the first certificate rotation has finished.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Obtain the Ignition config files: 

    $ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir=<installation_directory> 1
    1
    For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.
    Important

    If you created an install-config.yaml file, specify the directory that contains it. Otherwise, specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.

    The following files are generated in the directory: 

    .
├── auth
│   ├── kubeadmin-password
│   └── kubeconfig
├── bootstrap.ign
├── master.ign
├── metadata.json
└── worker.ign

3.1.9. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines

Before you install a cluster on bare metal infrastructure that you provision, you must create RHCOS machines for it to use. Follow either the steps to use an ISO image or network PXE booting to create the machines.

3.1.9.1. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines using an ISO image

Before you install a cluster on bare metal infrastructure that you provision, you must create RHCOS machines for it to use. You can use an ISO image to create the machines.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.
  • Have access to an HTTP server that you can access from your computer and that the machines that you create can access.

Procedure

  1. Upload the control plane, compute, and bootstrap Ignition config files that the installation program created to your HTTP server. Note the URLs of these files.

  2. Obtain the RHCOS images that are required for your preferred method of installing operating system instances from the Product Downloads page on the Red Hat customer portal or the RHCOS image mirror page.

    Important

    The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container Platform. You must download images with the highest version that is less than or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the image versions that match your OpenShift Container Platform version if they are available.

    You must download the ISO file and either the BIOS or UEFI file. Those file names resemble the following examples:

    • ISO: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer.iso
    • Compressed metal BIOS: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-bios.raw.gz
    • Compressed metal UEFI: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-uefi.raw.gz
  3. Upload either the BIOS or UEFI RHCOS image file to your HTTP server and note its URL.

  4. Use the ISO to start the RHCOS installation. Use one of the following installation options:

    • Burn the ISO image to a disk and boot it directly.
    • Use ISO redirection via a LOM interface.
  5. After the instance boots, press the TAB or E key to edit the kernel command line.

  6. Add the parameters to the kernel command line: 

    coreos.inst=yes
coreos.inst.install_dev=sda 1
coreos.inst.image_url=<bare_metal_image_URL> 2
coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://example.com/config.ign 3
    1
    Specify the block device of the system to install to.
    2
    Specify the URL of the UEFI or BIOS image that you uploaded to your server.
    3
    Specify the URL of the Ignition config file for this machine type.
  7. Press Enter to complete the installation. After RHCOS installs, the system reboots. After the system reboots, it applies the Ignition config file that you specified.

  8. Continue to create the machines for your cluster.

    Important

    You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least two compute machines before you install the cluster.

3.1.9.2. Creating Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) machines by PXE or iPXE booting

Before you install a cluster on bare metal infrastructure that you provision, you must create RHCOS machines for it to use. You can use PXE or iPXE booting to create the machines.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.
  • Configure suitable PXE or iPXE infrastructure.
  • Have access to an HTTP server that you can access from your computer.

Procedure

  1. Upload the master, worker, and bootstrap Ignition config files that the installation program created to your HTTP server. Note the URLs of these files.

  2. Obtain the RHCOS ISO image, compressed metal BIOS, kernel and initramfs files from the Product Downloads page on the Red Hat customer portal or the RHCOS image mirror page.

    Important

    The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container Platform. You must download images with the highest version that is less than or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the image versions that match your OpenShift Container Platform version if they are available.

    The file names contain the OpenShift Container Platform version number. They resemble the following examples:

    • ISO: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer.iso
    • Compressed metal BIOS: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-bios.raw.gz
    • kernel: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-kernel
    • initramfs: rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-initramfs.img
  3. Upload the compressed metal BIOS file and the kernel and initramfs files to your HTTP server.
  4. Configure the network boot infrastructure so that the machines boot from their local disks after RHCOS is installed on them.

  5. Configure PXE or iPXE installation for the RHCOS images.

    Modify one of the following example menu entries for your environment and verify that the image and Ignition files are properly accessible:

    • For PXE: 

      DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 20
PROMPT 0
LABEL pxeboot
    KERNEL http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-kernel 1
    APPEND ip=dhcp rd.neednet=1 initrd=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-initramfs.img console=tty0 console=ttyS0 coreos.inst=yes coreos.inst.install_dev=sda coreos.inst.image_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-bios.raw.gz coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 2 3
      1
      Specify the location of the kernel file that you uploaded to your HTTP server.
      2
      If you use multiple NICs, specify a single interface in the ip option. For example, to use DHCP on a NIC that is named eno1, set ip=eno1:dhcp.
      3
      Specify locations of the RHCOS files that you uploaded to your HTTP server. The initrd parameter value is the location of the initramfs file, the coreos.inst.image_url parameter value is the location of the compressed metal BIOS file, and the coreos.inst.ignition_url parameter value is the location of the bootstrap Ignition config file.

    • For iPXE: 

      kernel  http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-kernel ip=dhcp rd.neednet=1 initrd=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-initramfs.img console=tty0 console=ttyS0 coreos.inst=yes coreos.inst.install_dev=sda coreos.inst.image_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-bios.raw.gz coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1 2
initrd http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-initramfs.img 3
boot
      1
      Specify locations of the RHCOS files that you uploaded to your HTTP server. The kernel parameter value is the location of the kernel file, the initrd parameter value is the location of the initramfs file, the coreos.inst.image_url parameter value is the location of the compressed metal BIOS file, and the coreos.inst.ignition_url parameter value is the location of the bootstrap Ignition config file.
      2
      If you use multiple NICs, specify a single interface in the ip option. For example, to use DHCP on a NIC that is named eno1, set ip=eno1:dhcp.
      3
      Specify the location of the initramfs file that you uploaded to your HTTP server.

  6. If you use UEFI, edit the included grub.conf file that is included in the ISO that you downloaded to include the following installation options: 

    menuentry 'Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
	linux /images/vmlinuz nomodeset rd.neednet=1 coreos.inst=yes coreos.inst.install_dev=sda coreos.inst.image_url=http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-metal-uefi.raw.gz coreos.inst.ignition_url=http://<HTTP_server>/bootstrap.ign 1
	initrd http://<HTTP_server>/rhcos-<version>-<architecture>-installer-initramfs.img 2
}
    1
    For the coreos.inst.image_url parameter value, specify the location of the compressed metal UEFI file that you uploaded to your HTTP server. For the coreos.inst.ignition_url, specify the location of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you uploaded to your HTTP server.
    2
    Specify the location of the initramfs file that you uploaded to your HTTP server.

  7. Continue to create the machines for your cluster.

    Important

    You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least two compute machine before you install the cluster.

3.1.10. Creating the cluster

To create the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you wait for the bootstrap process to complete on the machines that you provisoned by using the Ignition config files that you generated with the installation program.

Prerequisites

  • Create the required infrastructure for the cluster.
  • You obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.
  • You used the Ignition config files to create RHCOS machines for your cluster.
  • Your machines have direct internet access.

Procedure

  1. Monitor the bootstrap process: 

    $ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ 1
    --log-level info 2

INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...
INFO API v1.13.4+b626c2fe1 up
INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the bootstrap-complete event...
    1
    For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
    2
    To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    The command succeeds when the Kubernetes API server signals that it has been bootstrapped on the control plane machines.

  2. After bootstrap process is complete, remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer.

    Important

    You must remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer at this point. You can also remove or reformat the machine itself.

3.1.11. Logging in to the cluster

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Prerequisites

  • Deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • Install the oc CLI.

Procedure

  1. Export the kubeadmin credentials: 

    $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

$ oc whoami
system:admin
    1
    For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

3.1.12. Approving the CSRs for your machines

When you add machines to a cluster, two pending certificates signing request (CSRs) are generated for each machine that you added. You must confirm that these CSRs are approved or, if necessary, approve them yourself.

Prerequisites

  • You added machines to your cluster.
  • Install the jq package.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines: 

    $ oc get nodes

NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
master-0  Ready     master  63m  v1.13.4+b626c2fe1
master-1  Ready     master  63m  v1.13.4+b626c2fe1
master-2  Ready     master  64m  v1.13.4+b626c2fe1
worker-0  NotReady  worker  76s  v1.13.4+b626c2fe1
worker-1  NotReady  worker  70s  v1.13.4+b626c2fe1

    The output lists all of the machines that you created.

  2. Review the pending certificate signing requests (CSRs) and ensure that the you see a client and server request with Pending or Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster: 

    $ oc get csr

NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
csr-8b2br   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending 1
csr-8vnps   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
csr-bfd72   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending 2
csr-c57lv   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
...
    1
    A client request CSR.
    2
    A server request CSR.

    In this example, two machines are joining the cluster. You might see more approved CSRs in the list.

  3. If the CSRs were not approved, after all of the pending CSRs for the machines you added are in Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

    Note

    Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each node. You must approve all of these certificates. After you approve the initial CSRs, the subsequent node client CSRs are automatically approved by the cluster kube-controller-manager. You must implement a method of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests.

    • To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR: 

      $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1
      1
      <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

    • If all the CSRs are valid, approve them all by running the following command: 

      $ oc get csr -ojson | jq -r '.items[] | select(.status == {} ) | .metadata.name' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

3.1.13. Initial Operator configuration

After the control plane initializes, you must immediately configure some Operators so that they all become available.

Prerequisites

  • Your control plane has initialized.

Procedure

  1. Watch the cluster components come online: 

    $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

NAME                                 VERSION   AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
authentication                       4.1.0     True        False         False      69s
cloud-credential                     4.1.0     True        False         False      12m
cluster-autoscaler                   4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
console                              4.1.0     True        False         False      46s
dns                                  4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
image-registry                       4.1.0     False       True          False      5m26s
ingress                              4.1.0     True        False         False      5m36s
kube-apiserver                       4.1.0     True        False         False      8m53s
kube-controller-manager              4.1.0     True        False         False      7m24s
kube-scheduler                       4.1.0     True        False         False      12m
machine-api                          4.1.0     True        False         False      12m
machine-config                       4.1.0     True        False         False      7m36s
marketplace                          4.1.0     True        False         False      7m54m
monitoring                           4.1.0     True        False         False      7h54s
network                              4.1.0     True        False         False      5m9s
node-tuning                          4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
openshift-apiserver                  4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
openshift-controller-manager         4.1.0     True        False         False      5m943s
openshift-samples                    4.1.0     True        False         False      3m55s
operator-lifecycle-manager           4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog   4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
service-ca                           4.1.0     True        False         False      11m
service-catalog-apiserver            4.1.0     True        False         False      5m26s
service-catalog-controller-manager   4.1.0     True        False         False      5m25s
storage                              4.1.0     True        False         False      5m30s
  2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

3.1.13.1. Image registry storage configuration

If the image-registry Operator is not available, you must configure storage for it. Instructions for both configuring a PersistentVolume, which is required for production clusters, and for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters, are shown.

3.1.13.1.1. Configuring registry storage for bare metal

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.
  • A cluster on bare metal.
  • A provisioned persistent volume (PV) with ReadWriteMany access mode, such as NFS.
  • Must have "100Gi" capacity.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

  2. Verify you do not have a registry pod: 

    $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry
Note

If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number can not be greater than 1. If the storage type is NFS, and you want to scale up the registry Pod by setting replica>1 you must enable the no_wdelay mount option. For example: 

# cat /etc/exports
/mnt/data *(rw,sync,no_wdelay,no_root_squash,insecure,fsid=0)
sh-4.3# exportfs -rv
exporting *:/mnt/data

  1. Check the registry configuration: 

    $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

storage:
  pvc:
    claim:

    Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

  2. Check the clusteroperator status: 

    $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry
3.1.13.1.2. Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters

You must configure storage for the image registry Operator. For non-production clusters, you can set the image registry to an empty directory. If you do so, all images are lost if you restart the registry.

Procedure

  • To set the image registry storage to an empty directory: 

    $ oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":{"storage":{"emptyDir":{}}}}'
    Warning

    Configure this option for only non-production clusters.

    If you run this command before the Image Registry Operator initializes its components, the oc patch command fails with the following error: 

    Error from server (NotFound): configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io "cluster" not found

    Wait a few minutes and run the command again.

3.1.14. Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure

After you complete the Operator configuration, you can finish installing the cluster on infrastructure that you provide.

Prerequisites

  • Your control plane has initialized.
  • You have completed the initial Operator configuration.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that all the cluster components are online: 

    $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

NAME                                 VERSION   AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
authentication                       4.1.0     True        False         False      10m
cloud-credential                     4.1.0     True        False         False      22m
cluster-autoscaler                   4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
console                              4.1.0     True        False         False      10m
dns                                  4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
image-registry                       4.1.0     True        False         False      16m
ingress                              4.1.0     True        False         False      16m
kube-apiserver                       4.1.0     True        False         False      19m
kube-controller-manager              4.1.0     True        False         False      18m
kube-scheduler                       4.1.0     True        False         False      22m
machine-api                          4.1.0     True        False         False      22m
machine-config                       4.1.0     True        False         False      18m
marketplace                          4.1.0     True        False         False      18m
monitoring                           4.1.0     True        False         False      18m
network                              4.1.0     True        False         False      16m
node-tuning                          4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
openshift-apiserver                  4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
openshift-controller-manager         4.1.0     True        False         False      17m
openshift-samples                    4.1.0     True        False         False      14m
operator-lifecycle-manager           4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog   4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
service-ca                           4.1.0     True        False         False      21m
service-catalog-apiserver            4.1.0     True        False         False      16m
service-catalog-controller-manager   4.1.0     True        False         False      16m
storage                              4.1.0     True        False         False      16m

    When all of the cluster Operators are AVAILABLE, you can complete the installation.

  2. Monitor for cluster completion: 

    $ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for install-complete 1
INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the cluster to initialize...
    1
    For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

    The command succeeds when the Cluster Version Operator finishes deploying the OpenShift Container Platform cluster from Kubernetes API server.

    Important

    The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours. You must keep the cluster running for 24 hours in a non-degraded state to ensure that the first certificate rotation has finished.

  3. Confirm that the Kubernetes API server is communicating with the Pods.

    1. To view a list of all Pods, use the following command: 

      $ oc get pods --all-namespaces

NAMESPACE                         NAME                                            READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
openshift-apiserver-operator      openshift-apiserver-operator-85cb746d55-zqhs8   1/1     Running     1          9m
openshift-apiserver               apiserver-67b9g                                 1/1     Running     0          3m
openshift-apiserver               apiserver-ljcmx                                 1/1     Running     0          1m
openshift-apiserver               apiserver-z25h4                                 1/1     Running     0          2m
openshift-authentication-operator authentication-operator-69d5d8bf84-vh2n8        1/1     Running     0          5m
...

    2. View the logs for a Pod that is listed in the output of the previous command by using the following command: 

      $ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> 1
      1
      Specify the Pod name and namespace, as shown in the output of the previous command.

      If the Pod logs display, the Kubernetes API server can communicate with the cluster machines.

Next steps

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