Chapter 3. Disconnected installation mirroring
3.1. About disconnected installation mirroring
You can use a mirror registry to ensure that your clusters only use container images that satisfy your organizational controls on external content. Before you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision in a restricted network, you must mirror the required container images into that environment. To mirror container images, you must have a registry for mirroring.
3.1.1. Creating a mirror registry
If you already have a container image registry, such as Red Hat Quay, you can use it as your mirror registry. If you do not already have a registry, you can create a mirror registry using the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift.
3.1.2. Mirroring images for a disconnected installation
You can use one of the following procedures to mirror your OpenShift Container Platform image repository to your mirror registry:
3.2. Creating a mirror registry with mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift
The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is a small and streamlined container registry that you can use as a target for mirroring the required container images of OpenShift Container Platform for disconnected installations.
If you already have a container image registry, such as Red Hat Quay, you can skip this section and go straight to Mirroring the OpenShift Container Platform image repository.
3.2.1. Prerequisites
- An OpenShift Container Platform subscription.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 and 9 with Podman 3.3 and OpenSSL installed.
- Fully qualified domain name for the Red Hat Quay service, which must resolve through a DNS server.
- Key-based SSH connectivity on the target host. SSH keys are automatically generated for local installs. For remote hosts, you must generate your own SSH keys.
- 2 or more vCPUs.
- 8 GB of RAM.
About 12 GB for OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 release images, or about 358 GB for OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 release images and OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 Red Hat Operator images. Up to 1 TB per stream or more is suggested.
ImportantThese requirements are based on local testing results with only release images and Operator images. Storage requirements can vary based on your organization’s needs. You might require more space, for example, when you mirror multiple z-streams. You can use standard Red Hat Quay functionality or the proper API callout to remove unnecessary images and free up space.
3.2.2. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift introduction
For disconnected deployments of OpenShift Container Platform, a container registry is required to carry out the installation of the clusters. To run a production-grade registry service on such a cluster, you must create a separate registry deployment to install the first cluster. The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift addresses this need and is included in every OpenShift subscription. It is available for download on the OpenShift console Downloads page.
The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift allows users to install a small-scale version of Red Hat Quay and its required components using the mirror-registry
command line interface (CLI) tool. The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is deployed automatically with preconfigured local storage and a local database. It also includes auto-generated user credentials and access permissions with a single set of inputs and no additional configuration choices to get started.
The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift provides a pre-determined network configuration and reports deployed component credentials and access URLs upon success. A limited set of optional configuration inputs like fully qualified domain name (FQDN) services, superuser name and password, and custom TLS certificates are also provided. This provides users with a container registry so that they can easily create an offline mirror of all OpenShift Container Platform release content when running OpenShift Container Platform in restricted network environments.
Use of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is optional if another container registry is already available in the install environment.
3.2.2.1. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift limitations
The following limitations apply to the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
- The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is not a highly-available registry and only local file system storage is supported. It is not intended to replace Red Hat Quay or the internal image registry for OpenShift Container Platform.
The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is only supported for hosting images that are required to install a disconnected OpenShift Container Platform cluster, such as Release images or Red Hat Operator images. It uses local storage on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) machine, and storage supported by RHEL is supported by the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift.
NoteBecause the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift uses local storage, you should remain aware of the storage usage consumed when mirroring images and use Red Hat Quay’s garbage collection feature to mitigate potential issues. For more information about this feature, see "Red Hat Quay garbage collection".
- Support for Red Hat product images that are pushed to the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift for bootstrapping purposes are covered by valid subscriptions for each respective product. A list of exceptions to further enable the bootstrap experience can be found on the Self-managed Red Hat OpenShift sizing and subscription guide.
- Content built by customers should not be hosted by the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift.
- Using the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with more than one cluster is discouraged because multiple clusters can create a single point of failure when updating your cluster fleet. It is advised to leverage the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift to install a cluster that can host a production-grade, highly-available registry such as Red Hat Quay, which can serve OpenShift Container Platform content to other clusters.
3.2.3. Mirroring on a local host with mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift
This procedure explains how to install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on a local host using the mirror-registry
installer tool. By doing so, users can create a local host registry running on port 443 for the purpose of storing a mirror of OpenShift Container Platform images.
Installing the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift using the mirror-registry
CLI tool makes several changes to your machine. After installation, a /etc/quay-install
directory is created, which has installation files, local storage, and the configuration bundle. Trusted SSH keys are generated in case the deployment target is the local host, and systemd files on the host machine are set up to ensure that container runtimes are persistent. Additionally, an initial user named init
is created with an automatically generated password. All access credentials are printed at the end of the install routine.
Procedure
-
Download the
mirror-registry.tar.gz
package for the latest version of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift found on the OpenShift console Downloads page. Install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on your local host with your current user account by using the
mirror-registry
tool. For a full list of available flags, see "mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift flags".$ ./mirror-registry install \ --quayHostname <host_example_com> \ --quayRoot <example_directory_name>
Use the user name and password generated during installation to log into the registry by running the following command:
$ podman login -u init \ -p <password> \ <host_example_com>:8443> \ --tls-verify=false 1
- 1
- You can avoid running
--tls-verify=false
by configuring your system to trust the generated rootCA certificates. See "Using SSL to protect connections to Red Hat Quay" and "Configuring the system to trust the certificate authority" for more information.
NoteYou can also log in by accessing the UI at
https://<host.example.com>:8443
after installation.You can mirror OpenShift Container Platform images after logging in. Depending on your needs, see either the "Mirroring the OpenShift Container Platform image repository" or the "Mirroring Operator catalogs for use with disconnected clusters" sections of this document.
NoteIf there are issues with images stored by the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift due to storage layer problems, you can remirror the OpenShift Container Platform images, or reinstall mirror registry on more stable storage.
3.2.4. Updating mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from a local host
This procedure explains how to update the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from a local host using the upgrade
command. Updating to the latest version ensures bug fixes and security vulnerability fixes.
When updating, there is intermittent downtime of your mirror registry, as it is restarted during the update process.
Prerequisites
- You have installed the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on a local host.
Procedure
To upgrade the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from localhost, enter the following command:
$ sudo ./mirror-registry upgrade -v
NoteUsers who upgrade the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with the
./mirror-registry upgrade -v
flag must include the same credentials used when creating their mirror registry. For example, if you installed the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with--quayHostname <host_example_com>
and--quayRoot <example_directory_name>
, you must include that string to properly upgrade the mirror registry.If you are upgrading the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from 1.2.z
1.3.0 and you used a specified directory in your 1.2.z deployment, you must pass in the new --pgStorage
and--quayStorage
flags. For example:$ sudo ./mirror-registry upgrade --quayHostname <host_example_com> --quayRoot <example_directory_name> --pgStorage <example_directory_name>/pg-data --quayStorage <example_directory_name>/quay-storage -v
3.2.5. Mirroring on a remote host with mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift
This procedure explains how to install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on a remote host using the mirror-registry
tool. By doing so, users can create a registry to hold a mirror of OpenShift Container Platform images.
Installing the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift using the mirror-registry
CLI tool makes several changes to your machine. After installation, a /etc/quay-install
directory is created, which has installation files, local storage, and the configuration bundle. Trusted SSH keys are generated in case the deployment target is the local host, and systemd files on the host machine are set up to ensure that container runtimes are persistent. Additionally, an initial user named init
is created with an automatically generated password. All access credentials are printed at the end of the install routine.
Procedure
-
Download the
mirror-registry.tar.gz
package for the latest version of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift found on the OpenShift console Downloads page. Install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on your local host with your current user account by using the
mirror-registry
tool. For a full list of available flags, see "mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift flags".$ ./mirror-registry install -v \ --targetHostname <host_example_com> \ --targetUsername <example_user> \ -k ~/.ssh/my_ssh_key \ --quayHostname <host_example_com> \ --quayRoot <example_directory_name>
Use the user name and password generated during installation to log into the mirror registry by running the following command:
$ podman login -u init \ -p <password> \ <host_example_com>:8443> \ --tls-verify=false 1
- 1
- You can avoid running
--tls-verify=false
by configuring your system to trust the generated rootCA certificates. See "Using SSL to protect connections to Red Hat Quay" and "Configuring the system to trust the certificate authority" for more information.
NoteYou can also log in by accessing the UI at
https://<host.example.com>:8443
after installation.You can mirror OpenShift Container Platform images after logging in. Depending on your needs, see either the "Mirroring the OpenShift Container Platform image repository" or the "Mirroring Operator catalogs for use with disconnected clusters" sections of this document.
NoteIf there are issues with images stored by the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift due to storage layer problems, you can remirror the OpenShift Container Platform images, or reinstall mirror registry on more stable storage.
3.2.6. Updating mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from a remote host
This procedure explains how to update the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from a remote host using the upgrade
command. Updating to the latest version ensures bug fixes and security vulnerability fixes.
When updating, there is intermittent downtime of your mirror registry, as it is restarted during the update process.
Prerequisites
- You have installed the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift on a remote host.
Procedure
To upgrade the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from a remote host, enter the following command:
$ ./mirror-registry upgrade -v --targetHostname <remote_host_url> --targetUsername <user_name> -k ~/.ssh/my_ssh_key
NoteUsers who upgrade the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with the
./mirror-registry upgrade -v
flag must include the same credentials used when creating their mirror registry. For example, if you installed the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with--quayHostname <host_example_com>
and--quayRoot <example_directory_name>
, you must include that string to properly upgrade the mirror registry.
3.2.7. Replacing mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift SSL/TLS certificates
In some cases, you might want to update your SSL/TLS certificates for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. This is useful in the following scenarios:
- If you are replacing the current mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift certificate.
- If you are using the same certificate as the previous mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift installation.
- If you are periodically updating the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift certificate.
Use the following procedure to replace mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift SSL/TLS certificates.
Prerequisites
-
You have downloaded the
./mirror-registry
binary from the OpenShift console Downloads page.
Procedure
Enter the following command to install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
$ ./mirror-registry install \ --quayHostname <host_example_com> \ --quayRoot <example_directory_name>
This installs the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift to the
$HOME/quay-install
directory.-
Prepare a new certificate authority (CA) bundle and generate new
ssl.key
andssl.crt
key files. For more information, see Using SSL/TLS. Assign
/$HOME/quay-install
an environment variable, for example,QUAY
, by entering the following command:$ export QUAY=/$HOME/quay-install
Copy the new
ssl.crt
file to the/$HOME/quay-install
directory by entering the following command:$ cp ~/ssl.crt $QUAY/quay-config
Copy the new
ssl.key
file to the/$HOME/quay-install
directory by entering the following command:$ cp ~/ssl.key $QUAY/quay-config
Restart the
quay-app
application pod by entering the following command:$ systemctl restart quay-app
3.2.8. Uninstalling the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift
You can uninstall the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift from your local host by running the following command:
$ ./mirror-registry uninstall -v \ --quayRoot <example_directory_name>
Note-
Deleting the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift will prompt the user before deletion. You can use
--autoApprove
to skip this prompt. -
Users who install the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with the
--quayRoot
flag must include the--quayRoot
flag when uninstalling. For example, if you installed the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift with--quayRoot example_directory_name
, you must include that string to properly uninstall the mirror registry.
-
Deleting the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift will prompt the user before deletion. You can use
3.2.9. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift flags
The following flags are available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
Flags | Description |
---|---|
|
A boolean value that disables interactive prompts. If set to |
| The password of the init user created during Quay installation. Must be at least eight characters and contain no whitespace. |
|
Shows the username of the initial user. Defaults to |
| Allows users to disable color sequences and propagate that to Ansible when running install, uninstall, and upgrade commands. |
|
The fully-qualified domain name of the mirror registry that clients will use to contact the registry. Equivalent to |
|
The directory where container image layer and configuration data is saved, including |
|
The path of your SSH identity key. Defaults to |
|
The path to the SSL/TLS public key / certificate. Defaults to |
|
Skips the check for the certificate hostname against the |
|
The path to the SSL/TLS private key used for HTTPS communication. Defaults to |
|
The hostname of the target you want to install Quay to. Defaults to |
|
The user on the target host which will be used for SSH. Defaults to |
| Shows debug logs and Ansible playbook outputs. |
-
--quayHostname
must be modified if the public DNS name of your system is different from the local hostname. Additionally, the--quayHostname
flag does not support installation with an IP address. Installation with a hostname is required. -
--sslCheckSkip
is used in cases when the mirror registry is set behind a proxy and the exposed hostname is different from the internal Quay hostname. It can also be used when users do not want the certificates to be validated against the provided Quay hostname during installation.
3.2.10. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift release notes
The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is a small and streamlined container registry that you can use as a target for mirroring the required container images of OpenShift Container Platform for disconnected installations.
These release notes track the development of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift in OpenShift Container Platform.
For an overview of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, see Creating a mirror registry with mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift.
3.2.10.1. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.10
Issued: 2023-12-07
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.14.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.2. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.9
Issued: 2023-09-19
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.12.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.3. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.8
Issued: 2023-08-16
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.11.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.4. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.7
Issued: 2023-07-19
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.10.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.5. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.6
Issued: 2023-05-30
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.8.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.6. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.5
Issued: 2023-05-18
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.7.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.7. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.4
Issued: 2023-04-25
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.6.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.8. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.3
Issued: 2023-04-05
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.5.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.9. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.2
Issued: 2023-03-21
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.4.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.10. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.1
Issued: 2023-03-7
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.3.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.11. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.3.0
Issued: 2023-02-20
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.8.1.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.11.1. New features
- Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 installations.
IPv6 support is now available on mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift local host installations.
IPv6 is currently unsupported on mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift remote host installations.
-
A new feature flag,
--quayStorage
, has been added. By specifying this flag, you can manually set the location for the Quay persistent storage. -
A new feature flag,
--pgStorage
, has been added. By specifying this flag, you can manually set the location for the Postgres persistent storage. Previously, users were required to have root privileges (
sudo
) to install mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. With this update,sudo
is no longer required to install mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift.When mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift was installed with
sudo
, an/etc/quay-install
directory that contained installation files, local storage, and the configuration bundle was created. With the removal of thesudo
requirement, installation files and the configuration bundle are now installed to$HOME/quay-install
. Local storage, for example Postgres and Quay, are now stored in named volumes automatically created by Podman.To override the default directories that these files are stored in, you can use the command line arguments for mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. For more information about mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift command line arguments, see "Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift flags".
3.2.10.11.2. Bug fixes
-
Previously, the following error could be returned when attempting to uninstall mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
["Error: no container with name or ID \"quay-postgres\" found: no such container"], "stdout": "", "stdout_lines": []*
. With this update, the order that mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift services are stopped and uninstalled have been changed so that the error no longer occurs when uninstalling mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. For more information, see PROJQUAY-4629.
3.2.10.12. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.9
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.10.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.13. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.8
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.9.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.14. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.7
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.8.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.14.1. Bug fixes
-
Previously,
getFQDN()
relied on the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) library to determine its FQDN, and the FQDN library tried to read the/etc/hosts
folder directly. Consequently, on some Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) installations with uncommon DNS configurations, the FQDN library would fail to install and abort the installation. With this update, mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift useshostname
to determine the FQDN. As a result, the FQDN library does not fail to install. (PROJQUAY-4139)
3.2.10.15. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.6
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.7.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.15.1. New features
A new feature flag, --no-color
(-c
) has been added. This feature flag allows users to disable color sequences and propagate that to Ansible when running install, uninstall, and upgrade commands.
3.2.10.16. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.5
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.6.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.17. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.4
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.5.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.18. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.3
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.4.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.19. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.2
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.3.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.20. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.1
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.2.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.21. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.2.0
Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is now available with Red Hat Quay 3.7.1.
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.21.1. Bug fixes
-
Previously, all components and workers running inside of the Quay pod Operator had log levels set to
DEBUG
. As a result, large traffic logs were created that consumed unnecessary space. With this update, log levels are set toWARN
by default, which reduces traffic information while emphasizing problem scenarios. (PROJQUAY-3504)
3.2.10.22. Mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift 1.1.0
The following advisory is available for the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift:
3.2.10.22.1. New features
A new command,
mirror-registry upgrade
has been added. This command upgrades all container images without interfering with configurations or data.NoteIf
quayRoot
was previously set to something other than default, it must be passed into the upgrade command.
3.2.10.22.2. Bug fixes
-
Previously, the absence of
quayHostname
ortargetHostname
did not default to the local hostname. With this update,quayHostname
andtargetHostname
now default to the local hostname if they are missing. (PROJQUAY-3079) -
Previously, the command
./mirror-registry --version
returned anunknown flag
error. Now, running./mirror-registry --version
returns the current version of the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. (PROJQUAY-3086) -
Previously, users could not set a password during installation, for example, when running
./mirror-registry install --initUser <user_name> --initPassword <password> --verbose
. With this update, users can set a password during installation. (PROJQUAY-3149) - Previously, the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift did not recreate pods if they were destroyed. Now, pods are recreated if they are destroyed. (PROJQUAY-3261)
3.2.11. Additional resources
3.3. Mirroring images for a disconnected installation
You can ensure your clusters only use container images that satisfy your organizational controls on external content. Before you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision in a restricted network, you must mirror the required container images into that environment. To mirror container images, you must have a registry for mirroring.
You must have access to the internet to obtain the necessary container images. In this procedure, you place your mirror registry on a mirror host that has access to both your network and the internet. If you do not have access to a mirror host, use the Mirroring Operator catalogs for use with disconnected clusters procedure to copy images to a device you can move across network boundaries with.
3.3.1. Prerequisites
You must have a container image registry that supports Docker v2-2 in the location that will host the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, such as one of the following registries:
If you have an entitlement to Red Hat Quay, see the documentation on deploying Red Hat Quay for proof-of-concept purposes or by using the Red Hat Quay Operator. If you need additional assistance selecting and installing a registry, contact your sales representative or Red Hat support.
- If you do not already have an existing solution for a container image registry, subscribers of OpenShift Container Platform are provided a mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is included with your subscription and is a small-scale container registry that can be used to mirror the required container images of OpenShift Container Platform in disconnected installations.
3.3.2. About the mirror registry
You can mirror the images that are required for OpenShift Container Platform installation and subsequent product updates to a container mirror registry such as Red Hat Quay, JFrog Artifactory, Sonatype Nexus Repository, or Harbor. If you do not have access to a large-scale container registry, you can use the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, a small-scale container registry included with OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions.
You can use any container registry that supports Docker v2-2, such as Red Hat Quay, the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, Artifactory, Sonatype Nexus Repository, or Harbor. Regardless of your chosen registry, the procedure to mirror content from Red Hat hosted sites on the internet to an isolated image registry is the same. After you mirror the content, you configure each cluster to retrieve this content from your mirror registry.
The OpenShift image registry cannot be used as the target registry because it does not support pushing without a tag, which is required during the mirroring process.
If choosing a container registry that is not the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, it must be reachable by every machine in the clusters that you provision. If the registry is unreachable, installation, updating, or normal operations such as workload relocation might fail. For that reason, you must run mirror registries in a highly available way, and the mirror registries must at least match the production availability of your OpenShift Container Platform clusters.
When you populate your mirror registry with OpenShift Container Platform images, you can follow two scenarios. If you have a host that can access both the internet and your mirror registry, but not your cluster nodes, you can directly mirror the content from that machine. This process is referred to as connected mirroring. If you have no such host, you must mirror the images to a file system and then bring that host or removable media into your restricted environment. This process is referred to as disconnected mirroring.
For mirrored registries, to view the source of pulled images, you must review the Trying to access
log entry in the CRI-O logs. Other methods to view the image pull source, such as using the crictl images
command on a node, show the non-mirrored image name, even though the image is pulled from the mirrored location.
Red Hat does not test third party registries with OpenShift Container Platform.
Additional information
For information about viewing the CRI-O logs to view the image source, see Viewing the image pull source.
3.3.3. Preparing your mirror host
Before you perform the mirror procedure, you must prepare the host to retrieve content and push it to the remote location.
3.3.3.1. Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) to interact with OpenShift Container Platform from a command-line interface. You can install oc
on Linux, Windows, or macOS.
If you installed an earlier version of oc
, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform 4.11. Download and install the new version of oc
.
Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.
Procedure
- Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
- Select the architecture in the Product Variant drop-down menu.
- Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
- Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.11 Linux Client entry and save the file.
Unpack the archive:
$ tar xvf <file>
Place the
oc
binary in a directory that is on yourPATH
.To check your
PATH
, execute the following command:$ echo $PATH
Verification
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the
oc
command:$ oc <command>
Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.
Procedure
- Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
- Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
- Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.11 Windows Client entry and save the file.
- Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.
Move the
oc
binary to a directory that is on yourPATH
.To check your
PATH
, open the command prompt and execute the following command:C:\> path
Verification
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the
oc
command:C:\> oc <command>
Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS
You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc
) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.
Procedure
- Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
- Select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down menu.
Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.11 macOS Client entry and save the file.
NoteFor macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.11 macOS arm64 Client entry.
- Unpack and unzip the archive.
Move the
oc
binary to a directory on your PATH.To check your
PATH
, open a terminal and execute the following command:$ echo $PATH
Verification
After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the
oc
command:$ oc <command>
3.3.4. Configuring credentials that allow images to be mirrored
Create a container image registry credentials file that allows mirroring images from Red Hat to your mirror.
Do not use this image registry credentials file as the pull secret when you install a cluster. If you provide this file when you install cluster, all of the machines in the cluster will have write access to your mirror registry.
This process requires that you have write access to a container image registry on the mirror registry and adds the credentials to a registry pull secret.
Prerequisites
- You configured a mirror registry to use in your disconnected environment.
- You identified an image repository location on your mirror registry to mirror images into.
- You provisioned a mirror registry account that allows images to be uploaded to that image repository.
Procedure
Complete the following steps on the installation host:
-
Download your
registry.redhat.io
pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. Make a copy of your pull secret in JSON format:
$ cat ./pull-secret | jq . > <path>/<pull_secret_file_in_json> 1
- 1
- Specify the path to the folder to store the pull secret in and a name for the JSON file that you create.
The contents of the file resemble the following example:
{ "auths": { "cloud.openshift.com": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "quay.io": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.connect.redhat.com": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.redhat.io": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" } } }
Generate the base64-encoded user name and password or token for your mirror registry:
$ echo -n '<user_name>:<password>' | base64 -w0 1 BGVtbYk3ZHAtqXs=
- 1
- For
<user_name>
and<password>
, specify the user name and password that you configured for your registry.
Edit the JSON file and add a section that describes your registry to it:
"auths": { "<mirror_registry>": { 1 "auth": "<credentials>", 2 "email": "you@example.com" } },
The file resembles the following example:
{ "auths": { "registry.example.com": { "auth": "BGVtbYk3ZHAtqXs=", "email": "you@example.com" }, "cloud.openshift.com": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "quay.io": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.connect.redhat.com": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.redhat.io": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" } } }
3.3.5. Mirroring the OpenShift Container Platform image repository
Mirror the OpenShift Container Platform image repository to your registry to use during cluster installation or upgrade.
Prerequisites
- Your mirror host has access to the internet.
- You configured a mirror registry to use in your restricted network and can access the certificate and credentials that you configured.
- You downloaded the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager and modified it to include authentication to your mirror repository.
- If you use self-signed certificates, you have specified a Subject Alternative Name in the certificates.
Procedure
Complete the following steps on the mirror host:
- Review the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page to determine the version of OpenShift Container Platform that you want to install and determine the corresponding tag on the Repository Tags page.
Set the required environment variables:
Export the release version:
$ OCP_RELEASE=<release_version>
For
<release_version>
, specify the tag that corresponds to the version of OpenShift Container Platform to install, such as4.5.4
.Export the local registry name and host port:
$ LOCAL_REGISTRY='<local_registry_host_name>:<local_registry_host_port>'
For
<local_registry_host_name>
, specify the registry domain name for your mirror repository, and for<local_registry_host_port>
, specify the port that it serves content on.Export the local repository name:
$ LOCAL_REPOSITORY='<local_repository_name>'
For
<local_repository_name>
, specify the name of the repository to create in your registry, such asocp4/openshift4
.Export the name of the repository to mirror:
$ PRODUCT_REPO='openshift-release-dev'
For a production release, you must specify
openshift-release-dev
.Export the path to your registry pull secret:
$ LOCAL_SECRET_JSON='<path_to_pull_secret>'
For
<path_to_pull_secret>
, specify the absolute path to and file name of the pull secret for your mirror registry that you created.Export the release mirror:
$ RELEASE_NAME="ocp-release"
For a production release, you must specify
ocp-release
.Export the type of architecture for your server, such as
x86_64
oraarch64
:$ ARCHITECTURE=<server_architecture>
Export the path to the directory to host the mirrored images:
$ REMOVABLE_MEDIA_PATH=<path> 1
- 1
- Specify the full path, including the initial forward slash (/) character.
Mirror the version images to the mirror registry:
If your mirror host does not have internet access, take the following actions:
- Connect the removable media to a system that is connected to the internet.
Review the images and configuration manifests to mirror:
$ oc adm release mirror -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} \ --from=quay.io/${PRODUCT_REPO}/${RELEASE_NAME}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE} \ --to=${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY} \ --to-release-image=${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE} --dry-run
-
Record the entire
imageContentSources
section from the output of the previous command. The information about your mirrors is unique to your mirrored repository, and you must add theimageContentSources
section to theinstall-config.yaml
file during installation. Mirror the images to a directory on the removable media:
$ oc adm release mirror -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} --to-dir=${REMOVABLE_MEDIA_PATH}/mirror quay.io/${PRODUCT_REPO}/${RELEASE_NAME}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE}
Take the media to the restricted network environment and upload the images to the local container registry.
$ oc image mirror -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} --from-dir=${REMOVABLE_MEDIA_PATH}/mirror "file://openshift/release:${OCP_RELEASE}*" ${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY} 1
- 1
- For
REMOVABLE_MEDIA_PATH
, you must use the same path that you specified when you mirrored the images.
ImportantRunning
oc image mirror
might result in the following error:error: unable to retrieve source image
. This error occurs when image indexes include references to images that no longer exist on the image registry. Image indexes might retain older references to allow users running those images an upgrade path to newer points on the upgrade graph. As a temporary workaround, you can use the--skip-missing
option to bypass the error and continue downloading the image index. For more information, see Service Mesh Operator mirroring failed.
If the local container registry is connected to the mirror host, take the following actions:
Directly push the release images to the local registry by using following command:
$ oc adm release mirror -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} \ --from=quay.io/${PRODUCT_REPO}/${RELEASE_NAME}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE} \ --to=${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY} \ --to-release-image=${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE}
This command pulls the release information as a digest, and its output includes the
imageContentSources
data that you require when you install your cluster.Record the entire
imageContentSources
section from the output of the previous command. The information about your mirrors is unique to your mirrored repository, and you must add theimageContentSources
section to theinstall-config.yaml
file during installation.NoteThe image name gets patched to Quay.io during the mirroring process, and the podman images will show Quay.io in the registry on the bootstrap virtual machine.
To create the installation program that is based on the content that you mirrored, extract it and pin it to the release:
If your mirror host does not have internet access, run the following command:
$ oc adm release extract -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} --icsp-file=<file> \ --command=openshift-install "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}:${OCP_RELEASE}"
If the local container registry is connected to the mirror host, run the following command:
$ oc adm release extract -a ${LOCAL_SECRET_JSON} --command=openshift-install "${LOCAL_REGISTRY}/${LOCAL_REPOSITORY}:${OCP_RELEASE}-${ARCHITECTURE}"
ImportantTo ensure that you use the correct images for the version of OpenShift Container Platform that you selected, you must extract the installation program from the mirrored content.
You must perform this step on a machine with an active internet connection.
For clusters using installer-provisioned infrastructure, run the following command:
$ openshift-install
3.3.6. The Cluster Samples Operator in a disconnected environment
In a disconnected environment, you must take additional steps after you install a cluster to configure the Cluster Samples Operator. Review the following information in preparation.
3.3.6.1. Cluster Samples Operator assistance for mirroring
During installation, OpenShift Container Platform creates a config map named imagestreamtag-to-image
in the openshift-cluster-samples-operator
namespace. The imagestreamtag-to-image
config map contains an entry, the populating image, for each image stream tag.
The format of the key for each entry in the data field in the config map is <image_stream_name>_<image_stream_tag_name>
.
During a disconnected installation of OpenShift Container Platform, the status of the Cluster Samples Operator is set to Removed
. If you choose to change it to Managed
, it installs samples.
The use of samples in a network-restricted or discontinued environment may require access to services external to your network. Some example services include: Github, Maven Central, npm, RubyGems, PyPi and others. There might be additional steps to take that allow the cluster samples operators’s objects to reach the services they require.
You can use this config map as a reference for which images need to be mirrored for your image streams to import.
-
While the Cluster Samples Operator is set to
Removed
, you can create your mirrored registry, or determine which existing mirrored registry you want to use. - Mirror the samples you want to the mirrored registry using the new config map as your guide.
-
Add any of the image streams you did not mirror to the
skippedImagestreams
list of the Cluster Samples Operator configuration object. -
Set
samplesRegistry
of the Cluster Samples Operator configuration object to the mirrored registry. -
Then set the Cluster Samples Operator to
Managed
to install the image streams you have mirrored.
3.3.7. Mirroring Operator catalogs for use with disconnected clusters
You can mirror the Operator contents of a Red Hat-provided catalog, or a custom catalog, into a container image registry using the oc adm catalog mirror
command. The target registry must support Docker v2-2. For a cluster on a restricted network, this registry can be one that the cluster has network access to, such as a mirror registry created during a restricted network cluster installation.
- The OpenShift image registry cannot be used as the target registry because it does not support pushing without a tag, which is required during the mirroring process.
-
Running
oc adm catalog mirror
might result in the following error:error: unable to retrieve source image
. This error occurs when image indexes include references to images that no longer exist on the image registry. Image indexes might retain older references to allow users running those images an upgrade path to newer points on the upgrade graph. As a temporary workaround, you can use the--skip-missing
option to bypass the error and continue downloading the image index. For more information, see Service Mesh Operator mirroring failed.
The oc adm catalog mirror
command also automatically mirrors the index image that is specified during the mirroring process, whether it be a Red Hat-provided index image or your own custom-built index image, to the target registry. You can then use the mirrored index image to create a catalog source that allows Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) to load the mirrored catalog onto your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
Additional resources
3.3.7.1. Prerequisites
Mirroring Operator catalogs for use with disconnected clusters has the following prerequisites:
- Workstation with unrestricted network access.
-
podman
version 1.9.3 or later. If you want to filter, or prune, an existing catalog and selectively mirror only a subset of Operators, see the following sections:
If you want to mirror a Red Hat-provided catalog, run the following command on your workstation with unrestricted network access to authenticate with
registry.redhat.io
:$ podman login registry.redhat.io
- Access to a mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2.
-
On your mirror registry, decide which repository, or namespace, to use for storing mirrored Operator content. For example, you might create an
olm-mirror
repository. - If your mirror registry does not have internet access, connect removable media to your workstation with unrestricted network access.
If you are working with private registries, including
registry.redhat.io
, set theREG_CREDS
environment variable to the file path of your registry credentials for use in later steps. For example, for thepodman
CLI:$ REG_CREDS=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/containers/auth.json
3.3.7.2. Extracting and mirroring catalog contents
The oc adm catalog mirror
command extracts the contents of an index image to generate the manifests required for mirroring. The default behavior of the command generates manifests, then automatically mirrors all of the image content from the index image, as well as the index image itself, to your mirror registry.
Alternatively, if your mirror registry is on a completely disconnected, or airgapped, host, you can first mirror the content to removable media, move the media to the disconnected environment, then mirror the content from the media to the registry.
3.3.7.2.1. Mirroring catalog contents to registries on the same network
If your mirror registry is co-located on the same network as your workstation with unrestricted network access, take the following actions on your workstation.
Procedure
If your mirror registry requires authentication, run the following command to log in to the registry:
$ podman login <mirror_registry>
Run the following command to extract and mirror the content to the mirror registry:
$ oc adm catalog mirror \ <index_image> \ 1 <mirror_registry>:<port>[/<repository>] \ 2 [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \ 3 [--insecure] \ 4 [--index-filter-by-os='<platform>/<arch>'] \ 5 [--manifests-only] 6
- 1
- Specify the index image for the catalog that you want to mirror.
- 2
- Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the target registry to mirror the Operator contents to. The mirror registry
<repository>
can be any existing repository, or namespace, on the registry, for exampleolm-mirror
as outlined in the prerequisites. If there is an existing repository found during mirroring, the repository name is added to the resulting image name. If you do not want the image name to include the repository name, omit the<repository>
value from this line, for example<mirror_registry>:<port>
. - 3
- Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
{REG_CREDS}
is required forregistry.redhat.io
. - 4
- Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the
--insecure
flag. - 5
- Optional: Specify which platform and architecture of the index image to select when multiple variants are available. Images are passed as
'<platform>/<arch>[/<variant>]'
. This does not apply to images referenced by the index. Valid values arelinux/amd64
,linux/ppc64le
,linux/s390x
,linux/arm64
. - 6
- Optional: Generate only the manifests required for mirroring without actually mirroring the image content to a registry. This option can be useful for reviewing what will be mirrored, and lets you make any changes to the mapping list, if you require only a subset of packages. You can then use the
mapping.txt
file with theoc image mirror
command to mirror the modified list of images in a later step. This flag is intended for only advanced selective mirroring of content from the catalog.
Example output
src image has index label for database path: /database/index.db using database path mapping: /database/index.db:/tmp/153048078 wrote database to /tmp/153048078 1 ... wrote mirroring manifests to manifests-redhat-operator-index-1614211642 2
NoteRed Hat Quay does not support nested repositories. As a result, running the
oc adm catalog mirror
command will fail with a401
unauthorized error. As a workaround, you can use the--max-components=2
option when running theoc adm catalog mirror
command to disable the creation of nested repositories. For more information on this workaround, see the Unauthorized error thrown while using catalog mirror command with Quay registry Knowledgebase Solution.
Additional resources
3.3.7.2.2. Mirroring catalog contents to airgapped registries
If your mirror registry is on a completely disconnected, or airgapped, host, take the following actions.
Procedure
Run the following command on your workstation with unrestricted network access to mirror the content to local files:
$ oc adm catalog mirror \ <index_image> \ 1 file:///local/index \ 2 -a ${REG_CREDS} \ 3 --insecure \ 4 --index-filter-by-os='<platform>/<arch>' 5
- 1
- Specify the index image for the catalog that you want to mirror.
- 2
- Specify the content to mirror to local files in your current directory.
- 3
- Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
- 4
- Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the
--insecure
flag. - 5
- Optional: Specify which platform and architecture of the index image to select when multiple variants are available. Images are specified as
'<platform>/<arch>[/<variant>]'
. This does not apply to images referenced by the index. Valid values arelinux/amd64
,linux/ppc64le
,linux/s390x
,linux/arm64
, and.*
Example output
... info: Mirroring completed in 5.93s (5.915MB/s) wrote mirroring manifests to manifests-my-index-1614985528 1 To upload local images to a registry, run: oc adm catalog mirror file://local/index/myrepo/my-index:v1 REGISTRY/REPOSITORY 2
This command creates a
v2/
directory in your current directory.-
Copy the
v2/
directory to removable media. - Physically remove the media and attach it to a host in the disconnected environment that has access to the mirror registry.
If your mirror registry requires authentication, run the following command on your host in the disconnected environment to log in to the registry:
$ podman login <mirror_registry>
Run the following command from the parent directory containing the
v2/
directory to upload the images from local files to the mirror registry:$ oc adm catalog mirror \ file://local/index/<repository>/<index_image>:<tag> \ 1 <mirror_registry>:<port>[/<repository>] \ 2 -a ${REG_CREDS} \ 3 --insecure \ 4 --index-filter-by-os='<platform>/<arch>' 5
- 1
- Specify the
file://
path from the previous command output. - 2
- Specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the target registry to mirror the Operator contents to. The mirror registry
<repository>
can be any existing repository, or namespace, on the registry, for exampleolm-mirror
as outlined in the prerequisites. If there is an existing repository found during mirroring, the repository name is added to the resulting image name. If you do not want the image name to include the repository name, omit the<repository>
value from this line, for example<mirror_registry>:<port>
. - 3
- Optional: If required, specify the location of your registry credentials file.
- 4
- Optional: If you do not want to configure trust for the target registry, add the
--insecure
flag. - 5
- Optional: Specify which platform and architecture of the index image to select when multiple variants are available. Images are specified as
'<platform>/<arch>[/<variant>]'
. This does not apply to images referenced by the index. Valid values arelinux/amd64
,linux/ppc64le
,linux/s390x
,linux/arm64
, and.*
NoteRed Hat Quay does not support nested repositories. As a result, running the
oc adm catalog mirror
command will fail with a401
unauthorized error. As a workaround, you can use the--max-components=2
option when running theoc adm catalog mirror
command to disable the creation of nested repositories. For more information on this workaround, see the Unauthorized error thrown while using catalog mirror command with Quay registry Knowledgebase Solution.Run the
oc adm catalog mirror
command again. Use the newly mirrored index image as the source and the same mirror registry target used in the previous step:$ oc adm catalog mirror \ <mirror_registry>:<port>/<index_image> \ <mirror_registry>:<port>[/<repository>] \ --manifests-only \1 [-a ${REG_CREDS}] \ [--insecure]
- 1
- The
--manifests-only
flag is required for this step so that the command does not copy all of the mirrored content again.
ImportantThis step is required because the image mappings in the
imageContentSourcePolicy.yaml
file generated during the previous step must be updated from local paths to valid mirror locations. Failure to do so will cause errors when you create theImageContentSourcePolicy
object in a later step.
After you mirror the catalog, you can continue with the remainder of your cluster installation. After your cluster installation has finished successfully, you must specify the manifests directory from this procedure to create the ImageContentSourcePolicy
and CatalogSource
objects. These objects are required to enable installation of Operators from OperatorHub.
Additional resources
3.3.7.3. Generated manifests
After mirroring Operator catalog content to your mirror registry, a manifests directory is generated in your current directory.
If you mirrored content to a registry on the same network, the directory name takes the following pattern:
manifests-<index_image_name>-<random_number>
If you mirrored content to a registry on a disconnected host in the previous section, the directory name takes the following pattern:
manifests-index/<repository>/<index_image_name>-<random_number>
The manifests directory name is referenced in subsequent procedures.
The manifests directory contains the following files, some of which might require further modification:
The
catalogSource.yaml
file is a basic definition for aCatalogSource
object that is pre-populated with your index image tag and other relevant metadata. This file can be used as is or modified to add the catalog source to your cluster.ImportantIf you mirrored the content to local files, you must modify your
catalogSource.yaml
file to remove any backslash (/
) characters from themetadata.name
field. Otherwise, when you attempt to create the object, it fails with an "invalid resource name" error.The
imageContentSourcePolicy.yaml
file defines anImageContentSourcePolicy
object that can configure nodes to translate between the image references stored in Operator manifests and the mirrored registry.NoteIf your cluster uses an
ImageContentSourcePolicy
object to configure repository mirroring, you can use only global pull secrets for mirrored registries. You cannot add a pull secret to a project.The
mapping.txt
file contains all of the source images and where to map them in the target registry. This file is compatible with theoc image mirror
command and can be used to further customize the mirroring configuration.ImportantIf you used the
--manifests-only
flag during the mirroring process and want to further trim the subset of packages to mirror, see the steps in the Mirroring a package manifest format catalog image procedure of the OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 documentation about modifying yourmapping.txt
file and using the file with theoc image mirror
command.
3.3.7.4. Postinstallation requirements
After you mirror the catalog, you can continue with the remainder of your cluster installation. After your cluster installation has finished successfully, you must specify the manifests directory from this procedure to create the ImageContentSourcePolicy
and CatalogSource
objects. These objects are required to populate and enable installation of Operators from OperatorHub.
3.3.8. Next steps
- Install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision in your restricted network, such as on VMware vSphere, bare metal, or Amazon Web Services.
3.3.9. Additional resources
- See Gathering data about specific features for more information about using must-gather.
3.4. Mirroring images for a disconnected installation using the oc-mirror plugin
Running your cluster in a restricted network without direct internet connectivity is possible by installing the cluster from a mirrored set of OpenShift Container Platform container images in a private registry. This registry must be running at all times as long as the cluster is running. See the Prerequisites section for more information.
You can use the oc-mirror OpenShift CLI (oc
) plugin to mirror images to a mirror registry in your fully or partially disconnected environments. You must run oc-mirror from a system with internet connectivity in order to download the required images from the official Red Hat registries.
The following steps outline the high-level workflow on how to use the oc-mirror plugin to mirror images to a mirror registry:
- Create an image set configuration file.
Mirror the image set to the mirror registry by using one of the following methods:
- Mirror an image set directly to the mirror registry.
- Mirror an image set to disk, transfer the image set to the target environment, then upload the image set to the target mirror registry.
- Configure your cluster to use the resources generated by the oc-mirror plugin.
- Repeat these steps to update your mirror registry as necessary.
3.4.1. About the oc-mirror plugin
You can use the oc-mirror OpenShift CLI (oc
) plugin to mirror all required OpenShift Container Platform content and other images to your mirror registry by using a single tool. It provides the following features:
- Provides a centralized method to mirror OpenShift Container Platform releases, Operators, helm charts, and other images.
- Maintains update paths for OpenShift Container Platform and Operators.
- Uses a declarative image set configuration file to include only the OpenShift Container Platform releases, Operators, and images that your cluster needs.
- Performs incremental mirroring, which reduces the size of future image sets.
- Prunes images from the target mirror registry that were excluded from the image set configuration since the previous execution.
- Optionally generates supporting artifacts for OpenShift Update Service (OSUS) usage.
When using the oc-mirror plugin, you specify which content to mirror in an image set configuration file. In this YAML file, you can fine-tune the configuration to only include the OpenShift Container Platform releases and Operators that your cluster needs. This reduces the amount of data that you need to download and transfer. The oc-mirror plugin can also mirror arbitrary helm charts and additional container images to assist users in seamlessly synchronizing their workloads onto mirror registries.
The first time you run the oc-mirror plugin, it populates your mirror registry with the required content to perform your disconnected cluster installation or update. In order for your disconnected cluster to continue receiving updates, you must keep your mirror registry updated. To update your mirror registry, you run the oc-mirror plugin using the same configuration as the first time you ran it. The oc-mirror plugin references the metadata from the storage backend and only downloads what has been released since the last time you ran the tool. This provides update paths for OpenShift Container Platform and Operators and performs dependency resolution as required.
When using the oc-mirror CLI plugin to populate a mirror registry, any further updates to the mirror registry must be made using the oc-mirror tool.
3.4.2. oc-mirror compatibility and support
The oc-mirror plugin supports mirroring OpenShift Container Platform payload images and Operator catalogs for OpenShift Container Platform versions 4.9 and later.
Use the latest available version of the oc-mirror plugin regardless of which versions of OpenShift Container Platform you need to mirror.
If you used the Technology Preview version of the oc-mirror plugin for OpenShift Container Platform 4.10, it is not possible to migrate your mirror registry to OpenShift Container Platform 4.11. You must download the new oc-mirror plugin, use a new storage back end, and use a new top-level namespace on the target mirror registry.
3.4.3. About the mirror registry
You can mirror the images that are required for OpenShift Container Platform installation and subsequent product updates to a container mirror registry that supports Docker v2-2, such as Red Hat Quay. If you do not have access to a large-scale container registry, you can use the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, which is a small-scale container registry included with OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions.
Regardless of your chosen registry, the procedure to mirror content from Red Hat hosted sites on the internet to an isolated image registry is the same. After you mirror the content, you configure each cluster to retrieve this content from your mirror registry.
The OpenShift image registry cannot be used as the target registry because it does not support pushing without a tag, which is required during the mirroring process.
If choosing a container registry that is not the mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift, it must be reachable by every machine in the clusters that you provision. If the registry is unreachable, installation, updating, or normal operations such as workload relocation might fail. For that reason, you must run mirror registries in a highly available way, and the mirror registries must at least match the production availability of your OpenShift Container Platform clusters.
When you populate your mirror registry with OpenShift Container Platform images, you can follow two scenarios. If you have a host that can access both the internet and your mirror registry, but not your cluster nodes, you can directly mirror the content from that machine. This process is referred to as connected mirroring. If you have no such host, you must mirror the images to a file system and then bring that host or removable media into your restricted environment. This process is referred to as disconnected mirroring.
For mirrored registries, to view the source of pulled images, you must review the Trying to access
log entry in the CRI-O logs. Other methods to view the image pull source, such as using the crictl images
command on a node, show the non-mirrored image name, even though the image is pulled from the mirrored location.
Red Hat does not test third party registries with OpenShift Container Platform.
Additional resources
- For information about viewing the CRI-O logs to view the image source, see Viewing the image pull source.
3.4.4. Prerequisites
You must have a container image registry that supports Docker v2-2 in the location that will host the OpenShift Container Platform cluster, such as Red Hat Quay.
NoteIf you use Red Hat Quay, you must use version 3.6 or later with the oc-mirror plugin. If you have an entitlement to Red Hat Quay, see the documentation on deploying Red Hat Quay for proof-of-concept purposes or by using the Red Hat Quay Operator. If you need additional assistance selecting and installing a registry, contact your sales representative or Red Hat Support.
If you do not already have an existing solution for a container image registry, subscribers of OpenShift Container Platform are provided a mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift. The mirror registry for Red Hat OpenShift is included with your subscription and is a small-scale container registry that can be used to mirror the required container images of OpenShift Container Platform in disconnected installations.
3.4.5. Preparing your mirror hosts
Before you can use the oc-mirror plugin to mirror images, you must install the plugin and create a container image registry credentials file to allow the mirroring from Red Hat to your mirror.
3.4.5.1. Installing the oc-mirror OpenShift CLI plugin
To use the oc-mirror OpenShift CLI plugin to mirror registry images, you must install the plugin. If you are mirroring image sets in a fully disconnected environment, ensure that you install the oc-mirror plugin on the host with internet access and the host in the disconnected environment with access to the mirror registry.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
).
Procedure
Download the oc-mirror CLI plugin.
- Navigate to the Downloads page of the OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console.
- Under the OpenShift disconnected installation tools section, click Download for OpenShift Client (oc) mirror plugin and save the file.
Extract the archive:
$ tar xvzf oc-mirror.tar.gz
If necessary, update the plugin file to be executable:
$ chmod +x oc-mirror
NoteDo not rename the
oc-mirror
file.Install the oc-mirror CLI plugin by placing the file in your
PATH
, for example,/usr/local/bin
:$ sudo mv oc-mirror /usr/local/bin/.
Verification
Run
oc mirror help
to verify that the plugin was successfully installed:$ oc mirror help
Additional resources
3.4.5.2. Configuring credentials that allow images to be mirrored
Create a container image registry credentials file that allows mirroring images from Red Hat to your mirror.
Do not use this image registry credentials file as the pull secret when you install a cluster. If you provide this file when you install cluster, all of the machines in the cluster will have write access to your mirror registry.
This process requires that you have write access to a container image registry on the mirror registry and adds the credentials to a registry pull secret.
Prerequisites
- You configured a mirror registry to use in your disconnected environment.
- You identified an image repository location on your mirror registry to mirror images into.
- You provisioned a mirror registry account that allows images to be uploaded to that image repository.
Procedure
Complete the following steps on the installation host:
-
Download your
registry.redhat.io
pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. Make a copy of your pull secret in JSON format:
$ cat ./pull-secret | jq . > <path>/<pull_secret_file_in_json> 1
- 1
- Specify the path to the folder to store the pull secret in and a name for the JSON file that you create.
The contents of the file resemble the following example:
{ "auths": { "cloud.openshift.com": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "quay.io": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.connect.redhat.com": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.redhat.io": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" } } }
-
Save the file either as
~/.docker/config.json
or$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/containers/auth.json
. Generate the base64-encoded user name and password or token for your mirror registry:
$ echo -n '<user_name>:<password>' | base64 -w0 1 BGVtbYk3ZHAtqXs=
- 1
- For
<user_name>
and<password>
, specify the user name and password that you configured for your registry.
Edit the JSON file and add a section that describes your registry to it:
"auths": { "<mirror_registry>": { 1 "auth": "<credentials>", 2 "email": "you@example.com" } },
The file resembles the following example:
{ "auths": { "registry.example.com": { "auth": "BGVtbYk3ZHAtqXs=", "email": "you@example.com" }, "cloud.openshift.com": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "quay.io": { "auth": "b3BlbnNo...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.connect.redhat.com": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" }, "registry.redhat.io": { "auth": "NTE3Njg5Nj...", "email": "you@example.com" } } }
3.4.6. Creating the image set configuration
Before you can use the oc-mirror plugin to mirror image sets, you must create an image set configuration file. This image set configuration file defines which OpenShift Container Platform releases, Operators, and other images to mirror, along with other configuration settings for the oc-mirror plugin.
You must specify a storage backend in the image set configuration file. This storage backend can be a local directory or a registry that supports Docker v2-2. The oc-mirror plugin stores metadata in this storage backend during image set creation.
Do not delete or modify the metadata that is generated by the oc-mirror plugin. You must use the same storage backend every time you run the oc-mirror plugin for the same mirror registry.
Prerequisites
- You have created a container image registry credentials file. For instructions, see Configuring credentials that allow images to be mirrored.
Procedure
Use the
oc mirror init
command to create a template for the image set configuration and save it to a file calledimageset-config.yaml
:$ oc mirror init --registry example.com/mirror/oc-mirror-metadata > imageset-config.yaml 1
- 1
- Replace
example.com/mirror/oc-mirror-metadata
with the location of your registry for the storage backend.
Edit the file and adjust the settings as necessary:
kind: ImageSetConfiguration apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 archiveSize: 4 1 storageConfig: 2 registry: imageURL: example.com/mirror/oc-mirror-metadata 3 skipTLS: false mirror: platform: channels: - name: stable-4.11 4 type: ocp graph: true 5 operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 6 packages: - name: serverless-operator 7 channels: - name: stable 8 additionalImages: - name: registry.redhat.io/ubi8/ubi:latest 9 helm: {}
- 1
- Add
archiveSize
to set the maximum size, in GiB, of each file within the image set. - 2
- Set the back-end location to save the image set metadata to. This location can be a registry or local directory. It is required to specify
storageConfig
values. - 3
- Set the registry URL for the storage backend.
- 4
- Set the channel to retrieve the OpenShift Container Platform images from.
- 5
- Add
graph: true
to build and push the graph-data image to the mirror registry. The graph-data image is required to create OpenShift Update Service (OSUS). Thegraph: true
field also generates theUpdateService
custom resource manifest. Theoc
command-line interface (CLI) can use theUpdateService
custom resource manifest to create OSUS. For more information, see About the OpenShift Update Service. - 6
- Set the Operator catalog to retrieve the OpenShift Container Platform images from.
- 7
- Specify only certain Operator packages to include in the image set. Remove this field to retrieve all packages in the catalog.
- 8
- Specify only certain channels of the Operator packages to include in the image set. You must always include the default channel for the Operator package even if you do not use the bundles in that channel. You can find the default channel by running the following command:
oc mirror list operators --catalog=<catalog_name> --package=<package_name>
. - 9
- Specify any additional images to include in image set.
See Image set configuration parameters for the full list of parameters and Image set configuration examples for various mirroring use cases.
Save the updated file.
This image set configuration file is required by the
oc mirror
command when mirroring content.
3.4.7. Mirroring an image set to a mirror registry
You can use the oc-mirror CLI plugin to mirror images to a mirror registry in a partially disconnected environment or in a fully disconnected environment.
These procedures assume that you already have your mirror registry set up.
3.4.7.1. Mirroring an image set in a partially disconnected environment
In a partially disconnected environment, you can mirror an image set directly to the target mirror registry.
3.4.7.1.1. Mirroring from mirror to mirror
You can use the oc-mirror plugin to mirror an image set directly to a target mirror registry that is accessible during image set creation.
You are required to specify a storage backend in the image set configuration file. This storage backend can be a local directory or a Docker v2 registry. The oc-mirror plugin stores metadata in this storage backend during image set creation.
Do not delete or modify the metadata that is generated by the oc-mirror plugin. You must use the same storage backend every time you run the oc-mirror plugin for the same mirror registry.
Prerequisites
- You have access to the internet to obtain the necessary container images.
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have installed the
oc-mirror
CLI plugin. - You have created the image set configuration file.
Procedure
Run the
oc mirror
command to mirror the images from the specified image set configuration to a specified registry:$ oc mirror --config=./imageset-config.yaml \1 docker://registry.example:5000 2
- 1
- Pass in the image set configuration file that was created. This procedure assumes that it is named
imageset-config.yaml
. - 2
- Specify the registry to mirror the image set file to. The registry must start with
docker://
. If you specify a top-level namespace for the mirror registry, you must also use this same namespace on subsequent executions.
Verification
-
Navigate into the
oc-mirror-workspace/
directory that was generated. -
Navigate into the results directory, for example,
results-1639608409/
. -
Verify that YAML files are present for the
ImageContentSourcePolicy
andCatalogSource
resources.
Next steps
- Configure your cluster to use the resources generated by oc-mirror.
Troubleshooting
3.4.7.2. Mirroring an image set in a fully disconnected environment
To mirror an image set in a fully disconnected environment, you must first mirror the image set to disk, then mirror the image set file on disk to a mirror.
3.4.7.2.1. Mirroring from mirror to disk
You can use the oc-mirror plugin to generate an image set and save the contents to disk. The generated image set can then be transferred to the disconnected environment and mirrored to the target registry.
Depending on the configuration specified in the image set configuration file, using oc-mirror to mirror images might download several hundreds of gigabytes of data to disk.
The initial image set download when you populate the mirror registry is often the largest. Because you only download the images that changed since the last time you ran the command, when you run the oc-mirror plugin again, the generated image set is often smaller.
You are required to specify a storage backend in the image set configuration file. This storage backend can be a local directory or a docker v2 registry. The oc-mirror plugin stores metadata in this storage backend during image set creation.
Do not delete or modify the metadata that is generated by the oc-mirror plugin. You must use the same storage backend every time you run the oc-mirror plugin for the same mirror registry.
Prerequisites
- You have access to the internet to obtain the necessary container images.
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have installed the
oc-mirror
CLI plugin. - You have created the image set configuration file.
Procedure
Run the
oc mirror
command to mirror the images from the specified image set configuration to disk:$ oc mirror --config=./imageset-config.yaml \1 file://<path_to_output_directory> 2
Verification
Navigate to your output directory:
$ cd <path_to_output_directory>
Verify that an image set
.tar
file was created:$ ls
Example output
mirror_seq1_000000.tar
Next steps
- Transfer the image set .tar file to the disconnected environment.
Troubleshooting
3.4.7.2.2. Mirroring from disk to mirror
You can use the oc-mirror plugin to mirror the contents of a generated image set to the target mirror registry.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
) in the disconnected environment. -
You have installed the
oc-mirror
CLI plugin in the disconnected environment. -
You have generated the image set file by using the
oc mirror
command. - You have transferred the image set file to the disconnected environment.
Procedure
Run the
oc mirror
command to process the image set file on disk and mirror the contents to a target mirror registry:$ oc mirror --from=./mirror_seq1_000000.tar \1 docker://registry.example:5000 2
- 1
- Pass in the image set .tar file to mirror, named
mirror_seq1_000000.tar
in this example. If anarchiveSize
value was specified in the image set configuration file, the image set might be broken up into multiple .tar files. In this situation, you can pass in a directory that contains the image set .tar files. - 2
- Specify the registry to mirror the image set file to. The registry must start with
docker://
. If you specify a top-level namespace for the mirror registry, you must also use this same namespace on subsequent executions.
This command updates the mirror registry with the image set and generates the
ImageContentSourcePolicy
andCatalogSource
resources.
Verification
-
Navigate into the
oc-mirror-workspace/
directory that was generated. -
Navigate into the results directory, for example,
results-1639608409/
. -
Verify that YAML files are present for the
ImageContentSourcePolicy
andCatalogSource
resources.
Next steps
- Configure your cluster to use the resources generated by oc-mirror.
Troubleshooting
3.4.8. Configuring your cluster to use the resources generated by oc-mirror
After you have mirrored your image set to the mirror registry, you must apply the generated ImageContentSourcePolicy
, CatalogSource
, and release image signature resources into the cluster.
The ImageContentSourcePolicy
resource associates the mirror registry with the source registry and redirects image pull requests from the online registries to the mirror registry. The CatalogSource
resource is used by Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) to retrieve information about the available Operators in the mirror registry. The release image signatures are used to verify the mirrored release images.
Prerequisites
- You have mirrored the image set to the registry mirror in the disconnected environment.
-
You have access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role.
Procedure
-
Log in to the OpenShift CLI as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. Apply the YAML files from the results directory to the cluster by running the following command:
$ oc apply -f ./oc-mirror-workspace/results-1639608409/
If you mirrored release images, apply the release image signatures to the cluster by running the following command:
$ oc apply -f ./oc-mirror-workspace/results-1639608409/release-signatures/
NoteIf you are mirroring Operators instead of clusters, you do not need to run
$ oc apply -f ./oc-mirror-workspace/results-1639608409/release-signatures/
. Running that command will return an error, as there are no release image signatures to apply.
Verification
Verify that the
ImageContentSourcePolicy
resources were successfully installed by running the following command:$ oc get imagecontentsourcepolicy --all-namespaces
Verify that the
CatalogSource
resources were successfully installed by running the following command:$ oc get catalogsource --all-namespaces
3.4.9. Keeping your mirror registry content updated
After your target mirror registry is populated with the initial image set, be sure to update it regularly so that it has the latest content. You can optionally set up a cron job, if possible, so that the mirror registry is updated on a regular basis.
Ensure that you update your image set configuration to add or remove OpenShift Container Platform and Operator releases as necessary. Any images that are removed are pruned from the mirror registry.
3.4.9.1. About updating your mirror registry content
When you run the oc-mirror plugin again, it generates an image set that only contains new and updated images since the previous execution. Because it only pulls in the differences since the previous image set was created, the generated image set is often smaller and faster to process than the initial image set.
Generated image sets are sequential and must be pushed to the target mirror registry in order. You can derive the sequence number from the file name of the generated image set archive file.
Adding new and updated images
Depending on the settings in your image set configuration, future executions of oc-mirror can mirror additional new and updated images. Review the settings in your image set configuration to ensure that you are retrieving new versions as necessary. For example, you can set the minimum and maximum versions of Operators to mirror if you want to restrict to specific versions. Alternatively, you can set the minimum version as a starting point to mirror, but keep the version range open so you keep receiving new Operator versions on future executions of oc-mirror. Omitting any minimum or maximum version gives you the full version history of an Operator in a channel. Omitting explicitly named channels gives you all releases in all channels of the specified Operator. Omitting any named Operator gives you the entire catalog of all Operators and all their versions ever released.
All these constraints and conditions are evaluated against the publicly released content by Red Hat on every invocation of oc-mirror. This way, it automatically picks up new releases and entirely new Operators. Constraints can be specified by only listing a desired set of Operators, which will not automatically add other newly released Operators into the mirror set. You can also specify a particular release channel, which limits mirroring to just this channel and not any new channels that have been added. This is important for Operator products, such as Red Hat Quay, that use different release channels for their minor releases. Lastly, you can specify a maximum version of a particular Operator, which causes the tool to only mirror the specified version range so that you do not automatically get any newer releases past the maximum version mirrored. In all these cases, you must update the image set configuration file to broaden the scope of the mirroring of Operators to get other Operators, new channels, and newer versions of Operators to be available in your target registry.
It is recommended to align constraints like channel specification or version ranges with the release strategy that a particular Operator has chosen. For example, when the Operator uses a stable
channel, you should restrict mirroring to that channel and potentially a minimum version to find the right balance between download volume and getting stable updates regularly. If the Operator chooses a release version channel scheme, for example stable-3.7
, you should mirror all releases in that channel. This allows you to keep receiving patch versions of the Operator, for example 3.7.1
. You can also regularly adjust the image set configuration to add channels for new product releases, for example stable-3.8
.
Pruning images
Images are pruned automatically from the target mirror registry if they are no longer included in the latest image set that was generated and mirrored. This allows you to easily manage and clean up unneeded content and reclaim storage resources.
If there are OpenShift Container Platform releases or Operator versions that you no longer need, you can modify your image set configuration to exclude them, and they will be pruned from the mirror registry upon mirroring. This can be done by adjusting a minimum or maximum version range setting per Operator in the image set configuration file or by deleting the Operator from the list of Operators to mirror from the catalog. You can also remove entire Operator catalogs or entire OpenShift Container Platform releases from the configuration file.
If there are no new or updated images to mirror, the excluded images are not pruned from the target mirror registry. Additionally, if an Operator publisher removes an Operator version from a channel, the removed versions are pruned from the target mirror registry.
3.4.9.2. Updating your mirror registry content
After you publish the initial image set to the mirror registry, you can use the oc-mirror plugin to keep your disconnected clusters updated.
Depending on your image set configuration, oc-mirror automatically detects newer releases of OpenShift Container Platform and your selected Operators that have been released after you completed the inital mirror. It is recommended to run oc-mirror at regular intervals, for example in a nightly cron job, to receive product and security updates on a timely basis.
Prerequisites
- You have used the oc-mirror plugin to mirror the initial image set to your mirror registry.
You have access to the storage backend that was used for the initial execution of the oc-mirror plugin.
NoteYou must use the same storage backend as the initial execution of oc-mirror for the same mirror registry. Do not delete or modify the metadata image that is generated by the oc-mirror plugin.
Procedure
- If necessary, update your image set configuration file to pick up new OpenShift Container Platform and Operator versions. See Image set configuration examples for example mirroring use cases.
Follow the same steps that you used to mirror your initial image set to the mirror registry. For instructions, see Mirroring an image set in a partially disconnected environment or Mirroring an image set in a fully disconnected environment.
Important- You must provide the same storage backend so that only a differential image set is created and mirrored.
- If you specified a top-level namespace for the mirror registry during the initial image set creation, then you must use this same namespace every time you run the oc-mirror plugin for the same mirror registry.
- Configure your cluster to use the resources generated by oc-mirror.
3.4.10. Performing a dry run
You can use oc-mirror to perform a dry run, without actually mirroring any images. This allows you to review the list of images that would be mirrored, as well as any images that would be pruned from the mirror registry. It also allows you to catch any errors with your image set configuration early or use the generated list of images with other tools to carry out the mirroring operation.
Prerequisites
- You have access to the internet to obtain the necessary container images.
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have installed the
oc-mirror
CLI plugin. - You have created the image set configuration file.
Procedure
Run the
oc mirror
command with the--dry-run
flag to perform a dry run:$ oc mirror --config=./imageset-config.yaml \1 docker://registry.example:5000 \2 --dry-run 3
- 1
- Pass in the image set configuration file that was created. This procedure assumes that it is named
imageset-config.yaml
. - 2
- Specify the mirror registry. Nothing is mirrored to this registry as long as you use the
--dry-run
flag. - 3
- Use the
--dry-run
flag to generate the dry run artifacts and not an actual image set file.
Example output
Checking push permissions for registry.example:5000 Creating directory: oc-mirror-workspace/src/publish Creating directory: oc-mirror-workspace/src/v2 Creating directory: oc-mirror-workspace/src/charts Creating directory: oc-mirror-workspace/src/release-signatures No metadata detected, creating new workspace wrote mirroring manifests to oc-mirror-workspace/operators.1658342351/manifests-redhat-operator-index ... info: Planning completed in 31.48s info: Dry run complete Writing image mapping to oc-mirror-workspace/mapping.txt
Navigate into the workspace directory that was generated:
$ cd oc-mirror-workspace/
Review the
mapping.txt
file that was generated.This file contains a list of all images that would be mirrored.
Review the
pruning-plan.json
file that was generated.This file contains a list of all images that would be pruned from the mirror registry when the image set is published.
NoteThe
pruning-plan.json
file is only generated if your oc-mirror command points to your mirror registry and there are images to be pruned.
3.4.11. Image set configuration parameters
The oc-mirror plugin requires an image set configuration file that defines what images to mirror. The following table lists the available parameters for the ImageSetConfiguration
resource.
Parameter | Description | Values |
---|---|---|
|
The API version for the |
String. For example: |
| The maximum size, in GiB, of each archive file within the image set. |
Integer. For example: |
| The configuration of the image set. | Object |
| The additional images configuration of the image set. | Array of objects. For example: additionalImages: - name: registry.redhat.io/ubi8/ubi:latest |
| The tag or digest of the image to mirror. |
String. For example: |
| The full tag, digest, or pattern of images to block from mirroring. |
Array of strings. For example: |
| The helm configuration of the image set. Note that the oc-mirror plugin supports only helm charts that do not require user input when rendered. | Object |
| The local helm charts to mirror. | Array of objects. For example: local: - name: podinfo path: /test/podinfo-5.0.0.tar.gz |
| The name of the local helm chart to mirror. |
String. For example: |
| The path of the local helm chart to mirror. |
String. For example: |
| The remote helm repositories to mirror from. | Array of objects. For example: repositories: - name: podinfo url: https://example.github.io/podinfo charts: - name: podinfo version: 5.0.0 |
| The name of the helm repository to mirror from. |
String. For example: |
| The URL of the helm repository to mirror from. |
String. For example: |
| The remote helm charts to mirror. | Array of objects. |
| The name of the helm chart to mirror. |
String. For example: |
| The version of the named helm chart to mirror. |
String. For example: |
| The Operators configuration of the image set. | Array of objects. For example: operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 packages: - name: elasticsearch-operator minVersion: '2.4.0' |
| The Operator catalog to include in the image set. |
String. For example: |
|
When |
Boolean. The default value is |
| The Operator packages configuration. | Array of objects. For example: operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 packages: - name: elasticsearch-operator minVersion: '5.2.3-31' |
| The Operator package name to include in the image set |
String. For example: |
| The Operator package channel configuration. | Object |
| The Operator channel name, unique within a package, to include in the image set. |
String. For example: |
| The highest version of the Operator mirror across all channels in which it exists. |
String. For example: |
| The name of the minimum bundle to include, plus all bundles in the upgrade graph to the channel head. Set this field only if the named bundle has no semantic version metadata. |
String. For example: |
| The lowest version of the Operator to mirror across all channels in which it exists. |
String. For example: |
| The highest version of the Operator to mirror across all channels in which it exists. |
String. For example: |
| The lowest version of the Operator to mirror across all channels in which it exists. |
String. For example: |
|
If |
Boolean. The default value is |
| Optional alternative name to mirror the referenced catalog as. |
String. For example: |
|
Optional alternative tag to append to the |
String. For example: |
| The platform configuration of the image set. | Object |
| The architecture of the platform release payload to mirror. | Array of strings. For example: architectures: - amd64 - arm64 |
| The platform channel configuration of the image set. | Array of objects. For example: channels: - name: stable-4.10 - name: stable-4.11 |
|
When |
Boolean. The default value is |
| The name of the release channel. |
String. For example: |
| The minimum version of the referenced platform to be mirrored. |
String. For example: |
| The highest version of the referenced platform to be mirrored. |
String. For example: |
| Toggles shortest path mirroring or full range mirroring. |
Boolean. The default value is |
| The type of the platform to be mirrored. |
String. For example: |
| Indicates whether the OSUS graph is added to the image set and subsequently published to the mirror. |
Boolean. The default value is |
| The back-end configuration of the image set. | Object |
| The local back-end configuration of the image set. | Object |
| The path of the directory to contain the image set metadata. |
String. For example: |
| The registry back-end configuration of the image set. | Object |
| The back-end registry URI. Can optionally include a namespace reference in the URI. |
String. For example: |
| Optionally skip TLS verification of the referenced back-end registry. |
Boolean. The default value is |
3.4.12. Image set configuration examples
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file examples show the configuration for various mirroring use cases.
Use case: Including arbitrary images and helm charts
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file uses a registry storage backend and includes helm charts and an additional Red Hat Universal Base Image (UBI).
Example ImageSetConfiguration
file
apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 kind: ImageSetConfiguration archiveSize: 4 storageConfig: registry: imageURL: example.com/mirror/oc-mirror-metadata skipTLS: false mirror: platform: architectures: - "s390x" channels: - name: stable-4.11 operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 helm: repositories: - name: redhat-helm-charts url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redhat-developer/redhat-helm-charts/master charts: - name: ibm-mongodb-enterprise-helm version: 0.2.0 additionalImages: - name: registry.redhat.io/ubi8/ubi:latest
Use case: Including Operator versions from a minimum to the latest
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file uses a local storage backend and includes only the Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes Operator, versions starting at 3.68.0 and later in the latest
channel.
Example ImageSetConfiguration
file
apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 kind: ImageSetConfiguration storageConfig: local: path: /home/user/metadata mirror: operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 packages: - name: rhacs-operator channels: - name: latest minVersion: 3.68.0
Use case: Including the shortest OpenShift Container Platform upgrade path
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file uses a local storage backend and includes all OpenShift Container Platform versions along the shortest upgrade path from the minimum version of 4.9.37
to the maximum version of 4.10.22
.
Example ImageSetConfiguration
file
apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 kind: ImageSetConfiguration storageConfig: local: path: /home/user/metadata mirror: platform: channels: - name: stable-4.10 minVersion: 4.9.37 maxVersion: 4.10.22 shortestPath: true
Use case: Including all versions of OpenShift Container Platform from a minimum to the latest
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file uses a registry storage backend and includes all OpenShift Container Platform versions starting at a minimum version of 4.10.10
to the latest version in the channel.
On every invocation of oc-mirror with this image set configuration, the latest release of the stable-4.10
channel is evaluated, so running oc-mirror at regular intervals ensures that you automatically receive the latest releases of OpenShift Container Platform images.
Example ImageSetConfiguration
file
apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 kind: ImageSetConfiguration storageConfig: registry: imageURL: example.com/mirror/oc-mirror-metadata skipTLS: false mirror: platform: channels: - name: stable-4.10 minVersion: 4.10.10
Use case: Including Operator versions from a minimum to a maximum
The following ImageSetConfiguration
file uses a local storage backend and includes only an example Operator, versions starting at 1.0.0
through 2.0.0
in the stable
channel.
This allows you to only mirror a specific version range of a particular Operator. As time progresses, you can use these settings to adjust the version to newer releases, for example when you no longer have version 1.0.0
running anywhere anymore. In this scenario, you can increase the minVersion
to something newer, for example 1.5.0
. When oc-mirror runs again with the updated version range, it automatically detects that any releases older than 1.5.0
are no longer required and deletes those from the registry to conserve storage space.
Example ImageSetConfiguration
file
apiVersion: mirror.openshift.io/v1alpha2 kind: ImageSetConfiguration storageConfig: local: path: /home/user/metadata mirror: operators: - catalog: registry.redhat.io/redhat/redhat-operator-index:v4.11 packages: - name: example-operator channels: - name: stable minVersion: '1.0.0' maxVersion: '2.0.0'
3.4.13. Command reference for oc-mirror
The following tables describe the oc mirror
subcommands and flags:
Subcommand | Description |
---|---|
| Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell. |
| Output the contents of an image set. |
| Show help about any subcommand. |
| Output an initial image set configuration template. |
| List available platform and Operator content and their version. |
| Output the oc-mirror version. |
Flag | Description |
---|---|
| Specify the path to an image set configuration file. |
| If any non image-pull related error occurs, continue and attempt to mirror as much as possible. |
| Disable TLS validation for the target registry. |
| Use plain HTTP for the target registry. |
|
Print actions without mirroring images. Generates |
| Specify the path to an image set archive that was generated by an execution of oc-mirror to load into a target registry. |
| Show the help. |
| Ignore past mirrors when downloading images and packing layers. Disables incremental mirroring and might download more data. |
|
Generate manifests for |
|
Specify the number of concurrent requests allowed per registry. The default is |
| Skip removal of artifact directories. |
| Do not replace image tags with digest pins in Operator catalogs. |
|
Skip metadata when publishing an image set. This is only recommended when the image set was created with |
| If an image is not found, skip it instead of reporting an error and aborting execution. Does not apply to custom images explicitly specified in the image set configuration. |
| Skip digest verification. |
| Disable TLS validation for the source registry. |
| Use plain HTTP for the source registry. |
|
Specify the number for the log level verbosity. Valid values are |