Chapter 5. Installing a cluster on GCP with customizations
In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.13, you can install a customized cluster on infrastructure that the installation program provisions on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). To customize the installation, you modify parameters in the install-config.yaml
file before you install the cluster.
5.1. Prerequisites
- You reviewed details about the OpenShift Container Platform installation and update processes.
- You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.
- You configured a GCP project to host the cluster.
- If you use a firewall, you configured it to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.
-
If the cloud identity and access management (IAM) APIs are not accessible in your environment, or if you do not want to store an administrator-level credential secret in the
kube-system
namespace, you can manually create and maintain IAM credentials.
5.2. Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform
In OpenShift Container Platform 4.13, you require access to the internet to install your cluster.
You must have internet access to:
- Access OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console to download the installation program and perform subscription management. If the cluster has internet access and you do not disable Telemetry, that service automatically entitles your cluster.
- Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster.
- Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates.
If your cluster cannot have direct internet access, you can perform a restricted network installation on some types of infrastructure that you provision. During that process, you download the required content and use it to populate a mirror registry with the installation packages. With some installation types, the environment that you install your cluster in will not require internet access. Before you update the cluster, you update the content of the mirror registry.
5.3. Generating a key pair for cluster node SSH access
During an OpenShift Container Platform installation, you can provide an SSH public key to the installation program. The key is passed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) nodes through their Ignition config files and is used to authenticate SSH access to the nodes. The key is added to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
list for the core
user on each node, which enables password-less authentication.
After the key is passed to the nodes, you can use the key pair to SSH in to the RHCOS nodes as the user core
. To access the nodes through SSH, the private key identity must be managed by SSH for your local user.
If you want to SSH in to your cluster nodes to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide the SSH public key during the installation process. The ./openshift-install gather
command also requires the SSH public key to be in place on the cluster nodes.
Do not skip this procedure in production environments, where disaster recovery and debugging is required.
You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.
Procedure
If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:
$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> 1
- 1
- Specify the path and file name, such as
~/.ssh/id_ed25519
, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your~/.ssh
directory.
View the public SSH key:
$ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub
For example, run the following to view the
~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
public key:$ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the
./openshift-install gather
command.NoteOn some distributions, default SSH private key identities such as
~/.ssh/id_rsa
and~/.ssh/id_dsa
are managed automatically.If the
ssh-agent
process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background task:$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
Example output
Agent pid 31874
Add your SSH private key to the
ssh-agent
:$ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1
- 1
- Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as
~/.ssh/id_ed25519
Example output
Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)
Next steps
- When you install OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installation program.
5.4. Obtaining the installation program
Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on the host you are using for installation.
Prerequisites
- You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space.
Procedure
- Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.
- Select your infrastructure provider.
Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program that corresponds with your host operating system and architecture, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.
ImportantThe installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both files are required to delete the cluster.
ImportantDeleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster, complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your specific cloud provider.
Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:
$ tar -xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz
- Download your installation pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.
5.5. Creating the installation configuration file
You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Prerequisites
- Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.
- Obtain service principal permissions at the subscription level.
Procedure
Create the
install-config.yaml
file.Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:
$ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir <installation_directory> 1
- 1
- For
<installation_directory>
, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.
When specifying the directory:
-
Verify that the directory has the
execute
permission. This permission is required to run Terraform binaries under the installation directory. Use an empty directory. Some installation assets, such as bootstrap X.509 certificates, have short expiration intervals, therefore you must not reuse an installation directory. If you want to reuse individual files from another cluster installation, you can copy them into your directory. However, the file names for the installation assets might change between releases. Use caution when copying installation files from an earlier OpenShift Container Platform version.
NoteAlways delete the
~/.powervs
directory to avoid reusing a stale configuration. Run the following command:$ rm -rf ~/.powervs
At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:
Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access your cluster machines.
NoteFor production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your
ssh-agent
process uses.- Select gcp as the platform to target.
- If you have not configured the service account key for your GCP account on your computer, you must obtain it from GCP and paste the contents of the file or enter the absolute path to the file.
- Select the project ID to provision the cluster in. The default value is specified by the service account that you configured.
- Select the region to deploy the cluster to.
- Select the base domain to deploy the cluster to. The base domain corresponds to the public DNS zone that you created for your cluster.
- Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.
- Paste the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.
Modify the
install-config.yaml
file. You can find more information about the available parameters in the "Installation configuration parameters" section.NoteIf you are installing a three-node cluster, be sure to set the
compute.replicas
parameter to0
. This ensures that cluster’s control planes are schedulable. For more information, see "Installing a three-node cluster on GCP".Back up the
install-config.yaml
file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.ImportantThe
install-config.yaml
file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.
5.5.1. Installation configuration parameters
Before you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, you provide parameter values to describe your account on the cloud platform that hosts your cluster and optionally customize your cluster’s platform. When you create the install-config.yaml
installation configuration file, you provide values for the required parameters through the command line. If you customize your cluster, you can modify the install-config.yaml
file to provide more details about the platform.
After installation, you cannot modify these parameters in the install-config.yaml
file.
5.5.1.1. Required configuration parameters
Required installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:
Parameter | Description | Values |
---|---|---|
|
The API version for the | String |
|
The base domain of your cloud provider. The base domain is used to create routes to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster components. The full DNS name for your cluster is a combination of the |
A fully-qualified domain or subdomain name, such as |
|
Kubernetes resource | Object |
|
The name of the cluster. DNS records for the cluster are all subdomains of |
String of lowercase letters, hyphens ( |
|
The configuration for the specific platform upon which to perform the installation: | Object |
| Get a pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager to authenticate downloading container images for OpenShift Container Platform components from services such as Quay.io. |
{ "auths":{ "cloud.openshift.com":{ "auth":"b3Blb=", "email":"you@example.com" }, "quay.io":{ "auth":"b3Blb=", "email":"you@example.com" } } } |
5.5.1.2. Network configuration parameters
You can customize your installation configuration based on the requirements of your existing network infrastructure. For example, you can expand the IP address block for the cluster network or provide different IP address blocks than the defaults.
Only IPv4 addresses are supported.
Globalnet is not supported with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation disaster recovery solutions. For regional disaster recovery scenarios, ensure that you use a nonoverlapping range of private IP addresses for the cluster and service networks in each cluster.
Parameter | Description | Values |
---|---|---|
| The configuration for the cluster network. | Object Note
You cannot modify parameters specified by the |
| The Red Hat OpenShift Networking network plugin to install. |
Either |
| The IP address blocks for pods.
The default value is If you specify multiple IP address blocks, the blocks must not overlap. | An array of objects. For example: networking: clusterNetwork: - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14 hostPrefix: 23 |
|
Required if you use An IPv4 network. |
An IP address block in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation. The prefix length for an IPv4 block is between |
|
The subnet prefix length to assign to each individual node. For example, if | A subnet prefix.
The default value is |
|
The IP address block for services. The default value is The OpenShift SDN and OVN-Kubernetes network plugins support only a single IP address block for the service network. | An array with an IP address block in CIDR format. For example: networking: serviceNetwork: - 172.30.0.0/16 |
| The IP address blocks for machines. If you specify multiple IP address blocks, the blocks must not overlap. | An array of objects. For example: networking: machineNetwork: - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16 |
|
Required if you use | An IP network block in CIDR notation.
For example, Note
Set the |
5.5.1.3. Optional configuration parameters
Optional installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:
Parameter | Description | Values |
---|---|---|
| A PEM-encoded X.509 certificate bundle that is added to the nodes' trusted certificate store. This trust bundle may also be used when a proxy has been configured. | String |
| Controls the installation of optional core cluster components. You can reduce the footprint of your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by disabling optional components. For more information, see the "Cluster capabilities" page in Installing. | String array |
|
Selects an initial set of optional capabilities to enable. Valid values are | String |
|
Extends the set of optional capabilities beyond what you specify in | String array |
| Enables workload partitioning, which isolates OpenShift Container Platform services, cluster management workloads, and infrastructure pods to run on a reserved set of CPUs. Workload partitioning can only be enabled during installation and cannot be disabled after installation. While this field enables workload partitioning, it does not configure workloads to use specific CPUs. For more information, see the Workload partitioning page in the Scalability and Performance section. |
|
| The configuration for the machines that comprise the compute nodes. |
Array of |
|
Determines the instruction set architecture of the machines in the pool. Currently, clusters with varied architectures are not supported. All pools must specify the same architecture. Valid values are | String |
compute: hyperthreading: |
Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or Important If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. |
|
|
Required if you use |
|
|
Required if you use |
|
| The number of compute machines, which are also known as worker machines, to provision. |
A positive integer greater than or equal to |
| Enables the cluster for a feature set. A feature set is a collection of OpenShift Container Platform features that are not enabled by default. For more information about enabling a feature set during installation, see "Enabling features using feature gates". |
String. The name of the feature set to enable, such as |
| The configuration for the machines that comprise the control plane. |
Array of |
|
Determines the instruction set architecture of the machines in the pool. Currently, clusters with varied architectures are not supported. All pools must specify the same architecture. Valid values are | String |
controlPlane: hyperthreading: |
Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or Important If you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. |
|
|
Required if you use |
|
|
Required if you use |
|
| The number of control plane machines to provision. |
The only supported value is |
|
The Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) mode. If no mode is specified, the CCO dynamically tries to determine the capabilities of the provided credentials, with a preference for mint mode on the platforms where multiple modes are supported. If you are installing on GCP into a shared virtual private cloud (VPC), Note Not all CCO modes are supported for all cloud providers. For more information about CCO modes, see the Cloud Credential Operator entry in the Cluster Operators reference content. Note
If your AWS account has service control policies (SCP) enabled, you must configure the |
|
| Sources and repositories for the release-image content. |
Array of objects. Includes a |
|
Required if you use | String |
| Specify one or more repositories that may also contain the same images. | Array of strings |
| How to publish or expose the user-facing endpoints of your cluster, such as the Kubernetes API, OpenShift routes. |
|
| The SSH key to authenticate access to your cluster machines. Note
For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your |
For example, |
Not all CCO modes are supported for all cloud providers. For more information about CCO modes, see the "Managing cloud provider credentials" entry in the Authentication and authorization content.
NoteIf you are installing on GCP into a shared virtual private cloud (VPC),
credentialsMode
must be set toPassthrough
orManual
.ImportantSetting this parameter to
Manual
enables alternatives to storing administrator-level secrets in thekube-system
project, which require additional configuration steps. For more information, see "Alternatives to storing administrator-level secrets in the kube-system project".
5.5.1.4. Additional Google Cloud Platform (GCP) configuration parameters
Additional GCP configuration parameters are described in the following table:
Parameter | Description | Values |
---|---|---|
|
The name of the existing Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) where you want to deploy your cluster. If you want to deploy your cluster into a shared VPC, you must set | String. |
| Optional. The name of the GCP project that contains the shared VPC where you want to deploy your cluster. | String. |
| The name of the GCP project where the installation program installs the cluster. | String. |
| The name of the GCP region that hosts your cluster. |
Any valid region name, such as |
| The name of the existing subnet where you want to deploy your control plane machines. | The subnet name. |
| The name of the existing subnet where you want to deploy your compute machines. | The subnet name. |
| A list of license URLs that must be applied to the compute images. Important
The | Any license available with the license API, such as the license to enable nested virtualization. You cannot use this parameter with a mechanism that generates pre-built images. Using a license URL forces the installation program to copy the source image before use. |
| The availability zones where the installation program creates machines. |
A list of valid GCP availability zones, such as |
| The size of the disk in gigabytes (GB). | Any size between 16 GB and 65536 GB. |
| The GCP disk type. |
Either the default |
| Optional. By default, the installation program downloads and installs the RHCOS image that is used to boot control plane and compute machines. You can override the default behavior by specifying the location of a custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use for both types of machines. | String. The name of GCP project where the image is located. |
|
The name of the custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use to boot control plane and compute machines. If you use | String. The name of the RHCOS image. |
| Optional. Additional network tags to add to the control plane and compute machines. |
One or more strings, for example |
| The GCP machine type for control plane and compute machines. |
The GCP machine type, for example |
| The name of the customer managed encryption key to be used for machine disk encryption. | The encryption key name. |
| The name of the Key Management Service (KMS) key ring to which the KMS key belongs. | The KMS key ring name. |
| The GCP location in which the KMS key ring exists. | The GCP location. |
|
The ID of the project in which the KMS key ring exists. This value defaults to the value of the | The GCP project ID. |
| The GCP service account used for the encryption request for control plane and compute machines. If absent, the Compute Engine default service account is used. For more information about GCP service accounts, see Google’s documentation on service accounts. |
The GCP service account email, for example |
| Whether to enable Shielded VM secure boot for all machines in the cluster. Shielded VMs have additional security protocols such as secure boot, firmware and integrity monitoring, and rootkit protection. For more information on Shielded VMs, see Google’s documentation on Shielded VMs. |
|
| Whether to use Confidential VMs for all machines in the cluster. Confidential VMs provide encryption for data during processing. For more information on Confidential computing, see Google’s documentation on Confidential computing. |
|
|
Specifies the behavior of all VMs during a host maintenance event, such as a software or hardware update. For Confidential VMs, this parameter must be set to |
|
| The name of the customer managed encryption key to be used for control plane machine disk encryption. | The encryption key name. |
| For control plane machines, the name of the KMS key ring to which the KMS key belongs. | The KMS key ring name. |
| For control plane machines, the GCP location in which the key ring exists. For more information about KMS locations, see Google’s documentation on Cloud KMS locations. | The GCP location for the key ring. |
| For control plane machines, the ID of the project in which the KMS key ring exists. This value defaults to the VM project ID if not set. | The GCP project ID. |
| The GCP service account used for the encryption request for control plane machines. If absent, the Compute Engine default service account is used. For more information about GCP service accounts, see Google’s documentation on service accounts. |
The GCP service account email, for example |
| The size of the disk in gigabytes (GB). This value applies to control plane machines. | Any integer between 16 and 65536. |
| The GCP disk type for control plane machines. |
Control plane machines must use the |
| Optional. By default, the installation program downloads and installs the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image that is used to boot control plane machines. You can override the default behavior by specifying the location of a custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use for control plane machines only. | String. The name of GCP project where the image is located. |
|
The name of the custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use to boot control plane machines. If you use | String. The name of the RHCOS image. |
|
Optional. Additional network tags to add to the control plane machines. If set, this parameter overrides the |
One or more strings, for example |
|
The GCP machine type for control plane machines. If set, this parameter overrides the |
The GCP machine type, for example |
| The availability zones where the installation program creates control plane machines. |
A list of valid GCP availability zones, such as |
| Whether to enable Shielded VM secure boot for control plane machines. Shielded VMs have additional security protocols such as secure boot, firmware and integrity monitoring, and rootkit protection. For more information on Shielded VMs, see Google’s documentation on Shielded VMs. |
|
| Whether to enable Confidential VMs for control plane machines. Confidential VMs provide encryption for data while it is being processed. For more information on Confidential VMs, see Google’s documentation on Confidential Computing. |
|
|
Specifies the behavior of control plane VMs during a host maintenance event, such as a software or hardware update. For Confidential VMs, this parameter must be set to |
|
| The name of the customer managed encryption key to be used for compute machine disk encryption. | The encryption key name. |
| For compute machines, the name of the KMS key ring to which the KMS key belongs. | The KMS key ring name. |
| For compute machines, the GCP location in which the key ring exists. For more information about KMS locations, see Google’s documentation on Cloud KMS locations. | The GCP location for the key ring. |
| For compute machines, the ID of the project in which the KMS key ring exists. This value defaults to the VM project ID if not set. | The GCP project ID. |
| The GCP service account used for the encryption request for compute machines. If this value is not set, the Compute Engine default service account is used. For more information about GCP service accounts, see Google’s documentation on service accounts. |
The GCP service account email, for example |
| The size of the disk in gigabytes (GB). This value applies to compute machines. | Any integer between 16 and 65536. |
| The GCP disk type for compute machines. |
Either the default |
| Optional. By default, the installation program downloads and installs the RHCOS image that is used to boot compute machines. You can override the default behavior by specifying the location of a custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use for compute machines only. | String. The name of GCP project where the image is located. |
|
The name of the custom RHCOS image for the installation program to use to boot compute machines. If you use | String. The name of the RHCOS image. |
|
Optional. Additional network tags to add to the compute machines. If set, this parameter overrides the |
One or more strings, for example |
|
The GCP machine type for compute machines. If set, this parameter overrides the |
The GCP machine type, for example |
| The availability zones where the installation program creates compute machines. |
A list of valid GCP availability zones, such as |
| Whether to enable Shielded VM secure boot for compute machines. Shielded VMs have additional security protocols such as secure boot, firmware and integrity monitoring, and rootkit protection. For more information on Shielded VMs, see Google’s documentation on Shielded VMs. |
|
| Whether to enable Confidential VMs for compute machines. Confidential VMs provide encryption for data while it is being processed. For more information on Confidential VMs, see Google’s documentation on Confidential Computing. |
|
|
Specifies the behavior of compute VMs during a host maintenance event, such as a software or hardware update. For Confidential VMs, this parameter must be set to |
|
5.5.2. Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation
Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:
Machine | Operating System | vCPU [1] | Virtual RAM | Storage | Input/Output Per Second (IOPS)[2] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bootstrap | RHCOS | 4 | 16 GB | 100 GB | 300 |
Control plane | RHCOS | 4 | 16 GB | 100 GB | 300 |
Compute | RHCOS, RHEL 8.6 and later [3] | 2 | 8 GB | 100 GB | 300 |
- One vCPU is equivalent to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or Hyper-Threading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.
- OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes which require a 10 ms p99 fsync duration. Note that on many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so you might need to over-allocate storage volume to obtain sufficient performance.
- As with all user-provisioned installations, if you choose to use RHEL compute machines in your cluster, you take responsibility for all operating system life cycle management and maintenance, including performing system updates, applying patches, and completing all other required tasks. Use of RHEL 7 compute machines is deprecated and has been removed in OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 and later.
As of OpenShift Container Platform version 4.13, RHCOS is based on RHEL version 9.2, which updates the micro-architecture requirements. The following list contains the minimum instruction set architectures (ISA) that each architecture requires:
- x86-64 architecture requires x86-64-v2 ISA
- ARM64 architecture requires ARMv8.0-A ISA
- IBM Power architecture requires Power 9 ISA
- s390x architecture requires z14 ISA
For more information, see RHEL Architectures.
If an instance type for your platform meets the minimum requirements for cluster machines, it is supported to use in OpenShift Container Platform.
Additional resources
5.5.3. Tested instance types for GCP
The following Google Cloud Platform instance types have been tested with OpenShift Container Platform.
Example 5.1. Machine series
-
A2
-
A3
-
C2
-
C2D
-
C3
-
C3D
-
C4
-
E2
-
M1
-
N1
-
N2
-
N2D
-
N4
-
Tau T2D
5.5.4. Using custom machine types
Using a custom machine type to install a OpenShift Container Platform cluster is supported.
Consider the following when using a custom machine type:
- Similar to predefined instance types, custom machine types must meet the minimum resource requirements for control plane and compute machines. For more information, see "Minimum resource requirements for cluster installation".
The name of the custom machine type must adhere to the following syntax:
custom-<number_of_cpus>-<amount_of_memory_in_mb>
For example,
custom-6-20480
.
As part of the installation process, you specify the custom machine type in the install-config.yaml
file.
Sample install-config.yaml
file with a custom machine type
compute: - architecture: amd64 hyperthreading: Enabled name: worker platform: gcp: type: custom-6-20480 replicas: 2 controlPlane: architecture: amd64 hyperthreading: Enabled name: master platform: gcp: type: custom-6-20480 replicas: 3
5.5.5. Enabling Shielded VMs
You can use Shielded VMs when installing your cluster. Shielded VMs have extra security features including secure boot, firmware and integrity monitoring, and rootkit detection. For more information, see Google’s documentation on Shielded VMs.
Prerequisites
-
You have created an
install-config.yaml
file.
Procedure
Use a text editor to edit the
install-config.yaml
file prior to deploying your cluster and add one of the following stanzas:To use shielded VMs for only control plane machines:
controlPlane: platform: gcp: secureBoot: Enabled
To use shielded VMs for only compute machines:
compute: - platform: gcp: secureBoot: Enabled
To use shielded VMs for all machines:
platform: gcp: defaultMachinePlatform: secureBoot: Enabled
5.5.6. Enabling Confidential VMs
You can use Confidential VMs when installing your cluster. Confidential VMs encrypt data while it is being processed. For more information, see Google’s documentation on Confidential Computing. You can enable Confidential VMs and Shielded VMs at the same time, although they are not dependent on each other.
Confidential Computing is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope.
Due to a known issue in OpenShift Container Platform 4.13.3 and earlier versions, you cannot use persistent volume storage on a cluster with Confidential VMs on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This issue was resolved in OpenShift Container Platform 4.13.4. For more information, see OCPBUGS-11768.
Prerequisites
-
You have created an
install-config.yaml
file.
Procedure
Use a text editor to edit the
install-config.yaml
file prior to deploying your cluster and add one of the following stanzas:To use confidential VMs for only control plane machines:
controlPlane: platform: gcp: confidentialCompute: Enabled 1 type: n2d-standard-8 2 onHostMaintenance: Terminate 3
- 1
- Enable confidential VMs.
- 2
- Specify a machine type that supports Confidential VMs. Confidential VMs require the N2D or C2D series of machine types. For more information on supported machine types, see Supported operating systems and machine types.
- 3
- Specify the behavior of the VM during a host maintenance event, such as a hardware or software update. For a machine that uses Confidential VM, this value must be set to
Terminate
, which stops the VM. Confidential VMs do not support live VM migration.
To use confidential VMs for only compute machines:
compute: - platform: gcp: confidentialCompute: Enabled type: n2d-standard-8 onHostMaintenance: Terminate
To use confidential VMs for all machines:
platform: gcp: defaultMachinePlatform: confidentialCompute: Enabled type: n2d-standard-8 onHostMaintenance: Terminate
5.5.7. Sample customized install-config.yaml file for GCP
You can customize the install-config.yaml
file to specify more details about your OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s platform or modify the values of the required parameters.
This sample YAML file is provided for reference only. You must obtain your install-config.yaml
file by using the installation program and modify it.
apiVersion: v1 baseDomain: example.com 1 controlPlane: 2 3 hyperthreading: Enabled 4 name: master platform: gcp: type: n2-standard-4 zones: - us-central1-a - us-central1-c osDisk: diskType: pd-ssd diskSizeGB: 1024 encryptionKey: 5 kmsKey: name: worker-key keyRing: test-machine-keys location: global projectID: project-id tags: 6 - control-plane-tag1 - control-plane-tag2 osImage: 7 project: example-project-name name: example-image-name replicas: 3 compute: 8 9 - hyperthreading: Enabled 10 name: worker platform: gcp: type: n2-standard-4 zones: - us-central1-a - us-central1-c osDisk: diskType: pd-standard diskSizeGB: 128 encryptionKey: 11 kmsKey: name: worker-key keyRing: test-machine-keys location: global projectID: project-id tags: 12 - compute-tag1 - compute-tag2 osImage: 13 project: example-project-name name: example-image-name replicas: 3 metadata: name: test-cluster 14 networking: clusterNetwork: - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14 hostPrefix: 23 machineNetwork: - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16 networkType: OVNKubernetes 15 serviceNetwork: - 172.30.0.0/16 platform: gcp: projectID: openshift-production 16 region: us-central1 17 defaultMachinePlatform: tags: 18 - global-tag1 - global-tag2 osImage: 19 project: example-project-name name: example-image-name pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' 20 fips: false 21 sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA... 22
- 1 14 16 17 20
- Required. The installation program prompts you for this value.
- 2 8
- If you do not provide these parameters and values, the installation program provides the default value.
- 3 9
- The
controlPlane
section is a single mapping, but thecompute
section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of thecompute
section must begin with a hyphen,-
, and the first line of thecontrolPlane
section must not. Only one control plane pool is used. - 4 10
- Whether to enable or disable simultaneous multithreading, or
hyperthreading
. By default, simultaneous multithreading is enabled to increase the performance of your machines' cores. You can disable it by setting the parameter value toDisabled
. If you disable simultaneous multithreading in some cluster machines, you must disable it in all cluster machines.ImportantIf you disable simultaneous multithreading, ensure that your capacity planning accounts for the dramatically decreased machine performance. Use larger machine types, such as
n1-standard-8
, for your machines if you disable simultaneous multithreading. - 5 11
- Optional: The custom encryption key section to encrypt both virtual machines and persistent volumes. Your default compute service account must have the permissions granted to use your KMS key and have the correct IAM role assigned. The default service account name follows the
service-<project_number>@compute-system.iam.gserviceaccount.com
pattern. For more information about granting the correct permissions for your service account, see "Machine management""Creating compute machine sets" "Creating a compute machine set on GCP". - 6 12 18
- Optional: A set of network tags to apply to the control plane or compute machine sets. The
platform.gcp.defaultMachinePlatform.tags
parameter will apply to both control plane and compute machines. If thecompute.platform.gcp.tags
orcontrolPlane.platform.gcp.tags
parameters are set, they override theplatform.gcp.defaultMachinePlatform.tags
parameter. - 7 13 19
- Optional: A custom Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image for the installation program to use to boot control plane and compute machines. The
project
andname
parameters underplatform.gcp.defaultMachinePlatform.osImage
apply to both control plane and compute machines. If theproject
andname
parameters undercontrolPlane.platform.gcp.osImage
orcompute.platform.gcp.osImage
are set, they override theplatform.gcp.defaultMachinePlatform.osImage
parameters. - 15
- The cluster network plugin to install. The supported values are
OVNKubernetes
andOpenShiftSDN
. The default value isOVNKubernetes
. - 21
- Whether to enable or disable FIPS mode. By default, FIPS mode is not enabled.Important
OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.2. RHEL 9.2 cryptographic modules have not yet been submitted for FIPS validation. For more information, see "About this release" in the 4.13 OpenShift Container Platform Release Notes.
- 22
- You can optionally provide the
sshKey
value that you use to access the machines in your cluster.NoteFor production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your
ssh-agent
process uses.
Additional resources
5.5.8. Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation
Production environments can deny direct access to the internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available. You can configure a new OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use a proxy by configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml
file.
Prerequisites
-
You have an existing
install-config.yaml
file. You reviewed the sites that your cluster requires access to and determined whether any of them need to bypass the proxy. By default, all cluster egress traffic is proxied, including calls to hosting cloud provider APIs. You added sites to the
Proxy
object’sspec.noProxy
field to bypass the proxy if necessary.NoteThe
Proxy
objectstatus.noProxy
field is populated with the values of thenetworking.machineNetwork[].cidr
,networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr
, andnetworking.serviceNetwork[]
fields from your installation configuration.For installations on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the
Proxy
objectstatus.noProxy
field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254
).
Procedure
Edit your
install-config.yaml
file and add the proxy settings. For example:apiVersion: v1 baseDomain: my.domain.com proxy: httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 1 httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> 2 noProxy: example.com 3 additionalTrustBundle: | 4 -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT> -----END CERTIFICATE----- additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle> 5
- 1
- A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be
http
. - 2
- A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.
- 3
- A comma-separated list of destination domain names, IP addresses, or other network CIDRs to exclude from proxying. Preface a domain with
.
to match subdomains only. For example,.y.com
matchesx.y.com
, but noty.com
. Use*
to bypass the proxy for all destinations. - 4
- If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named
user-ca-bundle
in theopenshift-config
namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then creates atrusted-ca-bundle
config map that merges these contents with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) trust bundle, and this config map is referenced in thetrustedCA
field of theProxy
object. TheadditionalTrustBundle
field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the RHCOS trust bundle. - 5
- Optional: The policy to determine the configuration of the
Proxy
object to reference theuser-ca-bundle
config map in thetrustedCA
field. The allowed values areProxyonly
andAlways
. UseProxyonly
to reference theuser-ca-bundle
config map only whenhttp/https
proxy is configured. UseAlways
to always reference theuser-ca-bundle
config map. The default value isProxyonly
.
NoteThe installation program does not support the proxy
readinessEndpoints
field.NoteIf the installer times out, restart and then complete the deployment by using the
wait-for
command of the installer. For example:$ ./openshift-install wait-for install-complete --log-level debug
- Save the file and reference it when installing OpenShift Container Platform.
The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy that is named cluster
that uses the proxy settings in the provided install-config.yaml
file. If no proxy settings are provided, a cluster
Proxy
object is still created, but it will have a nil spec
.
Only the Proxy
object named cluster
is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.
5.6. Using the GCP Marketplace offering
Using the GCP Marketplace offering lets you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster, which is billed on pay-per-use basis (hourly, per core) through GCP, while still being supported directly by Red Hat.
By default, the installation program downloads and installs the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image that is used to deploy compute machines. To deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster using an RHCOS image from the GCP Marketplace, override the default behavior by modifying the install-config.yaml
file to reference the location of GCP Marketplace offer.
Prerequisites
-
You have an existing
install-config.yaml
file.
Procedure
Edit the
compute.platform.gcp.osImage
parameters to specify the location of the GCP Marketplace image:-
Set the
project
parameter toredhat-marketplace-public
. Set the
name
parameter to one of the following offerings:- OpenShift Container Platform
-
redhat-coreos-ocp-413-x86-64-202305021736
- OpenShift Platform Plus
-
redhat-coreos-opp-413-x86-64-202305021736
- OpenShift Kubernetes Engine
-
redhat-coreos-oke-413-x86-64-202305021736
-
Set the
- Save the file and reference it when deploying the cluster.
Sample install-config.yaml
file that specifies a GCP Marketplace image for compute machines
apiVersion: v1 baseDomain: example.com controlPlane: # ... compute: platform: gcp: osImage: project: redhat-marketplace-public name: redhat-coreos-ocp-413-x86-64-202305021736 # ...
5.7. Deploying the cluster
You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.
You can run the create cluster
command of the installation program only once, during initial installation.
Prerequisites
- Configure an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.
- Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.
- Verify the cloud provider account on your host has the correct permissions to deploy the cluster. An account with incorrect permissions causes the installation process to fail with an error message that displays the missing permissions.
Procedure
Remove any existing GCP credentials that do not use the service account key for the GCP account that you configured for your cluster and that are stored in the following locations:
-
The
GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS
,GOOGLE_CLOUD_KEYFILE_JSON
, orGCLOUD_KEYFILE_JSON
environment variables -
The
~/.gcp/osServiceAccount.json
file -
The
gcloud cli
default credentials
-
The
Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment:
$ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ 1 --log-level=info 2
Optional: You can reduce the number of permissions for the service account that you used to install the cluster.
-
If you assigned the
Owner
role to your service account, you can remove that role and replace it with theViewer
role. -
If you included the
Service Account Key Admin
role, you can remove it.
-
If you assigned the
Verification
When the cluster deployment completes successfully:
-
The terminal displays directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to the web console and credentials for the
kubeadmin
user. -
Credential information also outputs to
<installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log
.
Do not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster.
Example output
... INFO Install complete! INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig' INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-console.apps.mycluster.example.com INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "password" INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s
-
The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the pending
node-bootstrapper
certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control plane certificates for more information. - It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they are generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours after the cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours, you can avoid installation failure if the certificate update runs during installation.
5.8. 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 4.13. 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 from the Product Variant drop-down list.
- Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.
- Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 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 from the Version drop-down list.
- Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 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 from the Version drop-down list.
Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.13 macOS Client entry and save the file.
NoteFor macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.13 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>
5.9. Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI
You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig
file. The kubeconfig
file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OpenShift Container Platform installation.
Prerequisites
- You deployed an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
-
You installed the
oc
CLI.
Procedure
Export the
kubeadmin
credentials:$ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1
- 1
- For
<installation_directory>
, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
Verify you can run
oc
commands successfully using the exported configuration:$ oc whoami
Example output
system:admin
Additional resources
- See Accessing the web console for more details about accessing and understanding the OpenShift Container Platform web console.
5.10. Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform
In OpenShift Container Platform 4.13, the Telemetry service, which runs by default to provide metrics about cluster health and the success of updates, requires internet access. If your cluster is connected to the internet, Telemetry runs automatically, and your cluster is registered to OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console.
After you confirm that your OpenShift Cluster Manager Hybrid Cloud Console inventory is correct, either maintained automatically by Telemetry or manually by using OpenShift Cluster Manager, use subscription watch to track your OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions at the account or multi-cluster level.
Additional resources
- See About remote health monitoring for more information about the Telemetry service
5.11. Next steps
- Customize your cluster.
- If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting.