Chapter 1. About

1.1. About OpenShift Virtualization

Learn about OpenShift Virtualization’s capabilities and support scope.

1.1.1. What you can do with OpenShift Virtualization

OpenShift Virtualization is an add-on to OpenShift Container Platform that allows you to run and manage virtual machine workloads alongside container workloads.

OpenShift Virtualization adds new objects into your OpenShift Container Platform cluster by using Kubernetes custom resources to enable virtualization tasks. These tasks include:

Creating and managing Linux and Windows virtual machines (VMs)
Running pod and VM workloads alongside each other in a cluster
Connecting to virtual machines through a variety of consoles and CLI tools
Importing and cloning existing virtual machines
Managing network interface controllers and storage disks attached to virtual machines
Live migrating virtual machines between nodes

An enhanced web console provides a graphical portal to manage these virtualized resources alongside the OpenShift Container Platform cluster containers and infrastructure.

OpenShift Virtualization is designed and tested to work well with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation features.

Important

When you deploy OpenShift Virtualization with OpenShift Data Foundation, you must create a dedicated storage class for Windows virtual machine disks. See Optimizing ODF PersistentVolumes for Windows VMs for details.

You can use OpenShift Virtualization with OVN-Kubernetes, OpenShift SDN, or one of the other certified network plugins listed in Certified OpenShift CNI Plug-ins.

You can check your OpenShift Virtualization cluster for compliance issues by installing the Compliance Operator and running a scan with the ocp4-moderate and ocp4-moderate-node profiles. The Compliance Operator uses OpenSCAP, a NIST-certified tool, to scan and enforce security policies.

1.1.1.1. OpenShift Virtualization supported cluster version

OpenShift Virtualization 4.14 is supported for use on OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 clusters. To use the latest z-stream release of OpenShift Virtualization, you must first upgrade to the latest version of OpenShift Container Platform.

1.1.2. About volume and access modes for virtual machine disks

If you use the storage API with known storage providers, the volume and access modes are selected automatically. However, if you use a storage class that does not have a storage profile, you must configure the volume and access mode.

For best results, use the ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode and the Block volume mode. This is important for the following reasons:

ReadWriteMany (RWX) access mode is required for live migration.
The Block volume mode performs significantly better than the Filesystem volume mode. This is because the Filesystem volume mode uses more storage layers, including a file system layer and a disk image file. These layers are not necessary for VM disk storage.
For example, if you use Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation, Ceph RBD volumes are preferable to CephFS volumes.

Important

You cannot live migrate virtual machines with the following configurations:

Storage volume with ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode
Passthrough features such as GPUs

Do not set the evictionStrategy field to LiveMigrate for these virtual machines.

1.1.3. Single-node OpenShift differences

You can install OpenShift Virtualization on single-node OpenShift.

However, you should be aware that Single-node OpenShift does not support the following features:

High availability
Pod disruption
Live migration
Virtual machines or templates that have an eviction strategy configured

1.1.4. Additional resources

1.2. Security policies

Learn about OpenShift Virtualization security and authorization.

Key points

OpenShift Virtualization adheres to the restricted Kubernetes pod security standards profile, which aims to enforce the current best practices for pod security.
Virtual machine (VM) workloads run as unprivileged pods.
Security context constraints (SCCs) are defined for the kubevirt-controller service account.
TLS certificates for OpenShift Virtualization components are renewed and rotated automatically.

1.2.1. About workload security

By default, virtual machine (VM) workloads do not run with root privileges in OpenShift Virtualization, and there are no supported OpenShift Virtualization features that require root privileges.

For each VM, a virt-launcher pod runs an instance of libvirt in session mode to manage the VM process. In session mode, the libvirt daemon runs as a non-root user account and only permits connections from clients that are running under the same user identifier (UID). Therefore, VMs run as unprivileged pods, adhering to the security principle of least privilege.

1.2.2. TLS certificates

TLS certificates for OpenShift Virtualization components are renewed and rotated automatically. You are not required to refresh them manually.

Automatic renewal schedules

TLS certificates are automatically deleted and replaced according to the following schedule:

KubeVirt certificates are renewed daily.
Containerized Data Importer controller (CDI) certificates are renewed every 15 days.
MAC pool certificates are renewed every year.

Automatic TLS certificate rotation does not disrupt any operations. For example, the following operations continue to function without any disruption:

Migrations
Image uploads
VNC and console connections

1.2.3. Authorization

OpenShift Virtualization uses role-based access control (RBAC) to define permissions for human users and service accounts. The permissions defined for service accounts control the actions that OpenShift Virtualization components can perform.

You can also use RBAC roles to manage user access to virtualization features. For example, an administrator can create an RBAC role that provides the permissions required to launch a virtual machine. The administrator can then restrict access by binding the role to specific users.

1.2.3.1. Default cluster roles for OpenShift Virtualization

By using cluster role aggregation, OpenShift Virtualization extends the default OpenShift Container Platform cluster roles to include permissions for accessing virtualization objects.

Table 1.1. OpenShift Virtualization cluster roles
Default cluster role	OpenShift Virtualization cluster role	OpenShift Virtualization cluster role description
`view`	`kubevirt.io:view`	A user that can view all OpenShift Virtualization resources in the cluster but cannot create, delete, modify, or access them. For example, the user can see that a virtual machine (VM) is running but cannot shut it down or gain access to its console.
`edit`	`kubevirt.io:edit`	A user that can modify all OpenShift Virtualization resources in the cluster. For example, the user can create VMs, access VM consoles, and delete VMs.
`admin`	`kubevirt.io:admin`	A user that has full permissions to all OpenShift Virtualization resources, including the ability to delete collections of resources. The user can also view and modify the OpenShift Virtualization runtime configuration, which is located in the `HyperConverged` custom resource in the `openshift-cnv` namespace.

1.2.3.2. RBAC roles for storage features in OpenShift Virtualization

The following permissions are granted to the Containerized Data Importer (CDI), including the cdi-operator and cdi-controller service accounts.

1.2.3.2.1. Cluster-wide RBAC roles

Table 1.2. Aggregated cluster roles for the cdi.kubevirt.io API group
CDI cluster role	Resources	Verbs
`cdi.kubevirt.io:admin`	`datavolumes`, `uploadtokenrequests`	`*` (all)
`cdi.kubevirt.io:admin`	`datavolumes/source`	`create`
`cdi.kubevirt.io:edit`	`datavolumes`, `uploadtokenrequests`	`*`
`cdi.kubevirt.io:edit`	`datavolumes/source`	`create`
`cdi.kubevirt.io:view`	`cdiconfigs`, `dataimportcrons`, `datasources`, `datavolumes`, `objecttransfers`, `storageprofiles`, `volumeimportsources`, `volumeuploadsources`, `volumeclonesources`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`cdi.kubevirt.io:view`	`datavolumes/source`	`create`
`cdi.kubevirt.io:config-reader`	`cdiconfigs`, `storageprofiles`	`get`, `list`, `watch`

Table 1.3. Cluster-wide roles for the cdi-operator service account
API group	Resources	Verbs
`rbac.authorization.k8s.io`	`clusterrolebindings`, `clusterroles`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`security.openshift.io`	`securitycontextconstraints`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `update`, `create`
`apiextensions.k8s.io`	`customresourcedefinitions`, `customresourcedefinitions/status`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`cdi.kubevirt.io`	`*`	`*`
`upload.cdi.kubevirt.io`	`*`	`*`
`admissionregistration.k8s.io`	`validatingwebhookconfigurations`, `mutatingwebhookconfigurations`	`create`, `list`, `watch`
`admissionregistration.k8s.io`	`validatingwebhookconfigurations` Allow list: `cdi-api-dataimportcron-validate, cdi-api-populator-validate, cdi-api-datavolume-validate, cdi-api-validate, objecttransfer-api-validate`	`get`, `update`, `delete`
`admissionregistration.k8s.io`	`mutatingwebhookconfigurations` Allow list: `cdi-api-datavolume-mutate`	`get`, `update`, `delete`
`apiregistration.k8s.io`	`apiservices`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`

Table 1.4. Cluster-wide roles for the cdi-controller service account
API group	Resources	Verbs
`""` (core)	`events`	`create`, `patch`
`""` (core)	`persistentvolumeclaims`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`, `deletecollection`, `patch`
`""` (core)	`persistentvolumes`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `update`
`""` (core)	`persistentvolumeclaims/finalizers`, `pods/finalizers`	`update`
`""` (core)	`pods`, `services`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `delete`
`""` (core)	`configmaps`	`get`, `create`
`storage.k8s.io`	`storageclasses`, `csidrivers`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`config.openshift.io`	`proxies`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`cdi.kubevirt.io`	`*`	`*`
`snapshot.storage.k8s.io`	`volumesnapshots`, `volumesnapshotclasses`, `volumesnapshotcontents`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `delete`
`snapshot.storage.k8s.io`	`volumesnapshots`	`update`, `deletecollection`
`apiextensions.k8s.io`	`customresourcedefinitions`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`scheduling.k8s.io`	`priorityclasses`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`image.openshift.io`	`imagestreams`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`""` (core)	`secrets`	`create`
`kubevirt.io`	`virtualmachines/finalizers`	`update`

1.2.3.2.2. Namespaced RBAC roles

Table 1.5. Namespaced roles for the cdi-operator service account
API group	Resources	Verbs
`rbac.authorization.k8s.io`	`rolebindings`, `roles`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`""` (core)	`serviceaccounts`, `configmaps`, `events`, `secrets`, `services`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `patch`, `delete`
`apps`	`deployments`, `deployments/finalizers`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`route.openshift.io`	`routes`, `routes/custom-host`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`
`config.openshift.io`	`proxies`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`monitoring.coreos.com`	`servicemonitors`, `prometheusrules`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `delete`, `update`, `patch`
`coordination.k8s.io`	`leases`	`get`, `create`, `update`

Table 1.6. Namespaced roles for the cdi-controller service account
API group	Resources	Verbs
`""` (core)	`configmaps`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`""` (core)	`secrets`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`batch`	`cronjobs`	`get`, `list`, `watch`, `create`, `update`, `delete`
`batch`	`jobs`	`create`, `delete`, `list`, `watch`
`coordination.k8s.io`	`leases`	`get`, `create`, `update`
`networking.k8s.io`	`ingresses`	`get`, `list`, `watch`
`route.openshift.io`	`routes`	`get`, `list`, `watch`

1.2.3.3. Additional SCCs and permissions for the kubevirt-controller service account

Security context constraints (SCCs) control permissions for pods. These permissions include actions that a pod, a collection of containers, can perform and what resources it can access. You can use SCCs to define a set of conditions that a pod must run with to be accepted into the system.

The virt-controller is a cluster controller that creates the virt-launcher pods for virtual machines in the cluster. These pods are granted permissions by the kubevirt-controller service account.

The kubevirt-controller service account is granted additional SCCs and Linux capabilities so that it can create virt-launcher pods with the appropriate permissions. These extended permissions allow virtual machines to use OpenShift Virtualization features that are beyond the scope of typical pods.

The kubevirt-controller service account is granted the following SCCs:

scc.AllowHostDirVolumePlugin = true
This allows virtual machines to use the hostpath volume plugin.
scc.AllowPrivilegedContainer = false
This ensures the virt-launcher pod is not run as a privileged container.
scc.AllowedCapabilities = []corev1.Capability{"SYS_NICE", "NET_BIND_SERVICE"}
- SYS_NICE allows setting the CPU affinity.
- NET_BIND_SERVICE allows DHCP and Slirp operations.

Viewing the SCC and RBAC definitions for the kubevirt-controller

You can view the SecurityContextConstraints definition for the kubevirt-controller by using the oc tool:

$ oc get scc kubevirt-controller -o yaml

You can view the RBAC definition for the kubevirt-controller clusterrole by using the oc tool:

$ oc get clusterrole kubevirt-controller -o yaml

1.2.4. Additional resources

1.3. OpenShift Virtualization Architecture

The Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) deploys operator pods for each component of OpenShift Virtualization:

Compute: virt-operator
Storage: cdi-operator
Network: cluster-network-addons-operator
Scaling: ssp-operator
Templating: tekton-tasks-operator

OLM also deploys the hyperconverged-cluster-operator pod, which is responsible for the deployment, configuration, and life cycle of other components, and several helper pods: hco-webhook, and hyperconverged-cluster-cli-download.

After all operator pods are successfully deployed, you should create the HyperConverged custom resource (CR). The configurations set in the HyperConverged CR serve as the single source of truth and the entrypoint for OpenShift Virtualization, and guide the behavior of the CRs.

The HyperConverged CR creates corresponding CRs for the operators of all other components within its reconciliation loop. Each operator then creates resources such as daemon sets, config maps, and additional components for the OpenShift Virtualization control plane. For example, when the HyperConverged Operator (HCO) creates the KubeVirt CR, the OpenShift Virtualization Operator reconciles it and creates additional resources such as virt-controller, virt-handler, and virt-api.

The OLM deploys the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP) Operator, but it is not functional until you create a hostpath-provisioner CR.

Virtctl client commands

1.3.1. About the HyperConverged Operator (HCO)

The HCO, hco-operator, provides a single entry point for deploying and managing OpenShift Virtualization and several helper operators with opinionated defaults. It also creates custom resources (CRs) for those operators.

Table 1.7. HyperConverged Operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/hco-webhook`	Validates the `HyperConverged` custom resource contents.
`deployment/hyperconverged-cluster-cli-download`	Provides the `virtctl` tool binaries to the cluster so that you can download them directly from the cluster.
`KubeVirt/kubevirt-kubevirt-hyperconverged`	Contains all operators, CRs, and objects needed by OpenShift Virtualization.
`SSP/ssp-kubevirt-hyperconverged`	A Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) CR. This is automatically created by the HCO.
`CDI/cdi-kubevirt-hyperconverged`	A Containerized Data Importer (CDI) CR. This is automatically created by the HCO.
`NetworkAddonsConfig/cluster`	A CR that instructs and is managed by the `cluster-network-addons-operator`.

1.3.2. About the Containerized Data Importer (CDI) Operator

The CDI Operator, cdi-operator, manages CDI and its related resources, which imports a virtual machine (VM) image into a persistent volume claim (PVC) by using a data volume.

Table 1.8. CDI Operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/cdi-apiserver`	Manages the authorization to upload VM disks into PVCs by issuing secure upload tokens.
`deployment/cdi-uploadproxy`	Directs external disk upload traffic to the appropriate upload server pod so that it can be written to the correct PVC. Requires a valid upload token.
`pod/cdi-importer`	Helper pod that imports a virtual machine image into a PVC when creating a data volume.

1.3.3. About the Cluster Network Addons Operator

The Cluster Network Addons Operator, cluster-network-addons-operator, deploys networking components on a cluster and manages the related resources for extended network functionality.

cluster-network-addons-operator components

Table 1.9. Cluster Network Addons Operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/kubemacpool-cert-manager`	Manages TLS certificates of Kubemacpool’s webhooks.
`deployment/kubemacpool-mac-controller-manager`	Provides a MAC address pooling service for virtual machine (VM) network interface cards (NICs).
`daemonset/bridge-marker`	Marks network bridges available on nodes as node resources.
`daemonset/kube-cni-linux-bridge-plugin`	Installs Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins on cluster nodes, enabling the attachment of VMs to Linux bridges through network attachment definitions.

1.3.4. About the Hostpath Provisioner (HPP) Operator

The HPP Operator, hostpath-provisioner-operator, deploys and manages the multi-node HPP and related resources.

Table 1.10. HPP Operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/hpp-pool-hpp-csi-pvc-block-<worker_node_name>`	Provides a worker for each node where the HPP is designated to run. The pods mount the specified backing storage on the node.
`daemonset/hostpath-provisioner-csi`	Implements the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver interface of the HPP.
`daemonset/hostpath-provisioner`	Implements the legacy driver interface of the HPP.

1.3.5. About the Scheduling, Scale, and Performance (SSP) Operator

The SSP Operator, ssp-operator, deploys the common templates, the related default boot sources, the pipeline tasks, and the template validator.

Table 1.11. SSP Operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/create-vm-from-template`	Creates a VM from a template.
`deployment/copy-template`	Copies a VM template.
`deployment/modify-vm-template`	Creates or removes a VM template.
`deployment/modify-data-object`	Creates or removes data volumes or data sources.
`deployment/cleanup-vm`	Runs a script or a command on a VM, then stops or deletes the VM afterward.
`deployment/disk-virt-customize`	Runs a `customize` script on a target persistent volume claim (PVC) using `virt-customize`.
`deployment/disk-virt-sysprep`	Runs a `sysprep` script on a target PVC by using `virt-sysprep`.
`deployment/wait-for-vmi-status`	Waits for a specific virtual machine instance (VMI) status, then fails or succeeds according to that status.
`deployment/create-vm-from-manifest`	Creates a VM from a manifest.

1.3.6. About the OpenShift Virtualization Operator

The OpenShift Virtualization Operator, virt-operator deploys, upgrades, and manages OpenShift Virtualization without disrupting current virtual machine (VM) workloads.

Table 1.12. virt-operator components
Component	Description
`deployment/virt-api`	HTTP API server that serves as the entry point for all virtualization-related flows.
`deployment/virt-controller`	Observes the creation of a new VM instance object and creates a corresponding pod. When the pod is scheduled on a node, `virt-controller` updates the VM with the node name.
`daemonset/virt-handler`	Monitors any changes to a VM and instructs `virt-launcher` to perform the required operations. This component is node-specific.
`pod/virt-launcher`	Contains the VM that was created by the user as implemented by `libvirt` and `qemu`.