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Chapter 3. Installing a cluster quickly on AWS

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In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.15, you can install a cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that uses the default configuration options.

3.1. Prerequisites

3.2. Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.15, you require access to the internet to install your cluster.

You must have internet access to:

  • Access OpenShift Cluster Manager 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.
Important

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.

3.3. 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.

Important

Do not skip this procedure in production environments, where disaster recovery and debugging is required.

Note

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

Procedure

  1. If you do not have an 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.
    Note

    If you plan to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses the RHEL cryptographic libraries that have been submitted to NIST for FIPS 140-2/140-3 Validation on only the x86_64, ppc64le, and s390x architectures, do not create a key that uses the ed25519 algorithm. Instead, create a key that uses the rsa or ecdsa algorithm.

  2. 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

  3. 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.

    Note

    On some distributions, default SSH private key identities such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa and ~/.ssh/id_dsa are managed automatically.

    1. 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

      Note

      If your cluster is in FIPS mode, only use FIPS-compliant algorithms to generate the SSH key. The key must be either RSA or ECDSA.

  4. 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.

3.4. 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 at least 1.2 GB of local disk space.

Procedure

  1. Go to the Cluster Type page on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.
  2. Select your infrastructure provider from the Run it yourself section of the page.
  3. Select your host operating system and architecture from the dropdown menus under OpenShift Installer and click Download Installer.

  4. Place the downloaded file in the directory where you want to store the installation configuration files.

    Important
    • The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both of the files are required to delete the cluster.
    • Deleting 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.

  5. 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
  6. Download your installation pull secret from 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.
Tip

Alternatively, you can retrieve the installation program from the Red Hat Customer Portal, where you can specify a version of the installation program to download. However, you must have an active subscription to access this page.

3.5. Deploying the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud platform.

Important

You can run the create cluster command of the installation program only once, during initial installation.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.
  • You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.
  • You have verified that 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

  1. 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
    1
    For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.
    2
    To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    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.

  2. Provide values at the prompts:

    1. Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access 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 ssh-agent process uses.

    2. Select aws as the platform to target.

    3. If you do not have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) profile stored on your computer, enter the AWS access key ID and secret access key for the user that you configured to run the installation program.

      Note

      The AWS access key ID and secret access key are stored in ~/.aws/credentials in the home directory of the current user on the installation host. You are prompted for the credentials by the installation program if the credentials for the exported profile are not present in the file. Any credentials that you provide to the installation program are stored in the file.

    4. Select the AWS region to deploy the cluster to.
    5. Select the base domain for the Route 53 service that you configured for your cluster.
    6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.
    7. Paste the pull secret from Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

  3. Optional: Remove or disable the AdministratorAccess policy from the IAM account that you used to install the cluster.

    Note

    The elevated permissions provided by the AdministratorAccess policy are required only during installation.

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.
Important

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

Important
  • 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.

Additional resources

3.6. 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.

Important

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform 4.15. 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

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
  2. Select the architecture from the Product Variant drop-down list.
  3. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.
  4. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.15 Linux Client entry and save the file.

  5. Unpack the archive: 

    $ tar xvf <file>

  6. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

    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

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
  2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.
  3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.15 Windows Client entry and save the file.
  4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  5. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

    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

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift Container Platform downloads page on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
  2. Select the appropriate version from the Version drop-down list.

  3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.15 macOS Client entry and save the file.

    Note

    For macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.15 macOS arm64 Client entry.

  4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

  5. 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

  • Verify your installation by using an oc command: 

    $ oc <command>

3.7. 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

  1. 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.

  2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration: 

    $ oc whoami

    Example output

    system:admin

3.8. Logging in to the cluster by using the web console

The kubeadmin user exists by default after an OpenShift Container Platform installation. You can log in to your cluster as the kubeadmin user by using the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the installation host.
  • You completed a cluster installation and all cluster Operators are available.

Procedure

  1. Obtain the password for the kubeadmin user from the kubeadmin-password file on the installation host: 

    $ cat <installation_directory>/auth/kubeadmin-password
    Note

    Alternatively, you can obtain the kubeadmin password from the <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log log file on the installation host.

  2. List the OpenShift Container Platform web console route: 

    $ oc get routes -n openshift-console | grep 'console-openshift'
    Note

    Alternatively, you can obtain the OpenShift Container Platform route from the <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log log file on the installation host.

    Example output

    console     console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>            console     https   reencrypt/Redirect   None

  3. Navigate to the route detailed in the output of the preceding command in a web browser and log in as the kubeadmin user.

Additional resources

  • See Accessing the web console for more details about accessing and understanding the OpenShift Container Platform web console.

3.9. Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.15, 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.

After you confirm that your OpenShift Cluster Manager 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

3.10. Next steps

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