Chapter 5. Installing a cluster on Azure Stack Hub using ARM templates

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.

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>)

Procedure

1. Create an Azure storage account to store the VHD cluster image:

   $ az storage account create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --location ${AZURE_REGION} --name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --kind Storage --sku Standard_LRS

   Warning

   The Azure storage account name must be between 3 and 24 characters in length and use numbers and lower-case letters only. If your CLUSTER_NAME variable does not follow these restrictions, you must manually define the Azure storage account name. For more information on Azure storage account name restrictions, see Resolve errors for storage account names in the Azure documentation.

2. Export the storage account key as an environment variable:

   $ export ACCOUNT_KEY=`az storage account keys list -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --query "[0].value" -o tsv`

3. Export the URL of the RHCOS VHD to an environment variable:

   $ export COMPRESSED_VHD_URL=$(openshift-install coreos print-stream-json | jq -r '.architectures.x86_64.artifacts.azurestack.formats."vhd.gz".disk.location')

   Important

   The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container Platform. You must specify an image with the highest version that is less than or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the image version that matches your OpenShift Container Platform version if it is available.

4. Create the storage container for the VHD:

   $ az storage container create --name vhd --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY}

5. Download the compressed RHCOS VHD file locally:

   $ curl -O -L ${COMPRESSED_VHD_URL}

6. Decompress the VHD file.

   Note

   The decompressed VHD file is approximately 16 GB, so be sure that your host system has 16 GB of free space available. You can delete the VHD file after you upload it.

7. Copy the local VHD to a blob:

   $ az storage blob upload --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY} -c vhd -n "rhcos.vhd" -f rhcos-<rhcos_version>-azurestack.x86_64.vhd

8. Create a blob storage container and upload the generated bootstrap.ign file:

   $ az storage container create --name files --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY}

   $ az storage blob upload --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY} -c "files" -f "<installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign" -n "bootstrap.ign"

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for the VNet section of this topic and save it as 01_vnet.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the VNet that your cluster requires.

2. Create the deployment by using the az CLI:

   $ az deployment group create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/01_vnet.json" \
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}"1

   1

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for image storage section of this topic and save it as 02_storage.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the image storage that your cluster requires.

2. Export the RHCOS VHD blob URL as a variable:

   $ export VHD_BLOB_URL=`az storage blob url --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY} -c vhd -n "rhcos.vhd" -o tsv`

3. Deploy the cluster image:

   $ az deployment group create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/02_storage.json" \
     --parameters vhdBlobURL="${VHD_BLOB_URL}" \ 1
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}" \ 2
     --parameters storageAccount="${CLUSTER_NAME}sa" \ 3
     --parameters architecture="<architecture>" 4

   1

   The blob URL of the RHCOS VHD to be used to create master and worker machines.

   2

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

   3

   The name of your Azure storage account.

   4

   Specify the system architecture. Valid values are x64 (default) or Arm64.

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for the network and load balancers section of this topic and save it as 03_infra.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the networking and load balancing objects that your cluster requires.

2. Create the deployment by using the az CLI:

   $ az deployment group create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/03_infra.json" \
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}"1

   1

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

3. Create an api DNS record and an api-int DNS record. When creating the API DNS records, the ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} variable must point to the resource group where the DNS zone exists.

   1. Export the following variable:

      $ export PUBLIC_IP=`az network public-ip list -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --query "[?name=='${INFRA_ID}-master-pip'] | [0].ipAddress" -o tsv`

   2. Export the following variable:

      $ export PRIVATE_IP=`az network lb frontend-ip show -g "$RESOURCE_GROUP" --lb-name "${INFRA_ID}-internal" -n internal-lb-ip --query "privateIpAddress" -o tsv`

   3. Create the api DNS record in a new DNS zone:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z ${CLUSTER_NAME}.${BASE_DOMAIN} -n api -a ${PUBLIC_IP} --ttl 60

      If you are adding the cluster to an existing DNS zone, you can create the api DNS record in it instead:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z ${BASE_DOMAIN} -n api.${CLUSTER_NAME} -a ${PUBLIC_IP} --ttl 60

   4. Create the api-int DNS record in a new DNS zone:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z "${CLUSTER_NAME}.${BASE_DOMAIN}" -n api-int -a ${PRIVATE_IP} --ttl 60

      If you are adding the cluster to an existing DNS zone, you can create the api-int DNS record in it instead:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z ${BASE_DOMAIN} -n api-int.${CLUSTER_NAME} -a ${PRIVATE_IP} --ttl 60

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for the bootstrap machine section of this topic and save it as 04_bootstrap.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the bootstrap machine that your cluster requires.

2. Export the bootstrap URL variable:

   $ bootstrap_url_expiry=`date -u -d "10 hours" '+%Y-%m-%dT%H:%MZ'`

   $ export BOOTSTRAP_URL=`az storage blob generate-sas -c 'files' -n 'bootstrap.ign' --https-only --full-uri --permissions r --expiry $bootstrap_url_expiry --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY} -o tsv`

3. Export the bootstrap ignition variable:

   1. If your environment uses a public certificate authority (CA), run this command:

      $ export BOOTSTRAP_IGNITION=`jq -rcnM --arg v "3.2.0" --arg url ${BOOTSTRAP_URL} '{ignition:{version:$v,config:{replace:{source:$url}}}}' | base64 | tr -d '\n'`

   2. If your environment uses an internal CA, you must add your PEM encoded bundle to the bootstrap ignition stub so that your bootstrap virtual machine can pull the bootstrap ignition from the storage account. Run the following commands, which assume your CA is in a file called CA.pem:

      $ export CA="data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,$(cat CA.pem |base64 |tr -d '\n')"

      $ export BOOTSTRAP_IGNITION=`jq -rcnM --arg v "3.2.0" --arg url "$BOOTSTRAP_URL" --arg cert "$CA" '{ignition:{version:$v,security:{tls:{certificateAuthorities:[{source:$cert}]}},config:{replace:{source:$url}}}}' | base64 | tr -d '\n'`

4. Create the deployment by using the az CLI:

   $ az deployment group create --verbose -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/04_bootstrap.json" \
     --parameters bootstrapIgnition="${BOOTSTRAP_IGNITION}" \ 1
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}" \ 2
     --parameters diagnosticsStorageAccountName="${CLUSTER_NAME}sa" 3

   1

   The bootstrap Ignition content for the bootstrap cluster.

   2

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

   3

   The name of the storage account for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for control plane machines section of this topic and save it as 05_masters.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the control plane machines that your cluster requires.

2. Export the following variable needed by the control plane machine deployment:

   $ export MASTER_IGNITION=`cat <installation_directory>/master.ign | base64 | tr -d '\n'`

3. Create the deployment by using the az CLI:

   $ az deployment group create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/05_masters.json" \
     --parameters masterIgnition="${MASTER_IGNITION}" \ 1
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}" \ 2
     --parameters diagnosticsStorageAccountName="${CLUSTER_NAME}sa" 3

   1

   The Ignition content for the control plane nodes (also known as the master nodes).

   2

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

   3

   The name of the storage account for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:

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

   1

   For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

   2

   To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

   If the command exits without a FATAL warning, your production control plane has initialized.

2. Delete the bootstrap resources:

   $ az network nsg rule delete -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --nsg-name ${INFRA_ID}-nsg --name bootstrap_ssh_in
   $ az vm stop -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap
   $ az vm deallocate -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap
   $ az vm delete -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap --yes
   $ az disk delete -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap_OSDisk --no-wait --yes
   $ az network nic delete -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap-nic --no-wait
   $ az storage blob delete --account-key ${ACCOUNT_KEY} --account-name ${CLUSTER_NAME}sa --container-name files --name bootstrap.ign
   $ az network public-ip delete -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} --name ${INFRA_ID}-bootstrap-ssh-pip

Procedure

1. Copy the template from the ARM template for worker machines section of this topic and save it as 06_workers.json in your cluster’s installation directory. This template describes the worker machines that your cluster requires.

2. Export the following variable needed by the worker machine deployment:

   $ export WORKER_IGNITION=`cat <installation_directory>/worker.ign | base64 | tr -d '\n'`

3. Create the deployment by using the az CLI:

   $ az deployment group create -g ${RESOURCE_GROUP} \
     --template-file "<installation_directory>/06_workers.json" \
     --parameters workerIgnition="${WORKER_IGNITION}" \ 1
     --parameters baseName="${INFRA_ID}" 2
     --parameters diagnosticsStorageAccountName="${CLUSTER_NAME}sa" 3

   1

   The Ignition content for the worker nodes.

   2

   The base name to be used in resource names; this is usually the cluster’s infrastructure ID.

   3

   The name of the storage account for your cluster.

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 Clients 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

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

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 Clients 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

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

Procedure

1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  63m  v1.28.5
   master-1  Ready     master  63m  v1.28.5
   master-2  Ready     master  64m  v1.28.5

   The output lists all of the machines that you created.

   Note

   The preceding output might not include the compute nodes, also known as worker nodes, until some CSRs are approved.

2. Review the pending CSRs and ensure that you see the client requests with the Pending or Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster:

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

   NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
   csr-8b2br   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
   csr-8vnps   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
   ...

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

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

   Note

   Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each node. You must approve all of these certificates. After the client CSR is approved, the Kubelet creates a secondary CSR for the serving certificate, which requires manual approval. Then, subsequent serving certificate renewal requests are automatically approved by the machine-approver if the Kubelet requests a new certificate with identical parameters.

   Note

   For clusters running on platforms that are not machine API enabled, such as bare metal and other user-provisioned infrastructure, you must implement a method of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests (CSRs). If a request is not approved, then the oc exec, oc rsh, and oc logs commands cannot succeed, because a serving certificate is required when the API server connects to the kubelet. Any operation that contacts the Kubelet endpoint requires this certificate approval to be in place. The method must watch for new CSRs, confirm that the CSR was submitted by the node-bootstrapper service account in the system:node or system:admin groups, and confirm the identity of the node.

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

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

     1

     <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

   • To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

     $ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs --no-run-if-empty oc adm certificate approve

     Note

     Some Operators might not become available until some CSRs are approved.

4. Now that your client requests are approved, you must review the server requests for each machine that you added to the cluster:

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

   NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
   csr-bfd72   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
   csr-c57lv   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
   ...

5. If the remaining CSRs are not approved, and are in the Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

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

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

     1

     <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

   • To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

     $ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

6. After all client and server CSRs have been approved, the machines have the Ready status. Verify this by running the following command:

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  73m  v1.28.5
   master-1  Ready     master  73m  v1.28.5
   master-2  Ready     master  74m  v1.28.5
   worker-0  Ready     worker  11m  v1.28.5
   worker-1  Ready     worker  11m  v1.28.5

   Note

   It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to transition to the Ready status.

Procedure

1. Confirm the Ingress router has created a load balancer and populated the EXTERNAL-IP field:

   $ oc -n openshift-ingress get service router-default

   Example output

   NAME             TYPE           CLUSTER-IP      EXTERNAL-IP     PORT(S)                      AGE
   router-default   LoadBalancer   172.30.20.10   35.130.120.110   80:32288/TCP,443:31215/TCP   20

2. Export the Ingress router IP as a variable:

   $ export PUBLIC_IP_ROUTER=`oc -n openshift-ingress get service router-default --no-headers | awk '{print $4}'`

3. Add a *.apps record to the DNS zone.

   1. If you are adding this cluster to a new DNS zone, run:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z ${CLUSTER_NAME}.${BASE_DOMAIN} -n *.apps -a ${PUBLIC_IP_ROUTER} --ttl 300

   2. If you are adding this cluster to an already existing DNS zone, run:

      $ az network dns record-set a add-record -g ${BASE_DOMAIN_RESOURCE_GROUP} -z ${BASE_DOMAIN} -n *.apps.${CLUSTER_NAME} -a ${PUBLIC_IP_ROUTER} --ttl 300