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Chapter 2. Installer-provisioned infrastructure

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2.1. vSphere installation requirements

Before you begin an installation using installer-provisioned infrastructure, be sure that your vSphere environment meets the following installation requirements.

2.1.1. VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on one of the following versions of a VMware vSphere instance that meets the requirements for the components that you use:

  • Version 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later
  • Version 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later

Both of these releases support Container Storage Interface (CSI) migration, which is enabled by default on OpenShift Container Platform 4.15.

You can host the VMware vSphere infrastructure on-premise or on a VMware Cloud Verified provider that meets the requirements outlined in the following tables:

Table 2.1. Version requirements for vSphere virtual environments
Virtual environment productRequired version

VMware virtual hardware

15 or later

vSphere ESXi hosts

7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later

vCenter host

7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later

Important

You must ensure that the time on your ESXi hosts is synchronized before you install OpenShift Container Platform. See Edit Time Configuration for a Host in the VMware documentation.

Table 2.2. Minimum supported vSphere version for VMware components
ComponentMinimum supported versionsDescription

Hypervisor

vSphere 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; vSphere 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later with virtual hardware version 15

This hypervisor version is the minimum version that Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) supports. For more information about supported hardware on the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that is compatible with RHCOS, see Hardware on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Optional: Networking (NSX-T)

vSphere 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; vSphere 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later

For more information about the compatibility of NSX and OpenShift Container Platform, see the Release Notes section of VMware’s NSX container plugin documentation.

CPU micro-architecture

x86-64-v2 or higher

OpenShift 4.13 and later are based on RHEL 9.2 host operating system which raised the microarchitecture requirements to x86-64-v2. See the RHEL Microarchitecture requirements documentation. You can verify compatibility by following the procedures outlined in this KCS article.

Important

To ensure the best performance conditions for your cluster workloads that operate on Oracle® Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and on the Oracle® Cloud VMware Solution (OCVS) service, ensure volume performance units (VPUs) for your block volume are sized for your workloads.

The following list provides some guidance in selecting the VPUs needed for specific performance needs:

  • Test or proof of concept environment: 100 GB, and 20 to 30 VPUs.
  • Base-production environment: 500 GB, and 60 VPUs.
  • Heavy-use production environment: More than 500 GB, and 100 or more VPUs.

Consider allocating additional VPUs to give enough capacity for updates and scaling activities. See Block Volume Performance Levels (Oracle documentation).

2.1.2. Network connectivity requirements

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow OpenShift Container Platform cluster components to communicate.

Review the following details about the required network ports.

Table 2.3. Ports used for all-machine to all-machine communications
ProtocolPortDescription

VRRP

N/A

Required for keepalived

ICMP

N/A

Network reachability tests

TCP

1936

Metrics

9000-9999

Host level services, including the node exporter on ports 9100-9101 and the Cluster Version Operator on port 9099.

10250-10259

The default ports that Kubernetes reserves

10256

openshift-sdn

UDP

4789

virtual extensible LAN (VXLAN)

6081

Geneve

9000-9999

Host level services, including the node exporter on ports 9100-9101.

500

IPsec IKE packets

4500

IPsec NAT-T packets

TCP/UDP

30000-32767

Kubernetes node port

ESP

N/A

IPsec Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)

Table 2.4. Ports used for all-machine to control plane communications
ProtocolPortDescription

TCP

6443

Kubernetes API

Table 2.5. Ports used for control plane machine to control plane machine communications
ProtocolPortDescription

TCP

2379-2380

etcd server and peer ports

2.1.3. VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator requirements

To install the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) Driver Operator, the following requirements must be met:

  • VMware vSphere version: 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later
  • vCenter version: 7.0 Update 2 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 or later; 8.0 Update 1 or later, or VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 or later
  • Virtual machines of hardware version 15 or later
  • No third-party vSphere CSI driver already installed in the cluster

If a third-party vSphere CSI driver is present in the cluster, OpenShift Container Platform does not overwrite it. The presence of a third-party vSphere CSI driver prevents OpenShift Container Platform from updating to OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 or later.

Note

The VMware vSphere CSI Driver Operator is supported only on clusters deployed with platform: vsphere in the installation manifest.

You can create a custom role for the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver, the vSphere CSI Driver Operator, and the vSphere Problem Detector Operator. The custom role can include privilege sets that assign a minimum set of permissions to each vSphere object. This means that the CSI driver, the vSphere CSI Driver Operator, and the vSphere Problem Detector Operator can establish a basic interaction with these objects.

Important

Installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter is tested against a full list of privileges as described in the "Required vCenter account privileges" section. By adhering to the full list of privileges, you can reduce the possibility of unexpected and unsupported behaviors that might occur when creating a custom role with a set of restricted privileges.

Additional resources

2.1.4. vCenter requirements

Before you install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your vCenter that uses infrastructure that the installer provisions, you must prepare your environment.

Required vCenter account privileges

To install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter, the installation program requires access to an account with privileges to read and create the required resources. Using an account that has global administrative privileges is the simplest way to access all of the necessary permissions.

If you cannot use an account with global administrative privileges, you must create roles to grant the privileges necessary for OpenShift Container Platform cluster installation. While most of the privileges are always required, some are required only if you plan for the installation program to provision a folder to contain the OpenShift Container Platform cluster on your vCenter instance, which is the default behavior. You must create or amend vSphere roles for the specified objects to grant the required privileges.

An additional role is required if the installation program is to create a vSphere virtual machine folder.

Example 2.1. Roles and privileges required for installation in vSphere API

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges in vSphere API

vSphere vCenter

Always

Cns.Searchable
InventoryService.Tagging.AttachTag
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.Update
StorageProfile.View

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If VMs will be created in the cluster root

Host.Config.Storage
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.AssignResourcePool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If an existing resource pool is provided

Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.AssignResourcePool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk

vSphere Datastore

Always

Datastore.AllocateSpace
Datastore.Browse
Datastore.FileManagement
InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable

vSphere Port Group

Always

Network.Assign

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskLease
VirtualMachine.Config.EditDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.RemoveDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.Rename
Host.Config.Storage
VirtualMachine.Config.ResetGuestInfo
VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Config.UpgradeVirtualHardware
VirtualMachine.Interact.GuestControl
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Interact.Reset
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API. See the "Minimum permissions for the Machine API" table.

InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskLease
VirtualMachine.Config.EditDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.RemoveDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.Rename
VirtualMachine.Config.ResetGuestInfo
VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Config.UpgradeVirtualHardware
VirtualMachine.Interact.GuestControl
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Interact.Reset
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate
Folder.Create
Folder.Delete

Example 2.2. Roles and privileges required for installation in vCenter graphical user interface (GUI)

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges in vCenter GUI

vSphere vCenter

Always

Cns.Searchable
"vSphere Tagging"."Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag"
"vSphere Tagging"."Create vSphere Tag Category"
"vSphere Tagging"."Create vSphere Tag"
vSphere Tagging"."Delete vSphere Tag Category"
"vSphere Tagging"."Delete vSphere Tag"
"vSphere Tagging"."Edit vSphere Tag Category"
"vSphere Tagging"."Edit vSphere Tag"
Sessions."Validate session"
"Profile-driven storage"."Profile-driven storage update"
"Profile-driven storage"."Profile-driven storage view"

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If VMs will be created in the cluster root

Host.Configuration."Storage partition configuration"
Resource."Assign virtual machine to resource pool"
VApp."Assign resource pool"
VApp.Import
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add new disk"

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If an existing resource pool is provided

Host.Configuration."Storage partition configuration"
Resource."Assign virtual machine to resource pool"
VApp."Assign resource pool"
VApp.Import
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add new disk"

vSphere Datastore

Always

Datastore."Allocate space"
Datastore."Browse datastore"
Datastore."Low level file operations"
"vSphere Tagging"."Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on Object"

vSphere Port Group

Always

Network."Assign network"

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

"vSphere Tagging"."Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on Object"
Resource."Assign virtual machine to resource pool"
VApp.Import
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add existing disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add new disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add or remove device"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Advanced configuration"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Set annotation"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change CPU count"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Extend virtual disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Acquire disk lease"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Modify device settings"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change Memory"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Remove disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration".Rename
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Reset guest information"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change resource"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change Settings"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Upgrade virtual machine compatibility"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Guest operating system management by VIX API"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Power off"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Power on"
"Virtual machine".Interaction.Reset
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Create new"
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Create from existing"
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Remove"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Clone virtual machine"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Mark as template"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Deploy template"

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API.

"vSphere Tagging"."Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag on Object"
Resource."Assign virtual machine to resource pool"
VApp.Import
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add existing disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add new disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Add or remove device"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Advanced configuration"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Set annotation"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change CPU count"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Extend virtual disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Acquire disk lease"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Modify device settings"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change Memory"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Remove disk"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration".Rename
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Reset guest information"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change resource"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Change Settings"
"Virtual machine"."Change Configuration"."Upgrade virtual machine compatibility"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Guest operating system management by VIX API"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Power off"
"Virtual machine".Interaction."Power on"
"Virtual machine".Interaction.Reset
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Create new"
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Create from existing"
"Virtual machine"."Edit Inventory"."Remove"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Clone virtual machine"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Deploy template"
"Virtual machine".Provisioning."Mark as template"
Folder."Create folder"
Folder."Delete folder"

Additionally, the user requires some ReadOnly permissions, and some of the roles require permission to propogate the permissions to child objects. These settings vary depending on whether or not you install the cluster into an existing folder.

Example 2.3. Required permissions and propagation settings

vSphere objectWhen requiredPropagate to childrenPermissions required

vSphere vCenter

Always

False

Listed required privileges

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

Existing folder

False

ReadOnly permission

Installation program creates the folder

True

Listed required privileges

vSphere vCenter Cluster

Existing resource pool

False

ReadOnly permission

VMs in cluster root

True

Listed required privileges

vSphere vCenter Datastore

Always

False

Listed required privileges

vSphere Switch

Always

False

ReadOnly permission

vSphere Port Group

Always

False

Listed required privileges

vSphere vCenter Virtual Machine Folder

Existing folder

True

Listed required privileges

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

Existing resource pool

True

Listed required privileges

For more information about creating an account with only the required privileges, see vSphere Permissions and User Management Tasks in the vSphere documentation.

Minimum required vCenter account privileges

After you create a custom role and assign privileges to it, you can create permissions by selecting specific vSphere objects and then assigning the custom role to a user or group for each object.

Before you create permissions or request for the creation of permissions for a vSphere object, determine what minimum permissions apply to the vSphere object. By doing this task, you can ensure a basic interaction exists between a vSphere object and OpenShift Container Platform architecture.

Important

If you create a custom role and you do not assign privileges to it, the vSphere Server by default assigns a Read Only role to the custom role. Note that for the cloud provider API, the custom role only needs to inherit the privileges of the Read Only role.

Consider creating a custom role when an account with global administrative privileges does not meet your needs.

Important

Accounts that are not configured with the required privileges are unsupported. Installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vCenter is tested against a full list of privileges as described in the "Required vCenter account privileges" section. By adhering to the full list of privileges, you can reduce the possibility of unexpected behaviors that might occur when creating a custom role with a restricted set of privileges.

The following tables list the minimum permissions for a vSphere object that interacts with specific OpenShift Container Platform architecture.

Example 2.4. Minimum permissions on installer-provisioned infrastructure

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges

vSphere vCenter

Always

Cns.Searchable
InventoryService.Tagging.AttachTag
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.Update
StorageProfile.View

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If you intend to create VMs in the cluster root

Host.Config.Storage
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.AssignResourcePool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If you provide an existing resource pool in the install-config.yaml file

Datastore.Browse
Datastore.FileManagement
Host.Config.Storage
InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.AssignResourcePool
VApp.Import`minimum

vSphere Port Group

Always

Network.Assign

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskLease
VirtualMachine.Config.EditDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.RemoveDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.Rename
VirtualMachine.Config.ResetGuestInfo
VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Config.UpgradeVirtualHardware
VirtualMachine.Interact.GuestControl
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Interact.Reset
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API. If your cluster does use the Machine API and you want to set the minimum set of permissions for the API, see the "Minimum permissions for the Machine API" table.

Folder.Create
Folder.Delete
InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable
Resource.AssignVMToPool
VApp.Import
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddNewDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskLease
VirtualMachine.Config.EditDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.RemoveDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.Rename
VirtualMachine.Config.ResetGuestInfo
VirtualMachine.Config.Resource
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Config.UpgradeVirtualHardware
VirtualMachine.Interact.GuestControl
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Interact.Reset
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.MarkAsTemplate

Example 2.5. Minimum permissions for post-installation management of components

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges

vSphere vCenter

Always

Cns.Searchable
InventoryService.Tagging.AttachTag
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.Update
StorageProfile.View

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If you intend to create VMs in the cluster root

Host.Config.Storage
Resource.AssignVMToPool

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If you provide an existing resource pool in the install-config.yaml file

Host.Config.Storage

vSphere Datastore

Always

Datastore.AllocateSpace
Datastore.Browse
Datastore.FileManagement
InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable

vSphere Port Group

Always

Network.Assign

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API. If your cluster does use the Machine API and you want to set the minimum set of permissions for the API, see the "Minimum permissions for the Machine API" table.

Resource.AssignVMToPool
VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

Example 2.6. Minimum permissions for the storage components

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges

vSphere vCenter

Always

Cns.Searchable
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
StorageProfile.Update
StorageProfile.View

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If you intend to create VMs in the cluster root

Host.Config.Storage

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If you provide an existing resource pool in the install-config.yaml file

Host.Config.Storage

vSphere Datastore

Always

Datastore.Browse
Datastore.FileManagement
InventoryService.Tagging.ObjectAttachable

vSphere Port Group

Always

Read Only

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API. If your cluster does use the Machine API and you want to set the minimum set of permissions for the API, see the "Minimum permissions for the Machine API" table.

VirtualMachine.Config.AddExistingDisk
VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice

Example 2.7. Minimum permissions for the Machine API

vSphere object for roleWhen requiredRequired privileges

vSphere vCenter

Always

InventoryService.Tagging.AttachTag
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.CreateTag
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.DeleteTag
InventoryService.Tagging.EditCategory
InventoryService.Tagging.EditTag
Sessions.ValidateSession
StorageProfile.Update
StorageProfile.View

vSphere vCenter Cluster

If you intend to create VMs in the cluster root

Resource.AssignVMToPool

vSphere vCenter Resource Pool

If you provide an existing resource pool in the install-config.yaml file

Read Only

vSphere Datastore

Always

Datastore.AllocateSpace
Datastore.Browse

vSphere Port Group

Always

Network.Assign

Virtual Machine Folder

Always

VirtualMachine.Config.AddRemoveDevice
VirtualMachine.Config.AdvancedConfig
VirtualMachine.Config.Annotation
VirtualMachine.Config.CPUCount
VirtualMachine.Config.DiskExtend
VirtualMachine.Config.Memory
VirtualMachine.Config.Settings
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Inventory.CreateFromExisting
VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.Clone
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

vSphere vCenter Datacenter

If the installation program creates the virtual machine folder. For user-provisioned infrastructure, VirtualMachine.Inventory.Create and VirtualMachine.Inventory.Delete privileges are optional if your cluster does not use the Machine API.

Resource.AssignVMToPool
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOff
VirtualMachine.Interact.PowerOn
VirtualMachine.Provisioning.DeployTemplate

Using OpenShift Container Platform with vMotion

If you intend on using vMotion in your vSphere environment, consider the following before installing an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  • Using Storage vMotion can cause issues and is not supported.
  • Using VMware compute vMotion to migrate the workloads for both OpenShift Container Platform compute machines and control plane machines is generally supported, where generally implies that you meet all VMware best practices for vMotion.

    To help ensure the uptime of your compute and control plane nodes, ensure that you follow the VMware best practices for vMotion, and use VMware anti-affinity rules to improve the availability of OpenShift Container Platform during maintenance or hardware issues.

    For more information about vMotion and anti-affinity rules, see the VMware vSphere documentation for vMotion networking requirements and VM anti-affinity rules.

  • If you are using VMware vSphere volumes in your pods, migrating a VM across datastores, either manually or through Storage vMotion, causes invalid references within OpenShift Container Platform persistent volume (PV) objects that can result in data loss.
  • OpenShift Container Platform does not support selective migration of VMDKs across datastores, using datastore clusters for VM provisioning or for dynamic or static provisioning of PVs, or using a datastore that is part of a datastore cluster for dynamic or static provisioning of PVs.

    Important

    You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), which uses Storage vMotion, is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage DRS to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

    If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

Cluster resources

When you deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster that uses installer-provisioned infrastructure, the installation program must be able to create several resources in your vCenter instance.

A standard OpenShift Container Platform installation creates the following vCenter resources:

  • 1 Folder
  • 1 Tag category
  • 1 Tag
  • Virtual machines:

    • 1 template
    • 1 temporary bootstrap node
    • 3 control plane nodes
    • 3 compute machines

Although these resources use 856 GB of storage, the bootstrap node is destroyed during the cluster installation process. A minimum of 800 GB of storage is required to use a standard cluster.

If you deploy more compute machines, the OpenShift Container Platform cluster will use more storage.

Cluster limits

Available resources vary between clusters. The number of possible clusters within a vCenter is limited primarily by available storage space and any limitations on the number of required resources. Be sure to consider both limitations to the vCenter resources that the cluster creates and the resources that you require to deploy a cluster, such as IP addresses and networks.

Networking requirements

You can use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for the network and configure the DHCP server to set persistent IP addresses to machines in your cluster. In the DHCP lease, you must configure the DHCP to use the default gateway.

Note

You do not need to use the DHCP for the network if you want to provision nodes with static IP addresses.

If you are installing to a restricted environment, the VM in your restricted network must have access to vCenter so that it can provision and manage nodes, persistent volume claims (PVCs), and other resources.

Note

Ensure that each OpenShift Container Platform node in the cluster has access to a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server that is discoverable by DHCP. Installation is possible without an NTP server. However, asynchronous server clocks can cause errors, which the NTP server prevents.

Additionally, you must create the following networking resources before you install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster:

Required IP Addresses

For a network that uses DHCP, an installer-provisioned vSphere installation requires two static IP addresses:

  • The API address is used to access the cluster API.
  • The Ingress address is used for cluster ingress traffic.

You must provide these IP addresses to the installation program when you install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

DNS records

You must create DNS records for two static IP addresses in the appropriate DNS server for the vCenter instance that hosts your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify when you install the cluster. A complete DNS record takes the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

Table 2.6. Required DNS records
ComponentRecordDescription

API VIP

api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.

This DNS A/AAAA or CNAME (Canonical Name) record must point to the load balancer for the control plane machines. This record must be resolvable by both clients external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

Ingress VIP

*.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>.

A wildcard DNS A/AAAA or CNAME record that points to the load balancer that targets the machines that run the Ingress router pods, which are the worker nodes by default. This record must be resolvable by both clients external to the cluster and from all the nodes within the cluster.

Static IP addresses for vSphere nodes

You can provision bootstrap, control plane, and compute nodes to be configured with static IP addresses in environments where Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) does not exist. To configure this environment, you must provide values to the platform.vsphere.hosts.role parameter in the install-config.yaml file.

Important

Static IP addresses for vSphere nodes 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.

By default, the installation program is configured to use the DHCP for the network, but this network has limited configurable capabilities.

After you define one or more machine pools in your install-config.yaml file, you can define network definitions for nodes on your network. Ensure that the number of network definitions matches the number of machine pools that you configured for your cluster.

Example network configuration that specifies different roles

# ...
platform:
  vsphere:
    hosts:
    - role: bootstrap 1
      networkDevice:
        ipAddrs:
        - 192.168.204.10/24 2
        gateway: 192.168.204.1 3
        nameservers: 4
        - 192.168.204.1
    - role: control-plane
      networkDevice:
        ipAddrs:
        - 192.168.204.11/24
        gateway: 192.168.204.1
        nameservers:
        - 192.168.204.1
    - role: control-plane
      networkDevice:
        ipAddrs:
        - 192.168.204.12/24
        gateway: 192.168.204.1
        nameservers:
        - 192.168.204.1
    - role: control-plane
      networkDevice:
        ipAddrs:
        - 192.168.204.13/24
        gateway: 192.168.204.1
        nameservers:
        - 192.168.204.1
    - role: compute
      networkDevice:
        ipAddrs:
        - 192.168.204.14/24
        gateway: 192.168.204.1
        nameservers:
        - 192.168.204.1
# ...

1
Valid network definition values include bootstrap, control-plane, and compute. You must list at least one bootstrap network definition in your install-config.yaml configuration file.
2
Lists IPv4, IPv6, or both IP addresses that the installation program passes to the network interface. The machine API controller assigns all configured IP addresses to the default network interface.
3
The default gateway for the network interface.
4
Lists up to 3 DNS nameservers.
Important

To enable the Technology Preview feature of static IP addresses for vSphere nodes for your cluster, you must include featureSet:TechPreviewNoUpgrade as the initial entry in the install-config.yaml file.

After you deployed your cluster to run nodes with static IP addresses, you can scale a machine to use one of these static IP addresses. Additionally, you can use a machine set to configure a machine to use one of the configured static IP addresses.

2.2. Preparing to install a cluster using installer-provisioned infrastructure

You prepare to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster on vSphere by completing the following steps:

  • Downloading the installation program.

    Note

    If you are installing in a disconnected environment, you extract the installation program from the mirrored content. For more information, see Mirroring images for a disconnected installation.

  • Installing the OpenShift CLI (oc).

    Note

    If you are installing in a disconnected environment, install oc to the mirror host.

  • Generating an SSH key pair. You can use this key pair to authenticate into the OpenShift Container Platform cluster’s nodes after it is deployed.
  • Adding your vCenter’s trusted root CA certificates to your system trust.

2.2.1. 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 machine that runs Linux, for example Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8, with at least 1.2 GB of local disk space.

    Important

    If you attempt to run the installation program on macOS, a known issue related to the golang compiler causes the installation of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster to fail. For more information about this issue, see the section named "Known Issues" in the OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 release notes document.

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.

2.2.2. 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>

2.2.3. 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.

2.2.4. Adding vCenter root CA certificates to your system trust

Because the installation program requires access to your vCenter’s API, you must add your vCenter’s trusted root CA certificates to your system trust before you install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

  1. From the vCenter home page, download the vCenter’s root CA certificates. Click Download trusted root CA certificates in the vSphere Web Services SDK section. The <vCenter>/certs/download.zip file downloads.
  2. Extract the compressed file that contains the vCenter root CA certificates. The contents of the compressed file resemble the following file structure:

    certs
    ├── lin
    │   ├── 108f4d17.0
    │   ├── 108f4d17.r1
    │   ├── 7e757f6a.0
    │   ├── 8e4f8471.0
    │   └── 8e4f8471.r0
    ├── mac
    │   ├── 108f4d17.0
    │   ├── 108f4d17.r1
    │   ├── 7e757f6a.0
    │   ├── 8e4f8471.0
    │   └── 8e4f8471.r0
    └── win
        ├── 108f4d17.0.crt
        ├── 108f4d17.r1.crl
        ├── 7e757f6a.0.crt
        ├── 8e4f8471.0.crt
        └── 8e4f8471.r0.crl
    
    3 directories, 15 files
  3. Add the files for your operating system to the system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following command:

    # cp certs/lin/* /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors
  4. Update your system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following command:

    # update-ca-trust extract

2.3. Installing a cluster on vSphere

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.15, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance by using installer-provisioned infrastructure.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform supports deploying a cluster to a single VMware vCenter only. Deploying a cluster with machines/machine sets on multiple vCenters is not supported.

2.3.1. Prerequisites

2.3.2. 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.

2.3.3. 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 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.
  • Optional: Before you create the cluster, configure an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

    Important

    You do not need to specify API and Ingress static addresses for your installation program. If you choose this configuration, you must take additional actions to define network targets that accept an IP address from each referenced vSphere subnet. See the section "Configuring an external load balancer".

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 vsphere as the platform to target.
    3. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.
    4. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required permissions to create the cluster.

      The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

      Important

      Some VMware vCenter Single Sign-On (SSO) environments with Active Directory (AD) integration might primarily require you to use the traditional login method, which requires the <domain>\ construct.

      To ensure that vCenter account permission checks complete properly, consider using the User Principal Name (UPN) login method, such as <username>@<fully_qualified_domainname>.

    5. Select the data center in your vCenter instance to connect to.
    6. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

      Note

      Datastore and cluster names cannot exceed 60 characters; therefore, ensure the combined string length does not exceed the 60 character limit.

    7. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in. The installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster as the default resource pool.
    8. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and DNS records that you configured.
    9. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.
    10. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.
    11. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the DNS records that you configured.
    12. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster. The cluster name must be the same one that you used in the DNS records that you configured.

      Note

      Datastore and cluster names cannot exceed 60 characters; therefore, ensure the combined string length does not exceed the 60 character limit.

    13. Paste the pull secret from Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

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.

2.3.4. 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

2.3.5. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

2.3.5.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the managementState from Removed to Managed. When this has completed, you must configure storage.

2.3.5.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage. After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters. Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

2.3.5.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.
  • A cluster on VMware vSphere.
  • Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    Important

    OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is required.

  • Must have "100Gi" capacity.
Important

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

    Note

    When you use shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside access.

  2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

    $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry -l docker-registry=default

    Example output

    No resourses found in openshift-image-registry namespace

    Note

    If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this procedure.

  3. Check the registry configuration:

    $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage persistent volume claim (PVC). The PVC is generated based on the default storage class. However, be aware that the default storage class might provide ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, such as a RADOS Block Device (RBD), which can cause issues when you replicate to more than one replica.
  4. Check the clusteroperator status:

    $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

    Example output

    NAME             VERSION                              AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
    image-registry   4.7                                  True        False         False      6h50m

2.3.5.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

Important

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following command to set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the Recreate rollout strategy, and runs with only 1 replica:

    $ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'
  2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

    1. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere PersistentVolumeClaim object:

      kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      apiVersion: v1
      metadata:
        name: image-registry-storage 1
        namespace: openshift-image-registry 2
      spec:
        accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce 3
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 100Gi 4
      1
      A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.
      2
      The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-registry.
      3
      The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
      4
      The size of the persistent volume claim.
    2. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

      $ oc create -f pvc.yaml -n openshift-image-registry
  3. Enter the following command to edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

    $ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    By creating a custom PVC, you can leave the claim field blank for the default automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see Configuring the registry for vSphere.

2.3.6. 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

2.3.7. Next steps

2.4. Installing a cluster on vSphere with customizations

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.15, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance by using installer-provisioned infrastructure. To customize the installation, you modify parameters in the install-config.yaml file before you install the cluster.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform supports deploying a cluster to a single VMware vCenter only. Deploying a cluster with machines/machine sets on multiple vCenters is not supported.

2.4.1. Prerequisites

2.4.2. 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.

2.4.3. VMware vSphere region and zone enablement

You can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. Each datacenter can run multiple clusters. This configuration reduces the risk of a hardware failure or network outage that can cause your cluster to fail. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Important

The VMware vSphere region and zone enablement feature requires the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver as the default storage driver in the cluster. As a result, the feature is only available on a newly installed cluster.

For a cluster that was upgraded from a previous release, you must enable CSI automatic migration for the cluster. You can then configure multiple regions and zones for the upgraded cluster.

The default installation configuration deploys a cluster to a single vSphere datacenter. If you want to deploy a cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters, you must create an installation configuration file that enables the region and zone feature.

The default install-config.yaml file includes vcenters and failureDomains fields, where you can specify multiple vSphere datacenters and clusters for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. You can leave these fields blank if you want to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vSphere environment that consists of single datacenter.

The following list describes terms associated with defining zones and regions for your cluster:

  • Failure domain: Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
  • Region: Specifies a vCenter datacenter. You define a region by using a tag from the openshift-region tag category.
  • Zone: Specifies a vCenter cluster. You define a zone by using a tag from the openshift-zone tag category.
Note

If you plan on specifying more than one failure domain in your install-config.yaml file, you must create tag categories, zone tags, and region tags in advance of creating the configuration file.

You must create a vCenter tag for each vCenter datacenter, which represents a region. Additionally, you must create a vCenter tag for each cluster than runs in a datacenter, which represents a zone. After you create the tags, you must attach each tag to their respective datacenters and clusters.

The following table outlines an example of the relationship among regions, zones, and tags for a configuration with multiple vSphere datacenters running in a single VMware vCenter.

Datacenter (region)Cluster (zone)Tags

us-east

us-east-1

us-east-1a

us-east-1b

us-east-2

us-east-2a

us-east-2b

us-west

us-west-1

us-west-1a

us-west-1b

us-west-2

us-west-2a

us-west-2b

2.4.4. Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

  • You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. 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.
    2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:

      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 vsphere as the platform to target.
      3. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.
      4. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required permissions to create the cluster.

        The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

      5. Select the data center in your vCenter instance to connect to.

        Note

        After you create the installation configuration file, you can modify the file to create a multiple vSphere datacenters environment. This means that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. For more information about creating this environment, see the section named VMware vSphere region and zone enablement.

      6. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

        Warning

        You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), which uses Storage vMotion, is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage DRS to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

        You cannot specify more than one datastore path. If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

      7. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in. The installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster as the default resource pool.
      8. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and DNS records that you configured.
      9. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.
      10. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.
      11. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the DNS records that you configured.
      12. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

        The cluster name you enter must match the cluster name you specified when configuring the DNS records.

  2. Modify the install-config.yaml file. You can find more information about the available parameters in the "Installation configuration parameters" section.

    Note

    If you are installing a three-node cluster, be sure to set the compute.replicas parameter to 0. This ensures that the cluster’s control planes are schedulable. For more information, see "Installing a three-node cluster on vSphere".

  3. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    Important

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

2.4.4.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster

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.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute: 2
- architecture: amd64
  name:  <worker_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
controlPlane: 3
  architecture: amd64
  name: <parent_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: test 4
platform:
  vsphere: 5
    apiVIPs:
      - 10.0.0.1
    failureDomains: 6
    - name: <failure_domain_name>
      region: <default_region_name>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>"
        datacenter: <datacenter>
        datastore: "/<datacenter>/datastore/<datastore>" 7
        networks:
        - <VM_Network_name>
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>/Resources/<resourcePool>" 8
        folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>"
      zone: <default_zone_name>
    ingressVIPs:
    - 10.0.0.2
    vcenters:
    - datacenters:
      - <datacenter>
      password: <password>
      port: 443
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      user: administrator@vsphere.local
    diskType: thin 9
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'
1
The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the cluster name.
2 3
The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Only one control plane pool is used.
4
The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.
5
Optional: Provides additional configuration for the machine pool parameters for the compute and control plane machines.
6
Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
7
The path to the vSphere datastore that holds virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.
Important

You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage vMotion is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage vMotion to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

8
Optional: Provides an existing resource pool for machine creation. If you do not specify a value, the installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster.
9
The vSphere disk provisioning method.
Note

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later, the apiVIP and ingressVIP configuration settings are deprecated. Instead, use a list format to enter values in the apiVIPs and ingressVIPs configuration settings.

2.4.4.2. 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’s spec.noProxy field to bypass the proxy if necessary.

    Note

    The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and networking.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 object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

Procedure

  1. 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 matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations. You must include vCenter’s IP address and the IP range that you use for its machines.
    4
    If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-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 the trustedCA field of the Proxy object. The additionalTrustBundle 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 the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when http/https proxy is configured. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle config map. The default value is Proxyonly.
    Note

    The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

    Note

    If 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
  2. 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.

Note

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.

2.4.4.3. Configuring regions and zones for a VMware vCenter

You can modify the default installation configuration file, so that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter.

The default install-config.yaml file configuration from the previous release of OpenShift Container Platform is deprecated. You can continue to use the deprecated default configuration, but the openshift-installer will prompt you with a warning message that indicates the use of deprecated fields in the configuration file.

Important

The example uses the govc command. The govc command is an open source command available from VMware; it is not available from Red Hat. The Red Hat support team does not maintain the govc command. Instructions for downloading and installing govc are found on the VMware documentation website

Prerequisites

  • You have an existing install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

    Important

    You must specify at least one failure domain for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, so that you can provision datacenter objects for your VMware vCenter server. Consider specifying multiple failure domains if you need to provision virtual machine nodes in different datacenters, clusters, datastores, and other components. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following govc command-line tool commands to create the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories:

    Important

    If you specify different names for the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories, the installation of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster fails.

    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift region" openshift-region
    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift zone" openshift-zone
  2. To create a region tag for each region vSphere datacenter where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command in your terminal:

    $ govc tags.create -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag>
  3. To create a zone tag for each vSphere cluster where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command:

    $ govc tags.create -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag>
  4. Attach region tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>
  5. Attach the zone tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>/host/vcs-mdcnc-workload-1
  6. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment according to your chosen installation requirements.

Sample install-config.yaml file with multiple datacenters defined in a vSphere center

---
compute:
---
  vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
controlPlane:
---
vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
platform:
  vsphere:
    vcenters:
---
    datacenters:
      - <datacenter1_name>
      - <datacenter2_name>
    failureDomains:
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_1>
      region: <region_tag_1>
      zone: <zone_tag_1>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter1>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network1_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter1>/datastore/<datastore1>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>/Resources/<resourcePool1>"
        folder: "/<datacenter1>/vm/<folder1>"
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_2>
      region: <region_tag_2>
      zone: <zone_tag_2>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter2>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network2_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter2>/datastore/<datastore2>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>/Resources/<resourcePool2>"
        folder: "/<datacenter2>/vm/<folder2>"
---

2.4.5. 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 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.
  • Optional: Before you create the cluster, configure an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

    Important

    You do not need to specify API and Ingress static addresses for your installation program. If you choose this configuration, you must take additional actions to define network targets that accept an IP address from each referenced vSphere subnet. See the section "Configuring an external load balancer".

Procedure

  • 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 location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2
    To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

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.

2.4.6. 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

2.4.7. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

2.4.7.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the managementState from Removed to Managed. When this has completed, you must configure storage.

2.4.7.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage. After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters. Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

2.4.7.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.
  • A cluster on VMware vSphere.
  • Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    Important

    OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is required.

  • Must have "100Gi" capacity.
Important

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

    Note

    When you use shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside access.

  2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

    $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry -l docker-registry=default

    Example output

    No resourses found in openshift-image-registry namespace

    Note

    If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this procedure.

  3. Check the registry configuration:

    $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage persistent volume claim (PVC). The PVC is generated based on the default storage class. However, be aware that the default storage class might provide ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, such as a RADOS Block Device (RBD), which can cause issues when you replicate to more than one replica.
  4. Check the clusteroperator status:

    $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

    Example output

    NAME             VERSION                              AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
    image-registry   4.7                                  True        False         False      6h50m

2.4.7.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

Important

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following command to set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the Recreate rollout strategy, and runs with only 1 replica:

    $ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'
  2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

    1. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere PersistentVolumeClaim object:

      kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      apiVersion: v1
      metadata:
        name: image-registry-storage 1
        namespace: openshift-image-registry 2
      spec:
        accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce 3
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 100Gi 4
      1
      A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.
      2
      The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-registry.
      3
      The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
      4
      The size of the persistent volume claim.
    2. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

      $ oc create -f pvc.yaml -n openshift-image-registry
  3. Enter the following command to edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

    $ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    By creating a custom PVC, you can leave the claim field blank for the default automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see Configuring the registry for vSphere.

2.4.8. 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

2.4.9. Services for an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Configuring an external load balancer depends on your vendor’s load balancer.

The information and examples in this section are for guideline purposes only. Consult the vendor documentation for more specific information about the vendor’s load balancer.

Red Hat supports the following services for an external load balancer:

  • Ingress Controller
  • OpenShift API
  • OpenShift MachineConfig API

You can choose whether you want to configure one or all of these services for an external load balancer. Configuring only the Ingress Controller service is a common configuration option. To better understand each service, view the following diagrams:

Figure 2.1. Example network workflow that shows an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.2. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.3. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

The following configuration options are supported for external load balancers:

  • Use a node selector to map the Ingress Controller to a specific set of nodes. You must assign a static IP address to each node in this set, or configure each node to receive the same IP address from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Infrastructure nodes commonly receive this type of configuration.
  • Target all IP addresses on a subnet. This configuration can reduce maintenance overhead, because you can create and destroy nodes within those networks without reconfiguring the load balancer targets. If you deploy your ingress pods by using a machine set on a smaller network, such as a /27 or /28, you can simplify your load balancer targets.

    Tip

    You can list all IP addresses that exist in a network by checking the machine config pool’s resources.

Before you configure an external load balancer for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, consider the following information:

  • For a front-end IP address, you can use the same IP address for the front-end IP address, the Ingress Controller’s load balancer, and API load balancer. Check the vendor’s documentation for this capability.
  • For a back-end IP address, ensure that an IP address for an OpenShift Container Platform control plane node does not change during the lifetime of the external load balancer. You can achieve this by completing one of the following actions:

    • Assign a static IP address to each control plane node.
    • Configure each node to receive the same IP address from the DHCP every time the node requests a DHCP lease. Depending on the vendor, the DHCP lease might be in the form of an IP reservation or a static DHCP assignment.
  • Manually define each node that runs the Ingress Controller in the external load balancer for the Ingress Controller back-end service. For example, if the Ingress Controller moves to an undefined node, a connection outage can occur.

2.4.9.1. Configuring an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Before you configure an external load balancer, ensure that you read the "Services for an external load balancer" section.

Read the following prerequisites that apply to the service that you want to configure for your external load balancer.

Note

MetalLB, that runs on a cluster, functions as an external load balancer.

OpenShift API prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 6443 and 22623 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer. Check the following items:

    • Port 6443 provides access to the OpenShift API service.
    • Port 22623 can provide ignition startup configurations to nodes.
  • The front-end IP address and port 6443 are reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address and port 22623 are reachable only by OpenShift Container Platform nodes.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform control plane nodes on port 6443 and 22623.

Ingress Controller prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 443 and 80 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are be reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are reachable to all nodes that operate in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform nodes that run the Ingress Controller on ports 80, 443, and 1936.

Prerequisite for health check URL specifications

You can configure most load balancers by setting health check URLs that determine if a service is available or unavailable. OpenShift Container Platform provides these health checks for the OpenShift API, Machine Configuration API, and Ingress Controller backend services.

The following examples demonstrate health check specifications for the previously listed backend services:

Example of a Kubernetes API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:6443/readyz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of a Machine Config API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:22623/healthz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of an Ingress Controller health check specification

Path: HTTP:1936/healthz/ready
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 5
Interval: 10

Procedure

  1. Configure the HAProxy Ingress Controller, so that you can enable access to the cluster from your load balancer on ports 6443, 443, and 80:

    Example HAProxy configuration

    #...
    listen my-cluster-api-6443
        bind 192.168.1.100:6443
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /readyz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-machine-config-api-22623
        bind 192.168.1.100:22623
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /healthz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-443
            bind 192.168.1.100:443
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-80
            bind 192.168.1.100:80
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    # ...

  2. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and its resources are operational:

    1. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Kubernetes API server resource, by running the following command and observing the response:

      $ curl https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
      }
    2. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Machine config server resource, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 80, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L -H "Host: console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>" http://<load_balancer_front_end_IP_address>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.ocp4.private.opequon.net/
      cache-control: no-cache
    4. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L --insecure --resolve console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:443:<Load Balancer Front End IP Address> https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=1bf5e9573c9a2760c964ed1659cc1673; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
  3. Configure the DNS records for your cluster to target the front-end IP addresses of the external load balancer. You must update records to your DNS server for the cluster API and applications over the load balancer.

    Examples of modified DNS records

    <load_balancer_ip_address>  A  api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End

    <load_balancer_ip_address>   A apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End
    Important

    DNS propagation might take some time for each DNS record to become available. Ensure that each DNS record propagates before validating each record.

  4. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and DNS record configuration are operational:

    1. Verify that you can access the cluster API, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
        }
    2. Verify that you can access the cluster machine configuration, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl http://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster-name>.<base domain>/
      cache-control: no-cacheHTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=39HoZgztDnzjJkq/JuLJMeoKNXlfiVv2YgZc09c3TBOBU4NI6kDXaJH1LdicNhN1UsQWzon4Dor9GWGfopaTEQ==; Path=/; Secure
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:42:10 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=9b714eb87e93cf34853e87a92d6894be; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
    4. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=1bf5e9573c9a2760c964ed1659cc1673; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private

2.4.10. Next steps

2.5. Installing a cluster on vSphere with network customizations

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.15, you can install a cluster on your VMware vSphere instance by using installer-provisioned infrastructure with customized network configuration options. By customizing your network configuration, your cluster can coexist with existing IP address allocations in your environment and integrate with existing MTU and VXLAN configurations. To customize the installation, you modify parameters in the install-config.yaml file before you install the cluster.

You must set most of the network configuration parameters during installation, and you can modify only kubeProxy configuration parameters in a running cluster.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform supports deploying a cluster to a single VMware vCenter only. Deploying a cluster with machines/machine sets on multiple vCenters is not supported.

2.5.1. Prerequisites

2.5.2. 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.

2.5.3. VMware vSphere region and zone enablement

You can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. Each datacenter can run multiple clusters. This configuration reduces the risk of a hardware failure or network outage that can cause your cluster to fail. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Important

The VMware vSphere region and zone enablement feature requires the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver as the default storage driver in the cluster. As a result, the feature is only available on a newly installed cluster.

For a cluster that was upgraded from a previous release, you must enable CSI automatic migration for the cluster. You can then configure multiple regions and zones for the upgraded cluster.

The default installation configuration deploys a cluster to a single vSphere datacenter. If you want to deploy a cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters, you must create an installation configuration file that enables the region and zone feature.

The default install-config.yaml file includes vcenters and failureDomains fields, where you can specify multiple vSphere datacenters and clusters for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. You can leave these fields blank if you want to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vSphere environment that consists of single datacenter.

The following list describes terms associated with defining zones and regions for your cluster:

  • Failure domain: Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
  • Region: Specifies a vCenter datacenter. You define a region by using a tag from the openshift-region tag category.
  • Zone: Specifies a vCenter cluster. You define a zone by using a tag from the openshift-zone tag category.
Note

If you plan on specifying more than one failure domain in your install-config.yaml file, you must create tag categories, zone tags, and region tags in advance of creating the configuration file.

You must create a vCenter tag for each vCenter datacenter, which represents a region. Additionally, you must create a vCenter tag for each cluster than runs in a datacenter, which represents a zone. After you create the tags, you must attach each tag to their respective datacenters and clusters.

The following table outlines an example of the relationship among regions, zones, and tags for a configuration with multiple vSphere datacenters running in a single VMware vCenter.

Datacenter (region)Cluster (zone)Tags

us-east

us-east-1

us-east-1a

us-east-1b

us-east-2

us-east-2a

us-east-2b

us-west

us-west-1

us-west-1a

us-west-1b

us-west-2

us-west-2a

us-west-2b

2.5.4. Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

  • You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. 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.
    2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:

      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 vsphere as the platform to target.
      3. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.
      4. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required permissions to create the cluster.

        The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

      5. Select the data center in your vCenter instance to connect to.

        Note

        After you create the installation configuration file, you can modify the file to create a multiple vSphere datacenters environment. This means that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. For more information about creating this environment, see the section named VMware vSphere region and zone enablement.

      6. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

        Warning

        You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), which uses Storage vMotion, is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage DRS to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

        You cannot specify more than one datastore path. If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

      7. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in. The installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster as the default resource pool.
      8. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and DNS records that you configured.
      9. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.
      10. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.
      11. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the DNS records that you configured.
      12. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

        The cluster name you enter must match the cluster name you specified when configuring the DNS records.

  2. Modify the install-config.yaml file. You can find more information about the available parameters in the "Installation configuration parameters" section.
  3. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    Important

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

2.5.4.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster

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.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute: 2
- architecture: amd64
  name:  <worker_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
controlPlane: 3
  architecture: amd64
  name: <parent_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: test 4
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
  networkType: OVNKubernetes 5
  serviceNetwork:
  - 172.30.0.0/16
platform:
  vsphere: 6
    apiVIPs:
      - 10.0.0.1
    failureDomains: 7
    - name: <failure_domain_name>
      region: <default_region_name>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>"
        datacenter: <datacenter>
        datastore: "/<datacenter>/datastore/<datastore>" 8
        networks:
        - <VM_Network_name>
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>/Resources/<resourcePool>" 9
        folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>"
      zone: <default_zone_name>
    ingressVIPs:
    - 10.0.0.2
    vcenters:
    - datacenters:
      - <datacenter>
      password: <password>
      port: 443
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      user: administrator@vsphere.local
    diskType: thin 10
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'
1
The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the cluster name.
2 3
The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Only one control plane pool is used.
4
The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.
6
Optional: Provides additional configuration for the machine pool parameters for the compute and control plane machines.
7
Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
8
The path to the vSphere datastore that holds virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.
Important

You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage vMotion is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage vMotion to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

9
Optional: Provides an existing resource pool for machine creation. If you do not specify a value, the installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster.
10
The vSphere disk provisioning method.
5
The cluster network plugin to install. The default value OVNKubernetes is the only supported value.
Note

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later, the apiVIP and ingressVIP configuration settings are deprecated. Instead, use a list format to enter values in the apiVIPs and ingressVIPs configuration settings.

2.5.4.2. 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’s spec.noProxy field to bypass the proxy if necessary.

    Note

    The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and networking.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 object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

Procedure

  1. 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 matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations. You must include vCenter’s IP address and the IP range that you use for its machines.
    4
    If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-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 the trustedCA field of the Proxy object. The additionalTrustBundle 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 the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when http/https proxy is configured. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle config map. The default value is Proxyonly.
    Note

    The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

    Note

    If 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
  2. 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.

Note

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.

2.5.4.3. Optional: Deploying with dual-stack networking

For dual-stack networking in OpenShift Container Platform clusters, you can configure IPv4 and IPv6 address endpoints for cluster nodes. To configure IPv4 and IPv6 address endpoints for cluster nodes, edit the machineNetwork, clusterNetwork, and serviceNetwork configuration settings in the install-config.yaml file. Each setting must have two CIDR entries each. For a cluster with the IPv4 family as the primary address family, specify the IPv4 setting first. For a cluster with the IPv6 family as the primary address family, specify the IPv6 setting first.

machineNetwork:
- cidr: {{ extcidrnet }}
- cidr: {{ extcidrnet6 }}
clusterNetwork:
- cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
  hostPrefix: 23
- cidr: fd02::/48
  hostPrefix: 64
serviceNetwork:
- 172.30.0.0/16
- fd03::/112

To provide an interface to the cluster for applications that use IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, configure IPv4 and IPv6 virtual IP (VIP) address endpoints for the Ingress VIP and API VIP services. To configure IPv4 and IPv6 address endpoints, edit the apiVIPs and ingressVIPs configuration settings in the install-config.yaml file . The apiVIPs and ingressVIPs configuration settings use a list format. The order of the list indicates the primary and secondary VIP address for each service.

platform:
  vsphere:
    apiVIPs:
      - <api_ipv4>
      - <api_ipv6>
    ingressVIPs:
      - <wildcard_ipv4>
      - <wildcard_ipv6>
Note

For a cluster with dual-stack networking configuration, you must assign both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to the same interface.

2.5.4.4. Configuring regions and zones for a VMware vCenter

You can modify the default installation configuration file, so that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter.

The default install-config.yaml file configuration from the previous release of OpenShift Container Platform is deprecated. You can continue to use the deprecated default configuration, but the openshift-installer will prompt you with a warning message that indicates the use of deprecated fields in the configuration file.

Important

The example uses the govc command. The govc command is an open source command available from VMware; it is not available from Red Hat. The Red Hat support team does not maintain the govc command. Instructions for downloading and installing govc are found on the VMware documentation website

Prerequisites

  • You have an existing install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

    Important

    You must specify at least one failure domain for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, so that you can provision datacenter objects for your VMware vCenter server. Consider specifying multiple failure domains if you need to provision virtual machine nodes in different datacenters, clusters, datastores, and other components. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following govc command-line tool commands to create the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories:

    Important

    If you specify different names for the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories, the installation of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster fails.

    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift region" openshift-region
    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift zone" openshift-zone
  2. To create a region tag for each region vSphere datacenter where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command in your terminal:

    $ govc tags.create -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag>
  3. To create a zone tag for each vSphere cluster where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command:

    $ govc tags.create -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag>
  4. Attach region tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>
  5. Attach the zone tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>/host/vcs-mdcnc-workload-1
  6. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment according to your chosen installation requirements.

Sample install-config.yaml file with multiple datacenters defined in a vSphere center

---
compute:
---
  vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
controlPlane:
---
vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
platform:
  vsphere:
    vcenters:
---
    datacenters:
      - <datacenter1_name>
      - <datacenter2_name>
    failureDomains:
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_1>
      region: <region_tag_1>
      zone: <zone_tag_1>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter1>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network1_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter1>/datastore/<datastore1>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>/Resources/<resourcePool1>"
        folder: "/<datacenter1>/vm/<folder1>"
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_2>
      region: <region_tag_2>
      zone: <zone_tag_2>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter2>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network2_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter2>/datastore/<datastore2>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>/Resources/<resourcePool2>"
        folder: "/<datacenter2>/vm/<folder2>"
---

2.5.5. Network configuration phases

There are two phases prior to OpenShift Container Platform installation where you can customize the network configuration.

Phase 1

You can customize the following network-related fields in the install-config.yaml file before you create the manifest files:

  • networking.networkType
  • networking.clusterNetwork
  • networking.serviceNetwork
  • networking.machineNetwork

    For more information on these fields, refer to Installation configuration parameters.

    Note

    Set the networking.machineNetwork to match the CIDR that the preferred NIC resides in.

    Important

    The CIDR range 172.17.0.0/16 is reserved by libVirt. You cannot use this range or any range that overlaps with this range for any networks in your cluster.

Phase 2
After creating the manifest files by running openshift-install create manifests, you can define a customized Cluster Network Operator manifest with only the fields you want to modify. You can use the manifest to specify advanced network configuration.

You cannot override the values specified in phase 1 in the install-config.yaml file during phase 2. However, you can further customize the network plugin during phase 2.

2.5.6. Specifying advanced network configuration

You can use advanced network configuration for your network plugin to integrate your cluster into your existing network environment. You can specify advanced network configuration only before you install the cluster.

Important

Customizing your network configuration by modifying the OpenShift Container Platform manifest files created by the installation program is not supported. Applying a manifest file that you create, as in the following procedure, is supported.

Prerequisites

  • You have created the install-config.yaml file and completed any modifications to it.

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and create the manifests:

    $ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> 1
    1
    <installation_directory> specifies the name of the directory that contains the install-config.yaml file for your cluster.
  2. Create a stub manifest file for the advanced network configuration that is named cluster-network-03-config.yml in the <installation_directory>/manifests/ directory:

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Network
    metadata:
      name: cluster
    spec:
  3. Specify the advanced network configuration for your cluster in the cluster-network-03-config.yml file, such as in the following example:

    Enable IPsec for the OVN-Kubernetes network provider

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
    kind: Network
    metadata:
      name: cluster
    spec:
      defaultNetwork:
        ovnKubernetesConfig:
          ipsecConfig:
            mode: Full

  4. Optional: Back up the manifests/cluster-network-03-config.yml file. The installation program consumes the manifests/ directory when you create the Ignition config files.
  5. Remove the Kubernetes manifest files that define the control plane machines and compute machineSets:

    $ rm -f openshift/99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-*.yaml openshift/99_openshift-cluster-api_worker-machineset-*.yaml

    Because you create and manage these resources yourself, you do not have to initialize them.

    • You can preserve the MachineSet files to create compute machines by using the machine API, but you must update references to them to match your environment.

2.5.7. Cluster Network Operator configuration

The configuration for the cluster network is specified as part of the Cluster Network Operator (CNO) configuration and stored in a custom resource (CR) object that is named cluster. The CR specifies the fields for the Network API in the operator.openshift.io API group.

The CNO configuration inherits the following fields during cluster installation from the Network API in the Network.config.openshift.io API group:

clusterNetwork
IP address pools from which pod IP addresses are allocated.
serviceNetwork
IP address pool for services.
defaultNetwork.type
Cluster network plugin. OVNKubernetes is the only supported plugin during installation.

You can specify the cluster network plugin configuration for your cluster by setting the fields for the defaultNetwork object in the CNO object named cluster.

2.5.7.1. Cluster Network Operator configuration object

The fields for the Cluster Network Operator (CNO) are described in the following table:

Table 2.7. Cluster Network Operator configuration object
FieldTypeDescription

metadata.name

string

The name of the CNO object. This name is always cluster.

spec.clusterNetwork

array

A list specifying the blocks of IP addresses from which pod IP addresses are allocated and the subnet prefix length assigned to each individual node in the cluster. For example:

spec:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/19
    hostPrefix: 23
  - cidr: 10.128.32.0/19
    hostPrefix: 23

spec.serviceNetwork

array

A block of IP addresses for services. The OpenShift SDN and OVN-Kubernetes network plugins support only a single IP address block for the service network. For example:

spec:
  serviceNetwork:
  - 172.30.0.0/14

You can customize this field only in the install-config.yaml file before you create the manifests. The value is read-only in the manifest file.

spec.defaultNetwork

object

Configures the network plugin for the cluster network.

spec.kubeProxyConfig

object

The fields for this object specify the kube-proxy configuration. If you are using the OVN-Kubernetes cluster network plugin, the kube-proxy configuration has no effect.

defaultNetwork object configuration

The values for the defaultNetwork object are defined in the following table:

Table 2.8. defaultNetwork object
FieldTypeDescription

type

string

OVNKubernetes. The Red Hat OpenShift Networking network plugin is selected during installation. This value cannot be changed after cluster installation.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform uses the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin by default. OpenShift SDN is no longer available as an installation choice for new clusters.

ovnKubernetesConfig

object

This object is only valid for the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin.

Configuration for the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin

The following table describes the configuration fields for the OVN-Kubernetes network plugin:

Table 2.9. ovnKubernetesConfig object
FieldTypeDescription

mtu

integer

The maximum transmission unit (MTU) for the Geneve (Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation) overlay network. This is detected automatically based on the MTU of the primary network interface. You do not normally need to override the detected MTU.

If the auto-detected value is not what you expect it to be, confirm that the MTU on the primary network interface on your nodes is correct. You cannot use this option to change the MTU value of the primary network interface on the nodes.

If your cluster requires different MTU values for different nodes, you must set this value to 100 less than the lowest MTU value in your cluster. For example, if some nodes in your cluster have an MTU of 9001, and some have an MTU of 1500, you must set this value to 1400.

genevePort

integer

The port to use for all Geneve packets. The default value is 6081. This value cannot be changed after cluster installation.

ipsecConfig

object

Specify a configuration object for customizing the IPsec configuration.

policyAuditConfig

object

Specify a configuration object for customizing network policy audit logging. If unset, the defaults audit log settings are used.

gatewayConfig

object

Optional: Specify a configuration object for customizing how egress traffic is sent to the node gateway.

Note

While migrating egress traffic, you can expect some disruption to workloads and service traffic until the Cluster Network Operator (CNO) successfully rolls out the changes.

v4InternalSubnet

If your existing network infrastructure overlaps with the 100.64.0.0/16 IPv4 subnet, you can specify a different IP address range for internal use by OVN-Kubernetes. You must ensure that the IP address range does not overlap with any other subnet used by your OpenShift Container Platform installation. The IP address range must be larger than the maximum number of nodes that can be added to the cluster. For example, if the clusterNetwork.cidr value is 10.128.0.0/14 and the clusterNetwork.hostPrefix value is /23, then the maximum number of nodes is 2^(23-14)=512.

This field cannot be changed after installation.

The default value is 100.64.0.0/16.

v6InternalSubnet

If your existing network infrastructure overlaps with the fd98::/48 IPv6 subnet, you can specify a different IP address range for internal use by OVN-Kubernetes. You must ensure that the IP address range does not overlap with any other subnet used by your OpenShift Container Platform installation. The IP address range must be larger than the maximum number of nodes that can be added to the cluster.

This field cannot be changed after installation.

The default value is fd98::/48.

Table 2.10. policyAuditConfig object
FieldTypeDescription

rateLimit

integer

The maximum number of messages to generate every second per node. The default value is 20 messages per second.

maxFileSize

integer

The maximum size for the audit log in bytes. The default value is 50000000 or 50 MB.

maxLogFiles

integer

The maximum number of log files that are retained.

destination

string

One of the following additional audit log targets:

libc
The libc syslog() function of the journald process on the host.
udp:<host>:<port>
A syslog server. Replace <host>:<port> with the host and port of the syslog server.
unix:<file>
A Unix Domain Socket file specified by <file>.
null
Do not send the audit logs to any additional target.

syslogFacility

string

The syslog facility, such as kern, as defined by RFC5424. The default value is local0.

Table 2.11. gatewayConfig object
FieldTypeDescription

routingViaHost

boolean

Set this field to true to send egress traffic from pods to the host networking stack. For highly-specialized installations and applications that rely on manually configured routes in the kernel routing table, you might want to route egress traffic to the host networking stack. By default, egress traffic is processed in OVN to exit the cluster and is not affected by specialized routes in the kernel routing table. The default value is false.

This field has an interaction with the Open vSwitch hardware offloading feature. If you set this field to true, you do not receive the performance benefits of the offloading because egress traffic is processed by the host networking stack.

ipForwarding

object

You can control IP forwarding for all traffic on OVN-Kubernetes managed interfaces by using the ipForwarding specification in the Network resource. Specify Restricted to only allow IP forwarding for Kubernetes related traffic. Specify Global to allow forwarding of all IP traffic. For new installations, the default is Restricted. For updates to OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 or later, the default is Global.

Table 2.12. ipsecConfig object
FieldTypeDescription

mode

string

Specifies the behavior of the IPsec implementation. Must be one of the following values:

  • Disabled: IPsec is not enabled on cluster nodes.
  • External: IPsec is enabled for network traffic with external hosts.
  • Full: IPsec is enabled for pod traffic and network traffic with external hosts.

Example OVN-Kubernetes configuration with IPSec enabled

defaultNetwork:
  type: OVNKubernetes
  ovnKubernetesConfig:
    mtu: 1400
    genevePort: 6081
      ipsecConfig:
        mode: Full

Important

Using OVNKubernetes can lead to a stack exhaustion problem on IBM Power®.

kubeProxyConfig object configuration (OpenShiftSDN container network interface only)

The values for the kubeProxyConfig object are defined in the following table:

Table 2.13. kubeProxyConfig object
FieldTypeDescription

iptablesSyncPeriod

string

The refresh period for iptables rules. The default value is 30s. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time package documentation.

Note

Because of performance improvements introduced in OpenShift Container Platform 4.3 and greater, adjusting the iptablesSyncPeriod parameter is no longer necessary.

proxyArguments.iptables-min-sync-period

array

The minimum duration before refreshing iptables rules. This field ensures that the refresh does not happen too frequently. Valid suffixes include s, m, and h and are described in the Go time package. The default value is:

kubeProxyConfig:
  proxyArguments:
    iptables-min-sync-period:
    - 0s

2.5.8. 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 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.
  • Optional: Before you create the cluster, configure an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

    Important

    You do not need to specify API and Ingress static addresses for your installation program. If you choose this configuration, you must take additional actions to define network targets that accept an IP address from each referenced vSphere subnet. See the section "Configuring an external load balancer".

Procedure

  • 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 location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2
    To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

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.

2.5.9. 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

  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

2.5.10. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the registry Operator.

2.5.10.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the managementState from Removed to Managed. When this has completed, you must configure storage.

2.5.10.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage. After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters. Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

2.5.10.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.
  • A cluster on VMware vSphere.
  • Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    Important

    OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is required.

  • Must have "100Gi" capacity.
Important

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

    Note

    When you use shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside access.

  2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

    $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry -l docker-registry=default

    Example output

    No resourses found in openshift-image-registry namespace

    Note

    If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this procedure.

  3. Check the registry configuration:

    $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage persistent volume claim (PVC). The PVC is generated based on the default storage class. However, be aware that the default storage class might provide ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, such as a RADOS Block Device (RBD), which can cause issues when you replicate to more than one replica.
  4. Check the clusteroperator status:

    $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

    Example output

    NAME             VERSION                              AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
    image-registry   4.7                                  True        False         False      6h50m

2.5.10.2.2. Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

Important

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following command to set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the Recreate rollout strategy, and runs with only 1 replica:

    $ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'
  2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

    1. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere PersistentVolumeClaim object:

      kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      apiVersion: v1
      metadata:
        name: image-registry-storage 1
        namespace: openshift-image-registry 2
      spec:
        accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce 3
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 100Gi 4
      1
      A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.
      2
      The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-registry.
      3
      The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
      4
      The size of the persistent volume claim.
    2. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

      $ oc create -f pvc.yaml -n openshift-image-registry
  3. Enter the following command to edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

    $ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    By creating a custom PVC, you can leave the claim field blank for the default automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see Configuring the registry for vSphere.

2.5.11. 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

2.5.12. Services for an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Configuring an external load balancer depends on your vendor’s load balancer.

The information and examples in this section are for guideline purposes only. Consult the vendor documentation for more specific information about the vendor’s load balancer.

Red Hat supports the following services for an external load balancer:

  • Ingress Controller
  • OpenShift API
  • OpenShift MachineConfig API

You can choose whether you want to configure one or all of these services for an external load balancer. Configuring only the Ingress Controller service is a common configuration option. To better understand each service, view the following diagrams:

Figure 2.4. Example network workflow that shows an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.5. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.6. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

The following configuration options are supported for external load balancers:

  • Use a node selector to map the Ingress Controller to a specific set of nodes. You must assign a static IP address to each node in this set, or configure each node to receive the same IP address from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Infrastructure nodes commonly receive this type of configuration.
  • Target all IP addresses on a subnet. This configuration can reduce maintenance overhead, because you can create and destroy nodes within those networks without reconfiguring the load balancer targets. If you deploy your ingress pods by using a machine set on a smaller network, such as a /27 or /28, you can simplify your load balancer targets.

    Tip

    You can list all IP addresses that exist in a network by checking the machine config pool’s resources.

Before you configure an external load balancer for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, consider the following information:

  • For a front-end IP address, you can use the same IP address for the front-end IP address, the Ingress Controller’s load balancer, and API load balancer. Check the vendor’s documentation for this capability.
  • For a back-end IP address, ensure that an IP address for an OpenShift Container Platform control plane node does not change during the lifetime of the external load balancer. You can achieve this by completing one of the following actions:

    • Assign a static IP address to each control plane node.
    • Configure each node to receive the same IP address from the DHCP every time the node requests a DHCP lease. Depending on the vendor, the DHCP lease might be in the form of an IP reservation or a static DHCP assignment.
  • Manually define each node that runs the Ingress Controller in the external load balancer for the Ingress Controller back-end service. For example, if the Ingress Controller moves to an undefined node, a connection outage can occur.

2.5.12.1. Configuring an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Before you configure an external load balancer, ensure that you read the "Services for an external load balancer" section.

Read the following prerequisites that apply to the service that you want to configure for your external load balancer.

Note

MetalLB, that runs on a cluster, functions as an external load balancer.

OpenShift API prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 6443 and 22623 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer. Check the following items:

    • Port 6443 provides access to the OpenShift API service.
    • Port 22623 can provide ignition startup configurations to nodes.
  • The front-end IP address and port 6443 are reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address and port 22623 are reachable only by OpenShift Container Platform nodes.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform control plane nodes on port 6443 and 22623.

Ingress Controller prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 443 and 80 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are be reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are reachable to all nodes that operate in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform nodes that run the Ingress Controller on ports 80, 443, and 1936.

Prerequisite for health check URL specifications

You can configure most load balancers by setting health check URLs that determine if a service is available or unavailable. OpenShift Container Platform provides these health checks for the OpenShift API, Machine Configuration API, and Ingress Controller backend services.

The following examples demonstrate health check specifications for the previously listed backend services:

Example of a Kubernetes API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:6443/readyz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of a Machine Config API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:22623/healthz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of an Ingress Controller health check specification

Path: HTTP:1936/healthz/ready
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 5
Interval: 10

Procedure

  1. Configure the HAProxy Ingress Controller, so that you can enable access to the cluster from your load balancer on ports 6443, 443, and 80:

    Example HAProxy configuration

    #...
    listen my-cluster-api-6443
        bind 192.168.1.100:6443
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /readyz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-machine-config-api-22623
        bind 192.168.1.100:22623
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /healthz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-443
            bind 192.168.1.100:443
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-80
            bind 192.168.1.100:80
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    # ...

  2. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and its resources are operational:

    1. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Kubernetes API server resource, by running the following command and observing the response:

      $ curl https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
      }
    2. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Machine config server resource, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 80, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L -H "Host: console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>" http://<load_balancer_front_end_IP_address>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.ocp4.private.opequon.net/
      cache-control: no-cache
    4. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L --insecure --resolve console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:443:<Load Balancer Front End IP Address> https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=1bf5e9573c9a2760c964ed1659cc1673; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
  3. Configure the DNS records for your cluster to target the front-end IP addresses of the external load balancer. You must update records to your DNS server for the cluster API and applications over the load balancer.

    Examples of modified DNS records

    <load_balancer_ip_address>  A  api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End

    <load_balancer_ip_address>   A apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End
    Important

    DNS propagation might take some time for each DNS record to become available. Ensure that each DNS record propagates before validating each record.

  4. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and DNS record configuration are operational:

    1. Verify that you can access the cluster API, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
        }
    2. Verify that you can access the cluster machine configuration, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl http://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster-name>.<base domain>/
      cache-control: no-cacheHTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=39HoZgztDnzjJkq/JuLJMeoKNXlfiVv2YgZc09c3TBOBU4NI6kDXaJH1LdicNhN1UsQWzon4Dor9GWGfopaTEQ==; Path=/; Secure
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:42:10 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=9b714eb87e93cf34853e87a92d6894be; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
    4. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=1bf5e9573c9a2760c964ed1659cc1673; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private

2.5.13. Configuring network components to run on the control plane

You can configure networking components to run exclusively on the control plane nodes. By default, OpenShift Container Platform allows any node in the machine config pool to host the ingressVIP virtual IP address. However, some environments deploy worker nodes in separate subnets from the control plane nodes, which requires configuring the ingressVIP virtual IP address to run on the control plane nodes.

Note

You can scale the remote workers by creating a worker machineset in a separate subnet.

Important

When deploying remote workers in separate subnets, you must place the ingressVIP virtual IP address exclusively with the control plane nodes.

Installer-provisioned networking

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory storing the install-config.yaml file:

    $ cd ~/clusterconfigs
  2. Switch to the manifests subdirectory:

    $ cd manifests
  3. Create a file named cluster-network-avoid-workers-99-config.yaml:

    $ touch cluster-network-avoid-workers-99-config.yaml
  4. Open the cluster-network-avoid-workers-99-config.yaml file in an editor and enter a custom resource (CR) that describes the Operator configuration:

    apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
    kind: MachineConfig
    metadata:
      name: 50-worker-fix-ipi-rwn
      labels:
        machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
    spec:
      config:
        ignition:
          version: 3.2.0
        storage:
          files:
            - path: /etc/kubernetes/manifests/keepalived.yaml
              mode: 0644
              contents:
                source: data:,

    This manifest places the ingressVIP virtual IP address on the control plane nodes. Additionally, this manifest deploys the following processes on the control plane nodes only:

    • openshift-ingress-operator
    • keepalived
  5. Save the cluster-network-avoid-workers-99-config.yaml file.
  6. Create a manifests/cluster-ingress-default-ingresscontroller.yaml file:

    apiVersion: operator.openshift.io/v1
    kind: IngressController
    metadata:
      name: default
      namespace: openshift-ingress-operator
    spec:
      nodePlacement:
        nodeSelector:
          matchLabels:
            node-role.kubernetes.io/master: ""
  7. Consider backing up the manifests directory. The installer deletes the manifests/ directory when creating the cluster.
  8. Modify the cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml manifest to make the control plane nodes schedulable by setting the mastersSchedulable field to true. Control plane nodes are not schedulable by default. For example:

    $ sed -i "s;mastersSchedulable: false;mastersSchedulable: true;g" clusterconfigs/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml
    Note

    If control plane nodes are not schedulable after completing this procedure, deploying the cluster will fail.

2.5.14. Next steps

2.6. Installing a cluster on vSphere in a restricted network

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.15, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure in a restricted network by creating an internal mirror of the installation release content.

Note

OpenShift Container Platform supports deploying a cluster to a single VMware vCenter only. Deploying a cluster with machines/machine sets on multiple vCenters is not supported.

2.6.1. Prerequisites

2.6.2. About installations in restricted networks

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.15, you can perform an installation that does not require an active connection to the internet to obtain software components. Restricted network installations can be completed using installer-provisioned infrastructure or user-provisioned infrastructure, depending on the cloud platform to which you are installing the cluster.

If you choose to perform a restricted network installation on a cloud platform, you still require access to its cloud APIs. Some cloud functions, like Amazon Web Service’s Route 53 DNS and IAM services, require internet access. Depending on your network, you might require less internet access for an installation on bare metal hardware, Nutanix, or on VMware vSphere.

To complete a restricted network installation, you must create a registry that mirrors the contents of the OpenShift image registry and contains the installation media. You can create this registry on a mirror host, which can access both the internet and your closed network, or by using other methods that meet your restrictions.

2.6.2.1. Additional limits

Clusters in restricted networks have the following additional limitations and restrictions:

  • The ClusterVersion status includes an Unable to retrieve available updates error.
  • By default, you cannot use the contents of the Developer Catalog because you cannot access the required image stream tags.

2.6.3. Internet access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.15, you require access to the internet to obtain the images that are necessary 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.

2.6.4. Creating the RHCOS image for restricted network installations

Download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image to install OpenShift Container Platform on a restricted network VMware vSphere environment.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program. For a restricted network installation, the program is on your mirror registry host.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the Red Hat Customer Portal’s Product Downloads page.
  2. Under Version, select the most recent release of OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 for RHEL 8.

    Important

    The RHCOS images might not change with every release of OpenShift Container Platform. You must download images with the highest version that is less than or equal to the OpenShift Container Platform version that you install. Use the image versions that match your OpenShift Container Platform version if they are available.

  3. Download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) - vSphere image.
  4. Upload the image you downloaded to a location that is accessible from the bastion server.

The image is now available for a restricted installation. Note the image name or location for use in OpenShift Container Platform deployment.

2.6.5. VMware vSphere region and zone enablement

You can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. Each datacenter can run multiple clusters. This configuration reduces the risk of a hardware failure or network outage that can cause your cluster to fail. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Important

The VMware vSphere region and zone enablement feature requires the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver as the default storage driver in the cluster. As a result, the feature is only available on a newly installed cluster.

For a cluster that was upgraded from a previous release, you must enable CSI automatic migration for the cluster. You can then configure multiple regions and zones for the upgraded cluster.

The default installation configuration deploys a cluster to a single vSphere datacenter. If you want to deploy a cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters, you must create an installation configuration file that enables the region and zone feature.

The default install-config.yaml file includes vcenters and failureDomains fields, where you can specify multiple vSphere datacenters and clusters for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster. You can leave these fields blank if you want to install an OpenShift Container Platform cluster in a vSphere environment that consists of single datacenter.

The following list describes terms associated with defining zones and regions for your cluster:

  • Failure domain: Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
  • Region: Specifies a vCenter datacenter. You define a region by using a tag from the openshift-region tag category.
  • Zone: Specifies a vCenter cluster. You define a zone by using a tag from the openshift-zone tag category.
Note

If you plan on specifying more than one failure domain in your install-config.yaml file, you must create tag categories, zone tags, and region tags in advance of creating the configuration file.

You must create a vCenter tag for each vCenter datacenter, which represents a region. Additionally, you must create a vCenter tag for each cluster than runs in a datacenter, which represents a zone. After you create the tags, you must attach each tag to their respective datacenters and clusters.

The following table outlines an example of the relationship among regions, zones, and tags for a configuration with multiple vSphere datacenters running in a single VMware vCenter.

Datacenter (region)Cluster (zone)Tags

us-east

us-east-1

us-east-1a

us-east-1b

us-east-2

us-east-2a

us-east-2b

us-west

us-west-1

us-west-1a

us-west-1b

us-west-2

us-west-2a

us-west-2b

2.6.6. Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OpenShift Container Platform cluster you install on VMware vSphere.

Prerequisites

  • You have the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster. For a restricted network installation, these files are on your mirror host.
  • You have the imageContentSources values that were generated during mirror registry creation.
  • You have obtained the contents of the certificate for your mirror registry.
  • You have retrieved a Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image and uploaded it to an accessible location.

Procedure

  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. 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.
    2. At the prompts, provide the configuration details for your cloud:

      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 vsphere as the platform to target.
      3. Specify the name of your vCenter instance.
      4. Specify the user name and password for the vCenter account that has the required permissions to create the cluster.

        The installation program connects to your vCenter instance.

      5. Select the data center in your vCenter instance to connect to.

        Note

        After you create the installation configuration file, you can modify the file to create a multiple vSphere datacenters environment. This means that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. For more information about creating this environment, see the section named VMware vSphere region and zone enablement.

      6. Select the default vCenter datastore to use.

        Warning

        You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), which uses Storage vMotion, is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage DRS to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

        You cannot specify more than one datastore path. If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

      7. Select the vCenter cluster to install the OpenShift Container Platform cluster in. The installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster as the default resource pool.
      8. Select the network in the vCenter instance that contains the virtual IP addresses and DNS records that you configured.
      9. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.
      10. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.
      11. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you used in the DNS records that you configured.
      12. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

        The cluster name you enter must match the cluster name you specified when configuring the DNS records.

  2. In the install-config.yaml file, set the value of platform.vsphere.clusterOSImage to the image location or name. For example:

    platform:
      vsphere:
          clusterOSImage: http://mirror.example.com/images/rhcos-43.81.201912131630.0-vmware.x86_64.ova?sha256=ffebbd68e8a1f2a245ca19522c16c86f67f9ac8e4e0c1f0a812b068b16f7265d
  3. Edit the install-config.yaml file to give the additional information that is required for an installation in a restricted network.

    1. Update the pullSecret value to contain the authentication information for your registry:

      pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<mirror_host_name>:5000": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}'

      For <mirror_host_name>, specify the registry domain name that you specified in the certificate for your mirror registry, and for <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.

    2. Add the additionalTrustBundle parameter and value.

      additionalTrustBundle: |
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----

      The value must be the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry. The certificate file can be an existing, trusted certificate authority, or the self-signed certificate that you generated for the mirror registry.

    3. Add the image content resources, which resemble the following YAML excerpt:

      imageContentSources:
      - mirrors:
        - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release
        source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release
      - mirrors:
        - <mirror_host_name>:5000/<repo_name>/release
        source: registry.redhat.io/ocp/release

      For these values, use the imageContentSources that you recorded during mirror registry creation.

    4. Optional: Set the publishing strategy to Internal:

      publish: Internal

      By setting this option, you create an internal Ingress Controller and a private load balancer.

  4. Make any other modifications to the install-config.yaml file that you require.

    For more information about the parameters, see "Installation configuration parameters".

  5. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    Important

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

2.6.6.1. Sample install-config.yaml file for an installer-provisioned VMware vSphere cluster

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.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com 1
compute: 2
- architecture: amd64
  name:  <worker_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
controlPlane: 3
  architecture: amd64
  name: <parent_node>
  platform: {}
  replicas: 3
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: test 4
platform:
  vsphere: 5
    apiVIPs:
      - 10.0.0.1
    failureDomains: 6
    - name: <failure_domain_name>
      region: <default_region_name>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>"
        datacenter: <datacenter>
        datastore: "/<datacenter>/datastore/<datastore>" 7
        networks:
        - <VM_Network_name>
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>/Resources/<resourcePool>" 8
        folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>"
      zone: <default_zone_name>
    ingressVIPs:
    - 10.0.0.2
    vcenters:
    - datacenters:
      - <datacenter>
      password: <password>
      port: 443
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      user: administrator@vsphere.local
    diskType: thin 9
    clusterOSImage: http://mirror.example.com/images/rhcos-47.83.202103221318-0-vmware.x86_64.ova 10
fips: false
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<local_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}' 11
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'
additionalTrustBundle: | 12
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
imageContentSources: 13
- mirrors:
  - <mirror_host_name>:<mirror_port>/<repo_name>/release
  source: <source_image_1>
- mirrors:
  - <mirror_host_name>:<mirror_port>/<repo_name>/release-images
  source: <source_image_2>
1
The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the cluster name.
2 3
The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Only one control plane pool is used.
4
The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.
5
Optional: Provides additional configuration for the machine pool parameters for the compute and control plane machines.
6
Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OpenShift Container Platform cluster nodes.
7
The path to the vSphere datastore that holds virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.
Important

You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage vMotion is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage vMotion to avoid data loss issues for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see "VMware vSphere region and zone enablement".

8
Optional: Provides an existing resource pool for machine creation. If you do not specify a value, the installation program uses the root resource pool of the vSphere cluster.
9
The vSphere disk provisioning method.
10
The location of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CoreOS (RHCOS) image that is accessible from the bastion server.
11
For <local_registry>, specify the registry domain name, and optionally the port, that your mirror registry uses to serve content. For example registry.example.com or registry.example.com:5000. For <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.
12
Provide the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry.
13
Provide the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the repository.
Note

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 and later, the apiVIP and ingressVIP configuration settings are deprecated. Instead, use a list format to enter values in the apiVIPs and ingressVIPs configuration settings.

2.6.6.2. 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’s spec.noProxy field to bypass the proxy if necessary.

    Note

    The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and networking.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 object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

Procedure

  1. 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 matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations. You must include vCenter’s IP address and the IP range that you use for its machines.
    4
    If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-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 the trustedCA field of the Proxy object. The additionalTrustBundle 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 the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when http/https proxy is configured. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle config map. The default value is Proxyonly.
    Note

    The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

    Note

    If 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
  2. 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.

Note

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.

2.6.6.3. Configuring regions and zones for a VMware vCenter

You can modify the default installation configuration file, so that you can deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter.

The default install-config.yaml file configuration from the previous release of OpenShift Container Platform is deprecated. You can continue to use the deprecated default configuration, but the openshift-installer will prompt you with a warning message that indicates the use of deprecated fields in the configuration file.

Important

The example uses the govc command. The govc command is an open source command available from VMware; it is not available from Red Hat. The Red Hat support team does not maintain the govc command. Instructions for downloading and installing govc are found on the VMware documentation website

Prerequisites

  • You have an existing install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

    Important

    You must specify at least one failure domain for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, so that you can provision datacenter objects for your VMware vCenter server. Consider specifying multiple failure domains if you need to provision virtual machine nodes in different datacenters, clusters, datastores, and other components. To enable regions and zones, you must define multiple failure domains for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following govc command-line tool commands to create the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories:

    Important

    If you specify different names for the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories, the installation of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster fails.

    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift region" openshift-region
    $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift zone" openshift-zone
  2. To create a region tag for each region vSphere datacenter where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command in your terminal:

    $ govc tags.create -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag>
  3. To create a zone tag for each vSphere cluster where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command:

    $ govc tags.create -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag>
  4. Attach region tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>
  5. Attach the zone tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    $ govc tags.attach -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>/host/vcs-mdcnc-workload-1
  6. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment according to your chosen installation requirements.

Sample install-config.yaml file with multiple datacenters defined in a vSphere center

---
compute:
---
  vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
controlPlane:
---
vsphere:
      zones:
        - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
        - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
---
platform:
  vsphere:
    vcenters:
---
    datacenters:
      - <datacenter1_name>
      - <datacenter2_name>
    failureDomains:
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_1>
      region: <region_tag_1>
      zone: <zone_tag_1>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter1>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network1_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter1>/datastore/<datastore1>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>/Resources/<resourcePool1>"
        folder: "/<datacenter1>/vm/<folder1>"
    - name: <machine_pool_zone_2>
      region: <region_tag_2>
      zone: <zone_tag_2>
      server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
      topology:
        datacenter: <datacenter2>
        computeCluster: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>"
        networks:
        - <VM_Network2_name>
        datastore: "/<datacenter2>/datastore/<datastore2>"
        resourcePool: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>/Resources/<resourcePool2>"
        folder: "/<datacenter2>/vm/<folder2>"
---

2.6.7. 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 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.
  • Optional: Before you create the cluster, configure an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

    Important

    You do not need to specify API and Ingress static addresses for your installation program. If you choose this configuration, you must take additional actions to define network targets that accept an IP address from each referenced vSphere subnet. See the section "Configuring an external load balancer".

Procedure

  • 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 location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2
    To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

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.

2.6.8. 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

2.6.9. Disabling the default OperatorHub catalog sources

Operator catalogs that source content provided by Red Hat and community projects are configured for OperatorHub by default during an OpenShift Container Platform installation. In a restricted network environment, you must disable the default catalogs as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

  • Disable the sources for the default catalogs by adding disableAllDefaultSources: true to the OperatorHub object:

    $ oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
        -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'
Tip

Alternatively, you can use the web console to manage catalog sources. From the Administration Cluster Settings Configuration OperatorHub page, click the Sources tab, where you can create, update, delete, disable, and enable individual sources.

2.6.10. Creating registry storage

After you install the cluster, you must create storage for the Registry Operator.

2.6.10.1. Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the managementState from Removed to Managed. When this has completed, you must configure storage.

2.6.10.2. Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage. After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters. Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

2.6.10.2.1. Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.
  • A cluster on VMware vSphere.
  • Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    Important

    OpenShift Container Platform supports ReadWriteOnce access for image registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is required.

  • Must have "100Gi" capacity.
Important

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was possibly completed against these OpenShift Container Platform core components.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

    Note

    When you use shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside access.

  2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

    $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry -l docker-registry=default

    Example output

    No resourses found in openshift-image-registry namespace

    Note

    If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this procedure.

  3. Check the registry configuration:

    $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

    Example output

    storage:
      pvc:
        claim: 1

    1
    Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage persistent volume claim (PVC). The PVC is generated based on the default storage class. However, be aware that the default storage class might provide ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, such as a RADOS Block Device (RBD), which can cause issues when you replicate to more than one replica.
  4. Check the clusteroperator status:

    $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

    Example output

    NAME             VERSION                              AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
    image-registry   4.7                                  True        False         False      6h50m

2.6.11. 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

2.6.12. Services for an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Configuring an external load balancer depends on your vendor’s load balancer.

The information and examples in this section are for guideline purposes only. Consult the vendor documentation for more specific information about the vendor’s load balancer.

Red Hat supports the following services for an external load balancer:

  • Ingress Controller
  • OpenShift API
  • OpenShift MachineConfig API

You can choose whether you want to configure one or all of these services for an external load balancer. Configuring only the Ingress Controller service is a common configuration option. To better understand each service, view the following diagrams:

Figure 2.7. Example network workflow that shows an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an Ingress Controller operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.8. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

Figure 2.9. Example network workflow that shows an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment

An image that shows an example network workflow of an OpenShift MachineConfig API operating in an OpenShift Container Platform environment.

The following configuration options are supported for external load balancers:

  • Use a node selector to map the Ingress Controller to a specific set of nodes. You must assign a static IP address to each node in this set, or configure each node to receive the same IP address from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Infrastructure nodes commonly receive this type of configuration.
  • Target all IP addresses on a subnet. This configuration can reduce maintenance overhead, because you can create and destroy nodes within those networks without reconfiguring the load balancer targets. If you deploy your ingress pods by using a machine set on a smaller network, such as a /27 or /28, you can simplify your load balancer targets.

    Tip

    You can list all IP addresses that exist in a network by checking the machine config pool’s resources.

Before you configure an external load balancer for your OpenShift Container Platform cluster, consider the following information:

  • For a front-end IP address, you can use the same IP address for the front-end IP address, the Ingress Controller’s load balancer, and API load balancer. Check the vendor’s documentation for this capability.
  • For a back-end IP address, ensure that an IP address for an OpenShift Container Platform control plane node does not change during the lifetime of the external load balancer. You can achieve this by completing one of the following actions:

    • Assign a static IP address to each control plane node.
    • Configure each node to receive the same IP address from the DHCP every time the node requests a DHCP lease. Depending on the vendor, the DHCP lease might be in the form of an IP reservation or a static DHCP assignment.
  • Manually define each node that runs the Ingress Controller in the external load balancer for the Ingress Controller back-end service. For example, if the Ingress Controller moves to an undefined node, a connection outage can occur.

2.6.12.1. Configuring an external load balancer

You can configure an OpenShift Container Platform cluster to use an external load balancer in place of the default load balancer.

Important

Before you configure an external load balancer, ensure that you read the "Services for an external load balancer" section.

Read the following prerequisites that apply to the service that you want to configure for your external load balancer.

Note

MetalLB, that runs on a cluster, functions as an external load balancer.

OpenShift API prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 6443 and 22623 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer. Check the following items:

    • Port 6443 provides access to the OpenShift API service.
    • Port 22623 can provide ignition startup configurations to nodes.
  • The front-end IP address and port 6443 are reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address and port 22623 are reachable only by OpenShift Container Platform nodes.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform control plane nodes on port 6443 and 22623.

Ingress Controller prerequisites

  • You defined a front-end IP address.
  • TCP ports 443 and 80 are exposed on the front-end IP address of your load balancer.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are be reachable by all users of your system with a location external to your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The front-end IP address, port 80 and port 443 are reachable to all nodes that operate in your OpenShift Container Platform cluster.
  • The load balancer backend can communicate with OpenShift Container Platform nodes that run the Ingress Controller on ports 80, 443, and 1936.

Prerequisite for health check URL specifications

You can configure most load balancers by setting health check URLs that determine if a service is available or unavailable. OpenShift Container Platform provides these health checks for the OpenShift API, Machine Configuration API, and Ingress Controller backend services.

The following examples demonstrate health check specifications for the previously listed backend services:

Example of a Kubernetes API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:6443/readyz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of a Machine Config API health check specification

Path: HTTPS:22623/healthz
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 10
Interval: 10

Example of an Ingress Controller health check specification

Path: HTTP:1936/healthz/ready
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 2
Timeout: 5
Interval: 10

Procedure

  1. Configure the HAProxy Ingress Controller, so that you can enable access to the cluster from your load balancer on ports 6443, 443, and 80:

    Example HAProxy configuration

    #...
    listen my-cluster-api-6443
        bind 192.168.1.100:6443
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /readyz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:6443 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-machine-config-api-22623
        bind 192.168.1.100:22623
        mode tcp
        balance roundrobin
      option httpchk
      http-check connect
      http-check send meth GET uri /healthz
      http-check expect status 200
        server my-cluster-master-2 192.168.1.101:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-0 192.168.1.102:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
        server my-cluster-master-1 192.168.1.103:22623 check inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-443
            bind 192.168.1.100:443
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:443 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    
    listen my-cluster-apps-80
            bind 192.168.1.100:80
            mode tcp
            balance roundrobin
        option httpchk
        http-check connect
        http-check send meth GET uri /healthz/ready
        http-check expect status 200
            server my-cluster-worker-0 192.168.1.111:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-1 192.168.1.112:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
            server my-cluster-worker-2 192.168.1.113:80 check port 1936 inter 10s rise 2 fall 2
    # ...

  2. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and its resources are operational:

    1. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Kubernetes API server resource, by running the following command and observing the response:

      $ curl https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
      }
    2. Verify that the cluster machine configuration API is accessible to the Machine config server resource, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://<loadbalancer_ip_address>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 80, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L -H "Host: console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>" http://<load_balancer_front_end_IP_address>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.ocp4.private.opequon.net/
      cache-control: no-cache
    4. Verify that the controller is accessible to the Ingress Controller resource on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -I -L --insecure --resolve console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:443:<Load Balancer Front End IP Address> https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=1bf5e9573c9a2760c964ed1659cc1673; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
  3. Configure the DNS records for your cluster to target the front-end IP addresses of the external load balancer. You must update records to your DNS server for the cluster API and applications over the load balancer.

    Examples of modified DNS records

    <load_balancer_ip_address>  A  api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End

    <load_balancer_ip_address>   A apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>
    A record pointing to Load Balancer Front End
    Important

    DNS propagation might take some time for each DNS record to become available. Ensure that each DNS record propagates before validating each record.

  4. Use the curl CLI command to verify that the external load balancer and DNS record configuration are operational:

    1. Verify that you can access the cluster API, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:6443/version --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, you receive a JSON object in response:

      {
        "major": "1",
        "minor": "11+",
        "gitVersion": "v1.11.0+ad103ed",
        "gitCommit": "ad103ed",
        "gitTreeState": "clean",
        "buildDate": "2019-01-09T06:44:10Z",
        "goVersion": "go1.10.3",
        "compiler": "gc",
        "platform": "linux/amd64"
        }
    2. Verify that you can access the cluster machine configuration, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl -v https://api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>:22623/healthz --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Content-Length: 0
    3. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl http://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 302 Found
      content-length: 0
      location: https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster-name>.<base domain>/
      cache-control: no-cacheHTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=39HoZgztDnzjJkq/JuLJMeoKNXlfiVv2YgZc09c3TBOBU4NI6kDXaJH1LdicNhN1UsQWzon4Dor9GWGfopaTEQ==; Path=/; Secure
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:42:10 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      set-cookie: 1e2670d92730b515ce3a1bb65da45062=9b714eb87e93cf34853e87a92d6894be; path=/; HttpOnly; Secure; SameSite=None
      cache-control: private
    4. Verify that you can access each cluster application on port 443, by running the following command and observing the output:

      $ curl https://console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> -I -L --insecure

      If the configuration is correct, the output from the command shows the following response:

      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      referrer-policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
      set-cookie: csrf-token=UlYWOyQ62LWjw2h003xtYSKlh1a0Py2hhctw0WmV2YEdhJjFyQwWcGBsja261dGLgaYO0nxzVErhiXt6QepA7g==; Path=/; Secure; SameSite=Lax
      x-content-type-options: nosniff
      x-dns-prefetch-control: off
      x-frame-options: DENY
      x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block
      date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 16:29:38 GMT
      content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
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