Chapter 4. Embedding in a RHEL for Edge image for offline use


Embedding MicroShift containers in an rpm-ostree commit means that you can run a cluster in air-gapped, disconnected, or offline environments. You can embed MicroShift containers in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Edge (RHEL for Edge) image so that container engines do not need to pull images over a network from a container registry. Workloads can start up immediately without network connectivity.

4.1. System requirements for installing MicroShift

The following conditions must be met prior to installing MicroShift:

  • A compatible version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). For more information, see the "Compatibility table" section.
  • AArch64 or x86_64 system architecture.
  • 2 CPU cores.
  • 2 GB RAM. Installing from the network (UEFI HTTPs or PXE boot) requires 3 GB RAM for RHEL.
  • 10 GB of storage.
  • You have an active MicroShift subscription on your Red Hat account. If you do not have a subscription, contact your sales representative for more information.
  • If your workload requires Persistent Volumes (PVs), you have a Logical Volume Manager (LVM) Volume Group (VG) with sufficient free capacity for the workloads.
Important

These requirements are the minimum system requirements for MicroShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Add the system requirements for the workload you plan to run.

For example, if an IoT gateway solution requires 4 GB of RAM, your system needs to have at least 2 GB for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and MicroShift, plus 4 GB for the workloads. 6 GB of RAM is required in total.

It is recommended to allow for extra capacity for future needs if you are deploying physical devices in remote locations. If you are uncertain of the RAM required and if the budget permits, use the maximum RAM capacity that the device can support.

Important

Ensure you configure secure access to the system to be able to manage it accordingly. For more information, see Using secure communications between two systems with OpenSSH.

4.2. Compatibility table

Plan to pair a supported version of RHEL for Edge with the MicroShift version you are using as described in the following compatibility table:

Red Hat Device Edge release compatibility matrix

The two products of Red Hat Device Edge work together as a single solution for device-edge computing. To successfully pair your products, use the verified releases together for each as listed in the following table:

RHEL for Edge Version

MicroShift Version

MicroShift Release Status

MicroShift Supported Updates

9.2, 9.3

4.14

Generally Available

4.14.0→4.14.z and 4.14→4.15

9.2

4.13

Technology Preview

None

8.7

4.12

Developer Preview

None

4.3. Embedding MicroShift containers for offline deployments

You can use Image Builder to create rpm-ostree system images with embedded MicroShift container images. To embed container images, you must add the image references to your Image Builder blueprint.

Prerequisites

  • You have root-user access to your build host.
  • Your build host meets the Image Builder system requirements.
  • You have installed and set up Image Builder and the composer-cli tool.
  • You have created a RHEL for Edge image blueprint.
  • You have installed jq.

Procedure

  1. Get the exact list of container image references used by the MicroShift version you are deploying. You can either install the microshift-release-info RPM package by following step 2 or download and unpack the RPM by following step 3.
  2. To install the microshift-release-info RPM package:

    1. Install the microshift-release-info RPM package by running the following command:

      $ sudo dnf install -y microshift-release-info-<release_version>

      Replace <release_version> with the numerical value of the release you are deploying, using the entire version number, such as 4.14.0.

    2. List the contents of the /usr/share/microshift/release directory to verify the presence of the release information files by running the following command:

      $ ls /usr/share/microshift/release

      Example output

      release-x86_64.json
      release-aarch64.json

      If you installed the microshift-release-info RPM, you can proceed to step 4.

  3. If you did not complete step 2, download and unpack the microshift-release-info RPM without installing it:

    1. Download the RPM package by running the following command:

      $ sudo dnf download microshift-release-info-<release_version>

      Replace <release_version> with the numerical value of the release you are deploying, using the entire version number, such as 4.14.0.

      Example rpm

      microshift-release-info-4.14.0.*.el9.noarch.rpm 1

      1
      The * represents the date and commit ID. Your output should contain both, for example -202311101230.p0.g7dc6a00.assembly.4.14.0.
    2. Unpack the RPM package without installing it by running the following command:

      $ rpm2cpio <my_microshift_release_info> | cpio -idmv 1
      ./usr/share/microshift/release/release-aarch64.json
      ./usr/share/microshift/release/release-x86_64.json
      1
      Replace <my_microshift_release_info> with the name of the RPM package from the previous step.
  4. Define the location of your JSON file, which contains the container reference information, by running the following command:

    $ RELEASE_FILE=</path/to/your/release-$(uname -m).json>

    Replace </path/to/your/release-$(uname -m).json> with the full path to your JSON file. Be sure to use the file needed for your architecture.

  5. Define the location of your TOML file, which contains instructions for building the image, by running the following command:

    $ BLUEPRINT_FILE=</path/to/your/blueprint.toml>

    Replace </path/to/your/blueprint.toml> with the full path to your JSON file.

  6. Generate and then embed the container image references in your blueprint TOML file by running the following command:

    $  jq -r '.images | .[] | ("[[containers]]\nsource = \"" + . + "\"\n")' "${RELEASE_FILE}" >> "${BLUEPRINT_FILE}"

    Example resulting <my_blueprint.toml> fragment showing container references

    [[containers]]
    source = "quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:82cfef91557f9a70cff5a90accba45841a37524e9b93f98a97b20f6b2b69e5db"
    
    [[containers]]
    source = "quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev@sha256:82cfef91557f9a70cff5a90accba45841a37524e9b93f98a97b20f6b2b69e5db"

  7. You can manually embed any container image by adding it to the Image Builder blueprint using the following example:

    Example section for manually embedding container image to Image Builder

    [[containers]]
    source = "<my_image_pullspec_with_tag_or_digest>"

    Replace <my_image_pullspec_with_tag_or_digest> with the exact reference to a container image used by the MicroShift version you are deploying.

4.4. Updating osbuilder worker configuration to prepare for image building

After you have updated the blueprint, you must update the osbuilder worker configuration to prepare for building the image with embedded MicroShift containers.

Prerequisites

  • You have root-user access to your build host.
  • Your build host meets the Image Builder system requirements.
  • You have installed and set up Image Builder and the composer-cli tool.
Note

You can create an /etc/osbuild-worker/osbuild-worker.toml directory and configuration file if they do not exist.

Procedure

  1. Add a pull secret for authenticating to the registry by setting the auth_file_path in the [containers] section of the /etc/osbuild-worker/osbuild-worker.toml osbuilder worker configuration file:

    [containers]
    auth_file_path = "/etc/osbuild-worker/pull-secret.json"
  2. Restart the osbuild-worker to apply configuration changes by restarting the host. Restarting the host ensures that all osbuild-worker services currently running are restarted.

4.5. Build and use the rpm-ostree image for offline deployments

You can use Image Builder to create rpm-ostree system images with embedded MicroShift container images. To embed container images, you must add the image references to your Image Builder blueprint. You can create the commit and ISO as needed for your use case.

Add the prerequisites listed here to the ones that are included in the procedures that follow.

4.5.1. Additional prerequisites for offline deployments

  • You have created and updated a RHEL for Edge image blueprint for offline use. The following procedures use the example of a blueprint created with container images. You must use the updated blueprint you created in the "Embedding MicroShift containers for offline deployments" procedure.
  • You have updated the /etc/osbuild-worker/osbuild-worker.toml configuration file for offline use.
Important

Replace minimal-microshift.toml in the following procedures with the name of the TOML you updated for offline use, <my_blueprint_name>.

4.5.2. Adding the MicroShift service to a blueprint

Adding the MicroShift RPM package to an Image Builder blueprint enables the build of a RHEL for Edge image with MicroShift embedded.

Procedure

  1. Use the following example to create your blueprint:

    Image Builder blueprint example

    cat > minimal-microshift.toml <<EOF
    name = "minimal-microshift"
    
    description = ""
    version = "0.0.1"
    modules = []
    groups = []
    
    [[packages]]
    name = "microshift"
    version = "*"
    
    [customizations.services]
    enabled = ["microshift"]
    EOF

    Note

    The wildcard * in the commands uses the latest MicroShift RPMs. If you need a specific version, substitute the wildcard for the version you want. For example, insert 4.14.1 to download the MicroShift 4.14.1 RPMs.

  2. Add the blueprint to the Image Builder by running the following command:

    $ sudo composer-cli blueprints push minimal-microshift.toml

Verification

  1. Verify the Image Builder configuration listing only MicroShift packages by running the following command:

    $ sudo composer-cli blueprints depsolve minimal-microshift | grep microshift

    Example output

    blueprint: minimal-microshift v0.0.1
        microshift-greenboot-4.13.1-202305250827.p0.g4105d3b.assembly.4.13.1.el9.noarch
        microshift-networking-4.13.1-202305250827.p0.g4105d3b.assembly.4.13.1.el9.x86_64
        microshift-release-info-4.13.1-202305250827.p0.g4105d3b.assembly.4.13.1.el9.noarch
        microshift-4.13.1-202305250827.p0.g4105d3b.assembly.4.13.1.el9.x86_64
        microshift-selinux-4.13.1-202305250827.p0.g4105d3b.assembly.4.13.1.el9.noarch

  2. Optional: Verify the Image Builder configuration listing all components to be installed by running the following command:

    $ sudo composer-cli blueprints depsolve minimal-microshift

4.5.3. Creating the RHEL for Edge image

Use the following procedure to create the ISO. The RHEL for Edge Installer image pulls the commit from the running container and creates an installable boot ISO with a Kickstart file configured to use the embedded rpm-ostree commit.

Prerequisites

  • Your build host meets the Image Builder system requirements.
  • You have installed and set up Image Builder and the composer-cli tool.
  • You have root-user access to your build host.
  • You have installed the podman tool.

Procedure

  1. Start an ostree container image build by running the following command:

    $ BUILDID=$(sudo composer-cli compose start-ostree --ref "rhel/{op-system-version-major}/$(uname -m)/edge" <microshift_blueprint> edge-container | awk '{print $2}') 1
    1
    Replace <microshift_blueprint> with the name of your blueprint.

    This command also returns the identification (ID) of the build for monitoring.

  2. You can check the status of the build periodically by running the following command:

    $ sudo composer-cli compose status

    Example output of a running build

    ID                                     Status     Time                     Blueprint                 Version   Type               Size
    cc3377ec-4643-4483-b0e7-6b0ad0ae6332   RUNNING    Wed Jun 7 12:26:23 2023  microshift_blueprint      0.0.1     edge-container

    Example output of a completed build

    ID                                     Status     Time                      Blueprint              Version   Type               Size
    cc3377ec-4643-4483-b0e7-6b0ad0ae6332   FINISHED   Wed Jun 7 12:32:37 2023   microshift_blueprint   0.0.1     edge-container

    Note

    You can use the watch command to monitor your build if you are familiar with how to start and stop it.

  3. Download the container image using the ID and get the image ready for use by running the following command:

    $ sudo composer-cli compose image ${BUILDID}
  4. Change the ownership of the downloaded container image to the current user by running the following command:

    $ sudo chown $(whoami). ${BUILDID}-container.tar
  5. Add read permissions for the current user to the image by running the following command:

    $ sudo chmod a+r ${BUILDID}-container.tar
  6. Bootstrap a server on port 8085 for the ostree container image to be consumed by the ISO build by completing the following steps:

    1. Get the IMAGEID variable result by running the following command:

      $ IMAGEID=$(cat < "./${BUILDID}-container.tar" | sudo podman load | grep -o -P '(?<=sha256[@:])[a-z0-9]*')
    2. Use the IMAGEID variable result to execute the podman command step by running the following command:

      $ sudo podman run -d --name=minimal-microshift-server -p 8085:8080 ${IMAGEID}

      This command also returns the ID of the container saved in the IMAGEID variable for monitoring.

  7. Generate the installer blueprint file by running the following command:

    cat > microshift-installer.toml <<EOF
    name = "microshift-installer"
    
    description = ""
    version = "0.0.0"
    modules = []
    groups = []
    packages = []
    EOF

4.6. Additional resources

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