Chapter 3. Installing a cluster quickly on Alibaba Cloud

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 FIPS validated or Modules In Process cryptographic libraries on the x86_64, ppc64le, and s390x architectures. do not create a key that uses the ed25519 algorithm. Instead, create a key that uses the rsa or ecdsa algorithm.

2. View the public SSH key:

   $ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

   For example, run the following to view the ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub public key:

   $ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

3. Add the SSH private key identity to the SSH agent for your local user, if it has not already been added. SSH agent management of the key is required for password-less SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes, or if you want to use the ./openshift-install gather command.

   Note

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

   1. If the ssh-agent process is not already running for your local user, start it as a background task:

      $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

      Example output

      Agent pid 31874

      Note

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

4. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent:

   $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> 1

   1

   Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

   Example output

   Identity added: /home/<you>/<path>/<file_name> (<computer_name>)

Procedure

1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.
2. Select your infrastructure provider.

3. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program that corresponds with your host operating system and architecture, and place the file in the directory where you will 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 files are required to delete the cluster.

   Important

   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.

4. 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

5. Download your installation pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This pull secret allows you to authenticate with the services that are provided by the included authorities, including Quay.io, which serves the container images for OpenShift Container Platform components.

Procedure

1. 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 alibabacloud as the platform to target.
      3. Select the region to deploy the cluster to.
      4. Select the base domain to deploy the cluster to. The base domain corresponds to the public DNS zone that you created for your cluster.
      5. Provide a descriptive name for your cluster.
      6. Paste the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

2. Installing the cluster into Alibaba Cloud requires that the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) operate in manual mode. Modify the install-config.yaml file to set the credentialsMode parameter to Manual:

   Example install-config.yaml configuration file with credentialsMode set to Manual

   apiVersion: v1
   baseDomain: cluster1.example.com
   credentialsMode: Manual 1
   compute:
   - architecture: amd64
     hyperthreading: Enabled
    ...

   1

   Add this line to set the credentialsMode to Manual.

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.

Procedure

1. Generate the manifests by running the following command from the directory that contains the installation program:

   $ openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory>

   where:

   <installation_directory>

   Specifies the directory in which the installation program creates files.

Procedure

1. Set the $RELEASE_IMAGE variable by running the following command:

   $ RELEASE_IMAGE=$(./openshift-install version | awk '/release image/ {print $3}')

2. Extract the list of CredentialsRequest objects from the OpenShift Container Platform release image by running the following command:

   $ oc adm release extract \
   --credentials-requests \
   --cloud=alibabacloud \
   --to=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests \ 1
   $RELEASE_IMAGE

   1

   credrequests is the directory where the list of CredentialsRequest objects is stored. This command creates the directory if it does not exist.

   Note

   This command can take a few moments to run.

3. If your cluster uses cluster capabilities to disable one or more optional components, delete the CredentialsRequest custom resources for any disabled components.

   Example credrequests directory contents for OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 on Alibaba Cloud

   0000_30_machine-api-operator_00_credentials-request.yaml 1
   0000_50_cluster-image-registry-operator_01-registry-credentials-request-alibaba.yaml 2
   0000_50_cluster-ingress-operator_00-ingress-credentials-request.yaml 3
   0000_50_cluster-storage-operator_03_credentials_request_alibaba.yaml 4

   1

   The Machine API Operator CR is required.

   2

   The Image Registry Operator CR is required.

   3

   The Ingress Operator CR is required.

   4

   The Storage Operator CR is an optional component and might be disabled in your cluster.

4. Use the ccoctl tool to process all CredentialsRequest objects in the credrequests directory:

   1. Run the following command to use the tool:

      $ ccoctl alibabacloud create-ram-users \
      --name <name> \
      --region=<alibaba_region> \
      --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests \
      --output-dir=<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>

      where:

      • <name> is the name used to tag any cloud resources that are created for tracking.
      • <alibaba_region> is the Alibaba Cloud region in which cloud resources will be created.
      • <path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests is the directory containing the files for the component CredentialsRequest objects.
      • <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> is the directory where the generated component credentials secrets will be placed.
      Note

      If your cluster uses Technology Preview features that are enabled by the TechPreviewNoUpgrade feature set, you must include the --enable-tech-preview parameter.

      Example output

      2022/02/11 16:18:26 Created RAM User: user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials
      2022/02/11 16:18:27 Ready for creating new ram policy user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-policy-policy
      2022/02/11 16:18:27 RAM policy user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-policy-policy has created
      2022/02/11 16:18:28 Policy user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-policy-policy has attached on user user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials
      2022/02/11 16:18:29 Created access keys for RAM User: user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials
      2022/02/11 16:18:29 Saved credentials configuration to: user1-alicloud/manifests/openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      ...

      Note

      A RAM user can have up to two AccessKeys at the same time. If you run ccoctl alibabacloud create-ram-users more than twice, the previous generated manifests secret becomes stale and you must reapply the newly generated secrets.

   2. Verify that the OpenShift Container Platform secrets are created:

      $ ls <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests

      Example output:

      openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-alibaba-disk-credentials-credentials.yaml
      openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-credentials.yaml

      You can verify that the RAM users and policies are created by querying Alibaba Cloud. For more information, refer to Alibaba Cloud documentation on listing RAM users and policies.

5. Copy the generated credential files to the target manifests directory:

   $ cp ./<path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/*credentials.yaml ./<path_to_installation>dir>/manifests/

   where:

   <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>

   Specifies the directory created by the ccoctl alibabacloud create-ram-users command.

   <path_to_installation_dir>

   Specifies the directory in which the installation program creates files.

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 v4.12 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

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 v4.12 Windows Client entry and save the file.
4. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

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

   To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

   C:\> path

Procedure

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

3. Click Download Now next to the OpenShift v4.12 macOS Client entry and save the file.

   Note

   For macOS arm64, choose the OpenShift v4.12 macOS arm64 Client entry.

4. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

   To check your PATH, open a terminal and execute the following command:

   $ echo $PATH

Procedure

1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

   $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig 1

   1

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

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

   $ oc whoami

   Example output

   system:admin

Procedure

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

   $ cat <installation_directory>/auth/kubeadmin-password

   Note

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

2. List the OpenShift Container Platform web console route:

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

   Note

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

   Example output

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

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