Chapter 13. Installing a cluster on AWS with worker nodes on AWS Local Zones

Procedure

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

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

   Important
   • The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster. Both of the files are required to delete the cluster.
   • Deleting the files created by the installation program does not remove your cluster, even if the cluster failed during installation. To remove your cluster, complete the OpenShift Container Platform uninstallation procedures for your specific cloud provider.

5. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

   $ tar -xvf openshift-install-linux.tar.gz

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

Procedure

1. If you do not have an existing SSH key pair on your local machine to use for authentication onto your cluster nodes, create one. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

   $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> 1

   1

   Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_ed25519, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

   Note

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

2. View the public SSH key:

   $ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

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

   $ cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

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

   Note

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

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

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

      Example output

      Agent pid 31874

      Note

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

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

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

   1

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

   Example output

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

1. One vCPU is equivalent to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or Hyper-Threading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.
2. OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes which require a 10 ms p99 fsync duration. Note that on many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so you might need to over-allocate storage volume to obtain sufficient performance.
3. As with all user-provisioned installations, if you choose to use RHEL compute machines in your cluster, you take responsibility for all operating system life cycle management and maintenance, including performing system updates, applying patches, and completing all other required tasks. Use of RHEL 7 compute machines is deprecated and has been removed in OpenShift Container Platform 4.10 and later.

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.

      Important

      Specify an empty directory. Some installation assets, like bootstrap X.509 certificates have short expiration intervals, so 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 aws as the platform to target.

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

         Note

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

      4. Select the AWS region to deploy the cluster to. The region that you specify must be the same region that contains the Local Zone that you opted in to for your AWS account.
      5. Select the base domain for the Route 53 service that you configured for your cluster.
      6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.
      7. Paste the pull secret from Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager.

2. Optional: Back up the install-config.yaml file.

   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. Modify the install-config.yaml file by specifying Local Zone names in the platform.aws.zones property of the edge compute pool. For example:

   ...
   platform:
     aws:
       region: <region_name> 1
   compute:
   - name: edge
     platform:
       aws:
         zones: 2
         - <local_zone_name>
   #...

   1

   The AWS Region name.

   2

   The list of Local Zone names that must belong in the same AWS Region.

   Example of a configuration to install a cluster in the us-west-2 AWS Region that extends edge nodes to Local Zones in Los Angeles and Las Vegas locations.

   apiVersion: v1
   baseDomain: example.com
   metadata:
     name: cluster-name
   platform:
     aws:
       region: us-west-2
   compute:
   - name: edge
     platform:
       aws:
         zones:
         - us-west-2-lax-1a
         - us-west-2-lax-1b
         - us-west-2-las-1a
   pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}'
   sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...'
   #...

2. Deploy your cluster.

Procedure

1. Create a JSON file that contains the parameter values that the template requires:

   [
     {
       "ParameterKey": "VpcCidr", 1
       "ParameterValue": "10.0.0.0/16" 2
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "AvailabilityZoneCount", 3
       "ParameterValue": "3" 4
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "SubnetBits", 5
       "ParameterValue": "12" 6
     }
   ]

   1

   The CIDR block for the VPC.

   2

   Specify a CIDR block in the format x.x.x.x/16-24.

   3

   The number of availability zones to deploy the VPC in.

   4

   Specify an integer between 1 and 3.

   5

   The size of each subnet in each availability zone.

   6

   Specify an integer between 5 and 13, where 5 is /27 and 13 is /19.

2. Copy the template from the CloudFormation template for the VPC section of this topic and save it as a YAML file on your computer. This template describes the VPC that your cluster requires.

3. Launch the CloudFormation template to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the VPC by running the following command:

   Important

   You must enter the command on a single line.

   $ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name <name> \  1
        --template-body file://<template>.yaml \  2
        --parameters file://<parameters>.json  3

   1

   <name> is the name for the CloudFormation stack, such as cluster-vpc. You need the name of this stack if you remove the cluster.

   2

   <template> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation template YAML file that you saved.

   3

   <parameters> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation parameters JSON file.

   Example output

   arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:123456789012:stack/cluster-vpc/dbedae40-2fd3-11eb-820e-12a48460849f

4. Confirm that the template components exist by running the following command:

   $ aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name <name>

   After the StackStatus displays CREATE_COMPLETE, the output displays values for the following parameters. You must provide these parameter values to the other CloudFormation templates that you run to create your cluster:

   VpcId	The ID of your VPC.
   PublicSubnetIds	The IDs of the new public subnets.
   PrivateSubnetIds	The IDs of the new private subnets.
   PublicRouteTableId	The ID of the new public route table ID.

Procedure

1. Create a JSON file that contains the parameter values that the template requires:

   [
     {
       "ParameterKey": "VpcId",
       "ParameterValue": "<value_of_VpcId>" 1
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "PublicRouteTableId",
       "ParameterValue": "<value_of_PublicRouteTableId>" 2
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "ZoneName",
       "ParameterValue": "<value_of_ZoneName>" 3
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "SubnetName",
       "ParameterValue": "<value_of_SubnetName>"
     },
     {
       "ParameterKey": "PublicSubnetCidr",
       "ParameterValue": "10.0.192.0/20" 4
     }
   ]

   1

   Specify the VPC ID, which is the value VpcID in the output of the CloudFormation template. for the VPC.

   2

   Specify the Route Table ID, which is the value of the PublicRouteTableId in the CloudFormation stack for the VPC.

   3

   Specify the AWS Local Zone name, which is the value of the ZoneName field in the AvailabilityZones object that you retrieve in the section "Opting in to AWS Local Zones".

   4

   Specify a CIDR block that is used to create the Local Zone subnet. This block must be part of the VPC CIDR block VpcCidr.

2. Copy the template from the CloudFormation template for the subnet section of this topic and save it as a YAML file on your computer. This template describes the VPC that your cluster requires.

3. Launch the CloudFormation template to create a stack of AWS resources that represent the VPC by running the following command:

   Important

   You must enter the command on a single line.

   $ aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name <subnet_stack_name> \ 1
        --template-body file://<template>.yaml \ 2
        --parameters file://<parameters>.json 3

   1

   <subnet_stack_name> is the name for the CloudFormation stack, such as cluster-lz-<local_zone_shortname>. You need the name of this stack if you remove the cluster.

   2

   <template> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation template YAML file that you saved.

   3

   <parameters> is the relative path to and name of the CloudFormation parameters JSON file.

   Example output

   arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:123456789012:stack/<subnet_stack_name>/dbedae40-2fd3-11eb-820e-12a48460849f

4. Confirm that the template components exist by running the following command:

   $ aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name <subnet_stack_name>

   After the StackStatus displays CREATE_COMPLETE, the output displays values for the following parameters. You must provide these parameter values to the other CloudFormation templates that you run to create your cluster:

   PublicSubnetIds

   The IDs of the new public subnets.