Chapter 21. Working with HTTP Proxies

Production environments can deny direct access to the Internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available. Configuring OpenShift to use these proxies can be as simple as setting standard environment variables in configuration or JSON files.

OpenShift node hosts need to perform push and pull operations to Docker registries. If you have a registry that does not need a proxy for nodes to access, include the NO_PROXY parameter with the registry’s host name, the registry service’s IP address, and service name. This blacklists that registry, leaving the external HTTP proxy as the only option.

S2I builds fetch dependencies from various locations. You can use a .sti/environment file to specify simple shell variables and OpenShift will react accordingly when seeing build images.

The following are the supported proxy environment variables with example values:

HTTP_PROXY=http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@10.0.1.1:8080/
HTTPS_PROXY=https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@10.0.0.1:8080/
NO_PROXY=master.hostname.example.com

HTTP_PROXY=http://USERNAME:PASSWORD@10.0.1.1:8080/
HTTPS_PROXY=https://USERNAME:PASSWORD@10.0.0.1:8080/
NO_PROXY=master.hostname.example.com

The example templates available in OpenShift by default do not include settings for HTTP proxies. For existing applications based on these templates, modify the source section of the application’s build configuration and add proxy settings:

...
source:
  type: Git
  git:
    uri: https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world
    httpProxy: http://proxy.example.com
    httpsProxy: https://proxy.example.com
...

...
source:
  type: Git
  git:
    uri: https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world
    httpProxy: http://proxy.example.com
    httpsProxy: https://proxy.example.com
...

This is similar to the process for using proxies for Git cloning.

You can set the NO_PROXY, HTTP_PROXY, and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables in the templates.spec.containers stanza in a deployment configuration to pass proxy connection information. The same can be done for configuring a Pod’s proxy at runtime:

...
containers:
- env:
  - name: "HTTP_PROXY"
    value: "http://USER:PASSWORD@IPADDR:PORT"
...

...
containers:
- env:
  - name: "HTTP_PROXY"
    value: "http://USER:PASSWORD@IPADDR:PORT"
...

You can also use the oc env command to update an existing deployment configuration with a new environment variable:

oc env dc/frontend HTTP_PROXY=http://USER:PASSWORD@IPADDR:PORT

$ oc env dc/frontend HTTP_PROXY=http://USER:PASSWORD@IPADDR:PORT

If you have a ConfigChange trigger set up in your OpenShift instance, the changes happen automatically. Otherwise, manually redeploy your application for the changes to take effect.

If your Git repository can only be accessed using a proxy, you can define the proxy to use in the source section of the BuildConfig. You can configure both a HTTP and HTTPS proxy to use. Both fields are optional.

...
source:
  type: Git
  git:
    uri: "https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world"
    httpProxy: http://proxy.example.com
    httpsProxy: https://proxy.example.com
...

...
source:
  type: Git
  git:
    uri: "https://github.com/openshift/ruby-hello-world"
    httpProxy: http://proxy.example.com
    httpsProxy: https://proxy.example.com
...