Chapter 5. Installing a cluster on OpenStack on your own infrastructure

Procedure

1. On a command line, add the repositories:

   1. Register with Red Hat Subscription Manager:

      $ sudo subscription-manager register # If not done already

   2. Pull the latest subscription data:

      $ sudo subscription-manager attach --pool=$YOUR_POOLID # If not done already

   3. Disable the current repositories:

      $ sudo subscription-manager repos --disable=* # If not done already

   4. Add the required repositories:

      $ sudo subscription-manager repos \
        --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
        --enable=openstack-16-tools-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms \
        --enable=ansible-2.9-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms \
        --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms

2. Install the modules:

   $ sudo yum install python3-openstackclient ansible python3-openstacksdk python3-netaddr ansible-collections-openstack

3. Ensure that the python command points to python3:

   $ sudo alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3

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>)

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 4.14 for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (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) - OpenStack Image (QCOW).

4. Decompress the image.

   Note

   You must decompress the RHOSP image before the cluster can use it. The name of the downloaded file might not contain a compression extension, like .gz or .tgz. To find out if or how the file is compressed, in a command line, enter:

   $ file <name_of_downloaded_file>

5. From the image that you downloaded, create an image that is named rhcos in your cluster by using the RHOSP CLI:

   $ openstack image create --container-format=bare --disk-format=qcow2 --file rhcos-${RHCOS_VERSION}-openstack.qcow2 rhcos

   Important

   Depending on your RHOSP environment, you might be able to upload the image in either .raw or .qcow2 formats. If you use Ceph, you must use the .raw format.

   Warning

   If the installation program finds multiple images with the same name, it chooses one of them at random. To avoid this behavior, create unique names for resources in RHOSP.

Procedure

1. Using the RHOSP CLI, verify the name and ID of the 'External' network:

   $ openstack network list --long -c ID -c Name -c "Router Type"

   Example output

   +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
   | ID                                   | Name           | Router Type |
   +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+
   | 148a8023-62a7-4672-b018-003462f8d7dc | public_network | External    |
   +--------------------------------------+----------------+-------------+

Procedure

1. Create the clouds.yaml file:

   • If your RHOSP distribution includes the Horizon web UI, generate a clouds.yaml file in it.

     Important

     Remember to add a password to the auth field. You can also keep secrets in a separate file from clouds.yaml.

   • If your RHOSP distribution does not include the Horizon web UI, or you do not want to use Horizon, create the file yourself. For detailed information about clouds.yaml, see Config files in the RHOSP documentation.

     clouds:
       shiftstack:
         auth:
           auth_url: http://10.10.14.42:5000/v3
           project_name: shiftstack
           username: <username>
           password: <password>
           user_domain_name: Default
           project_domain_name: Default
       dev-env:
         region_name: RegionOne
         auth:
           username: <username>
           password: <password>
           project_name: 'devonly'
           auth_url: 'https://10.10.14.22:5001/v2.0'

2. If your RHOSP installation uses self-signed certificate authority (CA) certificates for endpoint authentication:

   1. Copy the certificate authority file to your machine.

   2. Add the cacerts key to the clouds.yaml file. The value must be an absolute, non-root-accessible path to the CA certificate:

      clouds:
        shiftstack:
          ...
          cacert: "/etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/ca.crt.pem"

      Tip

      After you run the installer with a custom CA certificate, you can update the certificate by editing the value of the ca-cert.pem key in the cloud-provider-config keymap. On a command line, run:

      $ oc edit configmap -n openshift-config cloud-provider-config

3. Place the clouds.yaml file in one of the following locations:

   1. The value of the OS_CLIENT_CONFIG_FILE environment variable
   2. The current directory
   3. A Unix-specific user configuration directory, for example ~/.config/openstack/clouds.yaml

   4. A Unix-specific site configuration directory, for example /etc/openstack/clouds.yaml

      The installation program searches for clouds.yaml in that order.

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.

        Note

        Always delete the ~/.powervs directory to avoid reusing a stale configuration. Run the following command:

        $ rm -rf ~/.powervs

   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 openstack as the platform to target.
      3. Specify the Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) external network name to use for installing the cluster.
      4. Specify the floating IP address to use for external access to the OpenShift API.
      5. Specify a RHOSP flavor with at least 16 GB RAM to use for control plane nodes and 8 GB RAM for compute nodes.
      6. Select the base domain to deploy the cluster to. All DNS records will be sub-domains of this base and will also include the cluster name.
      7. Enter a name for your cluster. The name must be 14 or fewer characters long.
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.

Procedure

1. Change to the directory that contains the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and generate the Kubernetes manifests for the cluster:

   $ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> 1

   1

   For <installation_directory>, specify the installation directory that contains the install-config.yaml file you created.

2. Remove the Kubernetes manifest files that define the control plane machines, compute machine sets, and control plane machine sets:

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

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

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

3. Check that the mastersSchedulable parameter in the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml Kubernetes manifest file is set to false. This setting prevents pods from being scheduled on the control plane machines:

   1. Open the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml file.
   2. Locate the mastersSchedulable parameter and ensure that it is set to false.
   3. Save and exit the file.

4. To create the Ignition configuration files, run the following command from the directory that contains the installation program:

   $ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir <installation_directory> 1

   1

   For <installation_directory>, specify the same installation directory.

   Ignition config files are created for the bootstrap, control plane, and compute nodes in the installation directory. The kubeadmin-password and kubeconfig files are created in the ./<installation_directory>/auth directory:

   .
   ├── auth
   │   ├── kubeadmin-password
   │   └── kubeconfig
   ├── bootstrap.ign
   ├── master.ign
   ├── metadata.json
   └── worker.ign

5. Export the metadata file’s infraID key as an environment variable:

   $ export INFRA_ID=$(jq -r .infraID metadata.json)

Procedure

1. Run the following Python script. The script modifies the bootstrap Ignition file to set the hostname and, if available, CA certificate file when it runs:

   import base64
   import json
   import os
   
   with open('bootstrap.ign', 'r') as f:
       ignition = json.load(f)
   
   files = ignition['storage'].get('files', [])
   
   infra_id = os.environ.get('INFRA_ID', 'openshift').encode()
   hostname_b64 = base64.standard_b64encode(infra_id + b'-bootstrap\n').decode().strip()
   files.append(
   {
       'path': '/etc/hostname',
       'mode': 420,
       'contents': {
           'source': 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,' + hostname_b64
       }
   })
   
   ca_cert_path = os.environ.get('OS_CACERT', '')
   if ca_cert_path:
       with open(ca_cert_path, 'r') as f:
           ca_cert = f.read().encode()
           ca_cert_b64 = base64.standard_b64encode(ca_cert).decode().strip()
   
       files.append(
       {
           'path': '/opt/openshift/tls/cloud-ca-cert.pem',
           'mode': 420,
           'contents': {
               'source': 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,' + ca_cert_b64
           }
       })
   
   ignition['storage']['files'] = files;
   
   with open('bootstrap.ign', 'w') as f:
       json.dump(ignition, f)

2. Using the RHOSP CLI, create an image that uses the bootstrap Ignition file:

   $ openstack image create --disk-format=raw --container-format=bare --file bootstrap.ign <image_name>

3. Get the image’s details:

   $ openstack image show <image_name>

   Make a note of the file value; it follows the pattern v2/images/<image_ID>/file.

   Note

   Verify that the image you created is active.

4. Retrieve the image service’s public address:

   $ openstack catalog show image

5. Combine the public address with the image file value and save the result as the storage location. The location follows the pattern <image_service_public_URL>/v2/images/<image_ID>/file.

6. Generate an auth token and save the token ID:

   $ openstack token issue -c id -f value

7. Insert the following content into a file called $INFRA_ID-bootstrap-ignition.json and edit the placeholders to match your own values:

   {
     "ignition": {
       "config": {
         "merge": [{
           "source": "<storage_url>", 1
           "httpHeaders": [{
             "name": "X-Auth-Token", 2
             "value": "<token_ID>" 3
           }]
         }]
       },
       "security": {
         "tls": {
           "certificateAuthorities": [{
             "source": "data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,<base64_encoded_certificate>" 4
           }]
         }
       },
       "version": "3.2.0"
     }
   }

   1

   Replace the value of ignition.config.merge.source with the bootstrap Ignition file storage URL.

   2

   Set name in httpHeaders to "X-Auth-Token".

   3

   Set value in httpHeaders to your token’s ID.

   4

   If the bootstrap Ignition file server uses a self-signed certificate, include the base64-encoded certificate.

8. Save the secondary Ignition config file.

Procedure

1. Optional: Add an external network value to the inventory.yaml playbook:

   Example external network value in the inventory.yaml Ansible playbook

   ...
         # The public network providing connectivity to the cluster. If not
         # provided, the cluster external connectivity must be provided in another
         # way.
   
         # Required for os_api_fip, os_ingress_fip, os_bootstrap_fip.
         os_external_network: 'external'
   ...

   Important

   If you did not provide a value for os_external_network in the inventory.yaml file, you must ensure that VMs can access Glance and an external connection yourself.

2. Optional: Add external network and floating IP (FIP) address values to the inventory.yaml playbook:

   Example FIP values in the inventory.yaml Ansible playbook

   ...
         # OpenShift API floating IP address. If this value is non-empty, the
         # corresponding floating IP will be attached to the Control Plane to
         # serve the OpenShift API.
         os_api_fip: '203.0.113.23'
   
         # OpenShift Ingress floating IP address. If this value is non-empty, the
         # corresponding floating IP will be attached to the worker nodes to serve
         # the applications.
         os_ingress_fip: '203.0.113.19'
   
         # If this value is non-empty, the corresponding floating IP will be
         # attached to the bootstrap machine. This is needed for collecting logs
         # in case of install failure.
         os_bootstrap_fip: '203.0.113.20'

   Important

   If you do not define values for os_api_fip and os_ingress_fip, you must perform postinstallation network configuration.

   If you do not define a value for os_bootstrap_fip, the installer cannot download debugging information from failed installations.

   See "Enabling access to the environment" for more information.

3. On a command line, create security groups by running the security-groups.yaml playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml security-groups.yaml

4. On a command line, create a network, subnet, and router by running the network.yaml playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml network.yaml

5. Optional: If you want to control the default resolvers that Nova servers use, run the RHOSP CLI command:

   $ openstack subnet set --dns-nameserver <server_1> --dns-nameserver <server_2> "$INFRA_ID-nodes"

Procedure

1. On a command line, change the working directory to the location of the playbooks.

2. On a command line, run the bootstrap.yaml playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml bootstrap.yaml

3. After the bootstrap server is active, view the logs to verify that the Ignition files were received:

   $ openstack console log show "$INFRA_ID-bootstrap"

Procedure

1. On a command line, change the working directory to the location of the playbooks.
2. If the control plane Ignition config files aren’t already in your working directory, copy them into it.

3. On a command line, run the control-plane.yaml playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml control-plane.yaml

4. Run the following command to monitor the bootstrapping process:

   $ openshift-install wait-for bootstrap-complete

   You will see messages that confirm that the control plane machines are running and have joined the cluster:

   INFO API v1.27.3 up
   INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
   ...
   INFO It is now safe to remove the bootstrap resources

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. On a command line, change the working directory to the location of the playbooks.

2. On a command line, run the down-bootstrap.yaml playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml down-bootstrap.yaml

Procedure

1. On a command line, change the working directory to the location of the playbooks.

2. On a command line, run the playbook:

   $ ansible-playbook -i inventory.yaml compute-nodes.yaml

Procedure

1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  63m  v1.27.3
   master-1  Ready     master  63m  v1.27.3
   master-2  Ready     master  64m  v1.27.3

   The output lists all of the machines that you created.

   Note

   The preceding output might not include the compute nodes, also known as worker nodes, until some CSRs are approved.

2. Review the pending CSRs and ensure that you see the client requests with the Pending or Approved status for each machine that you added to the cluster:

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

   NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
   csr-8b2br   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
   csr-8vnps   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
   ...

   In this example, two machines are joining the cluster. You might see more approved CSRs in the list.

3. If the CSRs were not approved, after all of the pending CSRs for the machines you added are in Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

   Note

   Because the CSRs rotate automatically, approve your CSRs within an hour of adding the machines to the cluster. If you do not approve them within an hour, the certificates will rotate, and more than two certificates will be present for each node. You must approve all of these certificates. After the client CSR is approved, the Kubelet creates a secondary CSR for the serving certificate, which requires manual approval. Then, subsequent serving certificate renewal requests are automatically approved by the machine-approver if the Kubelet requests a new certificate with identical parameters.

   Note

   For clusters running on platforms that are not machine API enabled, such as bare metal and other user-provisioned infrastructure, you must implement a method of automatically approving the kubelet serving certificate requests (CSRs). If a request is not approved, then the oc exec, oc rsh, and oc logs commands cannot succeed, because a serving certificate is required when the API server connects to the kubelet. Any operation that contacts the Kubelet endpoint requires this certificate approval to be in place. The method must watch for new CSRs, confirm that the CSR was submitted by the node-bootstrapper service account in the system:node or system:admin groups, and confirm the identity of the node.

   • To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

     1

     <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

   • To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

     $ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs --no-run-if-empty oc adm certificate approve

     Note

     Some Operators might not become available until some CSRs are approved.

4. Now that your client requests are approved, you must review the server requests for each machine that you added to the cluster:

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

   NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
   csr-bfd72   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
   csr-c57lv   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
   ...

5. If the remaining CSRs are not approved, and are in the Pending status, approve the CSRs for your cluster machines:

   • To approve them individually, run the following command for each valid CSR:

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> 1

     1

     <csr_name> is the name of a CSR from the list of current CSRs.

   • To approve all pending CSRs, run the following command:

     $ oc get csr -o go-template='{{range .items}}{{if not .status}}{{.metadata.name}}{{"\n"}}{{end}}{{end}}' | xargs oc adm certificate approve

6. After all client and server CSRs have been approved, the machines have the Ready status. Verify this by running the following command:

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  73m  v1.27.3
   master-1  Ready     master  73m  v1.27.3
   master-2  Ready     master  74m  v1.27.3
   worker-0  Ready     worker  11m  v1.27.3
   worker-1  Ready     worker  11m  v1.27.3

   Note

   It can take a few minutes after approval of the server CSRs for the machines to transition to the Ready status.