Installing a cluster quickly on Alibaba Cloud

In OKD version 4.10, you can install a cluster on Alibaba Cloud that uses the default configuration options.

Alibaba Cloud on OKD is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process.

For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview/.

Prerequisites

Generating a key pair for cluster node SSH access

During an OKD installation, you can provide an SSH public key to the installation program. The key is passed to the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) nodes through their Ignition config files and is used to authenticate SSH access to the nodes. The key is added to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list for the core user on each node, which enables password-less authentication.

After the key is passed to the nodes, you can use the key pair to SSH in to the FCOS nodes as the user core. To access the nodes through SSH, the private key identity must be managed by SSH for your local user.

If you want to SSH in to your cluster nodes to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide the SSH public key during the installation process. The ./openshift-install gather command also requires the SSH public key to be in place on the cluster nodes.

Do not skip this procedure in production environments, where disaster recovery and debugging is required.

You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.

On clusters running Fedora CoreOS (FCOS), the SSH keys specified in the Ignition config files are written to the /home/core/.ssh/authorized_keys.d/core file. However, the Machine Config Operator manages SSH keys in the /home/core/.ssh/authorized_keys file and configures sshd to ignore the /home/core/.ssh/authorized_keys.d/core file. As a result, newly provisioned OKD nodes are not accessible using SSH until the Machine Config Operator reconciles the machine configs with the authorized_keys file. After you can access the nodes using SSH, you can delete the /home/core/.ssh/authorized_keys.d/core file.

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:

    1. $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -N '' -f <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

    If you plan to install an OKD cluster that uses FIPS Validated / Modules in Process cryptographic libraries on the x86_64 architecture, 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:

    1. $ cat <path>/<file_name>.pub

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

    1. $ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.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.

    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:

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

      Example output

      1. Agent pid 31874

      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:

    1. $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

    Example output

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

Next steps

  • When you install OKD, provide the SSH public key to the installation program.

Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OKD, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

  • You have a computer that runs Linux or macOS, with 500 MB of local disk space

Procedure

  1. Download installer from https://github.com/openshift/okd/releases

    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.

    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 OKD uninstallation procedures for your specific cloud provider.

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

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

  3. 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 OKD components.

    Using a pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager is not required. You can use a pull secret for another private registry. Or, if you do not need the cluster to pull images from a private registry, you can use {"auths":{"fake":{"auth":"aWQ6cGFzcwo="}}} as the pull secret when prompted during the installation.

    If you do not use the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager:

    • Red Hat Operators are not available.

    • The Telemetry and Insights operators do not send data to Red Hat.

    • Content from the Red Hat Container Catalog registry, such as image streams and Operators, are not available.

Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OKD cluster you install on Alibaba Cloud.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the OKD installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

  • Obtain service principal permissions at the subscription level.

Procedure

  1. Create the install-config.yaml file.

    1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and run the following command:

      1. $ ./openshift-install create install-config --dir <installation_directory> (1)
      1For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.

      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 OKD 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.

        For production OKD clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, specify an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses.

      2. Specify alibabacloud as the platform to target.

      3. Specify the region to deploy the cluster to.

      4. Specify 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.

      5. Specify a descriptive name for your cluster.

      6. Paste the pull secret from the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager. This field is optional.

  1. 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

    1. apiVersion: v1
    2. baseDomain: cluster1.example.com
    3. credentialsMode: Manual (1)
    4. compute:
    5. - architecture: amd64
    6.   hyperthreading: Enabled
    7.  ...
    1Add this line to set the credentialsMode to Manual.

  2. Back up the install-config.yaml file so that you can use it to install multiple clusters.

    The install-config.yaml file is consumed during the installation process. If you want to reuse the file, you must back it up now.

Generating the required installation manifests

You must generate the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files that the cluster needs to configure the machines.

Procedure

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

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

    where:

    <installation_directory>

    Specifies the directory in which the installation program creates files.

Creating credentials for OKD components with the ccoctl tool

You can use the OKD Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) utility to automate the creation of Alibaba Cloud RAM users and policies for each in-cluster component.

By default, ccoctl creates objects in the directory in which the commands are run. To specify a directory, use the —output-dir flag. This procedure uses <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir> to refer to this location.

Prerequisites

You must have:

  • Extracted and prepared the ccoctl binary.

  • Created a RAM user with sufficient permission to create the OKD cluster.

  • Added the AccessKeyID (access_key_id) and AccessKeySecret (access_key_secret) of that RAM user into the ~/.alibabacloud/credentials file on your local computer.

Procedure

  1. Extract the list of CredentialsRequest objects from the OKD release image:

    1. $ oc adm release extract --credentials-requests --cloud=alibabacloud --to=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests quay.io/<path_to>/ocp-release:<version>

    This command can take a few moments to run.

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

    1. Run the following command to use the tool:

      1. $ 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.

        Example output

        1. 2022/02/11 16:18:26 Created RAM User: user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials
        2. 2022/02/11 16:18:27 Ready for creating new ram policy user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-policy-policy
        3. 2022/02/11 16:18:27 RAM policy user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-policy-policy has created
        4. 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
        5. 2022/02/11 16:18:29 Created access keys for RAM User: user1-alicloud-openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials
        6. 2022/02/11 16:18:29 Saved credentials configuration to: user1-alicloud/manifests/openshift-machine-api-alibabacloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
        7. ...

        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 OKD secrets are created:

      1. $ ls <path_to_ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests

      Example output:

      1. openshift-cluster-csi-drivers-alibaba-disk-credentials-credentials.yaml
      2. openshift-image-registry-installer-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      3. openshift-ingress-operator-cloud-credentials-credentials.yaml
      4. 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.

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

    1. $ 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.

Deploying the cluster

You can install OKD on a compatible cloud platform.

You can run the create cluster command of the installation program only once, during initial installation.

Prerequisites

  • Configure an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.

  • Obtain the OKD installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment:

    1. $ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ (1)
    2.     --log-level=info (2)
    1For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
    2To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and the missing permissions are displayed.

    When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

    Example output

    1. ...
    2. INFO Install complete!
    3. INFO To access the cluster as the system:admin user when using 'oc', run 'export KUBECONFIG=/home/myuser/install_dir/auth/kubeconfig'
    4. INFO Access the OpenShift web-console here: https://console-openshift-console.apps.mycluster.example.com
    5. INFO Login to the console with user: "kubeadmin", and password: "4vYBz-Ee6gm-ymBZj-Wt5AL"
    6. INFO Time elapsed: 36m22s

    The cluster access and credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log when an installation succeeds.

    • The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours, which are then renewed at that time. If the cluster is shut down before renewing the certificates and the cluster is later restarted after the 24 hours have elapsed, the cluster automatically recovers the expired certificates. The exception is that you must manually approve the pending node-bootstrapper certificate signing requests (CSRs) to recover kubelet certificates. See the documentation for Recovering from expired control plane certificates for more information.

    • It is recommended that you use Ignition config files within 12 hours after they are generated because the 24-hour certificate rotates from 16 to 22 hours after the cluster is installed. By using the Ignition config files within 12 hours, you can avoid installation failure if the certificate update runs during installation.

    You must not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster.

Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) to interact with OKD from a command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OKD 4.10. Download and install the new version of oc.

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.tar.gz.

  3. Unpack the archive:

    1. $ tar xvzf <file>

  4. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, execute the following command:

    1. $ echo $PATH

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

  1. $ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.zip.

  3. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  4. 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:

    1. C:\> path

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

  1. C:\> oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.tar.gz.

  3. Unpack and unzip the archive.

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

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

    1. $ echo $PATH

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

  1. $ oc <command>

Logging in to the cluster by using the CLI

You can log in to your cluster as a default system user by exporting the cluster kubeconfig file. The kubeconfig file contains information about the cluster that is used by the CLI to connect a client to the correct cluster and API server. The file is specific to a cluster and is created during OKD installation.

Prerequisites

  • You deployed an OKD cluster.

  • You installed the oc CLI.

Procedure

  1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

    1. $ export KUBECONFIG=<installation_directory>/auth/kubeconfig (1)
    1For <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:

    1. $ oc whoami

    Example output

    1. system:admin

Logging in to the cluster by using the web console

The kubeadmin user exists by default after an OKD installation. You can log in to your cluster as the kubeadmin user by using the OKD web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have access to the installation host.

  • You completed a cluster installation and all cluster Operators are available.

Procedure

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

    1. $ cat <installation_directory>/auth/kubeadmin-password

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

  2. List the OKD web console route:

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

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

    Example output

    1. 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.

Additional resources

Next steps