Installing a cluster on Nutanix

In OKD version 4.13, you can install a cluster on your Nutanix instance with two methods:

• Using the Assisted Installer hosted at console.redhat.com. This method requires no setup for the installer, and is ideal for connected environments like Nutanix. Installing with the Assisted Installer also provides integration with Nutanix, enabling autoscaling. See Installing an on-premise cluster using the Assisted Installer for additional details.

• Using installer-provisioned infrastructure. Use the procedures in the following sections to use installer-provisioned infrastructure. Installer-provisioned infrastructure is ideal for installing in environments with air-gapped/restricted networks.

Prerequisites

• You have reviewed details about the OKD installation and update processes.

• If you use a firewall, you have configured it to grant access to the sites that OKD requires. This includes the use of Telemetry.

• If your Nutanix environment is using the default self-signed SSL certificate, replace it with a certificate that is signed by a CA. The installation program requires a valid CA-signed certificate to access to the Prism Central API. For more information about replacing the self-signed certificate, see the Nutanix AOS Security Guide.

  Use 2048-bit certificates. The installation fails if you use 4096-bit certificates with Prism Central 2022.x.

Internet access for Prism Central

Prism Central requires internet access to obtain the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) image that is required to install the cluster. The FCOS image for Nutanix is available at rhcos.mirror.openshift.com.

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.

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.

   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:

   $ 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.

   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

      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>)

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 the host you are using for installation.

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:

   $ 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.

Adding Nutanix root CA certificates to your system trust

Because the installation program requires access to the Prism Central API, you must add your Nutanix trusted root CA certificates to your system trust before you install an OKD cluster.

Procedure

1. From the Prism Central web console, download the Nutanix root CA certificates.

2. Extract the compressed file that contains the Nutanix root CA certificates.

3. Add the files for your operating system to the system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following command:

   # cp certs/lin/* /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors

4. Update your system trust. For example, on a Fedora operating system, run the following command:

   # update-ca-trust extract

Creating the installation configuration file

You can customize the OKD cluster you install on Nutanix.

Prerequisites

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

• Verify that you have met the Nutanix networking requirements. For more information, see “Preparing to install on Nutanix”.

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 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. Select nutanix as the platform to target.

      3. Enter the Prism Central domain name or IP address.

      4. Enter the port that is used to log into Prism Central.

      5. Enter the credentials that are used to log into Prism Central.

         The installation program connects to Prism Central.

      6. Select the Prism Element that will manage the OKD cluster.

      7. Select the network subnet to use.

      8. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for control plane API access.

      9. Enter the virtual IP address that you configured for cluster ingress.

      10. Enter the base domain. This base domain must be the same one that you configured in the DNS records.

      11. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster. The cluster name you enter must match the cluster name you specified when configuring the DNS records.

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

1. Optional: Update one or more of the default configuration parameters in the install.config.yaml file to customize the installation.

   For more information about the parameters, see “Installation configuration parameters”.

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.

Installation configuration parameters

Before you deploy an OKD cluster, you provide parameter values to describe your account on the cloud platform that hosts your cluster and optionally customize your cluster’s platform. When you create the install-config.yaml installation configuration file, you provide values for the required parameters through the command line. If you customize your cluster, you can modify the install-config.yaml file to provide more details about the platform.

Required configuration parameters

Required installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:

Network configuration parameters

You can customize your installation configuration based on the requirements of your existing network infrastructure. For example, you can expand the IP address block for the cluster network or provide different IP address blocks than the defaults.

Only IPv4 addresses are supported.

networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23

networking:
  serviceNetwork:
   - 172.30.0.0/16

networking:
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16

Optional configuration parameters

Optional installation configuration parameters are described in the following table:

sshKey:
  <key1>
  <key2>
  <key3>

Additional Nutanix configuration parameters

Additional Nutanix configuration parameters are described in the following table:

1. The prismElements section holds a list of Prism Elements (clusters). A Prism Element encompasses all of the Nutanix resources, for example virtual machines and subnets, that are used to host the OKD cluster. Only a single Prism Element is supported.

2. Only one subnet per OKD cluster is supported.

Sample customized install-config.yaml file for Nutanix

You can customize the install-config.yaml file to specify more details about your OKD cluster’s platform or modify the values of the required parameters.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com (1)
compute: (2)
- hyperthreading: Enabled (3)
  name: worker
  replicas: 3
  platform:
    nutanix: (4)
      cpus: 2
      coresPerSocket: 2
      memoryMiB: 8196
      osDisk:
        diskSizeGiB: 120
      categories: (5)
      - key: <category_key_name>
        value: <category_value>
controlPlane: (2)
  hyperthreading: Enabled (3)
  name: master
  replicas: 3
  platform:
    nutanix: (4)
      cpus: 4
      coresPerSocket: 2
      memoryMiB: 16384
      osDisk:
        diskSizeGiB: 120
      categories: (5)
      - key: <category_key_name>
        value: <category_value>
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: null
  name: test-cluster (1)
networking:
  clusterNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.128.0.0/14
    hostPrefix: 23
  machineNetwork:
  - cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
  networkType: OVNKubernetes (6)
  serviceNetwork:
  - 172.30.0.0/16
platform:
  nutanix:
    apiVIP: 10.40.142.7 (1)
    defaultMachinePlatform:
      bootType: Legacy
      categories: (5)
      - key: <category_key_name>
        value: <category_value>
      project: (7)
        type: name
        name: <project_name>
    ingressVIP: 10.40.142.8 (1)
    prismCentral:
      endpoint:
        address: your.prismcentral.domainname (1)
        port: 9440 (1)
      password: samplepassword (1)
      username: sampleadmin (1)
    prismElements:
    - endpoint:
        address: your.prismelement.domainname
        port: 9440
      uuid: 0005b0f1-8f43-a0f2-02b7-3cecef193712
    subnetUUIDs:
    - c7938dc6-7659-453e-a688-e26020c68e43
    clusterOSImage: http://example.com/images/rhcos-47.83.202103221318-0-nutanix.x86_64.qcow2 (8)
credentialsMode: Manual
publish: External
pullSecret: '{"auths": ...}' (1)
sshKey: ssh-ed25519 AAAA... (9)

Configuring the cluster-wide proxy during installation

Production environments can deny direct access to the internet and instead have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available. You can configure a new OKD cluster to use a proxy by configuring the proxy settings in the install-config.yaml file.

Prerequisites

• You have an existing install-config.yaml file.

• You reviewed the sites that your cluster requires access to and determined whether any of them need to bypass the proxy. By default, all cluster egress traffic is proxied, including calls to hosting cloud provider APIs. You added sites to the Proxy object’s spec.noProxy field to bypass the proxy if necessary.

  The Proxy object status.noProxy field is populated with the values of the networking.machineNetwork[].cidr, networking.clusterNetwork[].cidr, and networking.serviceNetwork[] fields from your installation configuration. For installations on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, and OpenStack, the Proxy object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

Procedure

1. Edit your install-config.yaml file and add the proxy settings. For example:

   apiVersion: v1
   baseDomain: my.domain.com
   proxy:
     httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (1)
     httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (2)
     noProxy: example.com (3)
   additionalTrustBundle: | (4)
       -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
       <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
       -----END CERTIFICATE-----
   additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle> (5)

   1	A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be http.
   2	A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.
   3	A comma-separated list of destination domain names, IP addresses, or other network CIDRs to exclude from proxying. Preface a domain with . to match subdomains only. For example, .y.com matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass the proxy for all destinations.
   4	If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace that contains one or more additional CA certificates that are required for proxying HTTPS connections. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges these contents with the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) trust bundle, and this config map is referenced in the trustedCA field of the Proxy object. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the FCOS trust bundle.
   5	Optional: The policy to determine the configuration of the Proxy object to reference the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The allowed values are Proxyonly and Always. Use Proxyonly to reference the user-ca-bundle config map only when http/https proxy is configured. Use Always to always reference the user-ca-bundle config map. The default value is Proxyonly.

   The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

   If the installer times out, restart and then complete the deployment by using the wait-for command of the installer. For example: $ ./openshift-install wait-for install-complete —log-level debug

2. Save the file and reference it when installing OKD.

The installation program creates a cluster-wide proxy that is named cluster that uses the proxy settings in the provided install-config.yaml file. If no proxy settings are provided, a cluster Proxy object is still created, but it will have a nil spec.

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.

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:

   $ tar xvf <file>

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

   To check your PATH, execute the following command:

   $ echo $PATH

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

$ 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:

   C:\> path

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

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:

   $ echo $PATH

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

$ oc <command>

Configuring IAM for Nutanix

Installing the cluster requires that the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) operate in manual mode. While the installation program configures the CCO for manual mode, you must specify the identity and access management secrets.

Prerequisites

• You have configured the ccoctl binary.

• You have an install-config.yaml file.

Procedure

1. Create a YAML file that contains the credentials data in the following format:

   Credentials data format

   credentials:
   - type: basic_auth (1)
     data:
       prismCentral: (2)
         username: <username_for_prism_central>
         password: <password_for_prism_central>
       prismElements: (3)
       - name: <name_of_prism_element>
         username: <username_for_prism_element>
         password: <password_for_prism_element>

   1	Specify the authentication type. Only basic authentication is supported.
   2	Specify the Prism Central credentials.
   3	Optional: Specify the Prism Element credentials.

2. Extract the list of CredentialsRequest custom resources (CRs) from the OKD release image by running the following command:

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

   1	Specify the path to the directory that contains the files for the component CredentialsRequests objects. If the specified directory does not exist, this command creates it.

   Sample CredentialsRequest object

     apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
     kind: CredentialsRequest
     metadata:
       annotations:
         include.release.openshift.io/self-managed-high-availability: "true"
       labels:
         controller-tools.k8s.io: "1.0"
       name: openshift-machine-api-nutanix
       namespace: openshift-cloud-credential-operator
     spec:
       providerSpec:
         apiVersion: cloudcredential.openshift.io/v1
         kind: NutanixProviderSpec
       secretRef:
         name: nutanix-credentials
         namespace: openshift-machine-api

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 OKD 4.12 on Nutanix

   0000_30_machine-api-operator_00_credentials-request.yaml (1)

   1	The Machine API Operator CR is required.

4. Use the ccoctl tool to process all of the CredentialsRequest objects in the credrequests directory by running the following command:

   $ ccoctl nutanix create-shared-secrets \
   --credentials-requests-dir=<path_to_directory_with_list_of_credentials_requests>/credrequests \(1)
   --output-dir=<ccoctl_output_dir> \(2)
   --credentials-source-filepath=<path_to_credentials_file> (3)

   1	Specify the path to the directory that contains the files for the component CredentialsRequests objects.
   2	Specify the directory that contains the files of the component credentials secrets, under the manifests directory. By default, the ccoctl tool creates objects in the directory in which the commands are run. To create the objects in a different directory, use the —output-dir flag.
   3	Optional: Specify the directory that contains the credentials data YAML file. By default, ccoctl expects this file to be in <home_directory>/.nutanix/credentials. To specify a different directory, use the —credentials-source-filepath flag.

5. Edit the install-config.yaml configuration file so that the credentialsMode parameter is set to Manual.

   Example install-config.yaml configuration file

   apiVersion: v1
   baseDomain: cluster1.example.com
   credentialsMode: Manual (1)
   ...

   1	Add this line to set the credentialsMode parameter to Manual.

6. Create the installation manifests by running the following command:

   $ openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> (1)

   1	Specify the path to the directory that contains the install-config.yaml file for your cluster.

7. Copy the generated credential files to the target manifests directory by running the following command:

   $ cp <ccoctl_output_dir>/manifests/*credentials.yaml ./<installation_directory>/manifests

Verification

• Ensure that the appropriate secrets exist in the manifests directory.

  $ ls ./<installation_directory>/manifests

  Example output

  total 64
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user> 2335 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-config.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  161 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-dns-02-config.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  864 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-infrastructure-02-config.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  191 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-ingress-02-config.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user> 9607 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-network-01-crd.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  272 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-network-02-config.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  142 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-proxy-01-config.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  171 Jul  8 12:22 cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  200 Jul  8 12:22 cvo-overrides.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user>  118 Jul  8 12:22 kube-cloud-config.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user> 1304 Jul  8 12:22 kube-system-configmap-root-ca.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user> 4090 Jul  8 12:22 machine-config-server-tls-secret.yaml
  -rw-r----- 1 <user> <user> 3961 Jul  8 12:22 openshift-config-secret-pull-secret.yaml
  -rw------- 1 <user> <user>  283 Jul  8 12:24 openshift-machine-api-nutanix-credentials-credentials.yaml

Deploying the cluster

You can install OKD on a compatible cloud platform.

Prerequisites

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

• Verify the cloud provider account on your host has the correct permissions to deploy the cluster. An account with incorrect permissions causes the installation process to fail with an error message that displays the missing permissions.

Procedure

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

  $ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir <installation_directory> \ (1)
      --log-level=info (2)

  1	For <installation_directory>, specify the location of your customized ./install-config.yaml file.
  2	To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

Verification

When the cluster deployment completes successfully:

• The terminal displays directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to the web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user.

• Credential information also outputs to <installation_directory>/.openshift_install.log.

Example output

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

Configuring the default storage container

After you install the cluster, you must install the Nutanix CSI Operator and configure the default storage container for the cluster.

For more information, see the Nutanix documentation for installing the CSI Operator and configuring registry storage.

Additional resources

• About remote health monitoring

Next steps

• Opt out of remote health reporting

• Customize your cluster