Installing a cluster on vSphere with user-provisioned infrastructure

In OKD version 4, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure that you provision.

OKD supports deploying a cluster to a single VMware vCenter only. Deploying a cluster with machines/machine sets on multiple vCenters is not supported.

The steps for performing a user-provisioned infrastructure installation are provided as an example only. Installing a cluster with infrastructure you provide requires knowledge of the vSphere platform and the installation process of OKD. Use the user-provisioned infrastructure installation instructions as a guide; you are free to create the required resources through other methods.

Prerequisites

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

  • You read the documentation on selecting a cluster installation method and preparing it for users.

  • You provisioned persistent storage for your cluster. To deploy a private image registry, your storage must provide ReadWriteMany access modes.

  • Completing the installation requires that you upload the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) OVA on vSphere hosts. The machine from which you complete this process requires access to port 443 on the vCenter and ESXi hosts. You verified that port 443 is accessible.

  • If you use a firewall, you confirmed with the administrator that port 443 is accessible. Control plane nodes must be able to reach vCenter and ESXi hosts on port 443 for the installation to succeed.

  • If you use a firewall, you configured it to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.

    Be sure to also review this site list if you are configuring a proxy.

Preparing the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you install OKD on user-provisioned infrastructure, you must prepare the underlying infrastructure.

This section provides details about the high-level steps required to set up your cluster infrastructure in preparation for an OKD installation. This includes configuring IP networking and network connectivity for your cluster nodes, enabling the required ports through your firewall, and setting up the required DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

After preparation, your cluster infrastructure must meet the requirements outlined in the Requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure section.

Prerequisites

  • You have reviewed the OKD 4.x Tested Integrations page.

  • You have reviewed the infrastructure requirements detailed in the Requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure section.

Procedure

  1. If you are using DHCP to provide the IP networking configuration to your cluster nodes, configure your DHCP service.

    1. Add persistent IP addresses for the nodes to your DHCP server configuration. In your configuration, match the MAC address of the relevant network interface to the intended IP address for each node.

    2. When you use DHCP to configure IP addressing for the cluster machines, the machines also obtain the DNS server information through DHCP. Define the persistent DNS server address that is used by the cluster nodes through your DHCP server configuration.

      If you are not using a DHCP service, you must provide the IP networking configuration and the address of the DNS server to the nodes at FCOS install time. These can be passed as boot arguments if you are installing from an ISO image. See the Installing FCOS and starting the OKD bootstrap process section for more information about static IP provisioning and advanced networking options.

    3. Define the hostnames of your cluster nodes in your DHCP server configuration. See the Setting the cluster node hostnames through DHCP section for details about hostname considerations.

      If you are not using a DHCP service, the cluster nodes obtain their hostname through a reverse DNS lookup.

  2. Ensure that your network infrastructure provides the required network connectivity between the cluster components. See the Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure section for details about the requirements.

  3. Configure your firewall to enable the ports required for the OKD cluster components to communicate. See Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure section for details about the ports that are required.

    By default, port 1936 is accessible for an OKD cluster, because each control plane node needs access to this port.

    Avoid using the Ingress load balancer to expose this port, because doing so might result in the exposure of sensitive information, such as statistics and metrics, related to Ingress Controllers.

  4. Setup the required DNS infrastructure for your cluster.

    1. Configure DNS name resolution for the Kubernetes API, the application wildcard, the bootstrap machine, the control plane machines, and the compute machines.

    2. Configure reverse DNS resolution for the Kubernetes API, the bootstrap machine, the control plane machines, and the compute machines.

      See the User-provisioned DNS requirements section for more information about the OKD DNS requirements.

  5. Validate your DNS configuration.

    1. From your installation node, run DNS lookups against the record names of the Kubernetes API, the wildcard routes, and the cluster nodes. Validate that the IP addresses in the responses correspond to the correct components.

    2. From your installation node, run reverse DNS lookups against the IP addresses of the load balancer and the cluster nodes. Validate that the record names in the responses correspond to the correct components.

      See the Validating DNS resolution for user-provisioned infrastructure section for detailed DNS validation steps.

  6. Provision the required API and application ingress load balancing infrastructure. See the Load balancing requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure section for more information about the requirements.

Some load balancing solutions require the DNS name resolution for the cluster nodes to be in place before the load balancing is initialized.

Validating DNS resolution for user-provisioned infrastructure

You can validate your DNS configuration before installing OKD on user-provisioned infrastructure.

The validation steps detailed in this section must succeed before you install your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured the required DNS records for your user-provisioned infrastructure.

Procedure

  1. From your installation node, run DNS lookups against the record names of the Kubernetes API, the wildcard routes, and the cluster nodes. Validate that the IP addresses contained in the responses correspond to the correct components.

    1. Perform a lookup against the Kubernetes API record name. Check that the result points to the IP address of the API load balancer:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> api.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> (1)
      1Replace <nameserver_ip> with the IP address of the nameserver, <cluster_name> with your cluster name, and <base_domain> with your base domain name.

      Example output

      1. api.ocp4.example.com.        604800    IN    A    192.168.1.5

    2. Perform a lookup against the Kubernetes internal API record name. Check that the result points to the IP address of the API load balancer:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> api-int.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      Example output

      1. api-int.ocp4.example.com.        604800    IN    A    192.168.1.5

    3. Test an example *.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain> DNS wildcard lookup. All of the application wildcard lookups must resolve to the IP address of the application ingress load balancer:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> random.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      Example output

      1. random.apps.ocp4.example.com.        604800    IN    A    192.168.1.5

      In the example outputs, the same load balancer is used for the Kubernetes API and application ingress traffic. In production scenarios, you can deploy the API and application ingress load balancers separately so that you can scale the load balancer infrastructure for each in isolation.

      You can replace random with another wildcard value. For example, you can query the route to the OKD console:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> console-openshift-console.apps.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      Example output

      1. console-openshift-console.apps.ocp4.example.com. 604800 IN    A 192.168.1.5

    4. Run a lookup against the bootstrap DNS record name. Check that the result points to the IP address of the bootstrap node:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> bootstrap.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>

      Example output

      1. bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.        604800    IN    A    192.168.1.96

    5. Use this method to perform lookups against the DNS record names for the control plane and compute nodes. Check that the results correspond to the IP addresses of each node.

  2. From your installation node, run reverse DNS lookups against the IP addresses of the load balancer and the cluster nodes. Validate that the record names contained in the responses correspond to the correct components.

    1. Perform a reverse lookup against the IP address of the API load balancer. Check that the response includes the record names for the Kubernetes API and the Kubernetes internal API:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> -x 192.168.1.5

      Example output

      1. 5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800    IN    PTR    api-int.ocp4.example.com. (1)
      2. 5.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800    IN    PTR    api.ocp4.example.com. (2)
      1Provides the record name for the Kubernetes internal API.
      2Provides the record name for the Kubernetes API.

      A PTR record is not required for the OKD application wildcard. No validation step is needed for reverse DNS resolution against the IP address of the application ingress load balancer.

    2. Perform a reverse lookup against the IP address of the bootstrap node. Check that the result points to the DNS record name of the bootstrap node:

      1. $ dig +noall +answer @<nameserver_ip> -x 192.168.1.96

      Example output

      1. 96.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 604800    IN    PTR    bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.

    3. Use this method to perform reverse lookups against the IP addresses for the control plane and compute nodes. Check that the results correspond to the DNS record names of each node.

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_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 the Fedora 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:

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

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

    1. $ 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:

      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_ed25519

    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. If you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision, you must provide the key to the installation program.

VMware vSphere region and zone enablement

You can deploy an OKD cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter. Each datacenter can run multiple clusters. This configuration reduces the risk of a hardware failure or network outage that can cause your cluster to fail.

The VMware vSphere region and zone enablement feature requires the vSphere Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver as the default storage driver in the cluster. As a result, the feature only available on a newly installed cluster.

A cluster that was upgraded from a previous release defaults to using the in-tree vSphere driver, so you must enable CSI automatic migration for the cluster. You can then configure multiple regions and zones for the upgraded cluster.

The default installation configuration deploys a cluster to a single vSphere datacenter. If you want to deploy a cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters, you must create an installation configuration file that enables the region and zone feature.

The default install-config.yaml file includes vcenters and failureDomains fields, where you can specify multiple vSphere datacenters and clusters for your OKD cluster. You can leave these fields blank if you want to install an OKD cluster in a vSphere environment that consists of single datacenter.

The following list describes terms associated with defining zones and regions for your cluster:

  • Failure domain: Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OKD cluster nodes.

  • Region: Specifies a vCenter datacenter. You define a region by using a tag from the openshift-region tag category.

  • Zone: Specifies a vCenter cluster. You define a zone by using a tag from the openshift-zone tag category.

If you plan on specifying more than one failure domain in your install-config.yaml file, you must create tag categories, zone tags, and region tags in advance of creating the configuration file.

You must create a vCenter tag for each vCenter datacenter, which represents a region. Additionally, you must create a vCenter tag for each cluster than runs in a datacenter, which represents a zone. After you create the tags, you must attach each tag to their respective datacenters and clusters.

The following table outlines an example of the relationship among regions, zones, and tags for a configuration with multiple vSphere datacenters running in a single VMware vCenter.

Datacenter (region)Cluster (zone)Tags

us-east

us-east-1

us-east-1a

us-east-1b

us-east-2

us-east-2a

us-east-2b

us-west

us-west-1

us-west-1a

us-west-1b

us-west-2

us-west-2a

us-west-2b

Additional resources

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:

    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 Ecosystem Catalog Container images registry, such as image streams and Operators, are not available.

Manually creating the installation configuration file

For user-provisioned installations of OKD, you manually generate your installation configuration file.

Prerequisites

  • You have an SSH public key on your local machine to provide to the installation program. The key will be used for SSH authentication onto your cluster nodes for debugging and disaster recovery.

  • You have obtained the OKD installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Create an installation directory to store your required installation assets in:

    1. $ mkdir <installation_directory>

    You must create a 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. Customize the sample install-config.yaml file template that is provided and save it in the <installation_directory>.

    You must name this configuration file install-config.yaml.

    For some platform types, you can alternatively run ./openshift-install create install-config —dir <installation_directory> to generate an install-config.yaml file. You can provide details about your cluster configuration at the prompts.

  3. If you are installing a three-node cluster, modify the install-config.yaml file by setting the compute.replicas parameter to 0. This ensures that the cluster’s control planes are schedulable. For more information, see “Installing a three-node cluster on vSphere”.

  4. 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 next step of the installation process. You must back it up now.

Additional resources

Sample install-config.yaml file for VMware vSphere

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.

  1. additionalTrustBundlePolicy: Proxyonly
  2. apiVersion: v1
  3. baseDomain: example.com (1)
  4. compute: (2)
  5. - architecture: amd64
  6.   name: <worker_node>
  7.   platform: {}
  8.   replicas: 0 (3)
  9. controlPlane: (2)
  10.   architecture: amd64
  11.   name: <parent_node>
  12.   platform: {}
  13.   replicas: 3 (4)
  14. metadata:
  15.   creationTimestamp: null
  16.   name: test (5)
  17. networking:
  18. ---
  19. platform:
  20.   vsphere:
  21.     failureDomains: (6)
  22.     - name: <failure_domain_name>
  23.       region: <default_region_name>
  24.       server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
  25.       topology:
  26.         computeCluster: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>"
  27.         datacenter: <datacenter> (7)
  28.         datastore: "/<datacenter>/datastore/<datastore>" (8)
  29.         networks:
  30.         - <VM_Network_name>
  31.         resourcePool: "/<datacenter>/host/<cluster>/Resources/<resourcePool>" (9)
  32.         folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>" (10)
  33.       zone: <default_zone_name>
  34.     vcenters:
  35.     - datacenters:
  36.       - <datacenter>
  37.       password: <password> (11)
  38.       port: 443
  39.       server: <fully_qualified_domain_name> (12)
  40.       user: administrator@vsphere.local
  41.     diskType: thin (13)
  42. pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<local_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}' (14)
  43. sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' (15)
  44. additionalTrustBundle: | (16)
  45.   -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  46.   ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
  47.   -----END CERTIFICATE-----
  48. imageContentSources: (17)
  49. - mirrors:
  50.   - <mirror_host_name>:<mirror_port>/<repo_name>/release
  51.   source: <source_image_1>
  52. - mirrors:
  53.   - <mirror_host_name>:<mirror_port>/<repo_name>/release-images
  54.   source: <source_image_2>
1The base domain of the cluster. All DNS records must be sub-domains of this base and include the cluster name.
2The controlPlane section is a single mapping, but the compute section is a sequence of mappings. To meet the requirements of the different data structures, the first line of the compute section must begin with a hyphen, -, and the first line of the controlPlane section must not. Both sections define a single machine pool, so only one control plane is used. OKD does not support defining multiple compute pools.
3You must set the value of the replicas parameter to 0. This parameter controls the number of workers that the cluster creates and manages for you, which are functions that the cluster does not perform when you use user-provisioned infrastructure. You must manually deploy worker machines for the cluster to use before you finish installing OKD.
4The number of control plane machines that you add to the cluster. Because the cluster uses this values as the number of etcd endpoints in the cluster, the value must match the number of control plane machines that you deploy.
5The cluster name that you specified in your DNS records.
6Establishes the relationships between a region and zone. You define a failure domain by using vCenter objects, such as a datastore object. A failure domain defines the vCenter location for OKD cluster nodes.
7The vSphere datacenter.
8The path to the vSphere datastore that holds virtual machine files, templates, and ISO images.

You can specify the path of any datastore that exists in a datastore cluster. By default, Storage vMotion is automatically enabled for a datastore cluster. Red Hat does not support Storage vMotion, so you must disable Storage vMotion to avoid data loss issues for your OKD cluster.

If you must specify VMs across multiple datastores, use a datastore object to specify a failure domain in your cluster’s install-config.yaml configuration file. For more information, see “VMware vSphere region and zone enablement”.

9Optional: For installer-provisioned infrastructure, the absolute path of an existing resource pool where the installation program creates the virtual machines, for example, /<datacenter_name>/host/<cluster_name>/Resources/<resource_pool_name>/<optional_nested_resource_pool_name>. If you do not specify a value, resources are installed in the root of the cluster /example_datacenter/host/example_cluster/Resources.
10Optional: For installer-provisioned infrastructure, the absolute path of an existing folder where the installation program creates the virtual machines, for example, /<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>. If you do not provide this value, the installation program creates a top-level folder in the datacenter virtual machine folder that is named with the infrastructure ID. If you are providing the infrastructure for the cluster and you do not want to use the default StorageClass object, named thin, you can omit the folder parameter from the install-config.yaml file.
11The password associated with the vSphere user.
12The fully-qualified hostname or IP address of the vCenter server.

The Cluster Cloud Controller Manager Operator performs a connectivity check on a provided hostname or IP address. Ensure that you specify a hostname or an IP address to a reachable vCenter server. If you provide metadata to a non-existent vCenter server, installation of the cluster fails at the bootstrap stage.

13The vSphere disk provisioning method.
14For <local_registry>, specify the registry domain name, and optionally the port, that your mirror registry uses to serve content. For example registry.example.com or registry.example.com:5000. For <credentials>, specify the base64-encoded user name and password for your mirror registry.
15The public portion of the default SSH key for the core user in Fedora CoreOS (FCOS).

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.

16Provide the contents of the certificate file that you used for your mirror registry.
17Provide the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the repository.

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:

    1. apiVersion: v1
    2. baseDomain: my.domain.com
    3. proxy:
    4.   httpProxy: http://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (1)
    5.   httpsProxy: https://<username>:<pswd>@<ip>:<port> (2)
    6.   noProxy: example.com (3)
    7. additionalTrustBundle: | (4)
    8.     -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
    9.     <MY_TRUSTED_CA_CERT>
    10.     -----END CERTIFICATE-----
    11. additionalTrustBundlePolicy: <policy_to_add_additionalTrustBundle> (5)
    1A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be http.
    2A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster.
    3A 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. You must include vCenter’s IP address and the IP range that you use for its machines.
    4If provided, the installation program generates a config map that is named user-ca-bundle in the openshift-config namespace to hold the additional CA certificates. If you provide additionalTrustBundle and at least one proxy setting, the Proxy object is configured to reference the user-ca-bundle config map in the trustedCA field. The Cluster Network Operator then creates a trusted-ca-bundle config map that merges the contents specified for the trustedCA parameter with the FCOS trust bundle. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the FCOS trust bundle.
    5Optional: 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:

    1. $ ./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.

Only the Proxy object named cluster is supported, and no additional proxies can be created.

Configuring regions and zones for a VMware vCenter

You can modify the default installation configuration file, so that you can deploy an OKD cluster to multiple vSphere datacenters that run in a single VMware vCenter.

The default install-config.yaml file configuration from the previous release of OKD is deprecated. You can continue to use the deprecated default configuration, but the openshift-installer will prompt you with a warning message that indicates the use of deprecated fields in the configuration file.

The example uses the govc command. The govc command is an open source command available from VMware; it is not available from Red Hat. The Red Hat support team does not maintain the govc command. Instructions for downloading and installing govc are found on the VMware documentation website

Prerequisites

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

    You must specify at least one failure domain for your OKD cluster, so that you can provision datacenter objects for your VMware vCenter server. Consider specifying multiple failure domains if you need to provision virtual machine nodes in different datacenters, clusters, datastores, and other components.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following govc command-line tool commands to create the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories:

    If you specify different names for the openshift-region and openshift-zone vCenter tag categories, the installation of the OKD cluster fails.

    1. $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift region" openshift-region
    1. $ govc tags.category.create -d "OpenShift zone" openshift-zone

  2. To create a region tag for each region vSphere datacenter where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command in your terminal:

    1. $ govc tags.create -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag>

  3. To create a zone tag for each vSphere cluster where you want to deploy your cluster, enter the following command:

    1. $ govc tags.create -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag>

  4. Attach region tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    1. $ govc tags.attach -c <region_tag_category> <region_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>

  5. Attach the zone tags to each vCenter datacenter object by entering the following command:

    1. $ govc tags.attach -c <zone_tag_category> <zone_tag_1> /<datacenter_1>/host/vcs-mdcnc-workload-1

  6. Change to the directory that contains the installation program and initialize the cluster deployment according to your chosen installation requirements.

Sample install-config.yaml file with multiple datacenters defined in a vSphere center

  1. ---
  2. compute:
  3. ---
  4.   vsphere:
  5.       zones:
  6.         - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
  7.         - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
  8. ---
  9. controlPlane:
  10. ---
  11. vsphere:
  12.       zones:
  13.         - "<machine_pool_zone_1>"
  14.         - "<machine_pool_zone_2>"
  15. ---
  16. platform:
  17.   vsphere:
  18.     vcenters:
  19. ---
  20.     datacenters:
  21.       - <datacenter1_name>
  22.       - <datacenter2_name>
  23.     failureDomains:
  24.     - name: <machine_pool_zone_1>
  25.       region: <region_tag_1>
  26.       zone: <zone_tag_1>
  27.       server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
  28.       topology:
  29.         datacenter: <datacenter1>
  30.         computeCluster: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>"
  31.         networks:
  32.         - <VM_Network1_name>
  33.         datastore: "/<datacenter1>/datastore/<datastore1>"
  34.         resourcePool: "/<datacenter1>/host/<cluster1>/Resources/<resourcePool1>"
  35.         folder: "/<datacenter1>/vm/<folder1>"
  36.     - name: <machine_pool_zone_2>
  37.       region: <region_tag_2>
  38.       zone: <zone_tag_2>
  39.       server: <fully_qualified_domain_name>
  40.       topology:
  41.         datacenter: <datacenter2>
  42.         computeCluster: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>"
  43.         networks:
  44.         - <VM_Network2_name>
  45.         datastore: "/<datacenter2>/datastore/<datastore2>"
  46.         resourcePool: "/<datacenter2>/host/<cluster2>/Resources/<resourcePool2>"
  47.         folder: "/<datacenter2>/vm/<folder2>"
  48. ---

Creating the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files

Because you must modify some cluster definition files and manually start the cluster machines, you must generate the Kubernetes manifest and Ignition config files that the cluster needs to configure the machines.

The installation configuration file transforms into the Kubernetes manifests. The manifests wrap into the Ignition configuration files, which are later used to configure the cluster machines.

  • The Ignition config files that the OKD 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.

Prerequisites

  • You obtained the OKD installation program.

  • You created the install-config.yaml installation configuration file.

Procedure

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

    1. $ ./openshift-install create manifests --dir <installation_directory> (1)
    1For <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:

    1. $ 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.

      If you are installing a three-node cluster, skip the following step to allow the control plane nodes to be schedulable.

      When you configure control plane nodes from the default unschedulable to schedulable, additional subscriptions are required. This is because control plane nodes then become compute nodes.

  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:

    1. $ ./openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir <installation_directory> (1)
    1For <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:

    1. .
    2. ├── auth
    3. │   ├── kubeadmin-password
    4. │   └── kubeconfig
    5. ├── bootstrap.ign
    6. ├── master.ign
    7. ├── metadata.json
    8. └── worker.ign

Extracting the infrastructure name

The Ignition config files contain a unique cluster identifier that you can use to uniquely identify your cluster in VMware vSphere. If you plan to use the cluster identifier as the name of your virtual machine folder, you must extract it.

Prerequisites

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

  • You generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

  • You installed the jq package.

Procedure

  • To extract and view the infrastructure name from the Ignition config file metadata, run the following command:

    1. $ jq -r .infraID <installation_directory>/metadata.json (1)
    1For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

    Example output

    1. openshift-vw9j6 (1)
    1The output of this command is your cluster name and a random string.

Installing FCOS and starting the OKD bootstrap process

To install OKD on user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere, you must install Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) on vSphere hosts. When you install FCOS, you must provide the Ignition config file that was generated by the OKD installation program for the type of machine you are installing. If you have configured suitable networking, DNS, and load balancing infrastructure, the OKD bootstrap process begins automatically after the FCOS machines have rebooted.

Prerequisites

  • You have obtained the Ignition config files for your cluster.

  • You have access to an HTTP server that you can access from your computer and that the machines that you create can access.

  • You have created a vSphere cluster.

Procedure

  1. Upload the bootstrap Ignition config file, which is named <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign, that the installation program created to your HTTP server. Note the URL of this file.

  2. Save the following secondary Ignition config file for your bootstrap node to your computer as <installation_directory>/merge-bootstrap.ign:

    1. {
    2.   "ignition": {
    3.     "config": {
    4.       "merge": [
    5.         {
    6.           "source": "<bootstrap_ignition_config_url>", (1)
    7.           "verification": {}
    8.         }
    9.       ]
    10.     },
    11.     "timeouts": {},
    12.     "version": "3.2.0"
    13.   },
    14.   "networkd": {},
    15.   "passwd": {},
    16.   "storage": {},
    17.   "systemd": {}
    18. }
    1Specify the URL of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you hosted.

    When you create the virtual machine (VM) for the bootstrap machine, you use this Ignition config file.

  3. Locate the following Ignition config files that the installation program created:

    • <installation_directory>/master.ign

    • <installation_directory>/worker.ign

    • <installation_directory>/merge-bootstrap.ign

  4. Convert the Ignition config files to Base64 encoding. Later in this procedure, you must add these files to the extra configuration parameter guestinfo.ignition.config.data in your VM.

    For example, if you use a Linux operating system, you can use the base64 command to encode the files.

    1. $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/master.ign > <installation_directory>/master.64
    1. $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/worker.ign > <installation_directory>/worker.64
    1. $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/merge-bootstrap.ign > <installation_directory>/merge-bootstrap.64

    If you plan to add more compute machines to your cluster after you finish installation, do not delete these files.

  5. Obtain the FCOS images from the FCOS Downloads page

  6. In the vSphere Client, create a folder in your datacenter to store your VMs.

    1. Click the VMs and Templates view.

    2. Right-click the name of your datacenter.

    3. Click New Folder → New VM and Template Folder.

    4. In the window that is displayed, enter the folder name. If you did not specify an existing folder in the install-config.yaml file, then create a folder with the same name as the infrastructure ID. You use this folder name so vCenter dynamically provisions storage in the appropriate location for its Workspace configuration.

  7. In the vSphere Client, create a template for the OVA image and then clone the template as needed.

    In the following steps, you create a template and then clone the template for all of your cluster machines. You then provide the location for the Ignition config file for that cloned machine type when you provision the VMs.

    1. From the Hosts and Clusters tab, right-click your cluster name and select Deploy OVF Template.

    2. On the Select an OVF tab, specify the name of the FCOS OVA file that you downloaded.

    3. On the Select a name and folder tab, set a Virtual machine name for your template, such as Template-FCOS. Click the name of your vSphere cluster and select the folder you created in the previous step.

    4. On the Select a compute resource tab, click the name of your vSphere cluster.

    5. On the Select storage tab, configure the storage options for your VM.

      • Select Thin Provision or Thick Provision, based on your storage preferences.

      • Select the datastore that you specified in your install-config.yaml file.

      • If you want to encrypt your virtual machines, select Encrypt this virtual machine. See the section titled “Requirements for encrypting virtual machines” for more information.

    6. On the Select network tab, specify the network that you configured for the cluster, if available.

    7. When creating the OVF template, do not specify values on the Customize template tab or configure the template any further.

      Do not start the original VM template. The VM template must remain off and must be cloned for new FCOS machines. Starting the VM template configures the VM template as a VM on the platform, which prevents it from being used as a template that compute machine sets can apply configurations to.

  8. Optional: Update the configured virtual hardware version in the VM template, if necessary. Follow Upgrading a virtual machine to the latest hardware version in the VMware documentation for more information.

    It is recommended that you update the hardware version of the VM template to version 15 before creating VMs from it, if necessary. Using hardware version 13 for your cluster nodes running on vSphere is now deprecated. If your imported template defaults to hardware version 13, you must ensure that your ESXi host is on 6.7U3 or later before upgrading the VM template to hardware version 15. If your vSphere version is less than 6.7U3, you can skip this upgrade step; however, a future version of OKD is scheduled to remove support for hardware version 13 and vSphere versions less than 6.7U3.

  9. After the template deploys, deploy a VM for a machine in the cluster.

    1. Right-click the template name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

    2. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the machine type in the name, such as control-plane-0 or compute-1.

      Ensure that all virtual machine names across a vSphere installation are unique.

    3. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for the cluster.

    4. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.

    5. On the Select clone options tab, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

    6. On the Customize hardware tab, click Advanced Parameters.

      The following configuration suggestions are for example purposes only. As a cluster administrator, you must configure resources according to the resource demands placed on your cluster. To best manage cluster resources, consider creating a resource pool from the cluster’s root resource pool.

      • Optional: Override default DHCP networking in vSphere. To enable static IP networking:

        • Set your static IP configuration:

          Example command

          1. $ export IPCFG="ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<iface>:none nameserver=srv1 [nameserver=srv2 [nameserver=srv3 [...]]]"

          Example command

          1. $ export IPCFG="ip=192.168.100.101::192.168.100.254:255.255.255.0:::none nameserver=8.8.8.8"

        • Set the guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs property before you boot a VM from an OVA in vSphere:

          Example command

          1. $ govc vm.change -vm "<vm_name>" -e "guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs=${IPCFG}"

      • Add the following configuration parameter names and values by specifying data in the Attribute and Values fields. Ensure that you select the Add button for each parameter that you create.

        • guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Locate the base-64 encoded files that you created previously in this procedure, and paste the contents of the base64-encoded Ignition config file for this machine type.

        • guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

        • disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

        • stealclock.enable: If this parameter was not defined, add it and specify TRUE.

        • Create a child resource pool from the cluster’s root resource pool. Perform resource allocation in this child resource pool.

  1. 7.  In the **Virtual Hardware** panel of the **Customize hardware** tab, modify the specified values as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum requirements for the machine type.
  3. 8.  Complete the remaining configuration steps. On clicking the **Finish** button, you have completed the cloning operation.
  5. 9.  From the **Virtual Machines** tab, right-click on your VM and then select **Power** → **Power On**.
  7. 10.  Check the console output to verify that Ignition ran.
  9.     Example command
  11.     ```
  12.     Ignition: ran on 2022/03/14 14:48:33 UTC (this boot)
  13.     Ignition: user-provided config was applied
  14.     ```

Next steps

  • Create the rest of the machines for your cluster by following the preceding steps for each machine.

    You must create the bootstrap and control plane machines at this time. Because some pods are deployed on compute machines by default, also create at least two compute machines before you install the cluster.

Adding more compute machines to a cluster in vSphere

You can add more compute machines to a user-provisioned OKD cluster on VMware vSphere.

After your vSphere template deploys in your OKD cluster, you can deploy a virtual machine (VM) for a machine in that cluster.

If you are installing a three-node cluster, skip this step. A three-node cluster consists of three control plane machines, which also act as compute machines.

Prerequisites

  • Obtain the base64-encoded Ignition file for your compute machines.

  • You have access to the vSphere template that you created for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Right-click the template’s name and click Clone → Clone to Virtual Machine.

  2. On the Select a name and folder tab, specify a name for the VM. You might include the machine type in the name, such as compute-1.

    Ensure that all virtual machine names across a vSphere installation are unique.

  3. On the Select a name and folder tab, select the name of the folder that you created for the cluster.

  4. On the Select a compute resource tab, select the name of a host in your datacenter.

  5. On the Select storage tab, select storage for your configuration and disk files.

  6. On the Select clone options tab, select Customize this virtual machine’s hardware.

  7. On the Customize hardware tab, click Advanced Parameters.

    • Add the following configuration parameter names and values by specifying data in the Attribute and Values fields. Ensure that you select the Add button for each parameter that you create.

      • guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded compute Ignition config file for this machine type.

      • guestinfo.ignition.config.data.encoding: Specify base64.

      • disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

  1. In the Virtual Hardware panel of the Customize hardware tab, modify the specified values as required. Ensure that the amount of RAM, CPU, and disk storage meets the minimum requirements for the machine type. If many networks exist, select Add New Device > Network Adapter, and then enter your network information in the fields provided by the New Network menu item.

  2. Complete the remaining configuration steps. On clicking the Finish button, you have completed the cloning operation.

  3. From the Virtual Machines tab, right-click on your VM and then select Power → Power On.

Next steps

  • Continue to create more compute machines for your cluster.

Disk partitioning

In most cases, data partitions are originally created by installing FCOS, rather than by installing another operating system. In such cases, the OKD installer should be allowed to configure your disk partitions.

However, there are two cases where you might want to intervene to override the default partitioning when installing an OKD node:

  • Create separate partitions: For greenfield installations on an empty disk, you might want to add separate storage to a partition. This is officially supported for making /var or a subdirectory of /var, such as /var/lib/etcd, a separate partition, but not both.

    For disk sizes larger than 100GB, and especially disk sizes larger than 1TB, create a separate /var partition. See “Creating a separate /var partition” and this Red Hat Knowledgebase article for more information.

    Kubernetes supports only two file system partitions. If you add more than one partition to the original configuration, Kubernetes cannot monitor all of them.

  • Retain existing partitions: For a brownfield installation where you are reinstalling OKD on an existing node and want to retain data partitions installed from your previous operating system, there are both boot arguments and options to coreos-installer that allow you to retain existing data partitions.

Creating a separate /var partition

In general, disk partitioning for OKD should be left to the installer. However, there are cases where you might want to create separate partitions in a part of the filesystem that you expect to grow.

OKD supports the addition of a single partition to attach storage to either the /var partition or a subdirectory of /var. For example:

  • /var/lib/containers: Holds container-related content that can grow as more images and containers are added to a system.

  • /var/lib/etcd: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as performance optimization of etcd storage.

  • /var: Holds data that you might want to keep separate for purposes such as auditing.

    For disk sizes larger than 100GB, and especially larger than 1TB, create a separate /var partition.

Storing the contents of a /var directory separately makes it easier to grow storage for those areas as needed and reinstall OKD at a later date and keep that data intact. With this method, you will not have to pull all your containers again, nor will you have to copy massive log files when you update systems.

Because /var must be in place before a fresh installation of Fedora CoreOS (FCOS), the following procedure sets up the separate /var partition by creating a machine config manifest that is inserted during the openshift-install preparation phases of an OKD installation.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory to hold the OKD installation files:

    1. $ mkdir $HOME/clusterconfig

  2. Run openshift-install to create a set of files in the manifest and openshift subdirectories. Answer the system questions as you are prompted:

    1. $ openshift-install create manifests --dir $HOME/clusterconfig
    2. ? SSH Public Key ...
    3. $ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/
    4. 99_kubeadmin-password-secret.yaml
    5. 99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-0.yaml
    6. 99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-1.yaml
    7. 99_openshift-cluster-api_master-machines-2.yaml
    8. ...

  3. Create a Butane config that configures the additional partition. For example, name the file $HOME/clusterconfig/98-var-partition.bu, change the disk device name to the name of the storage device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This example places the /var directory on a separate partition:

    1. variant: openshift
    2. version: 4.0
    3. metadata:
    4.   labels:
    5.     machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
    6.   name: 98-var-partition
    7. storage:
    8.   disks:
    9.   - device: /dev/disk/by-id/<device_name> (1)
    10.     partitions:
    11.     - label: var
    12.       start_mib: <partition_start_offset> (2)
    13.       size_mib: <partition_size> (3)
    14.   filesystems:
    15.     - device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
    16.       path: /var
    17.       format: xfs
    18.       mount_options: [defaults, prjquota] (4)
    19.       with_mount_unit: true
    1The storage device name of the disk that you want to partition.
    2When adding a data partition to the boot disk, a minimum value of 25000 mebibytes is recommended. The root file system is automatically resized to fill all available space up to the specified offset. If no value is specified, or if the specified value is smaller than the recommended minimum, the resulting root file system will be too small, and future reinstalls of FCOS might overwrite the beginning of the data partition.
    3The size of the data partition in mebibytes.
    4The prjquota mount option must be enabled for filesystems used for container storage.

    When creating a separate /var partition, you cannot use different instance types for worker nodes, if the different instance types do not have the same device name.

  4. Create a manifest from the Butane config and save it to the clusterconfig/openshift directory. For example, run the following command:

    1. $ butane $HOME/clusterconfig/98-var-partition.bu -o $HOME/clusterconfig/openshift/98-var-partition.yaml

  5. Run openshift-install again to create Ignition configs from a set of files in the manifest and openshift subdirectories:

    1. $ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir $HOME/clusterconfig
    2. $ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/
    3. auth  bootstrap.ign  master.ign  metadata.json  worker.ign

Now you can use the Ignition config files as input to the vSphere installation procedures to install Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) systems.

Updating the bootloader using bootupd

To update the bootloader by using bootupd, you must either install bootupd on FCOS machines manually or provide a machine config with the enabled systemd unit. Unlike grubby or other bootloader tools, bootupd does not manage kernel space configuration such as passing kernel arguments.

After you have installed bootupd, you can manage it remotely from the OKD cluster.

It is recommended that you use bootupd only on bare metal or virtualized hypervisor installations, such as for protection against the BootHole vulnerability.

Manual install method

You can manually install bootupd by using the bootctl command-line tool.

  1. Inspect the system status:

    1. # bootupctl status

    Example output for x86_64

    1. Component EFI
    2.   Installed: grub2-efi-x64-1:2.04-31.fc33.x86_64,shim-x64-15-8.x86_64
    3.   Update: At latest version

  2. FCOS images created without bootupd installed on them require an explicit adoption phase.

    If the system status is Adoptable, perform the adoption:

    1. # bootupctl adopt-and-update

    Example output

    1. Updated: grub2-efi-x64-1:2.04-31.fc33.x86_64,shim-x64-15-8.x86_64

  3. If an update is available, apply the update so that the changes take effect on the next reboot:

    1. # bootupctl update

    Example output

    1. Updated: grub2-efi-x64-1:2.04-31.fc33.x86_64,shim-x64-15-8.x86_64

Machine config method

Another way to enable bootupd is by providing a machine config.

  • Provide a machine config file with the enabled systemd unit, as shown in the following example:

    Example output

    1.   variant: rhcos
    2.   version: 1.1.0
    3.   systemd:
    4.     units:
    5.       - name: custom-bootupd-auto.service
    6.         enabled: true
    7.         contents: |
    8.           [Unit]
    9.           Description=Bootupd automatic update
    11.           [Service]
    12.           ExecStart=/usr/bin/bootupctl update
    13.           RemainAfterExit=yes
    15.           [Install]
    16.           WantedBy=multi-user.target

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. 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 xvf <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

Verification

  • 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

Verification

  • 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

Verification

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

    1. $ oc <command>

Waiting for the bootstrap process to complete

The OKD bootstrap process begins after the cluster nodes first boot into the persistent FCOS environment that has been installed to disk. The configuration information provided through the Ignition config files is used to initialize the bootstrap process and install OKD on the machines. You must wait for the bootstrap process to complete.

Prerequisites

  • You have created the Ignition config files for your cluster.

  • You have configured suitable network, DNS and load balancing infrastructure.

  • You have obtained the installation program and generated the Ignition config files for your cluster.

  • You installed FCOS on your cluster machines and provided the Ignition config files that the OKD installation program generated.

  • Your machines have direct internet access or have an HTTP or HTTPS proxy available.

Procedure

  1. Monitor the bootstrap process:

    1. $ ./openshift-install --dir <installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ (1)
    2.     --log-level=info (2)
    1For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
    2To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    Example output

    1. INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...
    2. INFO API v1.28.5 up
    3. INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
    4. INFO It is now safe to remove the bootstrap resources

    The command succeeds when the Kubernetes API server signals that it has been bootstrapped on the control plane machines.

  2. After the bootstrap process is complete, remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer.

    You must remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer at this point. You can also remove or reformat the bootstrap machine itself.

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

Approving the certificate signing requests for your machines

When you add machines to a cluster, two pending certificate signing requests (CSRs) are generated for each machine that you added. You must confirm that these CSRs are approved or, if necessary, approve them yourself. The client requests must be approved first, followed by the server requests.

Prerequisites

  • You added machines to your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that the cluster recognizes the machines:

    1. $ oc get nodes

    Example output

    1. NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
    2. master-0  Ready     master  63m  v1.28.5
    3. master-1  Ready     master  63m  v1.28.5
    4. master-2  Ready     master  64m  v1.28.5

    The output lists all of the machines that you created.

    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:

    1. $ oc get csr

    Example output

    1. NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
    2. csr-8b2br   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
    3. csr-8vnps   15m     system:serviceaccount:openshift-machine-config-operator:node-bootstrapper   Pending
    4. ...

    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:

    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.

    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:

      1. $ 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:

      1. $ 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

      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:

    1. $ oc get csr

    Example output

    1. NAME        AGE     REQUESTOR                                                                   CONDITION
    2. csr-bfd72   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-50-126.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
    3. csr-c57lv   5m26s   system:node:ip-10-0-95-157.us-east-2.compute.internal                       Pending
    4. ...

  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:

      1. $ 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:

      1. $ 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:

    1. $ oc get nodes

    Example output

    1. NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
    2. master-0  Ready     master  73m  v1.28.5
    3. master-1  Ready     master  73m  v1.28.5
    4. master-2  Ready     master  74m  v1.28.5
    5. worker-0  Ready     worker  11m  v1.28.5
    6. worker-1  Ready     worker  11m  v1.28.5

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

Additional information

Initial Operator configuration

After the control plane initializes, you must immediately configure some Operators so that they all become available.

Prerequisites

  • Your control plane has initialized.

Procedure

  1. Watch the cluster components come online:

    1. $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

    Example output

    1. NAME                                       VERSION   AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
    2. authentication                             4.0    True        False         False      19m
    3. baremetal                                  4.0    True        False         False      37m
    4. cloud-credential                           4.0    True        False         False      40m
    5. cluster-autoscaler                         4.0    True        False         False      37m
    6. config-operator                            4.0    True        False         False      38m
    7. console                                    4.0    True        False         False      26m
    8. csi-snapshot-controller                    4.0    True        False         False      37m
    9. dns                                        4.0    True        False         False      37m
    10. etcd                                       4.0    True        False         False      36m
    11. image-registry                             4.0    True        False         False      31m
    12. ingress                                    4.0    True        False         False      30m
    13. insights                                   4.0    True        False         False      31m
    14. kube-apiserver                             4.0    True        False         False      26m
    15. kube-controller-manager                    4.0    True        False         False      36m
    16. kube-scheduler                             4.0    True        False         False      36m
    17. kube-storage-version-migrator              4.0    True        False         False      37m
    18. machine-api                                4.0    True        False         False      29m
    19. machine-approver                           4.0    True        False         False      37m
    20. machine-config                             4.0    True        False         False      36m
    21. marketplace                                4.0    True        False         False      37m
    22. monitoring                                 4.0    True        False         False      29m
    23. network                                    4.0    True        False         False      38m
    24. node-tuning                                4.0    True        False         False      37m
    25. openshift-apiserver                        4.0    True        False         False      32m
    26. openshift-controller-manager               4.0    True        False         False      30m
    27. openshift-samples                          4.0    True        False         False      32m
    28. operator-lifecycle-manager                 4.0    True        False         False      37m
    29. operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog         4.0    True        False         False      37m
    30. operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver   4.0    True        False         False      32m
    31. service-ca                                 4.0    True        False         False      38m
    32. storage                                    4.0    True        False         False      37m

  2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

Image registry removed during installation

On platforms that do not provide shareable object storage, the OpenShift Image Registry Operator bootstraps itself as Removed. This allows openshift-installer to complete installations on these platform types.

After installation, you must edit the Image Registry Operator configuration to switch the managementState from Removed to Managed.

Image registry storage configuration

The Image Registry Operator is not initially available for platforms that do not provide default storage. After installation, you must configure your registry to use storage so that the Registry Operator is made available.

Instructions are shown for configuring a persistent volume, which is required for production clusters. Where applicable, instructions are shown for configuring an empty directory as the storage location, which is available for only non-production clusters.

Additional instructions are provided for allowing the image registry to use block storage types by using the Recreate rollout strategy during upgrades.

Configuring registry storage for VMware vSphere

As a cluster administrator, following installation you must configure your registry to use storage.

Prerequisites

  • Cluster administrator permissions.

  • A cluster on VMware vSphere.

  • Persistent storage provisioned for your cluster, such as Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation.

    OKD supports ReadWriteOnce access for image registry storage when you have only one replica. ReadWriteOnce access also requires that the registry uses the Recreate rollout strategy. To deploy an image registry that supports high availability with two or more replicas, ReadWriteMany access is required.

  • Must have “100Gi” capacity.

Testing shows issues with using the NFS server on RHEL as storage backend for core services. This includes the OpenShift Container Registry and Quay, Prometheus for monitoring storage, and Elasticsearch for logging storage. Therefore, using RHEL NFS to back PVs used by core services is not recommended.

Other NFS implementations on the marketplace might not have these issues. Contact the individual NFS implementation vendor for more information on any testing that was possibly completed against these OKD core components.

Procedure

  1. To configure your registry to use storage, change the spec.storage.pvc in the configs.imageregistry/cluster resource.

    When you use shared storage, review your security settings to prevent outside access.

  2. Verify that you do not have a registry pod:

    1. $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry -l docker-registry=default

    Example output

    1. No resourses found in openshift-image-registry namespace

    If you do have a registry pod in your output, you do not need to continue with this procedure.

  3. Check the registry configuration:

    1. $ oc edit configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io

    Example output

    1. storage:
    2.   pvc:
    3.     claim: (1)
    1Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage persistent volume claim (PVC). The PVC is generated based on the default storage class. However, be aware that the default storage class might provide ReadWriteOnce (RWO) volumes, such as a RADOS Block Device (RBD), which can cause issues when you replicate to more than one replica.

  4. Check the clusteroperator status:

    1. $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

    Example output

    1. NAME             VERSION                              AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE   MESSAGE
    2. image-registry   4.7                                  True        False         False      6h50m

Configuring storage for the image registry in non-production clusters

You must configure storage for the Image Registry Operator. For non-production clusters, you can set the image registry to an empty directory. If you do so, all images are lost if you restart the registry.

Procedure

  • To set the image registry storage to an empty directory:

    1. $ oc patch configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io cluster --type merge --patch '{"spec":{"storage":{"emptyDir":{}}}}'

    Configure this option for only non-production clusters.

    If you run this command before the Image Registry Operator initializes its components, the oc patch command fails with the following error:

    1. Error from server (NotFound): configs.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io "cluster" not found

    Wait a few minutes and run the command again.

Configuring block registry storage for VMware vSphere

To allow the image registry to use block storage types such as vSphere Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) during upgrades as a cluster administrator, you can use the Recreate rollout strategy.

Block storage volumes are supported but not recommended for use with image registry on production clusters. An installation where the registry is configured on block storage is not highly available because the registry cannot have more than one replica.

Procedure

  1. Enter the following command to set the image registry storage as a block storage type, patch the registry so that it uses the Recreate rollout strategy, and runs with only 1 replica:

    1. $ oc patch config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io/cluster --type=merge -p '{"spec":{"rolloutStrategy":"Recreate","replicas":1}}'

  2. Provision the PV for the block storage device, and create a PVC for that volume. The requested block volume uses the ReadWriteOnce (RWO) access mode.

    1. Create a pvc.yaml file with the following contents to define a VMware vSphere PersistentVolumeClaim object:

      1. kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      2. apiVersion: v1
      3. metadata:
      4.   name: image-registry-storage (1)
      5.   namespace: openshift-image-registry (2)
      6. spec:
      7.   accessModes:
      8.   - ReadWriteOnce (3)
      9.   resources:
      10.     requests:
      11.       storage: 100Gi (4)
      1A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.
      2The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-registry.
      3The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
      4The size of the persistent volume claim.

    2. Enter the following command to create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

      1. $ oc create -f pvc.yaml -n openshift-image-registry

  3. Enter the following command to edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

    1. $ oc edit config.imageregistry.operator.openshift.io -o yaml

    Example output

    1. storage:
    2.   pvc:
    3.     claim: (1)
    1By creating a custom PVC, you can leave the claim field blank for the default automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

For instructions about configuring registry storage so that it references the correct PVC, see Configuring the registry for vSphere.

Completing installation on user-provisioned infrastructure

After you complete the Operator configuration, you can finish installing the cluster on infrastructure that you provide.

Prerequisites

  • Your control plane has initialized.

  • You have completed the initial Operator configuration.

Procedure

  1. Confirm that all the cluster components are online with the following command:

    1. $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

    Example output

    1. NAME                                       VERSION   AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
    2. authentication                             4.0    True        False         False      19m
    3. baremetal                                  4.0    True        False         False      37m
    4. cloud-credential                           4.0    True        False         False      40m
    5. cluster-autoscaler                         4.0    True        False         False      37m
    6. config-operator                            4.0    True        False         False      38m
    7. console                                    4.0    True        False         False      26m
    8. csi-snapshot-controller                    4.0    True        False         False      37m
    9. dns                                        4.0    True        False         False      37m
    10. etcd                                       4.0    True        False         False      36m
    11. image-registry                             4.0    True        False         False      31m
    12. ingress                                    4.0    True        False         False      30m
    13. insights                                   4.0    True        False         False      31m
    14. kube-apiserver                             4.0    True        False         False      26m
    15. kube-controller-manager                    4.0    True        False         False      36m
    16. kube-scheduler                             4.0    True        False         False      36m
    17. kube-storage-version-migrator              4.0    True        False         False      37m
    18. machine-api                                4.0    True        False         False      29m
    19. machine-approver                           4.0    True        False         False      37m
    20. machine-config                             4.0    True        False         False      36m
    21. marketplace                                4.0    True        False         False      37m
    22. monitoring                                 4.0    True        False         False      29m
    23. network                                    4.0    True        False         False      38m
    24. node-tuning                                4.0    True        False         False      37m
    25. openshift-apiserver                        4.0    True        False         False      32m
    26. openshift-controller-manager               4.0    True        False         False      30m
    27. openshift-samples                          4.0    True        False         False      32m
    28. operator-lifecycle-manager                 4.0    True        False         False      37m
    29. operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog         4.0    True        False         False      37m
    30. operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver   4.0    True        False         False      32m
    31. service-ca                                 4.0    True        False         False      38m
    32. storage                                    4.0    True        False         False      37m

    Alternatively, the following command notifies you when all of the clusters are available. It also retrieves and displays credentials:

    1. $ ./openshift-install --dir <installation_directory> wait-for install-complete (1)
    1For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

    Example output

    1. INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the cluster to initialize...

    The command succeeds when the Cluster Version Operator finishes deploying the OKD cluster from Kubernetes API server.

    • 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.

  2. Confirm that the Kubernetes API server is communicating with the pods.

    1. To view a list of all pods, use the following command:

      1. $ oc get pods --all-namespaces

      Example output

      1. NAMESPACE                         NAME                                            READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
      2. openshift-apiserver-operator      openshift-apiserver-operator-85cb746d55-zqhs8   1/1     Running     1          9m
      3. openshift-apiserver               apiserver-67b9g                                 1/1     Running     0          3m
      4. openshift-apiserver               apiserver-ljcmx                                 1/1     Running     0          1m
      5. openshift-apiserver               apiserver-z25h4                                 1/1     Running     0          2m
      6. openshift-authentication-operator authentication-operator-69d5d8bf84-vh2n8        1/1     Running     0          5m
      7. ...

    2. View the logs for a pod that is listed in the output of the previous command by using the following command:

      1. $ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> (1)
      1Specify the pod name and namespace, as shown in the output of the previous command.

      If the pod logs display, the Kubernetes API server can communicate with the cluster machines.

  3. For an installation with Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), additional steps are required to enable multipathing. Do not enable multipathing during installation.

    See “Enabling multipathing with kernel arguments on FCOS” in the Postinstallation machine configuration tasks documentation for more information.

  4. Register your cluster on the Cluster registration page.

You can add extra compute machines after the cluster installation is completed by following Adding compute machines to vSphere.

Configuring vSphere DRS anti-affinity rules for control plane nodes

vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) anti-affinity rules can be configured to support higher availability of OKD Control Plane nodes. Anti-affinity rules ensure that the vSphere Virtual Machines for the OKD Control Plane nodes are not scheduled to the same vSphere Host.

  • The following information applies to compute DRS only and does not apply to storage DRS.

  • The govc command is an open-source command available from VMware; it is not available from Red Hat. The govc command is not supported by the Red Hat support.

  • Instructions for downloading and installing govc are found on the VMware documentation website.

Create an anti-affinity rule by running the following command:

Example command

  1. $ govc cluster.rule.create \
  2.   -name openshift4-control-plane-group \
  3.   -dc MyDatacenter -cluster MyCluster \
  4.   -enable \
  5.   -anti-affinity master-0 master-1 master-2

After creating the rule, your control plane nodes are automatically migrated by vSphere so they are not running on the same hosts. This might take some time while vSphere reconciles the new rule. Successful command completion is shown in the following procedure.

The migration occurs automatically and might cause brief OpenShift API outage or latency until the migration finishes.

The vSphere DRS anti-affinity rules need to be updated manually in the event of a control plane VM name change or migration to a new vSphere Cluster.

Procedure

  1. Remove any existing DRS anti-affinity rule by running the following command:

    1. $ govc cluster.rule.remove \
    2.   -name openshift4-control-plane-group \
    3.   -dc MyDatacenter -cluster MyCluster

    Example Output

    1. [13-10-22 09:33:24] Reconfigure /MyDatacenter/host/MyCluster...OK

  2. Create the rule again with updated names by running the following command:

    1. $ govc cluster.rule.create \
    2.   -name openshift4-control-plane-group \
    3.   -dc MyDatacenter -cluster MyOtherCluster \
    4.   -enable \
    5.   -anti-affinity master-0 master-1 master-2

Additional resources

Next steps