Installing a cluster on vSphere in a restricted network with user-provisioned infrastructure

In OKD version 4.6, you can install a cluster on VMware vSphere infrastructure that you provision in a restricted network.

Prerequisites

• Create a registry on your mirror host and obtain the imageContentSources data for your version of OKD.

  Because the installation media is on the mirror host, you can use that computer to complete all installation steps.

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

• Review details about the OKD installation and update processes.

• If you use a firewall and plan to use telemetry, you must configure the firewall to allow the sites that your cluster requires access to.

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

About installations in restricted networks

In OKD 4.6, you can perform an installation that does not require an active connection to the Internet to obtain software components. Restricted network installations can be completed using installer-provisioned infrastructure or user-provisioned infrastructure, depending on the cloud platform to which you are installing the cluster.

If you choose to perform a restricted network installation on a cloud platform, you still require access to its cloud APIs. Some cloud functions, like Amazon Web Service’s IAM service, require Internet access, so you might still require Internet access. Depending on your network, you might require less Internet access for an installation on bare metal hardware or on VMware vSphere.

To complete a restricted network installation, you must create a registry that mirrors the contents of the OKD registry and contains the installation media. You can create this registry on a mirror host, which can access both the Internet and your closed network, or by using other methods that meet your restrictions.

Additional limits

Clusters in restricted networks have the following additional limitations and restrictions:

• The ClusterVersion status includes an Unable to retrieve available updates error.

• By default, you cannot use the contents of the Developer Catalog because you cannot access the required image stream tags.

VMware vSphere infrastructure requirements

You must install the OKD cluster on a VMware vSphere version 6 or 7 instance that meets the requirements for the components that you use.

If you use a vSphere version 6.5 instance, consider upgrading to 6.7U3 or 7.0 before you install OKD.

Machine requirements for a cluster with user-provisioned infrastructure

For a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure, you must deploy all of the required machines.

Required machines

The smallest OKD clusters require the following hosts:

• One temporary bootstrap machine

• Three control plane, or master, machines

• At least two compute machines, which are also known as worker machines.

The bootstrap and control plane machines must use Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) as the operating system. However, the compute machines can choose between Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) or Fedora 7.9.

See Red Hat Enterprise Linux technology capabilities and limits.

Network connectivity requirements

All the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot to fetch Ignition config files from the Machine Config Server. During the initial boot, the machines require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set in order to establish a network connection to download their Ignition config files. Additionally, each OKD node in the cluster must have access to a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. If a DHCP server provides NTP servers information, the chrony time service on the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines read the information and can sync the clock with the NTP servers.

Minimum resource requirements

Each cluster machine must meet the following minimum requirements:

1. One vCPU is equivalent to one physical core when simultaneous multithreading (SMT), or hyperthreading, is not enabled. When enabled, use the following formula to calculate the corresponding ratio: (threads per core × cores) × sockets = vCPUs.

2. OKD and Kubernetes are sensitive to disk performance, and faster storage is recommended, particularly for etcd on the control plane nodes which require a 10 ms p99 fsync duration. Note that on many cloud platforms, storage size and IOPS scale together, so you might need to over-allocate storage volume to obtain sufficient performance.

Certificate signing requests management

Because your cluster has limited access to automatic machine management when you use infrastructure that you provision, you must provide a mechanism for approving cluster certificate signing requests (CSRs) after installation. The kube-controller-manager only approves the kubelet client CSRs. The machine-approver cannot guarantee the validity of a serving certificate that is requested by using kubelet credentials because it cannot confirm that the correct machine issued the request. You must determine and implement a method of verifying the validity of the kubelet serving certificate requests and approving them.

Creating the user-provisioned infrastructure

Before you deploy an OKD cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure, you must create the underlying infrastructure.

Prerequisites

• Review the OKD 4.x Tested Integrations page before you create the supporting infrastructure for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Configure DHCP or set static IP addresses on each node.

2. Provision the required load balancers.

3. Configure the ports for your machines.

4. Configure DNS.

5. Ensure network connectivity.

Networking requirements for user-provisioned infrastructure

All the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines require network in initramfs during boot to fetch Ignition config from the machine config server.

During the initial boot, the machines require either a DHCP server or that static IP addresses be set on each host in the cluster in order to establish a network connection, which allows them to download their Ignition config files.

It is recommended to use the DHCP server to manage the machines for the cluster long-term. Ensure that the DHCP server is configured to provide persistent IP addresses and host names to the cluster machines.

The Kubernetes API server must be able to resolve the node names of the cluster machines. If the API servers and worker nodes are in different zones, you can configure a default DNS search zone to allow the API server to resolve the node names. Another supported approach is to always refer to hosts by their fully-qualified domain names in both the node objects and all DNS requests.

You must configure the network connectivity between machines to allow cluster components to communicate. Each machine must be able to resolve the host names of all other machines in the cluster.

Network topology requirements

The infrastructure that you provision for your cluster must meet the following network topology requirements.

Load balancers

Before you install OKD, you must provision two load balancers that meet the following requirements:

1. API load balancer: Provides a common endpoint for users, both human and machine, to interact with and configure the platform. Configure the following conditions:

   • Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI) for the API routes.

   • A stateless load balancing algorithm. The options vary based on the load balancer implementation.

   Do not configure session persistence for an API load balancer.

   Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

   Table 5. API load balancer

   Port	Back-end machines (pool members)	Internal	External	Description
   6443	Bootstrap and control plane. You remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer after the bootstrap machine initializes the cluster control plane. You must configure the /readyz endpoint for the API server health check probe.	X	X	Kubernetes API server
   22623	Bootstrap and control plane. You remove the bootstrap machine from the load balancer after the bootstrap machine initializes the cluster control plane.	X		Machine config server

   The load balancer must be configured to take a maximum of 30 seconds from the time the API server turns off the /readyz endpoint to the removal of the API server instance from the pool. Within the time frame after /readyz returns an error or becomes healthy, the endpoint must have been removed or added. Probing every 5 or 10 seconds, with two successful requests to become healthy and three to become unhealthy, are well-tested values.

2. Application Ingress load balancer: Provides an Ingress point for application traffic flowing in from outside the cluster. Configure the following conditions:

   • Layer 4 load balancing only. This can be referred to as Raw TCP, SSL Passthrough, or SSL Bridge mode. If you use SSL Bridge mode, you must enable Server Name Indication (SNI) for the Ingress routes.

   • A connection-based or session-based persistence is recommended, based on the options available and types of applications that will be hosted on the platform.

   Configure the following ports on both the front and back of the load balancers:

   Table 6. Application Ingress load balancer

   Port	Back-end machines (pool members)	Internal	External	Description
   443	The machines that run the Ingress router pods, compute, or worker, by default.	X	X	HTTPS traffic
   80	The machines that run the Ingress router pods, compute, or worker, by default.	X	X	HTTP traffic

Ethernet adaptor hardware address requirements

When provisioning VMs for the cluster, the ethernet interfaces configured for each VM must use a MAC address from the VMware Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) allocation ranges:

• 00:05:69:00:00:00 to 00:05:69:FF:FF:FF

• 00:0c:29:00:00:00 to 00:0c:29:FF:FF:FF

• 00:1c:14:00:00:00 to 00:1c:14:FF:FF:FF

• 00:50:56:00:00:00 to 00:50:56:FF:FF:FF

If a MAC address outside the VMware OUI is used, the cluster installation will not succeed.

NTP configuration

OKD clusters are configured to use a public Network Time Protocol (NTP) server by default. If you want to use a local enterprise NTP server, or if your cluster is being deployed in a disconnected network, you can configure the cluster to use a specific time server. For more information, see the documentation for Configuring chrony time service.

If a DHCP server provides NTP server information, the chrony time service on the Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines read the information and can sync the clock with the NTP servers.

Additional resources

• Configuring chrony time service

User-provisioned DNS requirements

DNS is used for name resolution and reverse name resolution. DNS A/AAAA or CNAME records are used for name resolution and PTR records are used for reverse name resolution. The reverse records are important because Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) uses the reverse records to set the host name for all the nodes. Additionally, the reverse records are used to generate the certificate signing requests (CSR) that OKD needs to operate.

The following DNS records are required for an OKD cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure. In each record, <cluster_name> is the cluster name and <base_domain> is the cluster base domain that you specify in the install-config.yaml file. A complete DNS record takes the form: <component>.<cluster_name>.<base_domain>..

The following example of a BIND zone file shows sample A records for name resolution. The purpose of the example is to show the records that are needed. The example is not meant to provide advice for choosing one name resolution service over another.

Sample DNS zone database

$TTL 1W
@    IN    SOA    ns1.example.com.    root (
            2019070700    ; serial
            3H        ; refresh (3 hours)
            30M        ; retry (30 minutes)
            2W        ; expiry (2 weeks)
            1W )        ; minimum (1 week)
    IN    NS    ns1.example.com.
    IN    MX 10    smtp.example.com.
;
;
ns1    IN    A    192.168.1.5
smtp    IN    A    192.168.1.5
;
helper    IN    A    192.168.1.5
helper.ocp4    IN    A    192.168.1.5
;
; The api identifies the IP of your load balancer.
api.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.5
api-int.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.5
;
; The wildcard also identifies the load balancer.
*.apps.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.5
;
; Create an entry for the bootstrap host.
bootstrap.ocp4    IN    A    192.168.1.96
;
; Create entries for the master hosts.
master0.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.97
master1.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.98
master2.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.99
;
; Create entries for the worker hosts.
worker0.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.11
worker1.ocp4        IN    A    192.168.1.7
;
;EOF

The following example BIND zone file shows sample PTR records for reverse name resolution.

Sample DNS zone database for reverse records

$TTL 1W
@    IN    SOA    ns1.example.com.    root (
            2019070700    ; serial
            3H        ; refresh (3 hours)
            30M        ; retry (30 minutes)
            2W        ; expiry (2 weeks)
            1W )        ; minimum (1 week)
    IN    NS    ns1.example.com.
;
; The syntax is "last octet" and the host must have an FQDN
; with a trailing dot.
97    IN    PTR    master0.ocp4.example.com.
98    IN    PTR    master1.ocp4.example.com.
99    IN    PTR    master2.ocp4.example.com.
;
96    IN    PTR    bootstrap.ocp4.example.com.
;
5    IN    PTR    api.ocp4.example.com.
5    IN    PTR    api-int.ocp4.example.com.
;
11    IN    PTR    worker0.ocp4.example.com.
7    IN    PTR    worker1.ocp4.example.com.
;
;EOF

Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

If you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery on your cluster, you must provide an SSH key to both your ssh-agent and the installation program. You can use this key to access the bootstrap machine in a public cluster to troubleshoot installation issues.

You can use this key to SSH into the master nodes as the user core. When you deploy the cluster, the key is added to the core user’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys list.

Procedure

1. If you do not have an SSH key that is configured for password-less authentication on your computer, 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_rsa, of the new SSH key. If you have an existing key pair, ensure your public key is in the your ~/.ssh directory.

   Running this command generates an SSH key that does not require a password in the location that you specified.

   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. Start the ssh-agent process 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.

3. Add your SSH private key to the ssh-agent:

   $ ssh-add <path>/<file_name> (1)

   Example output

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

   1	Specify the path and file name for your SSH private key, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa

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 this key to your cluster’s machines.

Manually creating the installation configuration file

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

Prerequisites

• Obtain the OKD installation program and the access token for your cluster.

• Obtain the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the repository.

• Obtain the contents of the certificate for your mirror registry.

Procedure

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

   $ 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 following install-config.yaml file template and save it in the <installation_directory>.

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

   • Unless you use a registry that FCOS trusts by default, such as docker.io, you must provide the contents of the certificate for your mirror repository in the additionalTrustBundle section. In most cases, you must provide the certificate for your mirror.

   • You must include the imageContentSources section from the output of the command to mirror the repository.

3. 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.

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.

apiVersion: v1
baseDomain: example.com (1)
compute:
- hyperthreading: Enabled  (2) (3)
  name: worker
  replicas: 0 (4)
controlPlane:
  hyperthreading: Enabled  (2) (3)
  name: master
  replicas: 3 (5)
metadata:
  name: test (6)
platform:
  vsphere:
    vcenter: your.vcenter.server (7)
    username: username (8)
    password: password (9)
    datacenter: datacenter (10)
    defaultDatastore: datastore (11)
    folder: "/<datacenter_name>/vm/<folder_name>/<subfolder_name>" (12)
pullSecret: '{"auths":{"<local_registry>": {"auth": "<credentials>","email": "you@example.com"}}}' (13)
sshKey: 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...' (14)
additionalTrustBundle: | (15)
  -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
  -----END CERTIFICATE-----
imageContentSources: (16)
- mirrors:
  - <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
  source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release
- mirrors:
  - <local_registry>/<local_repository_name>/release
  source: quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-v4.0-art-dev

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 Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), the Proxy object status.noProxy field is also populated with the instance metadata endpoint (169.254.169.254).

• If your cluster is on AWS, you added the ec2.<region>.amazonaws.com, elasticloadbalancing.<region>.amazonaws.com, and s3.<region>.amazonaws.com endpoints to your VPC endpoint. These endpoints are required to complete requests from the nodes to the AWS EC2 API. Because the proxy works on the container level, not the node level, you must route these requests to the AWS EC2 API through the AWS private network. Adding the public IP address of the EC2 API to your allowlist in your proxy server is not sufficient.

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-----
   ...

   1	A proxy URL to use for creating HTTP connections outside the cluster. The URL scheme must be http. If you use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy configuration but requires additional CAs, you must not specify an httpProxy value.
   2	A proxy URL to use for creating HTTPS connections outside the cluster. If you use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy configuration but requires additional CAs, you must not specify an httpsProxy value.
   3	A comma-separated list of destination domain names, domains, IP addresses, or other network CIDRs to exclude proxying. Preface a domain with . to match subdomains only. For example, .y.com matches x.y.com, but not y.com. Use * to bypass proxy for all destinations. You must include vCenter’s IP address and the IP range that you use for its machines.
   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 Proxy object’s trustedCA field. The additionalTrustBundle field is required unless the proxy’s identity certificate is signed by an authority from the FCOS trust bundle. If you use an MITM transparent proxy network that does not require additional proxy configuration but requires additional CAs, you must provide the MITM CA certificate.

   The installation program does not support the proxy readinessEndpoints field.

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.

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 make its machines.

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

Prerequisites

• You obtained the OKD installation program. For a restricted network installation, these files are on your mirror host.

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

Procedure

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

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

   Example output

   INFO Credentials loaded from the "myprofile" profile in file "/home/myuser/.aws/credentials"
   INFO Consuming Install Config from target directory
   INFO Manifests created in: install_dir/manifests and install_dir/openshift

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

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

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

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

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

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

   1. Open the <installation_directory>/manifests/cluster-scheduler-02-config.yml file.

   2. Locate the mastersSchedulable parameter and ensure that it is set to false.

   3. Save and exit the file.

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

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

   1	For <installation_directory>, specify the same installation directory.

   The following files are generated in the directory:

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

Configuring chrony time service

You must set the time server and related settings used by the chrony time service (chronyd) by modifying the contents of the chrony.conf file and passing those contents to your nodes as a machine config.

Procedure

1. Create the contents of the chrony.conf file and encode it as base64. For example:

   $ cat << EOF | base64
       pool 0.rhel.pool.ntp.org iburst (1)
       driftfile /var/lib/chrony/drift
       makestep 1.0 3
       rtcsync
       logdir /var/log/chrony
   EOF

   1	Specify any valid, reachable time source, such as the one provided by your DHCP server.

   Example output

   ICAgIHNlcnZlciBjbG9jay5yZWRoYXQuY29tIGlidXJzdAogICAgZHJpZnRmaWxlIC92YXIvbGli
   L2Nocm9ueS9kcmlmdAogICAgbWFrZXN0ZXAgMS4wIDMKICAgIHJ0Y3N5bmMKICAgIGxvZ2RpciAv
   dmFyL2xvZy9jaHJvbnkK

2. Create the MachineConfig object file, replacing the base64 string with the one you just created. This example adds the file to master nodes. You can change it to worker or make an additional MachineConfig for the worker role. Create MachineConfig files for each type of machine that your cluster uses:

   $ cat << EOF > ./99-masters-chrony-configuration.yaml
   apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
   kind: MachineConfig
   metadata:
     labels:
       machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master
     name: 99-masters-chrony-configuration
   spec:
     config:
       ignition:
         config: {}
         security:
           tls: {}
         timeouts: {}
         version: 3.1.0
       networkd: {}
       passwd: {}
       storage:
         files:
         - contents:
             source: data:text/plain;charset=utf-8;base64,ICAgIHNlcnZlciBjbG9jay5yZWRoYXQuY29tIGlidXJzdAogICAgZHJpZnRmaWxlIC92YXIvbGliL2Nocm9ueS9kcmlmdAogICAgbWFrZXN0ZXAgMS4wIDMKICAgIHJ0Y3N5bmMKICAgIGxvZ2RpciAvdmFyL2xvZy9jaHJvbnkK
           mode: 420
           overwrite: true
           path: /etc/chrony.conf
     osImageURL: ""
   EOF

3. Make a backup copy of the configuration files.

4. Apply the configurations in one of two ways:

   • If the cluster is not up yet, after you generate manifest files, add this file to the <installation_directory>/openshift directory, and then continue to create the cluster.

   • If the cluster is already running, apply the file:

     $ oc apply -f ./99-masters-chrony-configuration.yaml

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:

  $ jq -r .infraID <installation_directory>/metadata.json (1)

  1	For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

  Example output

  openshift-vw9j6 (1)

  1	The output of this command is your cluster name and a random string.

Creating Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines in vSphere

Before you install a cluster that contains user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere, you must create FCOS machines on vSphere hosts for it to use.

Prerequisites

• Obtain the Ignition config files for your cluster.

• Create a vSphere cluster.

Procedure

1. Convert the control plane, compute, and bootstrap Ignition config files to Base64 encoding.

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

   $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/master.ign > <installation_directory>/master.64

   $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/worker.ign > <installation_directory>/worker.64

   $ base64 -w0 <installation_directory>/bootstrap.ign > <installation_directory>/bootstrap.64

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

2. Obtain the FCOS images from the FCOS Downloads page

3. 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.

4. 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.

   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 machine sets can apply configurations to.

5. 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.

   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.

      For a bootstrap machine, specify the URL of the bootstrap Ignition config file that you hosted.

   5. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

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

   7. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

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

        1. Set your static IP configuration:

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

           Example command

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

        2. Set the guestinfo.afterburn.initrd.network-kargs property before booting a VM from an OVA in vSphere:

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

      • Optional: In the event of cluster performance issues, from the Latency Sensitivity list, select High.

      • Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

        • guestinfo.ignition.config.data: Paste the contents of the base64-encoded Ignition config file for this machine type. Note for the bootstrap node, the Ignition config file must be provided in guestinfo.ignition.config.data in the Configuration Parameters window. This is due to a restriction in the maximum size of data that can be provided in a vApp property.

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

        • disk.EnableUUID: Specify TRUE.

      • Alternatively, prior to powering on the virtual machine, use vApp properties to:

        • Navigate to a virtual machine from the vCenter Server inventory.

        • On the Configure tab, expand Settings and select vApp options.

        • Scroll down and under Properties, apply the configurations that you just edited.

8.  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.
9.  Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

1. 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.

Creating more Fedora CoreOS (FCOS) machines in vSphere

You can create more compute machines for your cluster that uses user-provisioned infrastructure on VMware vSphere.

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

   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.

   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. Optional: On the Select storage tab, customize the storage options.

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

   7. On the Customize hardware tab, click VM Options → Advanced.

      • From the Latency Sensitivity list, select High.

      • Click Edit Configuration, and on the Configuration Parameters window, click Add Configuration Params. Define the following parameter names and values:

        • 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.

8.  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. Also, make sure to select the correct network under **Add network adapter** if there are multiple networks available.
9.  Complete the configuration and power on the VM.

1. 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.

  Kubernetes supports only two filesystem 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.

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 that is inserted during the openshift-install preparation phases of an OKD installation.

Prerequisites

• If container storage is on the root partition, ensure that this root partition is mounted with the pquota option by including rootflags=pquota in the GRUB command line.

• If the container storage is on a partition that is mounted by /etc/fstab, ensure that the following mount option is included in the /etc/fstab file:

  /dev/sdb1      /var           xfs defaults,pquota 0 0

• If the container storage is on a partition that is mounted by systemd, ensure that the MachineConfig object includes the following mount option as in this example:

  spec:
    config:
      ignition:
        version: 3.1.0
      storage:
        disks:
          - device: /dev/sdb
            partitions:
              - label: var
                sizeMiB: 240000
                startMiB: 0
        filesystems:
          - device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
            format: xfs
            path: /var
      systemd:
        units:
          - contents: |
              [Unit]
              Before=local-fs.target
              [Mount]
              Where=/var
              What=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
              Options=defaults,pquota
              [Install]
              WantedBy=local-fs.target
            enabled: true
            name: var.mount

Procedure

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

   $ 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:

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

3. Create a MachineConfig object and add it to a file in the openshift directory. For example, name the file 98-var-partition.yaml, change the disk device name to the name of the storage device on the worker systems, and set the storage size as appropriate. This attaches storage to a separate /var directory.

   apiVersion: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/v1
   kind: MachineConfig
   metadata:
     labels:
       machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker
     name: 98-var-partition
   spec:
     config:
       ignition:
         version: 3.1.0
       storage:
         disks:
         - device: /dev/<device_name> (1)
           partitions:
           - sizeMiB: <partition_size>
             startMiB: <partition_start_offset> (2)
             label: var
         filesystems:
           - path: /var
             device: /dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
             format: xfs
       systemd:
         units:
           - name: var.mount
             enabled: true
             contents: |
               [Unit]
               Before=local-fs.target
               [Mount]
               Where=/var
               What=/dev/disk/by-partlabel/var
               [Install]
               WantedBy=local-fs.target

   1

   The storage device name of the disk that you want to partition.

   2

   When 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.

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

   $ openshift-install create ignition-configs --dir $HOME/clusterconfig
   $ ls $HOME/clusterconfig/
   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.

Creating the cluster

To create the OKD cluster, you wait for the bootstrap process to complete on the machines that you provisioned by using the Ignition config files that you generated with the installation program.

Prerequisites

• Create the required infrastructure for the cluster.

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

• You used the Ignition config files to create FCOS machines for your cluster.

Procedure

1. Monitor the bootstrap process:

   $ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for bootstrap-complete \ (1)
       --log-level=info (2)

   1	For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
   2	To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

   Example output

   INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for the Kubernetes API at https://api.test.example.com:6443...
   INFO API v1.19.0 up
   INFO Waiting up to 30m0s for bootstrapping to complete...
   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 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 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:

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

   1	For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

2. Verify you can run oc commands successfully using the exported configuration:

   $ oc whoami

   Example output

   system:admin

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:

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  63m  v1.19.0
   master-1  Ready     master  63m  v1.19.0
   master-2  Ready     master  64m  v1.19.0
   worker-0  NotReady  worker  76s  v1.19.0
   worker-1  NotReady  worker  70s  v1.19.0

   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:

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

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

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

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

   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. Once 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:

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> (1)

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

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

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

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

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

   $ oc get csr

   Example output

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

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

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

     $ oc adm certificate approve <csr_name> (1)

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

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

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

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

   $ oc get nodes

   Example output

   NAME      STATUS    ROLES   AGE  VERSION
   master-0  Ready     master  73m  v1.20.0
   master-1  Ready     master  73m  v1.20.0
   master-2  Ready     master  74m  v1.20.0
   worker-0  Ready     worker  11m  v1.20.0
   worker-1  Ready     worker  11m  v1.20.0

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

Additional information

• For more information on CSRs, see Certificate Signing Requests.

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:

   $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

   Example output

   NAME                                       VERSION AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
   authentication                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   cloud-credential                           4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   cluster-autoscaler                         4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   config-operator                            4.6.0   True        False         False      6h39m
   console                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   csi-snapshot-controller                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h12m
   dns                                        4.6.0   True        False         False      4h15m
   etcd                                       4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   image-registry                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   ingress                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   insights                                   4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-apiserver                             4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-controller-manager                    4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-scheduler                             4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-storage-version-migrator              4.6.0   True        False         False      4h2m
   machine-api                                4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   machine-approver                           4.6.0   True        False         False      6h34m
   machine-config                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   marketplace                                4.6.0   True        False         False      4h2m
   monitoring                                 4.6.0   True        False         False      6h31m
   network                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   node-tuning                                4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   openshift-apiserver                        4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   openshift-controller-manager               4.6.0   True        False         False      4h36m
   openshift-samples                          4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   operator-lifecycle-manager                 4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog         4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver   4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   service-ca                                 4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   storage                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m

2. Configure the Operators that are not available.

Disabling the default OperatorHub sources

Operator catalogs that source content provided by Red Hat and community projects are configured for OperatorHub by default during an OKD installation. In a restricted network environment, you must disable the default catalogs as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

• Disable the sources for the default catalogs by adding disableAllDefaultSources: true to the OperatorHub object:

  $ oc patch OperatorHub cluster --type json \
      -p '[{"op": "add", "path": "/spec/disableAllDefaultSources", "value": true}]'

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 Container Storage.

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

• Must have “100Gi” capacity.

Procedure

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

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

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

   $ oc get pod -n openshift-image-registry

   If the storage type is emptyDIR, the replica number cannot be greater than 1.

3. Check the registry configuration:

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

   Example output

   storage:
     pvc:
       claim: (1)

   1	Leave the claim field blank to allow the automatic creation of an image-registry-storage PVC.

4. Check the clusteroperator status:

   $ oc get clusteroperator image-registry

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:

  $ 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:

  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.

Procedure

1. 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:

   $ 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:

      kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
      apiVersion: v1
      metadata:
        name: image-registry-storage (1)
        namespace: openshift-image-registry (2)
      spec:
        accessModes:
        - ReadWriteOnce (3)
        resources:
          requests:
            storage: 100Gi (4)

      1	A unique name that represents the PersistentVolumeClaim object.
      2	The namespace for the PersistentVolumeClaim object, which is openshift-image-registry.
      3	The access mode of the persistent volume claim. With ReadWriteOnce, the volume can be mounted with read and write permissions by a single node.
      4	The size of the persistent volume claim.

   2. Create the PersistentVolumeClaim object from the file:

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

3. Edit the registry configuration so that it references the correct PVC:

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

   Example output

   storage:
     pvc:
       claim: (1)

   1	Creating a custom PVC allows you to 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:

   $ watch -n5 oc get clusteroperators

   Example output

   NAME                                       VERSION AVAILABLE   PROGRESSING   DEGRADED   SINCE
   authentication                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   cloud-credential                           4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   cluster-autoscaler                         4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   config-operator                            4.6.0   True        False         False      6h39m
   console                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   csi-snapshot-controller                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h12m
   dns                                        4.6.0   True        False         False      4h15m
   etcd                                       4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   image-registry                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   ingress                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   insights                                   4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-apiserver                             4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-controller-manager                    4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-scheduler                             4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   kube-storage-version-migrator              4.6.0   True        False         False      4h2m
   machine-api                                4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   machine-approver                           4.6.0   True        False         False      6h34m
   machine-config                             4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   marketplace                                4.6.0   True        False         False      4h2m
   monitoring                                 4.6.0   True        False         False      6h31m
   network                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   node-tuning                                4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   openshift-apiserver                        4.6.0   True        False         False      3h56m
   openshift-controller-manager               4.6.0   True        False         False      4h36m
   openshift-samples                          4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m
   operator-lifecycle-manager                 4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   operator-lifecycle-manager-catalog         4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   operator-lifecycle-manager-packageserver   4.6.0   True        False         False      3h59m
   service-ca                                 4.6.0   True        False         False      29h
   storage                                    4.6.0   True        False         False      4h30m

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

   $ ./openshift-install --dir=<installation_directory> wait-for install-complete (1)

   1	For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.

   Example output

   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.

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

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

      $ oc get pods --all-namespaces

      Example output

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

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

      $ oc logs <pod_name> -n <namespace> (1)

      1	Specify 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. 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.

Backing up VMware vSphere volumes

OKD provisions new volumes as independent persistent disks to freely attach and detach the volume on any node in the cluster. As a consequence, it is not possible to back up volumes that use snapshots, or to restore volumes from snapshots. See Snapshot Limitations for more information.

Procedure

To create a backup of persistent volumes:

1. Stop the application that is using the persistent volume.

2. Clone the persistent volume.

3. Restart the application.

4. Create a backup of the cloned volume.

5. Delete the cloned volume.

Additional resources

• See About remote health monitoring for more information about the Telemetry service

Next steps

• Customize your cluster.

• If the mirror registry that you used to install your cluster has a trusted CA, add it to the cluster by configuring additional trust stores.

• If necessary, you can opt out of remote health reporting.