Configuring an Azure account

Before you can install OKD, you must configure a Microsoft Azure account.

Azure account limits

The OKD cluster uses a number of Microsoft Azure components, and the default Azure subscription and service limits, quotas, and constraints affect your ability to install OKD clusters.

The following table summarizes the Azure components whose limits can impact your ability to install and run OKD clusters.

Configuring a public DNS zone in Azure

To install OKD, the Microsoft Azure account you use must have a dedicated public hosted DNS zone in your account. This zone must be authoritative for the domain. This service provides cluster DNS resolution and name lookup for external connections to the cluster.

Procedure

1. Identify your domain, or subdomain, and registrar. You can transfer an existing domain and registrar or obtain a new one through Azure or another source.

   For more information about purchasing domains through Azure, see Buy a custom domain name for Azure App Service in the Azure documentation.

2. If you are using an existing domain and registrar, migrate its DNS to Azure. See Migrate an active DNS name to Azure App Service in the Azure documentation.

3. Configure DNS for your domain. Follow the steps in the Tutorial: Host your domain in Azure DNS in the Azure documentation to create a public hosted zone for your domain or subdomain, extract the new authoritative name servers, and update the registrar records for the name servers that your domain uses.

   Use an appropriate root domain, such as openshiftcorp.com, or subdomain, such as clusters.openshiftcorp.com.

4. If you use a subdomain, follow your company’s procedures to add its delegation records to the parent domain.

Increasing Azure account limits

To increase an account limit, file a support request on the Azure portal.

Procedure

1. From the Azure portal, click Help + support in the lower left corner.

2. Click New support request and then select the required values:

   1. From the Issue type list, select Service and subscription limits (quotas).

   2. From the Subscription list, select the subscription to modify.

   3. From the Quota type list, select the quota to increase. For example, select Compute-VM (cores-vCPUs) subscription limit increases to increase the number of vCPUs, which is required to install a cluster.

   4. Click Next: Solutions.

3. On the Problem Details page, provide the required information for your quota increase:

   1. Click Provide details and provide the required details in the Quota details window.

   2. In the SUPPORT METHOD and CONTACT INFO sections, provide the issue severity and your contact details.

4. Click Next: Review + create and then click Create.

Required Azure roles

Your Microsoft Azure account must have the following roles for the subscription that you use:

• User Access Administrator

To set roles on the Azure portal, see the Manage access to Azure resources using RBAC and the Azure portal in the Azure documentation.

Creating a service principal

Because OKD and its installation program must create Microsoft Azure resources through Azure Resource Manager, you must create a service principal to represent it.

Prerequisites

• Install or update the Azure CLI.

• Install the jq package.

• Your Azure account has the required roles for the subscription that you use.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Azure CLI:

   $ az login

   Log in to Azure in the web console by using your credentials.

2. If your Azure account uses subscriptions, ensure that you are using the right subscription.

   1. View the list of available accounts and record the tenantId value for the subscription you want to use for your cluster:

      $ az account list --refresh

      Example output

      [
        {
          "cloudName": "AzureCloud",
          "id": "9bab1460-96d5-40b3-a78e-17b15e978a80",
          "isDefault": true,
          "name": "Subscription Name",
          "state": "Enabled",
          "tenantId": "6057c7e9-b3ae-489d-a54e-de3f6bf6a8ee",
          "user": {
            "name": "you@example.com",
            "type": "user"
          }
        }
      ]

   2. View your active account details and confirm that the tenantId value matches the subscription you want to use:

      $ az account show

      Example output

      {
        "environmentName": "AzureCloud",
        "id": "9bab1460-96d5-40b3-a78e-17b15e978a80",
        "isDefault": true,
        "name": "Subscription Name",
        "state": "Enabled",
        "tenantId": "6057c7e9-b3ae-489d-a54e-de3f6bf6a8ee", (1)
        "user": {
          "name": "you@example.com",
          "type": "user"
        }
      }

      1	Ensure that the value of the tenantId parameter is the UUID of the correct subscription.

   3. If you are not using the right subscription, change the active subscription:

      $ az account set -s <id> (1)

      1	Substitute the value of the id for the subscription that you want to use for <id>.

   4. If you changed the active subscription, display your account information again:

      $ az account show

      Example output

      {
        "environmentName": "AzureCloud",
        "id": "33212d16-bdf6-45cb-b038-f6565b61edda",
        "isDefault": true,
        "name": "Subscription Name",
        "state": "Enabled",
        "tenantId": "8049c7e9-c3de-762d-a54e-dc3f6be6a7ee",
        "user": {
          "name": "you@example.com",
          "type": "user"
        }
      }

3. Record the values of the tenantId and id parameters from the previous output. You need these values during OKD installation.

4. Create the service principal for your account:

   $ az ad sp create-for-rbac --role Contributor --name <service_principal> (1)

   1	Replace <service_principal> with the name to assign to the service principal.

   Example output

   Changing "<service_principal>" to a valid URI of "http://<service_principal>", which is the required format used for service principal names
   Retrying role assignment creation: 1/36
   Retrying role assignment creation: 2/36
   Retrying role assignment creation: 3/36
   Retrying role assignment creation: 4/36
   {
     "appId": "8bd0d04d-0ac2-43a8-928d-705c598c6956",
     "displayName": "<service_principal>",
     "name": "http://<service_principal>",
     "password": "ac461d78-bf4b-4387-ad16-7e32e328aec6",
     "tenant": "6048c7e9-b2ad-488d-a54e-dc3f6be6a7ee"
   }

5. Record the values of the appId and password parameters from the previous output. You need these values during OKD installation.

6. Grant additional permissions to the service principal.

   • You must always add the Contributor and User Access Administrator roles to the app registration service principal so the cluster can assign credentials for its components.

   • To operate the Cloud Credential Operator (CCO) in mint mode, the app registration service principal also requires the Azure Active Directory Graph/Application.ReadWrite.OwnedBy API permission.

   • To operate the CCO in passthrough mode, the app registration service principal does not require additional API permissions.

   For more information about CCO modes, see the Cloud Credential Operator entry in the Red Hat Operators reference content.

   1. To assign the User Access Administrator role, run the following command:

      $ az role assignment create --role "User Access Administrator" \
          --assignee-object-id $(az ad sp list --filter "appId eq '<appId>'" \ (1)
             | jq '.[0].objectId' -r)

      1	Replace <appId> with the appId parameter value for your service principal.

   2. To assign the Azure Active Directory Graph permission, run the following command:

      $ az ad app permission add --id <appId> \ (1)
           --api 00000002-0000-0000-c000-000000000000 \
           --api-permissions 824c81eb-e3f8-4ee6-8f6d-de7f50d565b7=Role

      1	Replace <appId> with the appId parameter value for your service principal.

      Example output

      Invoking "az ad app permission grant --id 46d33abc-b8a3-46d8-8c84-f0fd58177435 --api 00000002-0000-0000-c000-000000000000" is needed to make the change effective

      For more information about the specific permissions that you grant with this command, see the GUID Table for Windows Azure Active Directory Permissions.

   3. Approve the permissions request. If your account does not have the Azure Active Directory tenant administrator role, follow the guidelines for your organization to request that the tenant administrator approve your permissions request.

      $ az ad app permission grant --id <appId> \ (1)
           --api 00000002-0000-0000-c000-000000000000

      1	Replace <appId> with the appId parameter value for your service principal.

Supported Azure regions

The installation program dynamically generates the list of available Microsoft Azure regions based on your subscription. The following Azure regions were tested and validated in OKD version 4.6.1:

Supported Azure public regions

• australiacentral (Australia Central)

• australiaeast (Australia East)

• australiasoutheast (Australia South East)

• brazilsouth (Brazil South)

• canadacentral (Canada Central)

• canadaeast (Canada East)

• centralindia (Central India)

• centralus (Central US)

• eastasia (East Asia)

• eastus (East US)

• eastus2 (East US 2)

• francecentral (France Central)

• germanywestcentral (Germany West Central)

• japaneast (Japan East)

• japanwest (Japan West)

• koreacentral (Korea Central)

• koreasouth (Korea South)

• northcentralus (North Central US)

• northeurope (North Europe)

• norwayeast (Norway East)

• southafricanorth (South Africa North)

• southcentralus (South Central US)

• southeastasia (Southeast Asia)

• southindia (South India)

• switzerlandnorth (Switzerland North)

• uaenorth (UAE North)

• uksouth (UK South)

• ukwest (UK West)

• westcentralus (West Central US)

• westeurope (West Europe)

• westindia (West India)

• westus (West US)

• westus2 (West US 2)

Supported Azure Government regions

Support for the following Microsoft Azure Government (MAG) regions was added in OKD version 4.6:

• usgovtexas (US Gov Texas)

• usgovvirginia (US Gov Virginia)

You can reference all available MAG regions in the Azure documentation. Other provided MAG regions are expected to work with OKD, but have not been tested.

Next steps

• Install an OKD cluster on Azure. You can install a customized cluster or quickly install a cluster with default options.