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About Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers

Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift enables running Windows compute nodes in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. Running Windows workloads is possible by using the Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator (WMCO) to install and manage Windows nodes. With Windows nodes available, you can run Windows container workloads in OpenShift Container Platform.

The release notes for Red Hat OpenShift for Windows Containers tracks the development of the WMCO, which provides all Windows container workload capabilities in OpenShift Container Platform.

Getting support

Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift is provided and available as an optional, installable component. Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift is not part of the OpenShift Container Platform subscription. It requires an additional Red Hat subscription and is supported according to the Scope of coverage and Service level agreements.

You must have this separate subscription to receive support for Windows Container Support for Red Hat OpenShift. Without this additional Red Hat subscription, deploying Windows container workloads in production clusters is not supported. You can request support through the Red Hat Customer Portal.

For more information, see the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Life Cycle Policy document for Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers.

If you do not have this additional Red Hat subscription, you can use the Community Windows Machine Config Operator, a distribution that lacks official support.

WMCO numbering

Starting with this release, y-stream releases of the WMCO will be in step with OpenShift Container Platform, with only z-stream releases between OpenShift Container Platform releases. The WMCO numbering reflects the associated OpenShift Container Platform version in the y-stream position. For example, the current release of WMCO is associated with OpenShift Container Platform version 4.15. Thus, the numbering is WMCO 10.15.z.

Release notes for Red Hat Windows Machine Config Operator 10.15.1

This release of the WMCO provides new features and bug fixes for running Windows compute nodes in an OpenShift Container Platform cluster. The components of the WMCO 10.15.1 were released in RHBA-2024:1191.

Due to an internal issue, the planned WMCO 10.15.0 could not be released. Multiple bug and security fixes, described below, were included in WMCO 10.15.0. These fixes are included in WMCO 10.15.1. For specific details about these bug and security fixes, see the RHSA-2024:0954 errata.

New features and improvements

CPU and memory usage metrics are now available

CPU and memory usage metrics for Windows pods are now available in Prometheus. The metrics are shown in the OpenShift Container Platform web console on the Metrics tab for each Windows pod and can be queried by users.

Operator SDK upgrade

The WMCO now uses the Operator SDK version 1.32.0.

Kubernetes upgrade

The WMCO now uses Kubernetes 1.28.

Bug fixes

  • Previously, there was a flaw in the handling of multiplexed streams in the HTTP/2 protocol, which is utilized by the WMCO. A client could repeatedly make a request for a new multiplex stream and then immediately send an RST_STREAM frame to cancel those requests. This activity created additional work for the server by setting up and dismantling streams, but avoided any server-side limitations on the maximum number of active streams per connection. As a result, a denial of service occurred due to server resource consumption. This issue has been fixed. (BZ-2243296)

  • Previously, there was a flaw in Kubernetes, where a user who can create pods and persistent volumes on Windows nodes was able to escalate to admin privileges on those nodes. Kubernetes clusters were only affected if they were using an in-tree storage plugin for Windows nodes. This issue has been fixed. (BZ-2247163)

  • Previously, there was a flaw in the SSH channel integrity. By manipulating sequence numbers during the handshake, an attacker could remove the initial messages on the secure channel without causing a MAC failure. For example, an attacker could disable the ping extension and thus disable the new countermeasure in OpenSSH 9.5 against keystroke timing attacks. This issue has been fixed. (BZ-2254210)

  • Previously, the routes from a Windows Bring-Your-Own-Host (BYOH) VM to the metadata endpoint were being added as non-persistent routes, so the routes were removed when a VM was removed (deconfigured) or re-configured. This would cause the node to fail if configured again, as the metadata endpoint was unreachable. With this fix, the WMCO runs the AWS EC2 launch v2 service after removal or re-configuration. As a result, the routes are restored so that the VM can be configured into a node, as expected. (OCPBUGS-15988)

  • Previously, the WMCO did not properly wait for Windows virtual machines (VMs) to finish rebooting. This led to occasional timing issues where the WMCO would attempt to interact with a node that was in the middle of a reboot, causing WMCO to log an error and restart node configuration. Now, the WMCO waits for the instance to completely reboot. (OCPBUGS-17217)

  • Previously, the WMCO configuration was missing the DeleteEmptyDirData: true field, which is required for draining nodes that have emptyDir volumes attached. As a consequence, customers that had nodes with emptyDir volumes would see the following error in the logs: cannot delete Pods with local storage. With this fix, the DeleteEmptyDirData: true field was added to the node drain helper struct in the WMCO. As a result, customers are able to drain nodes with emptyDir volumes attached. (OCPBUGS-27300)

  • Previously, because of a lack of synchronization between Windows machine set nodes and BYOH instances, during an update the machine set nodes and the BYOH instances could update simultaneously. This could impact running workloads. This fix introduces a locking mechanism so that machine set nodes and BYOH instances update individually. (OCPBUGS-8996)

  • Previously, because of a missing secret, the WMCO could not configure proper credentials for the WICD on Nutanix clusters. As a consequence, the WMCO could not create Windows nodes. With this fix, the WMCO creates long-lived credentials for the WICD service account. As a result, the WMCO is able to configure a Windows node on Nutanix clusters. (OCPBUGS-25350)

  • Previously, because of bad logic in the networking configuration script, the WICD was incorrectly reading carriage returns in the CNI configuration file as changes, and identified the file as modified. This caused the CNI configuration to be unnecessarily reloaded, potentially resulting in container restarts and brief network outages. With this fix, the WICD now reloads the CNI configuration only when the CNI configuration is actually modified. (OCPBUGS-25756)

Windows Machine Config Operator prerequisites

The following information details the supported platform versions, Windows Server versions, and networking configurations for the Windows Machine Config Operator. See the vSphere documentation for any information that is relevant to only that platform.

WMCO 10.y supported platforms and Windows Server versions

The following table lists the Windows Server versions that are supported by WMCO 10.y, based on the applicable platform. Windows Server versions not listed are not supported and attempting to use them will cause errors. To prevent these errors, use only an appropriate version for your platform.

Platform Supported Windows Server version

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  • Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

  • Windows Server 2019, version 1809

Microsoft Azure

  • Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

  • Windows Server 2019, version 1809

VMware vSphere

Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

Nutanix

Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

Bare metal or provider agnostic

  • Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

  • Windows Server 2019, version 1809

Supported networking

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes is the only supported networking configuration. See the additional resources below for more information on this functionality. The following tables outline the type of networking configuration and Windows Server versions to use based on your platform. You must specify the network configuration when you install the cluster.

The WMCO does not support OVN-Kubernetes without hybrid networking or OpenShift SDN.

Table 1. Platform networking support
Platform Supported networking

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes

Microsoft Azure

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes

VMware vSphere

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes with a custom VXLAN port

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes

Nutanix

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes

Bare metal or provider agnostic

Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes

Table 2. Hybrid OVN-Kubernetes Windows Server support
Hybrid networking with OVN-Kubernetes Supported Windows Server version

Default VXLAN port

  • Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

  • Windows Server 2019, version 1809

Custom VXLAN port

Windows Server 2022, OS Build 20348.681 or later

Known limitations

Note the following limitations when working with Windows nodes managed by the WMCO (Windows nodes):

  • The following OpenShift Container Platform features are not supported on Windows nodes:

    • Image builds

    • OpenShift Pipelines

    • OpenShift Service Mesh

    • OpenShift monitoring of user-defined projects

    • OpenShift Serverless

    • Horizontal Pod Autoscaling

    • Vertical Pod Autoscaling

  • The following Red Hat features are not supported on Windows nodes:

  • Windows nodes do not support pulling container images from private registries. You can use images from public registries or pre-pull the images.

  • Windows nodes do not support workloads created by using deployment configs. You can use a deployment or other method to deploy workloads.

  • Windows nodes are not supported in clusters that are in a disconnected environment.

  • Red Hat OpenShift support for Windows Containers does not support adding Windows nodes to a cluster through a trunk port. The only supported networking configuration for adding Windows nodes is through an access port that carries traffic for the VLAN.

  • Kubernetes has identified the following node feature limitations :

    • Huge pages are not supported for Windows containers.

    • Privileged containers are not supported for Windows containers.

  • Kubernetes has identified several API compatibility issues.