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Installing a cluster quickly on AWS

In OpenShift Container Platform version 4.1, you can install a cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that uses the default configuration options.

Prerequisites

Internet and Telemetry access for OpenShift Container Platform

In OpenShift Container Platform 4.1, Telemetry is the component that provides metrics about cluster health and the success of updates. To perform subscription management, including legally entitling your purchase from Red Hat, you must use the Telemetry service and access the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager page.

Because there is no disconnected subscription management, you cannot both opt out of sending data back to Red Hat and entitle your purchase. Support for disconnected subscription management might be added in future releases of OpenShift Container Platform

Your machines must have direct internet access to install the cluster.

You must have internet access to:

  • Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site to download the installation program

  • Access Quay.io to obtain the packages that are required to install your cluster

  • Obtain the packages that are required to perform cluster updates

  • Access Red Hat’s software as a service page to perform subscription management

Generating an SSH private key and adding it to the agent

For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses to the installer.

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.

You must use a local key, not one that you configured with platform-specific approaches such as AWS key pairs.
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 rsa -b 4096 -N '' \
    -f <path>/<file_name> (1)
    1 Specify the path and file name, such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa, of the SSH key.

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

  2. Start the ssh-agent process as a background task:

    $ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Agent pid 31874

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

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

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 OpenShift Container Platform, provide the SSH public key to the installer. If you install a cluster on infrastructure that you provision, you must provide this key to your cluster’s machines.

Obtaining the installation program

Before you install OpenShift Container Platform, download the installation file on a local computer.

Prerequisites

  • You must install the cluster from a computer that uses Linux or macOS.

  • You need 300 MB of local disk space to download the installation program.

Procedure

  1. Access the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site. If you have a Red Hat account, log in with your credentials. If you do not, create an account.

  2. Navigate to the page for your installation type, download the installation program for your operating system, and place the file in the directory where you will store the installation configuration files.

    The installation program creates several files on the computer that you use to install your cluster. You must keep both the installation program and the files that the installation program creates after you finish installing the cluster.

  3. Extract the installation program. For example, on a computer that uses a Linux operating system, run the following command:

    $ tar xvf <installation_program>.tar.gz

  4. From the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, download your installation pull secret as a .txt file or copy it to your clipboard. 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 OpenShift Container Platform components.

Deploy the cluster

You can install OpenShift Container Platform on a compatible cloud.

You can run the installation program only once, during initial installation.
Prerequisites

  • Configure an account with the cloud platform that hosts your cluster.

  • Obtain the OpenShift Container Platform installation program and the pull secret for your cluster.

Procedure

  1. Run the installation program:

    $ ./openshift-install create cluster --dir=<installation_directory> \ (1)
    --log-level info (2)
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the directory name to store the files that the installation program creates.
    2 To view different installation details, specify warn, debug, or error instead of info.

    Specify an empty 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 OpenShift Container Platform version.

    Provide values at the prompts:

    1. Optional: Select an SSH key to use to access your cluster machines.

      For production OpenShift Container Platform clusters on which you want to perform installation debugging or disaster recovery, you must provide an SSH key that your ssh-agent process uses to the installation program.

    2. Select AWS as the platform to target.

    3. If you do not have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) profile stored on your computer, enter the AWS access key ID and secret access key for the user that you configured to run the installation program.

    4. Select the AWS region to deploy the cluster to.

    5. Select the base domain for the Route53 service that you configured for your cluster.

    6. Enter a descriptive name for your cluster.

    7. Paste the pull secret that you obtained from the Pull Secret page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site.

    If the cloud provider account that you configured on your host does not have sufficient permissions to deploy the cluster, the installation process stops, and the missing permissions are displayed.

    When the cluster deployment completes, directions for accessing your cluster, including a link to its web console and credentials for the kubeadmin user, display in your terminal.

    The Ignition config files that the installation program generates contain certificates that expire after 24 hours. You must keep the cluster running for 24 hours in a non-degraded state to ensure that the first certificate rotation has finished.

    You must not delete the installation program or the files that the installation program creates. Both are required to delete the cluster.

  2. Optional: Remove or disable the AdministratorAccess policy from the IAM account that you used to install the cluster.

Installing the OpenShift Command-line Interface

You can download and install the OpenShift Command-line Interface (CLI), commonly known as oc.

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OpenShift Container Platform 4.1. You must download and install the new version of oc.
Procedure

  1. From the Infrastructure Provider page on the Red Hat OpenShift Cluster Manager site, navigate to the page for your installation type and click Download Command-line Tools.

  2. From the site that is displayed, download the compressed file for your operating system.

    You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

  3. Extract the compressed file and place it in a directory that is on your PATH.

Logging in to the cluster

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 OpenShift Container Platform installation.

Prerequisites

  • Deploy an OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  • Install the oc CLI.

Procedure

  1. Export the kubeadmin credentials:

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

$ oc whoami
system:admin
    1 For <installation_directory>, specify the path to the directory that you stored the installation files in.
Next steps